Title: BIM: in search of the organisational architect

Authors: Daniel Forgues; Albert Lejeune

Addresses: Department of Construction Engineering, École de Technologie Supérieure, 1100 Notre-Dame West, Montreal (QC), Canada ' Department of Management and Technology, University of Quebec at Montreal, P.O. 8888, Montreal, Canada

Abstract: The construction industry is going through a radical transformation on how projects are planned, developed and delivered. This change is being driven by the rapid adoption of building information modelling (BIM), a combination of an integrated virtual product and process model shared by all the players of the construction project coalition. It requires drastic changes in traditional design and project management disciplines. The development of the design and construction is done using an iterative and concurrent process in which an interdisciplinary team of designers and builders is integrated in a temporary organisation built around BIM technologies. A new dimension, the formalisation of this temporary organisation, is thus added to the management of building projects. Because of the complexity, fragmentation and heterogeneity of construction projects, we argue that a new role, that of the organisational architect, is needed to visualise, devise and implement the structure, process and technological environment for a successful BIM implementation.

Keywords: organisational architect; project management; building information modelling; BIM; boundary objects; construction industry; virtual product models; process modelling; construction projects; project coalition.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPOM.2015.070793

International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, 2015 Vol.7 No.3, pp.270 - 283

Published online: 25 Jul 2015 *

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