A Smart Decision Making Framework for Building Information Models

Report, 2009

This report describes a systematic approach to evaluate the performance of virtual build-ing designs and processes. The reference for the evaluation is a set of goals critical for the project success. Within the Smart Decision Making Framework (DMF) these goals are captured from the main stakeholders using the concept of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPI evaluations are relative by nature since they base on the deviation of actually measured figures to initially set optimum figures for specific criteria. They can be formulated for objective as well as for subjective criteria. Smart DMF further proposes to dis-cretely define the relation between the tolerance level for deviations and a respective dimensionless rating, using so called utility functions. To incorporate tolerances is neces-sary since project goals are in praxis often conflictive in their effects on each other, therefore it is generally seldom possible to achieve all goals to 100% at the same time. Since design processes are always characterized by such trade-offs, these have to be reflected by the concept. The following steps summarize the Smart DMF process:  Assessment of the critical design values  Transformation of the critical values into KPIs using utility functions to describe the relation of model-based measurements and performance ratings  Definition of priorities using a pair wise comparison algorithm from the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)  Generation of virtual design alternatives or options plus required analysis data  Capturing the measurements from the virtual models to calculate the KPI figures and calculating the KPI specific performance  Linear calculation of the total ratings for each alternative  Visual representation of the evaluation results