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Many governments and large clients now require BIM on their projects, and many firms want to know how far along they are. Mandates and maturity models both help, as long as you treat them as tools for planning, not as labels to claim.
A mandate is a requirement by a government or client to use BIM on its projects. It is put into practice through the client's own information requirements on each project. A maturity model is a structured self-assessment of how well a firm (or project) does BIM, across areas such as people, process, technology and information, usually on a scale of levels.
A firm writes "BIM level 2 compliant" in every tender after buying new software. On its first ISO 19650 project, the client's information manager rejects the first delivery: wrong naming, no status codes, no BEP that matches the client's requirements. The firm spends weeks catching up.
Before bidding, the BIM manager reads the client's information requirements and runs a quick maturity check against them. The gaps are process: naming, a BEP template and a checking routine. They write those, try them on a smaller project, and bid with a BEP that answers the client's requirements point by point.
A simple maturity check
| Area | Ask | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| People | Who can do what? Who leads? | Roles, skills matrix |
| Process | Are there templates, naming rules, checks? | BEP template, standards, checklists |
| Technology | Do tools and IT support the work? | Software, hardware, CDE |
| Information | Is what we deliver structured and checked? | Recent deliveries, client feedback |
A firm's quick check: People 3/5, Process 1/5, Technology 4/5, Information 2/5. A public client's ISO 19650 project is coming up in four months.
Where to start?
Quick check: People 3/5, Process 1/5, Technology 4/5, Information 2/5. A public ISO 19650 project starts in four months. What comes first?
Key takeaways
- A mandate is what a client or government requires; read the actual requirement, not the headline.
- A maturity assessment is useful for finding the next step, not for scoring the firm.
- Assess a few areas honestly: people, process, technology, information.
- Plan one level of improvement at a time, starting where projects hurt most.