Viability of the BIM Manager Enduring as a Distinct Role: Association Rule Mining of Job Advertisements

Abstract

Abstract:Building Information Modeling (BIM) has developed as the definitive technology for managing construction projects. With its rise, the corresponding role of BIM manager has emerged as a necessary adjunct role in coordinating BIM enabled projects. The ascent of the BIM manager has attracted a significant body of research investigating the various competencies and responsibilities required of the role. While BIM is here to stay, the work of Akintola et al. (2017), however, asserts that a distinct role oriented around BIM, is itself transitory. The conclusion in Akintola's work represents a significant departure from accepted assumptions on the viability of the BIM manager role. This research sets out to test the likelihood of a long-term market demand for the BIM manager, as a distinct role, based on a robust quantitative analysis of open-source data from a rich representing the global English speaking jobs markets. Key knowledge, skills and abilities attributes of the BIM jobs were extracted and analyzed. Analysis reveals there is no significant difference between the roles of 'BIM manager' and 'BIM coordinator.' Moreover, the findings highlight that these two BIM roles align with that of 'project manager.' Most importantly, BIM roles are shown to supplement the lack of BIM expertise within the role of 'project manager,' and that as BIM capabilities are increasingly absorbed by project managers, the rationale for an independent BIM expert will fade. The corollary is that BIM roles are a stopgap measure that can be expected to disappear as project managers absorb requisite BIM skills. The practical implication for the construction engineering HR departments is that the prevailing policy of retaining dedicated BIM managers into the longer term should shift rather to one where project managers are re-trained to a level where they possess a comprehensive, independent BIM expertise.

Challenging construction project management institutions: the role and agency of BIM actors

“…The role of the BIM actor clearly shows a tension in that, on the one hand, they are involved in processes of cocreation in developing new practices, competing against existing practices as well as existing roles, and, on the other hand, they constantly negotiate their particular tasks and responsibility, as well as their role. In our observations we found that the BIM role can infringe on the role of the project manager, which is in line with earlier work of Akintola et al (2017) and Hosseini et al (2018) who discuss the overlap of the BIM role with the role of the project manager and that the role might disappear when the project manager obtains more BIM skills.…”

“…A number of recent studies have discussed various BIM roles (Akintola et al 2017;Davies et al 2017;Uhm et al 2017;Hosseini et al 2018;Jacobsson and Merschbrock 2018;Bosch-Sijtsema et al 2019). While some of these studies make a clear distinction between different types of roles like BIM managers, BIM coordinators and BIM modellers (Davies et al 2017), others stated that the difference between BIM managers and BIM coordinators is fuzzy and that the roles perform similar duties (Hosseini et al 2018;Bosch-Sijtsema et al 2019).…”

“…A number of recent studies have discussed various BIM roles (Akintola et al 2017;Davies et al 2017;Uhm et al 2017;Hosseini et al 2018;Jacobsson and Merschbrock 2018;Bosch-Sijtsema et al 2019). While some of these studies make a clear distinction between different types of roles like BIM managers, BIM coordinators and BIM modellers (Davies et al 2017), others stated that the difference between BIM managers and BIM coordinators is fuzzy and that the roles perform similar duties (Hosseini et al 2018;Bosch-Sijtsema et al 2019). Several studies also discussed the competencies and duties of BIM roles; based on a literature review (Jacobsson and Merschbrock 2018), document analysis of job advertisements (Uhm et al 2017;Hosseini et al 2018) or BIM guidelines (Davies et al 2017), a survey (Bosch-Sijtsema et al 2019) or interview data (Jaradat et al 2013;Akintola et al 2017).…”

“…While some of these studies make a clear distinction between different types of roles like BIM managers, BIM coordinators and BIM modellers (Davies et al 2017), others stated that the difference between BIM managers and BIM coordinators is fuzzy and that the roles perform similar duties (Hosseini et al 2018;Bosch-Sijtsema et al 2019). Several studies also discussed the competencies and duties of BIM roles; based on a literature review (Jacobsson and Merschbrock 2018), document analysis of job advertisements (Uhm et al 2017;Hosseini et al 2018) or BIM guidelines (Davies et al 2017), a survey (Bosch-Sijtsema et al 2019) or interview data (Jaradat et al 2013;Akintola et al 2017). Some even proposed that specific BIM roles might become less relevant in the future when other actors in the construction process increase their BIM knowledge (Akintola et al 2017;Hosseini et al 2018).…”

“…Several studies also discussed the competencies and duties of BIM roles; based on a literature review (Jacobsson and Merschbrock 2018), document analysis of job advertisements (Uhm et al 2017;Hosseini et al 2018) or BIM guidelines (Davies et al 2017), a survey (Bosch-Sijtsema et al 2019) or interview data (Jaradat et al 2013;Akintola et al 2017). Some even proposed that specific BIM roles might become less relevant in the future when other actors in the construction process increase their BIM knowledge (Akintola et al 2017;Hosseini et al 2018). However, only a few of these studies addressed the actual actions of BIM actors to support BIM usage and implementation (exceptions are Akintola et al 2017;Jacobsson and Merschbrock 2018).…”