The Winfield Rock Report Overcoming the Legal and Contractual Barriers of BIM [available here] is a great step-forward in explaining both the essentials of BIM and the barriers to its adoption.
As a contract and plain language specialist, the Report chimes with my experience:
- too much jargon
- too many initialisms and acronyms [top 10 explained in this video from B1M]
- terms which are not universally understood
- lawyers who cannot ask the right questions of their clients
- technicians who cannot explain the essentials to their clients or lawyers
- inconsistent application of the basics
- a wide swingometer between zealous and rigid interpretation or too much flexibility (here).
One the plus side, there seems to be at least a perception among contract writers (the lawyers) that there are gaps in their BIM knowledge.
What should we do?
The Report is the first step in ensuring the ambiguities, inconsistencies and lack of understanding can be overcome and the contract drafting keeps pace with what is happening on construction projects now and in the future.
