What Is BIM?

Information only — not legal advice.

Building information modelling (BIM) is a way of creating and managing information about a built asset so that people can make better-informed decisions throughout its life. A three-dimensional model can be part of that information, alongside drawings, specifications, schedules, calculations and operational records.

The useful question is not simply whether a project has a model. It is whether the right people receive dependable information for the task they need to perform.

Follow one object through the project

Consider an air-handling unit in a fictional building project. During design, the team needs its location, capacity and space requirements. During coordination, it needs to understand connections and maintenance access. Procurement needs an agreed specification. At handover, the operator needs the installed unit's identifier, serial number, commissioning evidence and maintenance instructions.

Those needs change over time. A detailed visual model that lacks the final equipment identifier may be less useful to the operator than a modest model linked to reliable asset records.

This example also shows why BIM is a team process. Designers, suppliers, installers and operators contribute different information and have different responsibilities for confirming it.

Four parts of a useful BIM workflow

1. Purpose: define the decision or activity that the information will support.
2. Requirements: specify what must be delivered, by whom, when and in what form.
3. Production and exchange: create, check and share information through an agreed process.
4. Acceptance and use: verify that the receiving team can use the delivery for its intended purpose.

A BIM Execution Plan explains how the delivery team will organise that work. A common data environment supports controlled exchange and the information's status and history.

What BIM can help you test

Depending on the agreed scope and data quality, BIM can support coordination, quantity extraction, sequencing, design analysis and asset handover. Each use has limits. A quantity extracted from a model is not automatically a complete cost estimate; a clash-free model is not proof of a buildable or compliant design.

Decide the check that matters. For coordination, can the team identify and resolve relevant conflicts before the issue date? For handover, can a maintainer locate a real asset and retrieve its accepted information?

What the industry evidence tells us

NBS's 2025 Digital Construction Report surveyed 559 design and construction professionals. Its published BIM findings report adoption at around seven in ten and a growing understanding of BIM as collaborative information management. This is evidence from that survey population, not a measurement of Romanian adoption or a guaranteed benefit on every project.

The ISO 19650-1 overview provides the information-management context across the asset lifecycle. A project's contractual requirements and applicable law still determine its actual obligations.

A sensible first project

Choose one useful exchange, such as a coordinated plant-room package or an asset handover pilot. Define the receiving user's needs, test the exchange early and record defects and effort. Expand after the team can demonstrate that the information is usable. More model detail should follow a real need, rather than becoming the success measure by itself.

Important information

This article provides general information and does not constitute legal advice or replace a qualified professional's assessment of your circumstances. Laws, official guidance, standards and product features can change. Check current primary sources and the requirements applicable to your jurisdiction, contract and project before making decisions. Examples illustrate the discussion; they are not official rulings or instructions for a particular case. For legal decisions, consult a qualified lawyer; for technical or other specialist matters, consult the responsible professional.