Dive Brief:

• Being able to turn over an electronic building manual to the owner at the completion of a project is usually cited as one of the benefits of using building information modeling (BIM) software through design and construction, but what does the owner need and want?
• Owners will sometimes say they want "everything" about their building because they do not understand how to narrow their answer and put it in terms that fit with the BIM process.
• Designers and contractors can do the customer a service by creating a BIM process that looks at information from the customer's perspective and aims to provide what owners and eventual facilities managers value.

Dive Insight:

Allen Angle of BRG Workplace Resources works to help owners approach BIM and define needs. He said he once had maintenance workers sit down with design and construction leaders to explain what kind of information facilities maintenance would need post-construction to be best able to do its job.