Why OpenBEP

Vague BIM is useless BIM.

In our experience, many owners moved from CAD to BIM by asking for "the BIM". They don't say what the models are for, which BIM uses they need, what each party must deliver, or when. So every firm models its own way, the models don't work together, and the owner ends up with files nobody uses.

OpenBEP is a free, open toolkit that starts from the uses the owner actually needs and builds the rest from them: the BIM Execution Plan (BEP), the level of development of each element, the parameters each element must carry, and the checks at each milestone.

A BEP is the document that turns the owner's BIM requirements into who models what, to what level, by when, and how it is checked.

The problem in five points

Owners ask for BIM without saying what it is for.
Each owner writes its own definitions, templates and contract clauses.
Progress is counted mostly in number of projects, not in results.
The data rarely reaches the people who run the building after handover.
The official program has not caught up: the college program for architecture technicians dates from 2004 and does not mention BIM.

OpenBEP's answer is further down: start from the uses the owner needs, and build the plan, the requirements and the checks from them.

These are structural gaps, not anyone's bad faith. Much of the evidence below, especially for Quebec, was published by the owners themselves. That candour is what makes improvement possible.

What the evidence shows

In Quebec

The government roadmap (2021–2026) aimed to make BIM a requirement on public infrastructure projects. But each public owner sets its own path: « Chacun établira ainsi sa propre feuille de route » (each one will set its own roadmap).¹
Progress is reported as a count: 182 to 265 projects "in BIM" in one year, presented as a sign that the shift is under way.² What counts as a BIM project is up to each owner. Montréal separates "test projects", where designers or contractors chose to model on their own, from pilot projects that carry the city's BIM requirements. Two of its 19 building projects are pilots with a BEP and dedicated support.² The transport ministry describes its 23 projects as 3D design, the first milestone of its own BIM roadmap, and says it is too early to put a number on the benefits.²
The roadmap's own indicator study says the push rests on « une hypothèse d'amélioration avec peu de données probantes » (an assumed improvement, with little evidence of real results).³ All five owners interviewed enter their performance data at least partly by hand, mostly in Excel.³ The study chose 17 measures in April 2026, after the roadmap ended, and notes there is no reliable historical data to compare against.³
Each owner still writes its own contract definitions for BIM, and the owners' legal working group calls for common ones.⁴ Open BIM is described as « naturellement souhaitable » (naturally desirable), not required.⁵
A shared BEP template for all public owners was started in 2024–2025 and promised for the roadmap's fifth year.² The owners' 2026 requirements template says a BEP template "has been developed and is available" for each owner to adapt.¹⁹ As of October 2026 we could not find it published on the roadmap's public pages.
In one Montréal design-build contract, the BIM pilot was announced while the call for tenders was already published.⁶ The city's contract review commission found the process compliant. The example shows a BIM pilot being announced once the tender was already out.
The ministry's official college program in architectural technology (DEC 221.A0) dates from 2004. None of its competencies mentions BIM, digital models or modelling software.⁷ Some colleges teach Revit anyway, but that is a local choice, not a requirement.
The owners agree on the way forward. The 2025 roadmap update says all stakeholders want to continue and strengthen the work beyond year 5, including « l'adoption de normes communes » (the adoption of common standards).²

In Canada

Canada adopted the international BIM information-management standard as CAN/CGSB/CSA-ISO 19650 in 2024.⁸ The method exists here. The question is whether owners use it.
The federal body that published that adoption, the Canadian General Standards Board, stopped developing standards on April 1, 2026.⁹ The standard carries both CGSB and CSA in its name, but we found no public source saying who maintains it now that the Board has stopped.
In 2020, the federal government's real property service said 8% of its portfolio was digitized and that its "biggest gap is in legacy data and BIM".¹⁰

Elsewhere

United Kingdom: a contractor's digital lead estimated that fewer than 5% of the projects he saw had truly credible information requirements, so the project "spends significant fees on outputs that don't support the client's needs or purposes".¹¹ He also reported several cases where clients received the handover data while the maintenance contractor was still paid to collect the same data again.¹¹
New Zealand: the Ministry of Health required BIM at LOD 250 minimum on two hospital projects, then judged that it "currently adds no real benefit to the client". Among the challenges it named: the models served delivery and clash detection, not asset management.¹²
Crossrail (London): the sponsors set no requirement for integrated asset data. The project's common data environment never passed into operation; the operators took the data they wanted into their own systems, one of them spreadsheet-based, and the project data environment itself was archived.¹³
Benefits are rarely measured. In a UK study, 49% of respondents said they do not measure BIM benefits at all.¹⁴ A government-commissioned UK benefits study covered two projects, estimated gross benefits only, and left out the cost of implementing BIM.¹⁵ In 2018, 14% of respondents to the UK National BIM Report said the BIM mandate was not enforced at all.¹⁶
A standard needs a body to maintain it. Denmark wrote a building classification into regulation in 2007 without a body able to maintain it. Industry warned that it lacked an owner, it was declared unsuitable in 2010, and it was removed from the regulation in 2013.¹⁷¹⁸

What works

The cases that hold up have one thing in common: the owner defines what it needs, writes it into the contract, and checks it.

Quebec's public owners already say it themselves. Their 2026 common requirements template says « la clé d'exigences BIM réussies est leur clarté, leur spécificité et leur alignement avec les objectifs du projet » (successful BIM requirements are clear, specific and aligned with the project's goals), and asks bidders to answer them with a BEP at tender and again once appointed.¹⁹
SQI publishes a full public set: a guide, a contractual requirements book, a dictionary of BIM uses, information levels and a BEP template with 12 named uses.²⁰ It states that defining « des exigences claires et précises » (clear and precise requirements) is the owner's job.²¹ Its dictionary defines a BIM use as a way to meet « un ou des besoins du donneur d'ouvrage » (one or more of the owner's needs).²² No stated need, no use.
Metrolinx (Ontario) publishes its own information requirements, requires delivery under ISO 19650 and a BEP at tender, and provides BEP templates.²³
Hong Kong requires a certified BIM manager to lead the BIM team, and for tenders invited from April 2025, the design models in the tender documents are contractually binding.²⁴²⁵
Where owners measure, they can show results. Norway's road agency reported an average net saving of 11.5% of construction cost on BIM projects, from field studies.²⁶ Hydro-Québec reported changes worth 3.6% of project cost on one BIM project, against 15% to 18% on similar traditional projects.¹ A UK prison came in about 20% under benchmark, with BIM as one part of a package that included two-stage open-book procurement and early selection of subcontractors; the client warned against "BIM for the sake of BIM".²⁷²⁸

What OpenBEP does about it

Uses first. The owner picks the BIM uses it needs, across every phase. Everything else traces back to them.
A plan, not a promise. The BEP Builder turns those uses into a plan with deliverables, dates, responsibilities and sign-off.
Level of development per element. Each element gets the geometry and information its uses need, and no more.
One shared list of parameters. One list of Revit shared parameters for Canada, with English and French labels.
Checks at each milestone. The model is checked against the plan, and a scorecard shows who delivered what.
Open and free. The code and the text are open licensed, so any owner can use them and improve them.

Build a BEP

Free, in your browser, no account needed.

Sources

Every link below was opened and checked on October 19, 2026. Page numbers are PDF pages. Where a figure is self-reported or reported by someone else, the text above says so.

Gouvernement du Québec, Feuille de route gouvernementale pour la modélisation des données des infrastructures (2021-2026), mise à jour au 31 mars 2024, p. 3, 20, 62.
Gouvernement du Québec, Feuille de route gouvernementale pour la modélisation des données des infrastructures (2021-2026), actualisée au 31 mars 2025, p. 4, 16, 23, 32, 51.
FdR-BIM Gouv., Identification des indicateurs de performance et des stratégies pour leur opérationnalisation, 2026, p. 7, 13, 22, 37.
FdR-BIM Gouv., Plan d’action pour le développement de ressources contractuelles pour la mise en œuvre du BIM dans les contrats publics, 2025, p. 4.
É. Poirier, C. Arnould, Les principes du BIM ouvert et de son application dans les projets publics, 2025, p. 25.
Ville de Montréal, Commission permanente sur l’examen des contrats, Rapport d’examen de la conformité du processus d’appel d’offres, SMCE259551001, 2025-06-16, p. 3–4.
Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec, Technologie de l’architecture, programme 221.A0, 2004, p. 13.
Standards Council of Canada, CAN/CGSB/CSA-ISO 19650-2:24, 2024-11-30.
Public Services and Procurement Canada, Canadian General Standards Board, canada.ca.
W. Frey, Government agency pushes property portfolio into future with digitization, Daily Commercial News, 2020-04-29 (report of a talk by PSPC Real Property Services).
J. Ford, Was our 10-year BIM journey a success story?, BIM+, 2021-06-17 (archived copy; a practitioner's estimate).
P. Cunningham, Government as Client: Challenges using Building Information Modelling on NZ Construction Projects, BRANZ ER13, 2016.
M. Taylor, Learning from Crossrail's information management challenge, Construction Management, 2024-04-08 (by Crossrail's former head of technical information).
Construction Management, Tools for BIM maturity and benefits not fit for purpose, says major study, 2020-04-15 (report of a study for the Centre for Digital Built Britain).
PwC, BIM Level 2 Benefits Measurement Methodology: Application Report, 2018.
PBC Today, Industry frustration over BIM mandate, 2018-05-11 (report of the NBS National BIM Report 2018).
Digital Konvergens, Kronik: Store revner i Det Digitale Byggeri, Ingeniøren, 2008-12-05.
A. Larsen, Bips rolle i digitaliseringen af den danske byggeindustri, Aalborg University, 2014.
FdR-BIM Gouv., Gabarit de cahier d’exigences BIM – Document de référence pour les DOP, 2026, p. 4–5.
Société québécoise des infrastructures, Outils d’encadrement des pratiques BIM-PCI, including the BEP template (PEB) and the Cahier des exigences BIM de projet, 2025.
Société québécoise des infrastructures, Guide d’application du BIM à la SQI, 2025, p. 21.
Société québécoise des infrastructures, Appendice B – Dictionnaire des usages BIM, p. 4.
Metrolinx, Metrolinx Exchange Information Requirements (BIM), MX-ALM-GDC-003, 2025-06.
Hong Kong Development Bureau, Technical Circular (Works) No. 2/2021.
Hong Kong Development Bureau, Technical Circular (Works) No. 1/2025.
US Federal Highway Administration, BIM Practices in Highway Infrastructure: FHWA Global Benchmarking Program (FHWA reporting the Norwegian agency's own figure).
Construction Management, UK's leading BIM client: it works if projects are big enough, 2013-12-17.
Constructing Excellence, Cookham Wood case study, 2014.