Critical factors to BIM team development

: applying innovation, knowledge and change management perspectives

Abstract

This study investigates the issues of team development and limited skilled human capital for the adoption of BIM technology and processes. This study explores what measures can AEC project teams adopt to achieve better use of this technology and embrace benefits. A few recent studies mention a need for change in the managerial approach or style of training, but there is little guidance that AEC organisations can adopt. The approach this study takes to investigate those issues is a combined use of principles of Innovation Management (IM), Change Management (CM) and Knowledge Management (KM). As a result, this study identifies twenty-one theoretical factors that come from these theories. As a final result of expert-elite interviews and a case study in the UK, this study identifies and discusses mechanisms to achieve those critical factors and the final list of seventeen factors that managers of AEC organisations can apply to achieve more efficient BIM team development. While the qualitative inquiry - expert interviews - findings show why some factors are essential and also show measures of achieving the critical factors; an exploratory case study further shows details of a change in one of the largest AEC organisations in the UK. This is the first study that applies principles of CM, IM and KM, shows interconnectivities between the factors as well as interconnectivities between CM, IM and KM theories. Additionally, this study shows why these principles need to be applied together to maximise the benefits. The results highlight that the best results are achieved by providing the management support, improving communication, by having social learning and experiential learning, reflection opportunities, planning as a team, clear vision and collaborative team internally and externally. The results also show the importance of engaging people to achieve BIM team development and help AEC managers to manage people’s perceptions about BIM tools. Another contribution of the study is in establishing sustainable mechanisms that are not resource consuming and expensive to implement. The methodological contribution of this study is the application of Framework Analysis, that has mostly been used by other disciplines to achieve an in-depth analysis of the qualitative data. The qualitative data enabled obtaining detailed answers, explanations from experts in the field and comparing results with established theories.

Date of Award	May 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Coventry University
Supervisor	Messaoud Saidani (Supervisor), Stephen Austin (Supervisor), Danny McGough (Supervisor) & Abdullahi Ahmed (Supervisor)