Collaborative data management

The design, construction and operation of buildings is a collaborative process involving numerous project participants who exchange information on an ongoing basis. Many of their working and communication processes can be significantly improved by using a uniformly structured building information model. A centralized approach to the administration ofmodel information simplifies coordination between project participants and their communications and makes it possible to monitor the integrity of the information as well as to obtain an overview of project progress at any time. Depending on which model information from which project phases and/or sections need to be worked on by which partners, different forms and means of cooperation can be employed. This chapter presents different methodical approaches, practical techniques and available software systems for cooperative data administration. It discusses the different information resources and possible forms of cooperation for model-based collaboration and explains the underlying technical concepts, such as concurrency checking and versioning along with rights and permissions management. Several different software systems available for cooperative data administration are also presented. The chapter concludes with a brief look at future developments and the challenges still to be faced.