Blog: Supporting change in public sector organisations

Mike Turpin, Technical Adviser for the Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB) explains how the recently released enhanced suite of online training will help to support the global implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM).

Supported by the Construction Innovation Hub and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office the new organistational BIM Strategy training modules provide information and exercises on how to achieve organisational change for BIM following the developments of any national level implementation and adoption of standards, such as ISO 19650.

Perhaps the biggest part of any transformation programme is the need for change and accelerating the worldwide adoption of BIM and digitalisation of the construction industry is no different. Change can often be something that doesn’t come naturally that goes against something which we know and feel comfortable and can involve taking a leap of faith into the unknown.

 For any change to be welcomed and adopted at scale we need to fulfil a couple of key criteria. These criteria include understanding what the change entails, how it will affect us and what we need to do personally in order to make the change, but crucially we need to understand how this change will benefit us, our projects, and our organisations.

Providing an understanding of the changes BIM might bring to your organisation, and importantly the benefits and value this will deliver is the focus of CDBB’s latest enhanced online training 

This recently released training course has been developed around the organisational adoption of BIM for public sector organisations around the world, however many of the concepts can also be applied to private sector businesses.

This training course builds on the national level online training course which helps international governments to effectively implement BIM within their countries. At the national level the adoption of BIM is about enabling the change, providing the necessary technical framework of standards and encouraging industry through effective leadership. As we move onto looking at the organisational adoption of BIM we must begin to consider the implementation of these changes and how these can be applied within an organisation.

One of the challenges of BIM adoption in many countries around the world is the move from a successful national level BIM programme straight into project level implementation, without the consideration of the organisational changes that are needed to achieve this. Going straight to the project level application of BIM tends to put the focus on the technical framework, along with the associated standards and guidance. Whilst the project level utilisation, testing and development of the technical framework is beneficial it should be considered as part of an organisation’s pilot project development rather than in isolation. In isolation, and without planning, the project level use of the technical framework will often miss out on the value and benefits which could otherwise be realised by the organisation.

This new, enhanced training course works to give you and your organisation the tools and exercises to successfully make the change. Focussing on the value and benefits that BIM can deliver rather than just creating a technical ticklist. The organisational online training course has three main sections:

Building an Organisational BIM Strategy

This section is all about understanding the current state of the organisation and the issues that it faces. By understanding the challenges and key drivers of the organisation we can begin to look at how BIM can be utilised to address these. The section moves on to define the vision and how better use of information management will provide benefits to the organisation.

Developing the Business Case

Often the adoption of BIM and the associated change will require a level of work and effort to establish, and this may require the commitment of resources to a BIM implementation programme within an organisation. Whether or not a business case for change is required the exercise of developing one will still provide useful information in understanding the requirements and outcomes of the programme. Built around the UK Governments 5-Case Model (5CM) methodology for developing a business case this section looks at the five important topics which should be considered. The 5CM looks at the implementation of BIM from five perspectives (each of which forms an individual “case”), asking:

• Is the project strategically necessary? (Strategic Case)
• Is the project economically and socially desirable? (Economic Case)
• Is the project commercially viable? (Commercial Case)
• Is it affordable? (Financial Case)
• Can it be practically delivered? (Management Case)

This flexible and structured approach helps to justify the commitment of resources to BIM implementation programme.

Organisational Transformation

The final section explains how to begin the transformation and develop capability and capacity across the organisation. This segment of the course looks at taking the developments which should be in place at the national level in your country and further refining and adding to these with organisation specific requirements. Often this is focussed around the technical and legal frameworks for BIM, providing guidance and support on how these will be applied in your organisation’s context. Likewise, this also needs to consider any changes in the organisation which may be required to enable these processes and procedures to take place. Ultimately, this section looks at the importance of developing capability across the organisation, and the wider supply chain in order to scale the change and make BIM business as usual.

Organisational transformation is no small task but one which done in a structured and strategic way for the right reasons can provide huge benefits to all involved. We hope that this course will help to reinforce the change which may have already begun in your organisation or give you the starting point to begin. Developed and tested with many public sector organisations across the world, we hope that the methodologies contained within this course can help to deliver value to many more businesses through this self-guided online learning.

If you have any queries or comments about the training course please contact engagement@cdbb.cam.ac.uk