To understand the context and relevance of this post, please see the previous post What is BIM.

We left this post concluding that a BIM model is: a digital database, expected to change and can be constantly upgraded.

Agile is a perspective on project management that can assist executing this vision.

Agilealliance.org begin their description of agile by stating that:

Agile is the ability to create and respond to change

Agile Alliance

Seems like something that could help with producing a BIM model as it constantly changes through design, coordination, construction and building management.

It is worth a quick aside here to clarify that Agile is essentially a philosophy or a set of principals that were developed to guide a person-orientated approach that addresses the constantly changing nature of software development. The actual frameworks and tools are things such as Scrum, Kanban, etc. On this website, we will use the term Agile to refer to the values of an approach and typically use Scrum when discussing practical application.

The starting point for all of this is the Agile Manifesto:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

Copyright Agile Manifest Authors.

I keep talking about change because it is the one part that the built environment industry handles the worst and it is the very thing Agile is designed to solve.

Consider the 4th point: responding to change over following a plan.

The mentality of architects is that a building is designed at the start, from a concept that responds to the site. This concept, once finalized and approved by the client, is held in highest esteem. It never changes and will be referred to again and again over the length of a project.

From the moment this concept is created, work begins to incrementally move the building closer and closer to being constructed, always in a straight line, always trying to prevent redundant work. Bad ideas are protected simply because they were executed.

While the other items in this manifesto have much to teach anyone, this fourth point is crucial for construction projects.