Development of a BIM Implementation Roadmap: The Case of Iran

High expectations from employers and complex communication between stakeholders in the construction industry, resulted in fundamental changes during the design and construction process. Excellence in communication and coordination is required between stakeholders and automated interdisciplinary change management to meet needs and expectations in the construction industry. Building Information Modeling (BIM) offers numerous benefits, including reducing construction time, cost, and risk while improving project quality, communication, and coordination. However, there are still significant barriers to BIM implementation. Since Iran is in the early stages of BIM implementation, a roadmap for adopting BIM in Iran's construction industry is designed for the first time to exploit BIM benefits in this paper. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with professionals to structure the roadmap. In addition, online interviews were carried out with 16 experts. Furthermore, a Delphi-based approach was employed to reach consensus. The roadmap consists of six main pillars with 53 activities designed to create a matured BIM plan based on local culture and needs. And the roadmap begins with assigning a strong leadership to lead the process. The industry is expected to be motivated to adopt BIM as it learns the benefits associated with BIM. Then, it continues with developing related best practices, rules and regulations. In the third stage, the roadmap encourages the industry to provide the required education and training. In the next pillar, the roadmap follows the establishment and development by defining a contractual platform. In the fifth pillar, the quality of BIM and its results will be measured and compared with expectations and pre-defined goals. Eventually, the government will provide a continuous BIM implementation. The study is expected to facilitate BIM implementation in the Iran construction industry which will improve the quality of Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) practices. It will help to culminate tangible and intangible project deliverable by reducing time, cost, risks and improving overall quality. Therefore, all stakeholders satisfy the final outcome beside resolving conflicts and interferences.