On CDEs and Communication Part 2: Some best practice

I have recently read more about CDEs and how they supposedly improve communication. Unfortunately, in most of these articles, we see a skewed communication framework only focused on sending.?

A participant in my BIM manager class told me the story of one BIM project he works on as a drywall builder. Almost daily, they receive a model with the expectation to check and implement the changes. Unfortunately, the model quality could have been better. I opened it on my computer (a powerful VR machine at the time), and it took 20 minutes to load in SimpleBIM. Moreover, it was exported without any building storey information, minimal attributes, and very inconsistent data. So it was almost impossible to automate any meaningful data extraction and comparison. This was very time-consuming and frustrating for the construction company.?

I'm a proponent of the transactional communication model. That means receiving and meta-communication verifying that the sender and receiver understood the same is equally important to sending, if not even more. Something no CDE can do. This means:

• just pressing the send button and sending the email is not useful communication.
• just uploading something on the CDE and expecting the other person gets it is not useful communication.
• the same is true for uploading and sending an automatic notification is not useful communication.?

All these mentioned examples are a one-way data transmission, and Paul Watzlawik coined the phrase:

"you cannot not communicate."?

And what you communicate with only sending is that you don't care about the other person, the other trade and that everybody is alone in the project, just looking for your own interest and only looking for saving their ass in case of litigation. But usually, project success is a team effort...?

Best Practice

Over the years, I collected a few tips and tricks for the best use of CDEs.

Somebody needs to be responsible for the CDE. Ultimately this is the project manager, but it can be delegated. This person needs to ensure that.?

1. The right party pays for the CDE. I think it should be under the client's control. In case one of the companies goes bankrupt.?
2. The CDE is set up correctly.?
3. People know how to use the CDE.
4. Periodic training and onboarding are organized.?
5. The CDE structure is fit for the changing project needs. E. G. The Access rights need to be different once contractors access information.?
6. The data quality is good. E.g., Do people use the versioning system or are there files with dates and it's difficult to find the latest version?
7. Communicate! When uploading a new file or version, inform about the upload and communicate directly what changed and your expectations. E.g., We changed the room layout on the second floor. Please check if the HVAC concept still works. When set up, use the bcf workflows instead of an email. Often it does not hurt to call and communicate nuances. This improves the likeliness that the work flows.?
8. Make information tangible. When uploading models, don't expect people to know how to assemble the models for their needs. Create views that highlight different aspects you want to communicate. In former times you created plans for specific topics. Now, all the information can be in a model, but you have to make it easily accessible. E.g., When communicating with the client, set up model views that show the parts to be demolished and what's new. In Trimble connect, you can set up views for that, in other tools, you can use a bcf or similar concepts. Recently I got in contact with Robert Snyder . He created the concept of TGN, a bcf on steroids intended to exchange these filtered views on the model. I think this is especially interesting, because it often makes more sense to internally work in all the companies projects with the same CDE and only synchronize information to the client's CDE. The TGN could be a solution to not having to do work more than once. Learn more about it in this video.?

As long as we need to understand in our industry that hearing/receiving is more important than sending, we will fail. Moreover, than looking at conflicts between people, it often turns out the conflict did not happen because they don't like each other but because of skewed processes and skewed communication. So by enabling better communication, we reduce the risk of conflicts, therefore, even the chances for litigation. But we can't reduce any risk to zero. Therefore we need to do both. We need to document that information was sent/uploaded and we need to ensure that the sent information is understood. It's our choice to find the right tone and have an impact with our communication.

How do you ensure proper communication in projects??