As a result of the advanced level of BIM adoption globally, it was only logical that the development of an international standard was created to support consistency across industry on a universal scale.

For us at Digital Node – and at other organisations who work across multiple regions of the world – central support for a consistent framework for delivery, management and execution of BIM was something we have been campaigning for for a very long time.

And it’s finally here: ISO 19650-1 and 2. At the end of last year, International Standard Organisation (ISO) released two important documents: ISO 19650-1: First Edition 2018-12 and ISO 19650-2: First Edition 2018-12.
Globally, this will alleviate some of the issues that the construction industry faces when it comes to language, terminology and process, and what this means particularly for Australia is that we now have a unified delivery process throughout the country for all organisations working with BIM.

In order to perform to these standards, businesses in Australia will need to ensure they have a good and basic understanding of the PAS suite and then invest in training on the ISO moving forward. Even a simple understanding of the concepts and principles of the ISO will support the wider adoption and understanding of the standard. It is imperative that we all keep up to speed as the ISO will continue to develop with parts evolving over the course of the next few years to support areas such as operational BIM and security.

Being able to trade with companies all over the world will become more common place in the future. It is critical that in Australia we adapt to these changes to enable a more productive workforce in the built environment.

ISO 19650 shows great promise for nation and global consistency when it comes to BIM. Much work has already been done to enable the release of this standard, and there are obviously great benefits and risks which we’ll need to address in the coming years. However, in Australia, we are already starting to see the benefits of applying the methodologies and process of ISO – this means less waste and budgetary savings at the conceptual project and build stages.

As an industry one of our biggest challenges is trying to be consistent. Although there are huge challenges such as cultural diversity and historical impact, there are still ways in which we can achieve some form of unity when it comes to BIM. ISO 19650-1 and 2 will help us to achieve this. I look forward to the future where we all start to discuss our projects in a universally standardised language.