BIM Handover Explained: What’s involved and what comes next?

At AdaptiveBIM, we provide full lifecycle support to ensure success from concept through to handover. With this approach we are aiming to not only make the process easier for you, but to provide a valuable (and usable) digital asset that will enhance operational needs.

Planning for Handover

The key things to consider when planning a BIM handover are to define your objectives, identify your key stakeholders and establish a timeline.

It really boils down to some simple questions:

1. Purpose? – What data do you need to run your built project effectively? What are  your requirements for maintenance? What commitments do you have to reduce energy requirements and costs? Think beyond EIRs, and focus on collaboration.

• Who? – Who will be using the data? Think of your colleagues, stakeholders and external stakeholders.
• Detail? – What level of granularity do you require? You don’t want to be drowning in useless data !
• Format? – What data format does your building management system(s) require? Perhaps you can’t know right now, so a neutral schema like COBie is more appropriate? 

Remember, the objectives themselves should align with the overall goals of the project.

Now who is going to be using the data?

Identify the key stakeholders that are going to be involved in the handover process and define their roles and responsibilities. Think of your project managers, contractors, architects, and facility managers. What information do they need to provide/receive? Do you have a team to run your Facilities Management? Are they experienced in dealing with data requirements?  What support do they need? Make sure all the parties are collaborating and talking, as early in the design stages as possible to ensure expectations are aligned.

Finally let’s talk about establishing a realistic timeline.

This deliverable is complex and knotty and specific. It won’t be right first time, it will need all parties to meet and review and update their submissions.  It’s important to go into this stage with the expectation that the whole process won’t happen quickly! 

Having defined a roadmap as a starting point for setting handover milestones, we incorporate deadlines for data collection, verification and transfer to ensure a smooth transition.

We provide training and support sessions to ensure that everyone is working from the same page.

The quality and detail of the data is important, we don’t want to be handing over unusable information, so it’s important to ensure the accuracy through verification. The data is gathered from sources like design models, reports, records and manuals and then fed into BIM software (like Autodesk Revit) to ensure reliability and accuracy.

we’re carrying out quality checks, we’re looking to make sure that the handover data meets the required standards. It is essentially a review of the data and the key checks to carry out are:

• Validate data against project specifications
• Identify and resolve clashes within the model
• Coordinate and check model consistency
• Review operational and maintenance documentation

Executing Handover

This stage now becomes very smooth and simple, because we set the right ground work, and executed the data collection correctly, your data will seamlessly populate your building management systems saving weeks of work.

Transferring the data sounds simple but requires experience and knowledge to execute it:

• Exporting data from BIM software in a compatible format (such as COBie)
• Importing the data into the facilities management system
• Confirming the accuracy of the data transfer
• Providing training to key team members.

Our training sessions aim to help you effectively use the handover data. We want you to be familiar with the system, and understand the BIM processes, tools and documentation required for success, so by the time it comes to handing over the reins, you will be armed with the confidence and knowledge to manage BIM going forward.

So that was your whistle stop tour of what’s involved in a handover, what happens next?

Built projects are not static, they are dynamic and constantly evolving.  Keeping your legacy BIMs aligned to your built reality is a valuable investment which will continue to pay you back.

Adaptive provide an ongoing BIM update service for you, where your BIMs are managed, constantly updated and ready in the cloud when you need them.

Why partner with AdaptiveBIM?

We take a proactive role at AdaptiveBIM, focussing on quality and client satisfaction. Collaboration is in our DNA and simply fulfilling minimum requirements is not the way we operate. We understand that an effective handover is essential to an assets operational phase, and work with you to deliver lifecycle value.

If you’re preparing to launch a new project, don’t leave BIM setup to chance. Our BIM Project Setup & Support service provides the expertise, documentation, and guidance to ensure success from the very beginning.

Contact us today to discuss your BIM project setup and support needs. Let’s help you reduce risk, improve collaboration, and deliver projects to the highest digital standards.