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Invitation to Join the NBIMS—Business Process Integration Task Team (BPITT) (September 2006)
The U.S. National BIM Standard (NBIMS) Executive Committee has authorized the establishment of a Business Process Integration Task Team (BPITT) to facilitate identification and analysis, and to provide recommendations regarding the integration of BIM into the business models of all those who are involved in the facility life cycle. A partial list of stakeholders includes design service firms, contractors, owners, facility managers, product manufacturers, and regulatory agencies. Read more.
I am pleased to report that progress is excellent at this point in time and on schedule for producing version 1 of the National BIM Standard by December 2006 thanks to hard work by a significant number of experts in the industry.
We are well organized and the five task teams are working well on their own tasks as well as communicating well between each other. They are all engaged in tasks showing significant forward progress.
The Scoping Task Team is looking at both the total vision of BIM and identifying the most likely scope for version 1 based on industry BIM progress to date. This standard will not be a "lowest common denominator" version based on vendor capabilities. It will be inclusive of all players related to the facility business even as it focuses on the needs of facility owners and the facilities design and construction industry. It will be transformational in nature; guiding our industry away from fragmented, stove piped, 12-18 month process views toward a more productive end-to-end life cycle approach
The team will reference and build upon those significant standards that are in use today; which center around the IAI IFC's and other related ISO standards as well as other significant emerging efforts such as the OMNICLASS taxonomies and other standards supported by Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate (OSCRE) and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) as well as the FIATECH capital investment roadmap. The National CAD Standard will also be one of the corner stones as, for the foreseeable future, we will continue to need standards for 2D drawings.
The Development Task Team is currently basing most of its work on the COBIE (Construction to Operations Building Information Exchange) project which is identifying business processes and exchange requirements associated with collecting the information needed for operations & sustainment of facilities. This portion of the standard will evolve over time and be the basis for future test bed efforts. They have identified the primary information exchanges and the business processes necessary to ensure proper implementation. It is anticipated that the first draft of this part of the standard will be available for comment in the summer.
The Testing Task Team will play a key future role in ensuring that the standard can be supported by the vendors. The process we are adopting was developed by and is being supported by the Open Geospatial Consortium. OGC's experience in this approach is key to rapid startup and will be fundamental to successful NBIMS. Since a test bed requires about nine months to accomplish we will use an OGS test bed effort already moving forward related to the OWS-4 standard. OWS-4 will evaluate interoperability between CAD and GIS, which is at the heart of information exchange in building centric and geospatial centric digital information.
The Communications Task Team is coordinating both internal and external communications to ensure that Committee members, associated organizations, contributors, constituents, and interested onlookers receive the information they need to be productive and to participate fully. Communications team members helping NBIMS leaders shape the message as well as developing and coordinating internal content and graphics used by Committee members. In late February the first general press release was issued and information about the NBIMS efforts has been the subject of several national and international articles and presentations.
The Funding Task Team is finalizing the estimate for both the direct expenses and volunteer contributions of time and talent required to produce an open standard. The Committee plans to make the standard available to all interested implementers at no charge. To do this we will need some direct funding. The structure of how others can help support this effort will be released very soon.
Based on all of the above we anticipate the consensus process to be initiated in mid fall. Publishing of the standard will be via the web, so traditional printing and distribution will not be required and will save significant publishing time and cost.
Submitted by: Dana K. Smith, RA, Chair, NBIMS Project Committee