Workshop 6

18 Mar 2025 | Defining Information Requirements

BIM CoDE•SA Workshop 6 served as a pivotal platform for deepening South Africa’s national conversation around Better Information Management (BIM) in the built environment.

The meeting brought together client representatives from across sectors, public and private sector - including those managing roads, buildings, banks and water infrastructure amongst others.

The focus was on the practical realities of defining clear, fit-for-purpose information requirements for infrastructure projects - a foundational step in enabling more outcome-driven, efficient, and value-focused digital project planning, delivery, operations and maintenance.

Discussions delved into the tangible processes and challenges of translating strategic objectives into specific, measurable information specifications. Attendees shared insights on how well-structured data requirements, when defined early, contribute not only to successful project execution, but also to the long-term performance and sustainability of infrastructure assets.

The enthusiasm and alignment across participants reflected a growing industry consensus: that information is no longer a byproduct of delivery but a critical asset in its own right - one that drives smarter decisions, optimises operational efficiency, and supports lifecycle asset management.

A key theme that emerged was the vital leadership role of asset owners in this transformation. As the central custodians of built assets, owners - supported by their project and asset management teams - are best positioned to guide the BIM process from inception.

By clearly defining information requirements from the outset, asset owners ensure that the information model produced during a project aligns with both statutory obligations and organisational objectives. This not only enables modern, efficient operations and facilities management after handover, but also provides a complete, verified digital record that remains valuable for years to come, regardless of ownership transitions.

The adoption of BIM in accordance with the SANS 19650 standard further reinforces this responsibility. The standard empowers asset owners to specify the exact data needed at each stage of a project and to verify the completeness and accuracy of the information upon delivery. In doing so, owners gain confidence that the information model is a reliable foundation for informed decision-making, efficient maintenance, and long-term asset value.

To support asset owners in fulfilling this role, this BIM CoDE•SA Workshop 6 offered practical guidance on:

Aligning asset information requirements with broader organisational and business drivers,
Drafting information requirements in a way that is clear, actionable, and scalable,
Exploring different options for complexity, level of detail, and information content, tailored to specific asset types or project contexts.

Workshop outcomes included refined understanding of how Organisation Information Requirements (OIR) inform Asset Information Requirements (AIR), and how both are incorporated into Employer’s Information Requirements (EIR). Participants engaged with proposals for a standardised industry approach to ensure consistency, quality, and interoperability in BIM implementation across sectors.

The BIM CoDE•SA Workshop 6 reaffirmed the industry’s readiness to move beyond traditional compliance-based project execution. It underscored a shared vision for a future where better information, established early and managed throughout the lifecycle, becomes the cornerstone of long-term infrastructure value and national development.

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Better Information Management for SOE Assets

Objective: Understanding the need for accurate information, its formats, and the business processes it supports.

1) Need for information

Statement of Need: "I need [info] in this [format] in order to [business process]."

Information Needed:

As-built information e.g. Accurate Floor Plans

Format:

Digital (e.g., IFC)

Business Purpose:

To manage built assets
- Space management
- To meet the end-user requirement
- Life-cycle management

2) Information on Assets & Outcomes

Statement of Need: "I need information about [asset] in order to [outcome]."

Information Requirements:

Survey levels
Services
Traffic reports
Continuous monitoring of asset/operational (e.g. truck scanning for road condition and strain gauges on bridges)

Assets Covered:

Roads
Bridges
Buildings

Desired Outcomes:

Constructed according to specifications & standards (Delivery)
To inform future upgrades & maintenance plans
To monitor asset performance
To meet end-user requirements

3) BIM Maturity Levels & Integration

Baby BIM – Bare Minimum (Starting Point)

Static Approach
Standards ➝ Asset classification (naming conventions)
Categorization ➝ Distinguish between information types (Levels)
Meta-data ➝ Information about information
3D Model on a Functional Level ➝ Visualization
Low Level of Detail (LOD)

Mama BIM – Happy Medium

Balanced Approach
Ad-hoc/ cyclical inspections (when required)
3D Model on an Operational Level
Integrated Project Info
Cross-discipline integration
Intermediate LOD

Papa BIM – Ultimate BIM State

Dynamic Model
Meta-data ➝ Full suite information (Who, measured, how?)
Digital Twin ➝ Smart assets
Highest LOD's

Better Information Management for Public Infrastructure

Introduction

This summary captures the work of our group from the BIM CoDE•SA workshop - a collaboration between public infrastructure custodians such as SANRAL, ESKOM, and the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI). The goal of this document is simple: to help all stakeholders - from newcomers to experts - understand how Building Information Modelling (BIM) supports smarter infrastructure delivery, and how key concepts like Organisational Information Requirements (OIR) and Asset Information Requirements (AIR) form the backbone of that system.

Framework Adopted:

The discussion was organised around three levels of organisational information usage:

Strategic Information – for long-term planning and high-level decision-making
Tactical Information – for programme and asset lifecycle planning
Operational Information – for daily execution and resourcing decisions

These reflect the public service mandate of the organisations represented, and the complexity of managing long-life infrastructure assets.

1) What are the top 3 information requirements for your organisation?

Strategic

INFO STATEMENT: “I need strategic information in trend format to support long-term infrastructure planning decisions.”

WHY?

Strategic Requirement – Long-Term Infrastructure Planning
To make better investment decisions and align with infrastructure master plans, we need trend-based data that supports forecasting.
Examples:

Longitudinal traffic volumes, peak-hour patterns, and route usage trends
Climate data: rainfall, temperatures, flood zones (for resilience planning)
Land use zoning and future population/density projections

Operational Requirement – Resource Capability & Deployment

INFO STATEMENT: “I need resource information in a structured and searchable database format in order to identify gaps for procurement and skills planning. “

WHY?
Effective Programme delivery depends on knowing what resources we have and where the gaps are.
Examples:

Internal human capital inventory: registered engineers, technicians, artisans
Equipment/plant resource tracking
Budget allocations by discipline or region

Tactical Requirement – Maintenance & Upgrade Planning

Maintenance history records
Component classification (e.g., pavement layers, structural details, support systems)
Geospatial referencing and visual condition assessments

2) What asset information is required to support the needs listed in Question 1?

INFO STATEMENT: “I need maintenance history in a structured and standardised format to establish the condition of assets and optimise lifecycle management planning.”

Maintenance History

We require a complete maintenance log for each asset to determine its current condition and remaining useful life. This enables lifecycle planning, prioritised funding, and predictive maintenance models.

As Built “Building Block” Verification

INFO STATEMENT: “I need information about building blocks to confirm whether infrastructure assets were built according to the specification. “

WHY?
To ensure assets were built according to specification, we need traceable digital records of the construction phase.
Examples:

Pavement layer properties (thickness, compaction data, material type)
Installation records for mechanical/electrical infrastructure
QA/QC results, photos, and certificates from construction

3) Describe BIM maturity using the Baby–Mama–Papa model

BABY (Bare Minimum, Starting Point))

Use of cloud-based storage platforms (e.g., Office365, OneDrive) as a Common Data Environment (CDE)
Consistent file naming conventions
Storage of project specifications and 2D CAD drawings within the CDE

MAMA (Happy Medium)

3D models used for design coordination

Manual update of models; no automation or link to project execution workflows

PAPA (Ultimate BIM State)

Integrated Digital Twins with Augmented Reality
Real-time updates linking physical site activities to digital records
Full automation of data capture and analysis across the asset lifecycle

Better Information Management for Waterfall City

Our group was mixed and included solution providers, architects, investors and engineers. The task was not straight forward as the context and exercise were new to most of us.

We had a robust discussion though and ended with some useful learning and output, in our opinion.

A key sticking point was what data points we needed to measure the information requirement at hand, for the chosen business outcome. The issue is often choosing to work with too much information for the need at hand.

The overall task was to consider three information requirements in the context of data management, collection, and reporting – we did one exercise fully, and a second more briefly.

Number One

Top information requirement of the organisation:

I need carbon footprint information in a format fit for reporting in order to meet requirements/goals.

What asset information would support this requirement?

I need information about a building in order to report on the buildings carbon footprint/emissions

Types of data that would be relevant (we discussed a wide range but thought for a BIM on information related to the operation of a building is to be relevant, however perhaps the scope of a BIM is larger than this?):

Consumption data including water, electricity and waste management including recycling & disposables
Locational/geographical data – influences of the building’s location such as direction and impact on natural light, and average climate (hot/cold, what proportion of the year and impact on heating/cooling, rainfall) [non-building related, perhaps not relevant]
Suppliers – how far are supplies transported and what transport is used, what is the carbon footprint of each product (non-building related, perhaps not relevant)
Generator – diesel consumption and power output
Solar panels – power input versus output
Employees travel dynamics & footprint - again not directly building-related, and not part of a BIM we decided
Lighting – natural versus artificial - drilling down into power using equipment. This could be expanded to outlets and appliances and other equipment like lifts, should be fairly simply with measurements taken on power points for each
HVAC a big one related to previous point
Grey water – linked to water consumption and what is offset by water recycling in quest for net zero ideal

Each of the above has one or numerous data points which a good BIM with relevant smart building tech could map, identify, control and measure. We focused on one for section 3 - water

Describe the BIM in terms of:

Baby Bear BIM (Bare Minimum, Starting Point)

The data point chosen is water that needs to be measured for use in carbon footprint/ESG format for reporting, which itself is made up of various data points

Basic sources are a municipal bill or reading the main meter
Manual capturing with excel
Manual reporting with excel
All analog basically, and not really BIM?

Mama Bear BIM (Happy Medium)

Smart water metres with more limited and less specific measurement of water usage. For example, only total usage or usage for parts/floors of a building
This would be integrated with an off the shelf database like Power BI or built in Excel
Updates largely manual, but perhaps smart meters product excel data extractions for upload to database tool

Papa Bear BIM (Ultimate BIM State)

This would include a fully loaded smart building interconnected with a full BIM of the building, showing an example of the BIM carrying through from design & construction to operation
Sensors, live measurement & recording of water usage but also data like water pressure and temperature
Measure, monitor & control part of this (‘auto pilot’ possible)
The database is automatically generated and updated, and live reporting of various formats is possible
Integrated with LLM for customized insights and ease of use. There will be a dropdown of common reporting needs, but specifics can be requested from the system via LLM. Prompts can also edit and control.

Better Information Management for Owners and Managers of Commercial Assets

1) Top 3 Information Requirements for Our Organizations

To effectively manage our commercial assets, we need information in the following format to serve our business purposes:

Information around the Performance of Assets: Information on asset performance is crucial for optimising and refining processes over time. These could include vacancy statistics and statistics on the average use of water and electricity.
Integrity of Assets: Reports on the status of the property and its mechanisms. An example of this could be live report on the temperature in a room or the flow rate of a fire pump at a given time. These are essential for maintenance and replacement to ultimately ensure the predictability of performance.
Additional Asset Information: These are other pieces of information that are crucial for the operations of a property, a good example would be things like compliance details, construction and design drawings, and operational manuals of systems that are being used in the building. This ensures that there is always a clear understanding of the operational plan and regulatory framework for the property.

2) Supporting Asset Information

To meet the above requirements, we need the following asset information:

As-built drawings
Warranties and guarantees
Handover documents and operational manuals
Asset register

3) BIM Implementation Levels

We can describe Better Information Management (“BIM”) implementation in three levels:

Baby (Bare Minimum):

Standardise the packaging of information from tendering processes, consultants, and internal teams.
Maximise the use of existing software like PDFs, Excel, and SharePoint as efficiently as possible.

Mama (Happy Medium):

Adopt a blended approach for reporting. Immediate needs should be addressed promptly by having sensors that would collect and package live data constantly. Other information can be scheduled for reporting periods or on an ad-hoc basis.
Ensure complete building information is packaged and made available by maximising the most feasible and necessary technology systems to achieve targeted returns and goals for the operational team.

Papa (Ultimate BIM State):

Implement digital twinning with live data updates and storage.
Utilise AI-enhanced technology for intuitive reporting from an asset management perspective. This would be like having an AI chatbot that you could ask complex questions about your system, and having it give precise information by cross referencing all the information it gathers from sensors and devices feeding it information in various formats.
Analyse live data and program systems to automatically correct or maintain conditions according to desired outcomes, perhaps even predicting the best course of action for the long run and picking up future potential pitfalls as circumstances develop.

Conclusion

The implementation of “BIM” should not involve recklessly adopting complicated or bulky technology/software that will be difficult for people to use. Instead, it should focus on ensuring that high-quality data is captured to then feed the production, whether it is digitised of manual. When adding technology, it is essential to keep things as simple and precise as possible.

Information Requirements for Policy Regulation: CIDB, Academia, ASAQS, National Government (DPME, and DPWI)

Scenario 1 (ASAQS)

Question 1

Info – Training Needs – Correct Audience

Format – Stats Info – number of Quantity Surveyors

Business Purpose – Increase Membership

Question 2

Asset – Associate with experts in the field to provide quality training

Outcome – professional quality of training you offer and knowledge transfer

Question 3 – BIM

Baby – in order to teach Quantity Surveyors – Minimum Data Requirements in BIM Competence through a Webinar

Mama – Bespoke customised training