Plan to Fail

BIM Execution Planning. Sometimes it feels a lot like BIM Execution, that is, "Death by BIM". It doesn't have to be that way, but what the BIMEP requires, more than anything, is this:

Internal, Contemplative Self-reflection (aka, what do we do and why?)

What are life safety plans?

Architecture is a nebulous of thoughts, ideas, sketches, graphics, and personality. Trying to convey exactly what we do in a single, albeit large, document is difficult. When the execution of BIM pulls back the veil on what happens behind the scenes, our first reaction is that of defense. We seize up and explain the difficulties of implementing this plan based on our our standard of care, contractual obligations, historical egotism, or flat out misunderstanding of what owners really want and how to bend our process to their will.

None of this changes the all out necessity of up front planning, however. All parties involved will benefit from some planning. The AIA has taken a good shot at standardizing Level of Detail (LOD) with their E202 document and Penn State (and others) have great guides on getting your plan, um, planned.

Right here is where we'll put the shared parameters.

Right now, owners are center stage (let's be honest with ourselves, they kind of always have been) and those owners have expectations out the wazzu. We can only effectively manage those expectations if we are armed with a solid understanding of our own 'standard of care' (as well as the requisite philosophy for that standard, ie Why don't we model floor slab openings smaller than X?). Architects that have adopted Revit to any capacity are seeing internal gains, no doubt and a full 'BIM capable' AE team is a force to be reckoned with, but, truth be told, the adoption of Revit isn't adoption of BIM. You are probably using Revit to deliver the same old paper goods with a bit more efficiency, perhaps, but that's not BIM.

BIM Execution Planning will change your process and push your comfort envelope. Fail to plan, plan to fail.