Over the last decade, the use of BIM methodology, both in terms of technology and process,
has experienced a rapid growth in the construction industry, there is a worldwide increase
trend on the use and investment in this new technologies. Although, the benefits associated
with the use of BIM in the construction industry, the literature has been demonstrated that
BIM as a digital collaborative environment between construction stakeholders is here to stay.
However, some aspects of the technology are still unfamiliar within the industry, several
problems associated with BIM application and adaptation has been surfaced. Unsurprisingly
when new technologies are used, such of these problems will appear, this is because BIM
approaches represent new concepts and untested in construction industry. Therefore the
challenge to overcome problems facing a using BIM, and identify the key risk factors
becomes tangible more than any time before.
From this perspective, the aim of this study is to identify the emerging risk that influence
BIM use in the projects, investigate these risks based on the perception of academics and
professionals from the Western world. In this research was to identify 128 of the risk factors
based on a review of previous literature, these factors have been categorized into five key
clusters (contractual, legal, technical, managerial, application and security). The study
employs an online survey, which was sent to 426 respondents. The respondents were drawn
from websites and professional networks. The statistical techniques of descriptive statistics,
reliability analysis, ANOVA analysis, and analysis of variance were used for data analysis.
The analysis findings show that four contractual risks were assessed to be important: LC2
"Trades on site may not be working from the model", LC1"Unclear how to deal with BIM
documents’ precedence", and LC5 “Misplaced assumptions that the design team, with a
“push of a button” is able to produce a perfectly coordinated series of documents through
BIM”. In the legal risk cluster, the respondents agreed on the importance of L.IPR1 "Lack of
clarity of the ownership of the BIM objects"; LD4 "Lack of knowledge of the missing data"
and likewise, LP1 “Modelling participant does not meet the standard of care required” risk
factors. The research findings also indicate that four technical risks will have an influence on
BIM usage: TC1 “Complexity of transferring modelling data between programs from one
program to another", TI2 "Lack of understanding of BIM for the different software
platforms", TI3 "Interoperability shortcomings", TQ9 "Failure to discover errors in the
model", and TI1 "Risks of different software platforms”. The results appear to show that the
respondents thought ten managerial risk factors are of relevance: MX5 "Lack of understanding of the expectations from BIM modelling"; MX4 "Lack of experience and
skilled personnel”; MC4 "Lack of clarity on integration BIM with the current business
practice"; MS1 "Conflict due to dissimilar expectations from BIM"; MS4 "Lack of
collaborative work processes and standards"; MX7 "Lack of understanding of BIM
processes"; MX6 "Lack of understanding of modelling behaviors"; MX8 "Lack of expertise
within the project team"; MX9 "Lack of expertise within the organizations"; and MS3 "Lack
of criteria for BIM project implementation". Only three application risks were deemed
important: PS6 "Implications of amendments are unclear or not defined"; PT10 "Lack of
updating the designed model to incorporate the BIM changes made during construction"; and
PT11 "Model not updated along with progress reviews" risk factors. The results showed that
the respondents strongly agreed that eight out of ten BIM security risks are relevant in BIM
application and are very likely to emerge: S9 "Disclosure of confidential information that
need to integrate with BIM programs"; S6 "Lack of understanding or ignoring security
policies"; S3 "Disclosure of BIM data"; S10 "Unauthorised access and remote access"; S5
"Weakness in technical controls"; S4 "Weakness in security procedures"; S8 "Corporate
surveillance"; and S7 "Opening non-trusted e-mail" risk factors. The ANOVA analysis results
revealed a variety of interrelationships between the identified risks based on respondents’
profiles, affect in adapting with application and the use of BIM, this requires to be considered
by BIM stakeholders, and developing an international standard for BIM risk management,
finding optimal solutions for such these identified factors, in addition to further studies and
researches in this field.
This thesis investigates the emerging risks from BIM application and delivers an original
contribution to knowledge in the form of identifying and classifying BIM application risks,
which will enhance the level of stakeholder awareness and avoid any risks associated with
usage of BIM in the future projects and assist in the maturity of BIM usage