OPTIMIZING COMMUNICATION FLOWS USING A STANDARD BIM ORIENTED RACI MATRIX

Abstract

The AEC industry has witnessed a growth in complexity during design and construction phase driven by clients’ increasing expectations related to technology applications (i.e., BIM), quality delivered, time to execution and cost effectiveness. Hence, leveraging on productivity improvement techniques and organizational behavior models is becoming crucial to more efficiently co-ordinate heterogeneous stakeholders and designers. Previous research has recognized the importance of structured management solutions such as the RACI matrix (a particular type of RAM) as an enabler for efficient communication flows and prompt assignment of roles and responsibilities. However, rarely has been outlined the importance of having a standard RACI framework to be then integrated with specific add-ons in line with the characteristics of the project in scope. These include a Common Data Environment within BIM for data collection enabling a cross information approach between different design disciplines and stakeholders’ information requirements. The paper therefore proposes a method to integrate the above-mentioned RACI standard framework for project management with project-specific add-ons and illustrates the main advantages obtained. These were empirically obtained through ad hoc AEC industry surveys and validated by qualitative impact analyses on renovation projects chosen for their high degree of complexity. Results suggest that the application of the above-mentioned standard framework drives more efficient communication flows and effectively assigns roles and responsibilities, ultimately improving time to execution and cost effectiveness.