Build Magazine June 2015

Build Magazine 10 IM Managers are a wholly new breed of professional. They emerged internationally in less than a decade, most markedly in larger tier 1 architecture and engineer- ing practices. By strengthening integration across disciplines and project phases, BIM Managers become the conduit for facilitating the information exchange between the de- sign, delivery, construction, and operation of projects. They play a central role in deciding where BIM is heading. On a practical level, BIM Managers are the custodians responsible for innovation to occur within their organization and in collaboration across project teams. They empower project stakeholders to understand and engage with the high level of complexity associated with a BIM workflow. They help them to align their skills with the added bene- fits offered by data-centric and rule-based delivery of projects. A Role in Transition Describing what BIM Managers do is a difficult task. What was once associated with responsibilities for overseeing BIM model development is now more and more associated with information management, change facilitation, process planning, technology strategies, and more. Such is the veracity and speed of develop- ment surrounding BIM that the job description of any BIM Manager is in constant flux. Given the ever wider group of stakeholders BIM encom- passes, there exists an increasing fragmentation of the BIM Manager’s role into specialized responsibilities: On one end of the spectrum the role of Model Managers emerges, who assist in-house teams on individual projects, at times complemented by specialist BIM Librarians (or Content Creators). On the other end of the spectrum, Model Coordinators specialize in the oversight of the multidisciplinary integration of BIM. BIM Managers may now also report to Design Technology Leaders or Project Information Managers who directly report to upper management. In some instances, an organization calls for a Strategic BIM Manager (as opposed to providing more technical support on the floor). All of the above descriptions depend on the size and characteristic of an organization. In smaller companies, the BIM Manager may well be tasked to incorporate all those roles, while acting as Project Architect and BIM Modeler at the same time. There is likely to be a time where BIM Managers become obsolete and their responsibilities will become part of project management in general. A good number of Change Management activities will have been implemented and construction industries globally will accommodate BIM as a matter of course in their project delivery methods. For now, we still go through a major transi- tion in adopting BIM. BIM Managers need to balance between the possible and the appropriate. Their strategic view will influence which opportunities can and should be aligned with the cultural and professional context of their organization. They also help to map out how such alignment can be achieved. BIM Managers: Breaking Ground B