The evolving concepts of building information modeling (BIM) can serve as a vehicle for improving
building design, as well as operability, maintenance, and safety. BIM aims to use computable data
to capture and coordinate customer, user, and market requirements and to develop cost-effective design and
technical requirements. Its adoption, therefore, is contingent on the need for well-defined and widely
applicable processes, particularly in the project definition phase, that will improve decision-making,
reduce cost, and enhance stakeholders’ involvement in building projects. The product definition phase of
buildings and building assets determines their quality, cost, and reliability. However, often the definition
phase depicted on drawings (pictorial non-aggregatable data) and in text or verbally is not clear to many
stakeholders, and changes that they may want are difficult to visualize. With BIM, changes, like in a
spreadsheet, can quickly lead to new visual outcomes that can improve and synchronize designers’ and
stakeholders’ understanding of the initiative. BIM should also allow for stakeholders ex-ante (before
design) and ex-post (after design) virtual evaluations of building initiatives prior to implementation.