Coulter BIM Information Management

I have recently been researching and learning Project Management techniques as part of my continued learning. This included reviewing traditional Design Responsibility Matrix (DRM) workflows. The reason being, people have been managing projects for decades before ISO 19650 came along. It has been stated that ISO 19650 was never about replacing existing documents and workflows, but to standardise them. My ultimate goal would be to unify Project Master Programmes, DRMs, and all other data into a relational-type database, even a lightweight Excel structure using Power Query.

Getting Back to Basics: What is a WBS?

In the rush to adopt new digital standards, it is easy to overlook the foundational tools that keep complex projects from unraveling. Central to this is the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

Simply put, a WBS is a hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team. It breaks the project down into manageable sections, often referred to as “work packages.” Think of it as the project’s skeleton; it defines the “what” of the project, organizing tasks into logical buckets so that nothing—from high-level design coordination to the final construction punch list—gets lost in the shuffle.

The Problem with “Static” Management

For years, the industry has suffered from the “silo effect.” We keep our Design Responsibility Matrix (DRM) in one spreadsheet, our Master Programme in another, and our Information Delivery Plan (IDP) in a third.

When a design milestone shifts, we manually update three different files. This isn’t just inefficient; it’s a breakdown of data integrity. We are treating our project information as static lists rather than the living, interconnected ecosystem that it actually is.

Shifting from “Documents” to “Entities”

If you look at the fundamental principles of scheduling, a programme is not just a timeline. It is a system of interrelated, data-driven entities.

When we view our project through this lens, we stop fighting the workflow and start managing the data:

• Activities are Entities: Each task is a record with specific attributes (ID, duration, status, resource requirements).
• Dependencies are Relationships: Logic ties act as foreign keys. If a predecessor task changes, the entire downstream network updates.
• Traceability: We can link a high-level project milestone directly to the granular design task that enables it.

The ISO 19650 Opportunity

The beauty of ISO 19650 is that it provides the structure, not the constraint. It defines what information should be delivered and when, but it leaves the how to us.

By applying traditional project controls—specifically the rigour of the WBS—to the ISO framework, we can build a “BIM Engine.” Instead of separate programmes and matrices, we create a unified source of truth where:

1. The DRM defines liability.
2. The WBS defines the logic.
3. The CDE provides the visibility.

Towards a “Relational” Future

My current prototyping focuses on using Excel—specifically Power Query—as a relational engine. By moving away from “text-based” systems and toward a “data-based” approach, we can automate the aggregation of progress data.

Imagine a world where your Master Programme automatically pulls status updates from your IDP, identifies potential bottlenecks, and cross-references them against your Responsibility Matrix—all without a single manual copy-paste.

We aren’t trying to reinvent project management. We are simply bringing it into the 21st century by treating our data with the same discipline that we have applied to our engineering for decades.

This post is part of my ongoing exploration of digital construction and information management. Stay tuned for future deep dives into the technical setup of these relational spreadsheets.