Six months ago, the global construction industry hit an exciting milestone in the release of the ISO 19650 series. The International Standards Organisation released the first two documents in December 2018, addressing research into BIM adoption across the globe.

The documents are:

ISO 19650-1: First Edition 2018-12
Organization and digitization of information about buildings and civil engineering works, including building information modelling (BIM) — Information management using building information modelling — Part 1: Concepts and principles

ISO 19650-2: First Edition 2018-12
Organization and digitization of information about buildings and civil engineering works, including building information modelling (BIM) — Information management using building information modelling — Part 2: Delivery phase of the assets

How do we ensure a smooth implementation?

So far, we have seen some successes in the implementation of the ISO across the globe – but there have been some obstacles, too. In particular, the language barrier between ISO 19650 and its predecessor PAS 1192 has created some issues, particularly for UK organisations who have spent time becoming well versed in PAS 1192 only to transition.

There have been practical challenges across the industry since December 2018, which is why an industry-wide level of understanding is necessary in order to ensure a smooth global implementation of ISO 19650 moving forward.

We’ve been working with the Global eTraining platform for several years, developing various software courses – and in 2017, we were engaged to develop a global BIM standards library.

During the development of ISO 19650, Digital Node had industry information that the ISO was to adopt the principles and development of BIM adoption in the UK, and the 2016 mandate for BIM Level 2 compliancy. Knowing what was ahead, we took the opportunity to begin updating our own lecture suite, ready for the release. 

The next steps will also see the development of ISO 19650-3 and -5, which are being driven by existing PAS documents PAS 1192-2 and -5.

Educational materials

Global eTraining’s audience is worldwide, and so the roll-out of educational materials for the global guidance was an important step in making sure there is a consistent level of understanding throughout the global construction industry. Ensuring that the educational suite was up to date for the release of ISO 19650 included touching on a variety of areas and formats, including our lectures and mini lectures.

As well as updating our existing materials, producing new lectures was also a key factor in creating a cohesive educational suite for anyone implementing ISO 19650, including a lecture on how the British Standards were used to develop the global ISO. This is a particularly important piece of work, as it helps to illuminate the narrative of the ISO and increase understanding of it relative to its predecessors. This is a huge help to those transitioning from PAS 1192 and therefore struggling with the changes in terminology and language used.

It is important to promote the use of global BIM standards, and the framework of BIM adoption. We’ve looked at the processes of implementing the ISO client side, as well as the documents used by a delivery team in order to enable BIM processes – including the development of a BIM execution plan, information exchange requirements across the design and construction phase, and the implementation of BIM during the operational phase.

Lecture content

Our ISO 19650 course is now available online through Global eTraining and addresses these issues and more in the endeavour to increase global understanding of the ISO. Also in production are our upcoming courses: BIM for ExecutivesBIM Management and BIM Fundamentals.

Earlier this year, all the lectures were updated to reflect the ISO language and terminology – an important hurdle to address. All of our mini lectures are now inclusive of best practice BIM processes, aligning to the ISO in a global sense.

Work will also need to be done on educating the industry on the newer documentation that we expect to see in the upcoming months and years, and Digital Node is already preparing for this.