Model-based definition and project organising: towards digital and integrated project delivery

As a fundamentally new way of creating, sharing and utilising product lifecycle information in a parametric, visual, systematic and consistent manner, model-based definition (MBD) has been increasingly regarded as one of the most promising technologies to address the process problems rooted in many project-based industries. This chapter explores why and how the emerging MBD technology, which is also termed as building information modelling in some industries, could be comprehensively utilized to facilitate the evolution of traditional project organising approaches towards a digital and integrated delivery paradigm for complex projects. We first discuss the key characteristics of MBD in information concretization and integration which are closely related to project organizing needs for uncertainty management. This is followed by a framework of mainstream areas in which MBD can be integrated with organizing practices throughout a project lifecycle. We conclude with discussions on the primary challenges of these integrations and future research directions.