BIM issue tracking: what it is and how to manage it practically

How to improve the tracking of coordination issues in a BIM process: here’s how to do it thanks to BIM issue tracking

In a BIM construction, maintenance or management process, coordination between the many figures involved (designers, contractors, project managers, clients, BIM managers, BIM coordinators, VDC managers, VDC coordinators, etc.) is essential. Keeping track of any problems, interferences and inconsistencies that may occur at all stages of the process is equally important.

There are advanced online systems, such as BIM issues tracking platforms, specifically designed to facilitate teamwork and to solve communication and coordination problems between the various professionals in the construction sector.

Let’s see in detail how to improve BIM issue tracking and how to manage it practically to increase the quality of your work.

BIM issue tracking | Schematic representation of the Kanban board

BIM issue tracking: how to improve BIM coordination

To make sure that all the activities related to your construction projects take place without incident, you need to use a system that supports issue tracking. These issues can commonly occur during the design, construction, maintenance or management of a work in a BIM process.

To improve BIM issue tracking, it is essential to use a BIM issues tracking platform to:

monitor the progress of the construction process in real-time;
identify activities that are late on the roadmap, potential inefficiencies and slowdowns in the team work;
evaluate any changes and make decisions that improve the workflow and avoid delays.

There are many cases in which a BIM issues tracking platform can improve your work and prevent errors and unforeseen events from compromising the result and quality of your project.

I’ll give you a practical example of the construction activities and, specifically, let’s see how the construction manager uses usBIM.resolver to manage the excavation work.

A practical case

usBIM.resolver is the BIM issues tracking platform used to plan, schedule and monitor construction projects directly in the cloud. With specific functions, it supports managers in assigning tasks, monitoring progress and budget compliance to improve project efficiency.

Let’s imagine that the construction manager, during an inspection on site, notices the lack of the protective fence on the excavation. In order not to slow down the work, but to ensure that all the activities are carried out safely, they have to create new tasks involving all the figures concerned through an alert.

First, they can take a panoramic image with the smartphone, to have a more complete view of the context in which the excavation is located and highlight the area in which the fence should be inserted, drawing directly on the photo thanks to the features of usBIM.resolver.

Secondly, construction managers create a topic and insert the information regarding the topic to be examined; this will be responsible for several tasks to report the dangerous situation to the site manager, and the entire team involved in that specific operation.

I remind you that the task represents the single activity that a person has to carry out, while the “topic” is the collection of different activities (tasks) that belong to the same general topic.

Therefore, the DL creates the task, assigns to each operator the tasks to be carried out and also specifies the times and ways to comply with each task. To explain the problem and to discuss what to do, you can use the topic chat and the task chat integrated in usBIM.resolver. Messages sent in the chat for each task will not be visible to those who do not have the permission to view that task.

BIM issue tracking | issue identification and reporting

In the chat it is possible to enter all the information necessary for the correct performance of the single activities and attach images of the construction site, along with all the documentation that is considered necessary to address the problem detected.

For example, the construction safety manager, after consulting the sources, links a series of documents that allow to choose the most suitable fence for the case, with technical data sheets and graphics. The choice can be made easily thanks to the simplicity with which you can deal with all the professionals and operators involved.

The task manager can view task changes and monitor progress wherever they are. In fact, to use usBIM.resolver, the construction management software, you simply need an internet connection and a browser. This allows you not to be bound to a physical place and to immediately manage any type of issue or task.

Having chosen the type of fence that meets the different needs, both from the economic and safety point of view, the task can be considered completed and it is possible to proceed with the installation of the fences. Finally, when all the tasks are completed, the Topic can also be closed.

In this way, all tasks are tracked, correctly assigned to those who must perform them and the roles, responsibilities and deadlines identified for each individual activity are also precisely defined.

This process can be extended to all types of activities (design, construction and management\maintenance of an existing asset) and usBIM.resolver is undoubtedly an extraordinary support tool for all professionals in the sector:

architects and engineers, for coordination and collaboration issues in the design teams;
construction site managers, for problems on the construction site;
construction teams, for the coordination of activities on site;
facility managers, for management and maintenance issues;
BIM managers and BIM coordinators, for BIM design issues.

Whatis BIM issue tracking

BIM issue tracking means, precisely, keeping track of issues and routine activities in a BIM process.

With usBIM.resolver, you have simple grid system (the classic kanban board)to track the progress of activities, assign and manage them and control all project activities directly in the cloud.

Tracking the activity performed by task participants

Construction projects can be very complex. They can involve different professionals and work teams, each with their own area of expertise. Keeping track of everything that happens can be very complicated.

With usBIM.resolver each professional working on the project has a clear vision of the issues to be addressed, the deadlines and the managers of each activity.

Everyone can follow the progress of solving the problem in order to better align their work and avoid delays.

Everyone manages to have full control of the project and ensure it runs smoothly, avoiding costly delays and errors.

This method creates workflows based on topic discovery and task assignment, and updates the progress of the task.

You also customize your tabs with colors, tags, priorities, due dates that allow you to get a visual overview of all the planned activities with their managers.

BIM issue tracking | usBIM.resolver chat schematic representation

Use the “draft”, “to-do”, “in progress”, “completed” and “closed” filters and define your workflow

When assigning tasks to each professional involved in the process, a workflow is automatically defined in which everyone is fully aware of their responsibilities.

This is made very simple thanks to the management of activity statuses that allows you to choose between “draft“, “to do“, “in progress“, “completed” and “closed“.

Each user can use a “kanban board” consisting of columns, each of which represents a different phase of the workflow (“to do”, “in progress”, “done”, etc.). Tasks save updates, also regarding the progress of the project thanks to a simple drag&drop of the tasks themselves from one phase to the next until completion.

Check the progress of issue resolution

usBIM.resolver offers powerful tools to make coordination and collaboration between teams easier and more intuitive and to optimize the entire problem tracking process.

Checking the progress of issue resolution is really easy.

In fact, thanks to the integration with usBIM, you can view BIM models or projects in different formats (IFC, BCF, RVT, SKP, EDF, DWG, PDF, etc.) directly from the online viewer, identify issues and immediately create tasks for solving problems, integrations and variations.

Once the issue is identified and the task created, team members just need a click to be directed directly to the location of the problem.

You can attach documents, comments, photos, etc. to the issue. In this way, all users involved in its resolution can easily access not only the model but also the information associated with it. All this from any device connected to the internet and from anywhere.

In this way, usBIM.resolver becomes a real hub where all the stakeholders involved can easily collaborate and trace the critical issues of the project until their closure.

Finally, I recommend a BIM issues tracking platform to learn more about BIM issue tracking.