Investigation on Comparative Roles of Major Stakeholders for BIM Implementation in a Traditional Construction Project Environment

The revolutionary effect of Building Information Modelling (BIM) towards the conventional Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry has been appraised by many specialists as a constructive force to change AEC's conformist technologies and management principles. Even though BIM has been appraised as an integrator of technology and construction project management, it also has been misguidedly identified in the eyes of many professionals to consider BIM as a ‘3D model' which is in genuinely, a ‘process' to achieve an exceptional alliance in between each construction project stakeholder. However, the complexities in a traditional construction supply chain have far more accelerated with the intervention of BIM where project stakeholders are at an edge of ambiguity to ascertain their supply chain roles and duties in a BIM environment. Therefore, this paper aims to study on roles and duties of BIM project stakeholders concerning the construction supply chain as in BIM Standards and how those standard roles have been embraced in real-life setups. To achieve the aim, comprehensive literature was conducted which is largely based on BIM standards to identify the theoretically established roles and duties of BIM project stakeholders. However, the theoretical aspects may not be the same in real-life scenarios where the project stakeholders may have to alter themselves following the BIM project context. Therefore, BIM expert interviews were directed to extract the opinions of professionals who are virtually involved in the BIM environment to identify how the theoretical aspects had differed. Consequently, this paper acknowledged unsung stakeholders in a theoretical context that are inevitable to consider in actual implementation. Moreover, the experiences of respondents brought up the added duties and responsibilities of stakeholders than identified in BIM standards. Finally, the collected data were illustrated through the cognitive mapping technique which would help the traditional construction project stakeholders to identify and adopt their extended or modified roles to achieve a successful BIM implementation.