Critical BIM qualification criteria for construction pre-qualification and selection

Despite emerging research on Building Information Modelling (BIM) capability, there remain no studies that specifically look at criteria for the pre-qualification and selection of construction supply chain (CSC) firms for BIM projects. As a consequence, there is insufficient theoretical insight and empirical justification for critical BIM qualification criteria for the CSC context. In order to bridge this knowledge gap, a study was conducted to ascertain the most critical BIM capability attributes, as well as relevance to the pre-qualification and selection of suitable CSC firms for BIM-enabled projects. The relative importance of these criteria was determined based on their perceived influence on overall BIM delivery success on recent BIM-enabled projects. A sequential exploratory mixed methodological research design was adopted involving semi-structured interviews (n = 8) and a Delphi survey (n = 25) of experts, as well as a survey of CSC firms (n = 64) on BIM-enabled projects. The findings reinforce the criticality of past BIM experience in delivery success. Furthermore, it revealed that while technological infrastructure-related capacities (such as software and hardware availability) are perceived as very important qualification criteria, their actual contribution to delivery success is not as high in comparison to criteria related to previous BIM experience. This study provides insights on prioritising BIM capability criteria based on evidence on their contribution to delivery success in practice rather than their perceived importance as capability metrics.