This is a five minute guide to ISO 19650 for engineers. It is a condensed summary drawing on more detailed guides which can be found in the references section.
Introduction
ISO 19650 provides recommendations for a framework to manage Building Information Modelling (BIM) including exchanging, recording, versioning and organising for all actors.
The principal is for information to be held in a Project Information Model (PIM) which should conform to the Level of Information Need of the owning organisation and should ultimately suit integration with an overall Asset Information Model (AIM).
The sections in ISO 19650 have been grouped into following summary with original section headings included for reference.
- When, Why, Who and How
- The required level of detail
- How information flows between parties
- Team and Management
- Production and Delivery of Information
- Providing a CDE (Common Data Environment)
When, Why, Who and How
4. ASSET AND PROJECT INFORMATION, PERSPECTIVES AND COLLABORATIVE WORKING
The project proposal should outline the intent of the project to all potential parties:
- The need (business layer);
- The vehicle to solve the need (information layer);
- Tools, frameworks and systems to produce and capture the information (technology layer); and
- The ways of working with the technology layer (standards layer)
The required level of detail
5. DEFINITION OF INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS AND RESULTING INFORMATION MODELS
Prior to engaging external parties, the appointing party should understand and communicate to the design team:
- The Level of Information Need for each deliverable;
- The value of it (and the likely costs to create it);
- When information is to be developed and delivered;
- Who and how information will be managed; and
- In what formats
Typically, this is documented in the Organisational Information Requirements with the aim that when a Project Information Model is created, it will conform to the Level of Information Need of the organisation.
How information flows between parties
6. THE INFORMATION DELIVERY CYCLE
This section outlines four key principles for the specification and delivery of project and asset information:
- Information is used throughout all stages of the asset life cycle to inform decision making;
- Information is specified, produced, and delivered progressively;
- The most relevant party should be responsible for creating and managing the information related to their scope; and
- Information will be subject to collaboration and be exchanged in open formats through the use of a Common Data Environment
The iterative information delivery process occurs throughout delivery stages and is performed by some or all of the appointed parties. Key decision points should be documented by the appointing party in the Project Information Requirements and the delivery team should be aware of the Level of Information Need to support these key decisions.
It is important that the most appropriate party within the delivery team creates a Task Information Delivery Plan for their tasks. ISO 19650-2 covers this in detail.
Team and Management
7. PROJECT AND ASSET INFORMATION MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS
This section aims to clarify functions and responsibilities for information management. Functions should not be tied to specific roles.
ISO 19650-2 Section 4 & 5 go into great detail on the functions, responsibilities and processes.
8. DELIVERY TEAM CAPABILITY AND CAPACITY
This section defines competency as the ability to fulfil the information requirement obligations in the production of deliverables. It also highlights the importance of reviews by one of three groups: the appointing party, the delivery team or a nominated third party. Implementation of reviews under framework agreements is advised only when they are considered appropriate (eg/ at specific phases of projects and operations/maintenance).
Production and Delivery of Information
9. INFORMATION CONTAINER-BASED COLLABORATIVE
Describes some principals required for information to be used for container based collaborative working.
10. INFORMATION DELIVERY PLANNING
Identifying tasks and responsibilities is essential to effective project planning and therefore planning information delivery tasks and producing a concise responsibility matrix is essential.
The lead appointed party is responsible for creating a master information delivery plan. A responsibility matrix can be used to clearly state which appointed party is responsible, accountable, consulted or informed and a quality reviewer.
There are many issues that make it impractical that all appointed parties will produce project information in one central file or container. Typically, when creating discipline or trade BIM files, each task team will most likely work separately and agree on pragmatic solutions to workflows.
Once the lead appointed party is engaged on the project, a model breakdown strategy should be developed and recorded in the BIM Execution Plan.
11. MANAGING THE COLLABORATIVE PRODUCTION OF INFORMATION
The following represents workflow for collaborative information production:
- Ensure a comprehensive system is implemented to manage project information using a Common Data Environment (CDE).
- Establish appropriate collaboration systems and processes. Time and resources should be allocated for this effort before work commences. The systems and processes for delivery must be documented and communicated to the delivery team for their buy-in and feedback.
- Consider how the project is composed and scoped to minimise spatial or functional issues during production.
- Ensure information sharing agreements are put in place to govern ownership, security and usage rights.
Providing a CDE
12. COMMON DATA ENVIRONMENT (CDE) SOLUTION AND WORKFLOW
A Common Data Environment functions as a digital hub for project actors to collect, manage, and disseminate relevant approved information in a managed environment.
The CDE solution can contain both a database management capability and a transmittal capability to maintain the audit trail of information handling.
The processes by which the information is managed is known as the ‘workflow’ and information will be in one of four states: Work in Progress, Shared, Published or Archived.
ISO 19650 does not specify a revision numbering schema or standardised status codes.
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References / further reading:
1. International Standard ISO 19650-1 and 19650-2
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