How to be a BIM Manager
In April of this year I was promoted to BIM Manger, and put in charge of the BIM movement in all 4 of our offices here in Canada. It is pretty exciting and terrifying at the same time, not going to lie. After I got my head around the new position I sat down and took some steps to help lead the company to the BIM future!!!
The first step is to setup some goals, do a 3 month plan and a 12 month plan. These goals will help you focus on what needs to be done, and gives you a time line. For myself it helps me keep going, when I finish one project I know I have a list so I keep the positive energy flowing.
Goal 1: to develop a BIM Curriculum, I read in a blog about the importance of creating training program for your office in order to develop consistence in education. (I’m sorry I don’t remember the author of the blog, if it’s you thanks, and let me know so I can give you credit).I think this is a big piece of helping your office move forward and making your self visible to all staff, which is a big feat with 4 offices across Canada.
Goal 2: of course the biggest headache, is content. Who hasn’t fought with content and making it consistent thru all your offices. Hopefully after much pain and suffering I will have a post dedicated to how I wrangled this issue.
Goal 3:Start a BIM Hour, this came from an Idea I someone at my presentation in Sacramento said. He said his office is across America and they started an IT hour so people could join a conversation and get their IT questions answered. I thought I would take it to BIM, my first BIM Hour saw over 50 people participate. We discussed Formit and it’s Analysis tools, we took the hour and did a short demo, watched a video and answered peoples questions about using Formit and what our offices plan was. I received a lot of great feedback and people looking forward to the next BIM Hour in August.
Goal 4: Startup my BIM User Groups, and BIM education series in all offices. This is something I have been doing in Vancouver for the last 5 years, it has created some knowledgeable users about Revit and how we use BIM in our projects. Now it’s time to get it across the country. The BIM User Group is an office specific training during lunch that staff can join and see some cool uses of Revit. The BIM education series is what my BIM Curriculum is set for.
Goal 5: Keep that office wide training going. We have several advanced modules in Revit to help users get better at the tool. It’s a 4 hour training series that runs thru the quarter.
I will go more indepth in my book “How to be a BIM advocate” coming out in July, until then Keep up the passion.
BIMFreak 