A Practice-Based Conceptual Model on Building Information Modelling (BIM) Benefits Realisation

Most of the existing research on BIM implementation and benefits realisation has departed from a technocentric perspective and instead promoted the belief that the benefits of using BIM technologies are an inevitable outcome of adoption in and of itself. Recently, scholars have acknowledged that important links between implementation practices and realisation of benefits have received little attention in the literature. There have been calls for more research taking a more detailed account of how outcomes can be achieved. Thus, by adopting a practice-based perspective as a theoretical lens, in this paper we investigate the ‘what’, ‘who’ and ‘how’ of successful BIM processes implementation. We propose a conceptual framework on the underlying conditions of successful implementation and assert that the achievement of benefits is dependent on the interaction of those three aspects. Building on qualitative data from nine construction projects from three client organisations in the UK, we show that the relationship between BIM implementation as a set of technologies and processes and performance cannot be understood without taking into account not only ‘what’ new processes exist in a BIM project and its interdependencies but also ‘who’ implements and engages with them and ‘how’ existing structures are reconfigured when enacting those practices. In alignment with recent research challenging the perceptions of BIM enactment as a linear process, our findings provide new insights into why the proclaimed benefits of BIM have not always been realised as an outcome of a ‘symbolic’ implementation of information management processes and lack of reconfiguration of existing institutions.