An integrated approach to BIM competency assessment, acquisition and application

•Introduces an integrated definition for individual BIM competencies•Proposes a workflow to identify, classify, aggregate and use competencies•Introduces a tiered taxonomy for organizing individual competencies•Presents a knowledge engine for competency acquisition, application and assessment•Introduces a seed inventory for competency-based BIM education and accreditation

Professional, organisational and educational institutions have started to adopt BIM software tools and adapt their existing delivery systems to satisfy evolving market requirements. To enable individuals within these organisations to develop their BIM abilities, it is important to identify the BIM competencies that need to be learned, applied on the job, and measured for the purposes of performance improvement. Expanding upon previous research, this paper focuses on individual BIM competencies, the building blocks of organisational capability. The paper first introduces several taxonomies and conceptual models to clarify how individual competencies may be filtered, classified, and aggregated into a seed competency inventory. Competency items are then fed into a specialised knowledge engine to generate flexible assessment tools, learning modules and process workflows. Finally, the paper discusses the many benefits this competency-based approach brings to industry and academia, and explores future conceptual and tool development efforts to enable industry-wide BIM performance assessment and improvement.