Abstract/Summary

The purported benefits of Building Information Modelling (BIM) have resulted in its widespread advocacy across the industry. However, the realities of its implementation are often misunderstood and overlooked. BIM is a complex and unbounded technology, therefore trying to apply it to a project without consideration of the associated organisational changes is likely to end in failure or lower than predicted returns. Factors such as professional development and technical support, the technology learning curve, positive and negative feelings towards the technology, and strategy effectiveness can all help and hinder implementation. This paper draws on a set of interviews with members of a BIM implementation board within a large multifaceted construction company. The purpose of the interviews was to establish the ‘as-is’ position of the organisation in terms of BIM use, focussing on current practices and cases studies of previous and on-going projects and their utilisation of both BIM processes and sustainable design activities. However, thematic analysis highlighted significant barriers to the successful implementation of BIM within the organisation: lack of top-level support, misunderstanding across the organisation over BIM capabilities, regional differences in implementation support, and a predominant focus on the bottom-line preventing effective resource allocation. It is therefore argued that the organisational context and conditions of technology, process, and actor interaction are a necessary precursor to successful BIM implementation and should be taken into account when assessing performance on a BIM-enabled project, in order to comprehensively inform and support change management initiatives.