Khawaja, E U R and Mustapha, A (2021) Mitigating disputes and managing legal issues in the era of building information modelling. Journal of Construction in Developing Countries, 26(1), pp. 111-130. ISSN 1823-6499
Abstract
Construction disputes are inevitable. They often arise between project stakeholders for numerous reasons and to resolve them, construction professionals adopt various dispute resolution methodologies. This study aims to identify the role of building information modelling (BIM) in mitigating such disputes and addresses the legal barriers faced by the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry while adopting BIM. The study reveals that disputes can be mitigated and managed efficiently with the intervention of BIM, as BIM offers various designing, planning, estimating, collaborating and controlling features. The benefits of BIM are impressive and exceptional; however, it comes with some legal issues that are first clarified and addressed with the support of a literature review and later validated through interviews with industry professionals. Dispute resolution, contractual arrangements, design responsibility, intellectual property (IP) rights and a lack of standardisation are identified as substantial concerns when adopting BIM. Thus, a strategy is proposed to manage these legal issues that entail the adoption of the appropriate contract suite, the formation of a common data environment (CDE) and the establishment of a firm BIM execution plan (BEP). Workshops, training sessions and seminars are also recommended to educate the industry with BIM features as it brings about the second revolution in the AEC industry.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | disputes; building information modelling; legal issues; contract arrangements; execution plan; interviews |
| Index terms: | estimating, methodology, project stakeholder, intellectual property, common data environment, strategy, literature review, interview, resolution, construction dispute, construction professional, standardization, execution plan, dispute, contract arrangement, building information modelling, legal issue, workshop |
| Subjects: | performance measurement, management, research methods, professional development, project controls, conflict resolution, sociology, information systems, construction type, data collection methods, intellectual property, computing systems, dispute resolution, legal systems, data analysis and analytics, contractual arrangements, financial and cost management |
| Topics: | Information Management, Research Practice, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Procurement, Construction Technology, Stakeholder Management, Quality Management, Digital Applications, Legal Issues, Time Control |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here