Construction Research Congress 2012 ASCE 2012

Change Management with Building Information Models: A Case Study

Behzad PILEHCHIAN LANGROODI1 and Sheryl STAUB-FRENCH2
1

M.Sc., Department of Civil Engineering, University of British Columbia, 6250

Applied Science Lane, Vancouver, BC V5Z 3S6, Canada; PH (604) 833-2797; email:
behzadp@civil.ubc.ca
2
Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of British
Columbia, 6250 Applied Science Lane, Vancouver, BC V5Z 3S6, Canada; PH (604)
827-5118; FAX (604) 822-6901; email: ssf@civil.ubc.ca
ABSTRACT
Successful management of design changes is critical for the efficient delivery
of construction projects. Building Information Models (BIM) and the use of
parametric modeling provide significant benefits in coordinating changes across
different views in a model. However, coordinating changes across several disciplinespecific models is significantly more challenging to manage. This paper describes a
case study that examines change management in the context of a multi-disciplinary
collaborative BIM environment during the design and construction of a fast-track
project. We documented the design changes, analyzed the change management
processes and evaluated existing BIM tools in support of this process. Using two
examples from the case study, we identify the characteristics of design changes
required for tracking the history of changes and understanding the consequences of
changes. We develop an ontology of changes based on the identified characteristics
and patterns in the observed changes. The ontology characterizes design changes
based on changed component attributes (the geometry, position, and specification),
and based on dependencies between components (analytical and spatial). We further
examine what needs to be updated in an information model corresponding to each
type of change. The results of this study provide some possible directions for future
developments in change management systems, particularly in reference to a BIMbased delivery process.
INTRODUCTION
Change is an integral part of building design as the design process is iterative
in nature and involves the exploration and analysis of many alternatives (Tory et al,
2008). Changes are not limited to the design phase, but often continue throughout the
construction phase due to concurrency of design and construction, particularly on
fast-track projects, or in order to remove inconsistencies and enhance quality. Studies
have shown that 20-25% of the construction period is lost due to deficiencies in
design (Undurraga, 1996) and 78% of quality problems are attributable to design
(Koskela, 1992). Therefore, successful management of design changes is of vital
importance for the efficient delivery of construction projects.
During such an iterative process, the content and structure of design
information is not static but subject to continual changes. In this dynamic
environment, information models that are developed to coordinate design changes

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must be as flexible and dynamic as the design process itself (Leeuwen, 2000). This is
a significant challenge in the development of computer-based information models.
Building information models (BIM) are integrated databases that have the
capacity to process dynamic data. They combine a design model (geometry and data)
with a behavioral model (change management) to enable real-time coordination of the
information in every view of the model (Autodesk White Paper, Parametric Building
Modeling: BIMs Foundation). Thus, they have the potential to coordinate changes
throughout the dynamic process of building design.
Although dynamic data are processed reasonably well in a single BIM with all
the necessary parameters explicitly defined, changes across inter-related multidisciplinary designs that reside in a federated environment are significantly more
challenging to manage. Hence, many BIM projects still rely on paper-based printouts
of 2D drawings, as it is difficult to determine what has changed in the model with
existing tools. These demonstrate the need to improve BIM-based change
management systems for effective coordination of multi-disciplinary models
throughout the dynamic process of building design and construction.
This research examines change management in the context of a multidisciplinary collaborative BIM environment during the design and construction of a
fast-track project. In the course of the project, we documented changes, analyzed the
change management processes and evaluated existing BIM tools in support of this
process. We further attempted to identify, categorize and generalize the different
characteristics of the observed changes to develop an ontology of changes. The
developed ontology focuses on facets that would be essential in establishing a BIMbased change management system that is capable of tracking the history and
consequence of changes. The results of this study provide some possible directions
for future developments in change management systems, particularly in the context of
a BIM-based delivery process.
RELATED RESEARCH
Research on change management systems has tended to focus on the guidance
for best practice in change management, evaluating the change effects on certain
project elements, change management as the focus of IT systems and modeling the
change process in construction. A number of other research efforts, such as those
carried out by Mokhtar et al (1998) and Hegazy et al (2001), focused on developing
information models intended to help the coordination of design information through
the management of design changes. Akcamete et. al., (2009) identified the types of
changes that occur during the life cycle of a project, which had a particular emphasis
on facility management and maintenance activities. They discussed some challenges
associated with managing such changes and updating building information models
accordingly. They also investigated how well commercially available systems address
these challenges. Although several previous research efforts have focused on
developing change management systems for construction projects, the issue of
managing design changes using BIM has not received as much attention in the
literature. On the other hand, BIM adoption is becoming an increasingly important
matter for the construction industry that has been facing barriers and challenges to
increase productivity, efficiency, quality and for sustainable development (Arayici et.

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al., 2011). Therefore, considering the evolving role of BIM in design and construction
of building projects, there is a need to better understand the requirements of change
management systems in the context of a BIM environment to manage changes
throughout design and construction of such projects, particularly as more projects are
executed with fast-track delivery.
CASE STUDY
This case study focuses on the Pharmaceutical Building project, which is
being constructed on the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus. The project
budget is approximately $150 million. Construction of the project started in mid 2010
and completion will be in late summer 2012. The 18,000 m2 facility provides a
variety of teaching and learning spaces range from lecture halls to classrooms and
seminar rooms, as well as study spaces for students. The building also includes a
pharmacist clinic and three floors of research spaces. Figure 1 shows the 3D rendered
view of the building extracted from the architectural model.

Figure 1. Rendered 3D view of the building

(Source: Saucier + Perrotte Architects | Hughes Condon Marler Architects)
In this fast-track project, BIM was used during design and construction. We
participated in the design coordination process which gave us the opportunity to
evaluate the efficiency of BIM for managing design changes. The project team
consisted of the representatives from the different disciplines involved in the project
including the owner, the construction manager, architects, engineering consultants
and construction sub-trades.
Our data collection was mainly based on observations in the BIM
coordination meetings, extensive site visits, and communication with design and
construction parties. The data collection period took around one year. During this
period, we attended and recorded more than forty BIM coordination meetings and
conducted more than eighty site visits.
Early BIM coordination meetings were held in the architects office every
other week. These meetings were mainly focused on coordination between different
design disciplines (architects, structural, mechanical and electrical engineers) and the

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construction management team to address various design requirements and resolve

inconsistencies and conflicts in the design (Figure 2).

Figure 2. BIM coordination meetings at the architects office

After construction started and different sub-trades were engaged, the BIM
technicians of each sub-trade became involved in the project and gradually replaced
the consultants who were the original creators of their respective model. For
example, the mechanical consultants model was transferred to the piping, plumbing
and HVAC sub-trades and each sub-trade took the responsibility of further
developments and modifications in their scope of modeling. The location of BIM
meetings also changed to the construction site to facilitate participation of the
construction team. These meetings were held in our research-based BIM trailer
located at the construction site. The trailer was equipped with two large LCD screens
and smart annotation tools to write and mark on the screens (Figure 3). These
meetings were arranged by the construction management team and were intended to
enhance communication between the sub-trades in order to resolve design conflicts
and improve the constructability of the design. The construction management team
was also responsible for communicating design conflicts and necessary changes with
engineers and architects.

Figure 3. BIM coordination meetings in the BIM trailer at the construction site
During this case study, we documented numerous examples of changes. In the
next section, we will discuss two examples to illustrate the typical requirements of

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practitioners and evaluate the functionality, efficiency and potential capabilities of

BIM against these requirements. We then analyze the different characteristics of the
observed changes, and present them in an ontology of changes.
EXAMPLE DESIGN CHANGES
This section examines two design change examples from the project by
describing the reasons for each change, the consequences or impacts of the change,
and the challenges of managing these changes using existing tools. The analysis of
these examples aims to specify the characteristics that are required for tracking the
history or consequence of changes in an information model. We have highlighted
these key characteristics in bold letters throughout the analysis sections. These
highlighted characteristics will be summarized later as a part of our BIM-based
ontology of changes, which will be presented in the final section of this paper.
Example #1: Relocation of Fire-rated Walls (Tracking the History of Changes)
Due to architectural requirements, the arrangement of two-hour fire-rated
walls changed slightly. The construction manager noticed the effect of this change on
the wall openings, and consequently on the arrangement of their internal framing.
Thus, he wanted to know which walls would be affected to modify their assembly
prior to installation. To address this issue, we investigated a range of possible
methods for tracking such changes in an information model. We also evaluated the
capability of a state-of- the-art BIM tool to detect such changes.
It is usually difficult to determine where and what changes have been made in
the models. A basic solution is exporting the model outputs into spreadsheets and
track changes by components ID number which is time consuming and almost
impossible for large models. There are also some indirect ways of extracting history
of changes from the model. For example, considering that changes in the drawings
are often marked by revision clouds, each information model, which also contains
latest revision of the drawings, indirectly includes some history of changes too. Thus,
the comparison of the models corresponding to each revision can provide a way for
tracking changes during the evolution of the design. However, this kind of tracking is
only possible when information models corresponded to every official issue of the
drawings are collected and kept systematically. Moreover, only those changes that are
marked in the extracted drawings can be tracked by this method.
A number of BIM software packages have recently introduced specific tools
for comparing versioned building models. We evaluated one of the most advanced
commercially available BIM tools to examine its capability, Solibri Model Checker.
We first utilized this tool to detect changes that occurred in the location of wall
openings between two versions of the model. The results of our first attempt indicated
that 322 openings were added, 242 openings were deleted and 61 openings were
modified (Figure 4).
Further investigation showed that many of the detected additions or deletions
were incorrect as the added or deleted openings were identical. This might have
occurred, for example, because of modifications in some adjacent components, the
wall and its openings were simply removed and again recreated at the same location.
A number of detected changes were also due to negligible adjustments in the
openings location or geometry, which were not relevant to the contractor. Moreover,

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components were reported as modified when a change was detected in any of their
attributes, including position, geometry or specifications. However, we were only
concerned about changes in a specific attribute, i.e. position. Thus, many of the
detected changes were not intended targets of our analysis.
Added Openings
Deleted Openings
Modified Openings
322
242
61

Figure 4. Track of changes in openings

In another attempt, we utilized the same BIM tool to detect changes in the
location of two-hour fire-rated walls, instead of their openings only. To obtain clearer
results, we narrowed down our comparison to the east side of the first level of the
building. We also focused just on a specific attribute, the position of the walls, and
excluded changes in any other attributes such as geometry or specifications of the
walls. Figure 5 shows the results from this analysis. As can be observed, the results of
such a customized comparison are much clearer and can be better communicated.
However, this result also included some incorrect or irrelevant changes. These
inaccuracies increased the number of detected changes, which affected the
traceability and reliability of the results.
Modified Walls

Deleted Walls

Added Walls

Figure 5. Tracking changes in the location of first-level walls

Construction Research Congress 2012 ASCE 2012

Example #2: Changes in HVAC Routing (Tracking the consequences of changes)

The route of air supply ducts in the small lecture hall needed to be changed
because of the limitations in available space and architectural design restrictions on
exposed ducts. At the time of this change, the piping and electrical design were at the
final stages, the structural design was almost complete and construction of the
basement structure was in progress. Several alternatives were discussed in the BIM
meetings. The final solution that satisfied the requirements of all parties was passing
the main air supply duct through the space between the lecture hall sloped floor slab
and the steel deck of the lower floor ceiling. The impact was that they now needed to
provide 80 openings with a diameter of 12 in the floor slab to allow sufficient
airflow between the HVAC plenum and the lecture hall (Figure 6). This solution
eliminated the need for secondary ducts and minimized the effect on piping and the
electrical design. The size of the openings was determined based on the maximum
size recommended by the structural engineer to eliminate the effect of openings on
the structural integrity of the floor slab. Coping with the different constraints imposed
by requirements of other engineering disciplines and progress in construction along
with congestion and geometric complexity were the primary challenges in developing
the final solution.

Figure 6. Opening in the lecture hall slab: Site Photo (left), 3D View (Right)
To overcome these challenges, the consequence of each alternative solution
needed to be examined thoroughly. Theses consequences were generally explored in
the BIM meetings by examining different spatial or analytical dependencies
between changed components and other components that might be affected.
Spatial dependencies between components are usually easy to be tracked as
they are related to the geometry or position of components. For instance, relocation of
the main air supply duct affected secondary ducts connected to it and the steel
hangers that supported it. It also influenced a number of adjacent components such
as piping and electrical cable trays. Moreover, as the duct were surrounded in the
small space between the sloped floor slab and steel deck of the lower floor, a large
change in the location of the duct could affect the surrounding structural components.

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Investigation of analytical dependencies, on the other hand, is much more

difficult as they need specific technical information and expertise. For instance,
although opening with diameter of 12 did not influence the structural integrity, a
slight increase in the opening size would change the structural design significantly
because in case of such an increase, the opening size would exceed the available clear
distance between reinforcing bars and consequently would interrupt rebar
arrangement in several locations. Similarly, other analytical relationships, such as
architectural consistency, operational and maintenance requirements, and
mechanical and electrical interactions, also needed to be examined that necessitated
engagement of different engineering disciplines and sub-trades.
Commercially available BIM tools are able to detect a number of spatial
dependencies. For example, many of them can recognize that the length of columns
is linked to the elevations of floors. Thus, if a change happens in a floor elevation,
they will automatically update columns length. These tools also have limited
capability of detecting and tracking analytical relations. For example, due to
operation and maintenance requirements, there should be a minimum clear space
around mechanical components, such as ducts and pipes. BIM tools are usually able
to check the clear distance between different components and detect components that
do not comply with a minimum preset clearance requirement. The BIM tool we
investigated throughout this study, Solibri Model Checker, uses a rule-based
reasoning approach to interpret typical relationships between components and analyze
their interferences. For example, a specific rule set checks for the components that are
not attached or supported bellow (e.g. hanging in the air). This tool provides around
50 rule sets to check similar logical dependencies, such as whether spaces are
enclosed with walls, if components are within a space, if components interfere with
each other, etc. However, these rule sets still cannot effectively recognize a wide
range of logical relations, especially analytical dependencies.
CONCEPTUAL CHARACTERIZATION OF DESIGN CHANGES
These examples highlight a number of key characteristics that are significant
for tracking changes in an information model. The first example illustrated important
characteristics for tracking the history of changes which included attributes specific to
a components geometry, position and specifications. The second example
illustrated the important characteristics required for tracking the chain or sequence of
changes that are a consequence of spatial or analytical dependencies.
We analyzed these conceptual characteristics together with other key
attributes extracted from the other documented changes to provide a richer
representation of these changes. We classified these characteristics and arranged
these classes in a taxonomic (subclasssuper class) hierarchy to develop a BIM-based
ontology of changes (Table 1).

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Table 1. Conceptual Characteristics of Changes

Change
Type

Classes Sub-classes
Addition

Facets: Description/ Example

Adding a new component

Modification Modification in one or several attributes of a component

Deletion

Deleting an existing component

Shape: cubic, cylindrical, rectangular, plate

Dimensions: length, width, thickness, diameter, slope
Coordinates: X ,Y ,Z
Position
Orientation: Rx, Ry, Rz
Material: concrete, mild steel, galvanized steel
Specification
Elements: Stud, Rebar: size, shape, arrangement
Semantic Properties: Fire-rating, acoustic, water proof
Connected To : column and floors, main and secondary ducts
Adjacent To: duct and adjacent pipes, duct and ceiling
Spatial
Supported By: duct and steel hangers
Surrounded By: duct and false ceiling/ plenum area
Structural Integrity: size of sleeves and arrangement of rebar
Architectural Consistency: functionality of room and exposed duct
Analytical
Mechanical Interaction: location of air supply duct
Electrical Relationship: size of cable tray and motor power
Operational Requirement: clearance around a pipe
Change in basic documents, design, specification with fundamental
Conceptual
effect on many components
Major change in main components position, geometry, etc, which
Primary
affect several other components
Minor change in component elements or properties with minimal
Secondary
effect on other components
Basic design During early stages of the design

Change
Impacts

Change Timing

Level of
Change

Dependencies
between Components

Changed
Component
Attributes

Geometry

Detail design During the design but prior to any procurement /construction
Procurement After Purchase Order but prior to fabrication
Fabrication

After Fabrication but prior to erection

Construction After commence of construction

Major: considerable effects on costs
Cost impacts
Minor: insignificant effects on costs
Major: considerable effects on schedule
Time
impacts
Minor: insignificant effects on schedule

The provided ontology is comprised of 6 classes and 18 sub-classes that cover

conceptual characteristics of design changes. This ontology explicitly defines a BIMbased structure to organize these changes. It also shares a common understanding of
the key attributes of changes for practitioners who develop or use BIM tools for
managing changes.
This paper mainly elaborated the first three classes. The first and second
classes were discussed in the first example and the third class explained in the second
example that we provided in the previous sections. The next three classes (Level of

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Change, Change Timing and Change Impact) are not the focus of this paper as they
are mainly based on the other design change examples observed during the case
study. However, they were included in the provided ontology because their concepts
are implied in this study and provided analyses. The elaboration of these classes can
be subject of further studies.
CONCLUSION
This paper described an analysis of changes documented in a case study
conducted during design and construction of a fast-track building project. We
investigated different challenges for managing these changes and examined the
capabilities of BIM tools to address them. We documented numerous changes
thorough the design and construction of the project and examined two broad
examples to identify essential attributes of these typical changes. We finally classified
and generalized these attributes to develop an ontology of changes. This ontology will
provide common understanding of changes characteristics for practitioners who
develop or utilize BIM tools for managing changes. Additional research is needed to
implement and test these characteristics, and to analyze different types of changes
across different types of projects.
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