In Standards we trust…

In his famous book Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore describes how innovations make it (or don’t make it) into the mainstream market. Compressed into a two-liner it basically says: Innovators and Early Adopters are keen on trying things out. They are enthusiastic enough to take some risks and challenges. However, the majority of professionals have a different mindset. They want proven trusted, and profitable solutions. Only if this group can be convinced of robustness and profitability will the innovation be accepted as a trustworthy ‘best practice’ in the mainstream market. Of course, this doesn’t happen with a big bang. Once over the ditch, Moore differentiates between the early majority, the late majority, and finally the laggards who probably don’t hit the funnel as soon as possible, but also don’t have a decisive influence on the market acceptance of an innovation.

Who sets the standards owns the market

Standards can bridge the gap between both groups by defining best practices and thus laying the foundation for an innovation that is being adopted by the mainstream market. This may play an important role, especially in new things like BIM and digitalization where benefits are not always so crystal-clear upfront and competitive solutions cannot be so well distinguished. Many businesses have confirmed that standards generate better opportunities for their respective markets. “Who sets the standards owns the market” is a well-known saying that is said to come from Werner von Siemens. This can be understood as a call to market participants to take an active role in the development of standards if they want to have a say in their markets in the future.

The strategic nature of international standardization has been clearly recognized and consistently pursued by some leading economic nations. The United Kingdom, for example, has elevated its BS/PAS 1192 series of standards to ISO standard status to raise international competitiveness of their construction industry, and China is devoting enormous resources to the development of IFC 5 and systematically seeking key positions in international standardization bodies relevant to promising markets.

BIM Coordinators wanted

BIM Coordinators are key enablers. They know what works and what doesn’t. They know where the bottlenecks are and how to overcome them. Standards reflect the best practices of the respective discipline and should be written by practitioners. And who is more familiar with day-today business than BIM Coordinators? The dilemma is that they have enough on their plate to worry about standards. They are so valuable to their organizations that not a second of their precious time should be wasted. In these boom times of the construction industry, hardly anyone has adequate resources to invest into the future of the market.

Some EU countries, however, make it easier for small and midsize companies to participate in standardization by giving financial support as compensation for their efforts. This clearly addresses the important strategic role of standardization on an economical level.

“Common Data Environments (CDE) for BIM projects – Open data exchange between platforms of different vendors via an open CDE API”

Fast-Track Standardization

Standardization work is often thought to be a slow and cumbersome process. But there’s a way out. The PAS procedure is a modern, fast-track way of creating standards. The PAS 1192 series of BIM standards is a good example. The PAS procedure is available in many European countries, though named differently. In Germany, we call it a ‘SPEC’. A PAS can be developed within months, supported by the national standardization body. The DIN SPEC 91391 Common Data Environments (CDE) for BIM Projects, for example, took no more than 2 years. A group of competitors, and advisors, came together to shape what the main functional characteristics of a CDE should be since up to then a CDE was merely a concept, shaped by ISO 19650. The DIN SPEC 91391 accompanied this by defining what a CDE actually is as a product class. The result caught international attention and obviously filled a gap. Part 1 is like a plain-language textbook about practical CDE use. The accompanied function list is frequently used for CDE tenders making practical work easier. Part 2 is about open CDE APIs. The interface concepts presented there have been intentionally kept on a very abstract level. Enough, however, to spark the interest to address the topic on a broader scope. The DIN SPEC 91391 has even become a part of the BSI Kitemark certification for Common Data Environments. At CEN Technical Committee 442 an initiative is now to develop a CEN Standard about an open CDE API (CEN TC 442 WG2 TG4). The example shows how efficient fast-track standards development can be.

Download the DIN SPEC 91391 free of charge: https://www.beuth.de/en/technicalrule/din-spec-91391-1/302483139.