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Until now, the usage and usability factors of Construction Operation Building information exchange (COBie) datasheet have remained largely overlooked. This oversight may be the potential factor in the lower adoption rates as well as the effective usage of COBie datasheet in the architecture, engineering and construction-facilities management industry. The purpose of this study is to investigate the benefits and key issues associated with COBie datasheet handling and identify the key technological solutions, which can help in mitigating the identified issues.

A literature review was conducted to identify the key benefits of using COBie and issues, which are associated with COBie datasheet handling. This paper has also designed a questionnaire based on a literature review and surveyed professionals who are well versed with handling COBie datasheet. Using responses, the issues are analyzed and discussed using non-parametric statistical analysis.

A total of 9 key benefits and 24 key issues categorized under three groups of usability issues, technical issues and organizational/other issues were identified. The results from the survey agree with all the key issues associated with COBie datasheet handling (with 86 responses). This research also proposes key ideas, that can help in mitigating these issues.

There is a paucity in published literature, which discusses in detail about the various issues associated with COBie datasheet handling. This research study aims to address this gap by identifying key issues by looking at the entire COBie data-capturing process holistically. Finding from this study can help professionals to understand these issues and develop appropriate technological solutions, which can make COBie data capturing and understanding easier. The findings could also assist in increasing the adoption rate of COBie, which could be achieved through mitigation of identified issues.

Until now, the usage and usability factors of construction operation building information exchange (COBie) datasheet has remained largely overlooked. This oversight may be the potential factor in the lower adoption rates as well as effective utilization of COBie datasheet in the architectural, engineering and construction – facilities management industry. Cobie Data drops as a concept has difficulty in adoption pertaining to lengthy process of data capturing with high reliance on manual inputs. Finding from this study will enhance the usability aspects of COBie by looking at the entire process of data assembling in conjuncture with design development and using it to understand the project changes. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The study is aimed at solving a practical issue in handling COBie datasheets. The study uses iterative steps from design thinking and software development process (SDP) for development of the system. The iterative approach from design thinking helped to understand the problem scenarios, development of rule sets and analysis of various options to tackle this issue. SDP was used for the development and validation of the COBieEvaluator prototype.

Despite the information exchange standards such as COBie is available for adoption for quite some time, its perceived value in the whole chain is less described. Various concepts such as preparing COBie sheets from beginning of project are discussed but hardly adopted due to lengthy process. The study helps in substantiating the need for a continuous data capture and showcase how this continuous data capture can help in tracking various design and equipment changes inside a project, using COBieEvaluator. A comparative view over the data helps in giving fruitful information about the project. The system also verify the quality of data inside the COBie datasheet by not only looking at the cell value inputs but also looking at the entire information linkage and finding the gaps.

COBie has mostly being analyzed as an output and its benefits. However, some important aspects of COBie datasheet such as the process of capturing and verifying it, and understanding the meaning of the changes during incremental building of COBie datasheet, is largely overlooked. This study use the concept behind COBie data drops and devise a system to help track effect of project design changes on COBie datasheet. It also highlights the importance of not looking COBie datasheets only as a FM handover requirement, but a source of information which can help various stakeholders to get useful information about the project development. The study propose a comparative dimension over the COBie sheet to get useful insight over the project development.

The usability aspect of the construction operations building information exchange (COBie) datasheet has been largely overlooked. Users find it difficult to find relevant data inside COBie and understand the dependencies of information. This research study is a part of a more comprehensive research study to identify the usability issues associated with COBie and propose solutions to deal with them. This paper aims to discuss the challenges associated with the visualization aspect of COBie and proposes a solution to mitigate them.

This paper is based on design thinking and waterfall methodology. While the design thinking methodology is used to explore the issues associated with the visualization aspect of COBie, the waterfall methodology is used to develop a working prototype of the visualizer for the COBie datasheet using a spreadsheet format.

The paper demonstrates that the property graph model based on a node-link diagram can be effectively used to represent the COBie datasheet. This will help in storing data in a visually connected manner and looking at links more dynamically. Moreover, converting and storing data into an appropriate database will help reach data directly rather than navigate multiple workbooks. This database can also help get the history of data inside the COBie datasheet as it develops throughout the project.

This research proposes a novel approach to visualize the COBie datasheet interactively using the property graph model, a type of node-link diagram. Using the property graph model will help users see data in a connected way, which is currently missing in the spreadsheet representation of COBie data. Moreover, this research also highlights that storing historical changes in COBie data can help understand how data has evolved throughout the construction. Additionally, structured storage of data in relationship format can help users to access the end of connected data directly through the efficient search.

Until now, the usage and usability factors associated with AEC–FM standards have remained largely overlooked. This oversight could be a potentially significant factor in the adoption rates as well as effective utilization of such advanced solutions in the AEC–FM industry. Therefore, from a conceptual and theoretical viewpoint, the purpose of this paper is to address this gap in understanding and enhancing the usability aspects of standards such as construction operations building information exchange (COBie) over its spreadsheet representation. Besides, findings from this study and the proposed theoretical fundamentals to enhance the usability and functionality of COBie spreadsheet representation could potentially lay the foundation for a VisualCOBie approach.

The iterative steps of design thinking and agile development are harmonized to form the main research methodology. Design thinking is useful in problem (re)formulation, and agile development is useful in iterative software development. The approach aims to identify and understand the needs and requirements of the AEC–FM users from the standardized approaches and associated IT solutions; and formulate the main features and functionalities of the proposed solution. The methodology supports the aim of generating a broad range of possible solutions instead of coming up with the “right” solution.

Despite the standards and associated IT developments, the AEC–FM industry still suffers from inefficient information management. To date, most initiatives have focused on utilization of the outputs from different IT solutions in terms of accuracy and completeness of the data defined in the standards. This research found that well-established standards such as COBie and corresponding IT solutions are not merely technical issues, but it is equally important to understand how the end-users cognitively perceive and process them. The developed solutions need to address user point of view to facilitate wider utilization of these standards in practice.

In this research, Gestalt’s visual perception principles have been used to evaluate the usability issues of COBie spreadsheet. Although Gestalt principles provide a valid and proven viewpoint, there can be other cognitive principles that could also be taken into consideration.

The usage and usability factors associated with AEC–FM standards have remained largely overlooked, indicating a gap in the literature. This gap was considered as a potentially significant factor in the adoption as well as effective utilization of such standards and advanced solutions in the AEC–FM industry. By grounding the research in cognitive and usability perspectives of information exchange standards, the authors demonstrate how such theoretical underpinning can lead to innovative solutions.

The purpose of this paper is to inquire into the reasons why Construction Operation Building Information Exchange (COBie) has not become mainstream across the construction industry despite the significant attempts to promote it.

This paper framed and compared the normative model of COBie to a descriptive model of COBie. The normative model was based on the assumptions and planned procedures outlined in the COBie documentation. The descriptive model was developed through a case study of COBie implementation, with ethnographic observations, interviews and artifact analysis as the data collection methods and thematic analysis as the data analysis method.

The comparative analysis of the normative and descriptive models showed that the underlying normative assumptions of COBie can be challenged in its implementation. In the case study, implementing COBie disrupted the conventional practice of few participating firms as the data requirements and the expected sequences and timelines of tasks were not aligned with the industry norms for exchanging data. Furthermore, the normative model of COBie could not account for the unanticipated variability in the internal routines of firms for submittal production.

COBie, as an instruction-based model, may not provide enough flexibility for some firms to adapt to its requirements such that COBie tasks become integrated with their existing workflows. COBie tasks may become additional efforts, and at times, conflict with the industry norms and firms’ routines, and therefore, disrupt the efficiency goals.

This paper provides empirical evidence to clarify why implementing COBie has not been as efficient for all industry players as expected.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the technical features, underlying concepts and implementation details of a novel Building Information Modeling (BIM)-integrated, graph-based platform developed to support BIM for facilities management through a usability driven visual representation of the construction operations building information exchange (COBie) spreadsheet data.

This paper is based on the iterative steps of design thinking and agile software development methodology. The conceptual development of the VisualCOBie platform is based on Gestalt’s principles of visual perception to facilitate usability and comprehension of the COBie data.

The paper demonstrates that Gestalt’s principles of visual perception provide a suitable conceptual as well as implementable basis for improving the usability and comprehension of COBie spreadsheets. The implemented BIM-integrated, graph-based VisualCOBie platform supports visual navigation and dynamic search, reducing the cognitive load of large spreadsheets that are common in facilities management software.

The usability, visual search and dependencies-based search of VisualCOBie can potentially transform how we implement and use facilities and information management systems in construction, where large spreadsheets are frequently used in conjunction with BIM and other tools. VisualCOBie also provides usability-based step towards BIM for facilities management.

The VisualCOBie approach provides a novel user interface and information management platform. This paper may also foster a potential paradigm shift in our approach to the representation and use of information exchange standards such as COBie, which are required to facilitate the research and practice on BIM for facilities management.

Successful implementation of a building information modeling (BIM) for building operation and maintenance (O&M) requires purposeful, early-design identification of end-user-specific model exchange requirements. This paper aims to provide a semantic data-rich classification system for model objects to convey facilities management (FM) requirements in BIM guidelines in support of efficient FM-BIM data workflows.

A modularized, repeatable and technical solution for semantic requirements of BIM exchange objects was developed through ontology-based data mapping of the industry foundation classes. The proposed solution further contextualizes syntax per the buildingSMART Data Dictionary schema and provides an implementation agreement to address the quality issues of discipline BIMs and establish consistent modeling and naming conventions to facilitate automated BIM data workflow.

The level of semantics (LOS) development framework and the results of LOS implementation focusing on a building mechanical system case project are presented and discussed to showcase the increased efficiency resulting from its implementation throughout the BIM data management workflows.

This study represents a pioneering effort to create and implement the LOS schema as a modularized solution in support of automatic BIM data creation, adjustment, verification and transition across the design, construction and O&M workflows of a large owner organization in the Midwest USA.

The purpose of this study is to investigate factors that impede the integration of facilities management (FM) into building information modeling (BIM) technology. The use of BIM technology in the commercial construction industry has grown enormously in recent years. Its application to FM, however, is still limited. The literature highlights issues that hinder BIM–FM integration, which are studied and discussed in detail in this paper.

A review of literature is conducted to identify and categorize key issues hampering the application of BIM to FM. This paper has also designed a questionnaire based on a literature review and surveyed FM professionals at two industry events. Using the collected responses, these issues are analyzed and discussed using non-parametric statistical analyses.

A total of 16 issues are identified through the literature review of 54 studies under the four categories of BIM-execution and information-management, technological, cost-based and legal and contractual issues. The results of the survey of FM professionals (with 57 complete responses) reveal that the single most important issue is the lack of FM involvement in project phases when BIM is evolving.

The findings of this study could assist the construction industry (e.g. building-material and equipment manufacturers, design professionals, general contractors, construction managers, owners and facility managers) with creating guidelines that would help in BIM–FM integration. BIM is a virtual database that contains important design and construction information, which can be used for effective and efficient life cycle management if building data are captured completely and accurately with a facility manager’s involvement.

Proper definition of level of development (LOD) is one of the significant issues in building information modeling (BIM) applications; however, it is still not adequately addressed during BIM implementations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and describe the current practice in defining the LOD in large-scale BIM-based projects and identify the challenges and solutions that were provided.

Four case studies were performed at four different types of large-scale projects to depict the current practice in determining the LOD and the required properties of elements that are going to be included in a BIM model. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were performed to collect information from six professionals from four international firms.

The findings of the case studies revealed that defining LOD is an ambiguous process and requires high-cumulated experience. The results provide the challenges, adopted solutions and lessons learned. It was highlighted that the cost of including an element or related information in the model should be compared to the benefit of having that information in the model from the perspective of defined BIM uses.

The findings are based on the projects that were performed in three developing countries. However, the main contractors were international companies and the construction management firms were well-known companies in the USA. In the future, additional case studies can be performed in other countries to identify similarities and regional differences.

The results of this study can be used to highlight the current needs in determining the LOD and guide the efforts for developing standards and policies in the AEC sector to streamline BIM adoption process in practice. The practitioners can utilize the findings of this study to increase their efficiency in adopting BIM and to decrease the time loss and cost overruns.

Most of the previous studies investigated the benefits and challenges when adopting BIM, and few of them considered LOD definition as a core part of this process. This study specifically investigated the current practice in determining the LOD and the required properties of elements that are going to be included in a BIM model. It also described the applied solutions and lessons learned in the case studies.

Building information modelling (BIM) is increasingly being adopted during construction projects. Design and construction practices are adjusting to the new system. BIM is intended to support the entire project life-cycle: the design and construction phases, and also facility management (FM). However, BIM-enabled FM remains in its infancy and has not yet reached its full potential. The purpose of this paper is to identify major aspects of BIM in order to derive a fully BIM-enabled FM process.

In total, 207 papers were classified into main and subordinate research areas for quantitative analysis. These findings were then used to conceptualise a BIM-enabled FM framework grounded by innovation diffusion theory for adoption, and for determining the path of future research.

Through an extensive literature review, the paper summarises many benefits and challenges. Major aspects of BIM are identified in order to describe a BIM-enabled FM implementation process grounded by innovation diffusion theory. The major research areas of the proposed framework include: planning and guidelines; value realisation; internal leadership and knowledge; procurement; FM; specific application areas; data capture techniques; data integration; knowledge management; and legal and policy impact. Each element is detailed and is supported by literature. Finally, gaps are highlighted for investigation in future research.

This paper systematically classifies and evaluates the existing research, thus contributing to the achievement of the ultimate vision of BIM-enabled FM. The proposed framework informs facility managers, and the BIM-enabled FM implementation process. Further, the holistic survey identifies gaps in the body of knowledge, revealing avenues for future research.