BIM maturity model for higher education institutions

Abstrac The literature presents several BIM maturity models for projects, organizations and individuals. However, there is still a gap in models for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Consequently, there is an absence of studies that measure the BIM maturity of those institutions. Thus, the present study aims at (i) present a BIM maturity matrix model for HEIs; (ii) perform the measurement of BIM maturity in the HEIs in the state of Ceará, Brazil. The developed model is structured into three BIM fields (Policies, Processes and Technology), through 16 criteria and divided into five maturity levels. This research analyzed 26 courses in Civil Engineering as well as Architecture and Urbanism, in both public and private HEIs, therefore obtaining the Degree of Maturity, the Maturity Index, as well as the characteristics of BIM use. As a contribution, the study presents: (i) a theoretical contribution through the proposal of a BIM maturity model for HEIs, allowing other institutions to measure their performance; (ii) BIM characterization in HEIs, as well as the barriers for its adoption, uses and BIM disciplines; (iii) measurement of HEIs' maturity. The measurement of BIM maturity in the HEIs in Ceará state allowed an overview of them, becoming part of a macro-diagnostic state in the sector.


Introduction
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is considered one of the most promising developments in the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operation (AECO) sectors (AZHAR, 2011). The information model has become a well-established instrument and an innovative methodology to improve productivity throughout the life cycle of projects (ZHOU et al., 2017), and therefore should be seen as something that goes beyond a model of visualization of the projected space (TSE;WONG, 2005;CHEN;LUO, 2014).
The AECO industry interest in the adoption of BIM has increased, consequently elevating the demand for professionals with mastery of the tools and methodologies associated with it. However, there is a lack of trained professionals who are acknowledged with the benefits of information modeling processes (GODOY; CARDOSO;BORGES, 2013;LINO;AZENHA;LOURENÇO, 2012). In Brazil, the adoption of BIM is at an early stage in the training of professionals, whether at a technological, undergraduate or graduate level (ITO;SCHEER, 2017). Its adoption at the university level has been gradual and not very effective in Architecture and Civil Engineering courses (RUSCHEL; ANDRADE; MORAIS, 2013).
The Construction Information Modeling teaching approach must go beyond the instrumental training of the disciplines of applied computing. Therefore, with the increasing dissemination of BIM, Brazilian researchers have increased their concern with the inclusion of teaching it in Architecture and Civil Engineering courses (RUSCHEL;ANDRADE;MORAIS, 2013). The academic dissemination of BIM in Brazil has been a relevant growth driver in the last decade (MACHADO; RUSCHEL; SCHEER, 2017). It is up to universities to train the new professionals who will implement BIM in AECO (RUSCHEL; ANDRADE; MORAIS, 2013).
The present study is part of a group of research carried out, initiated in 2018 (BÖES; LIMA; BARROS NETO, 2018), which aims at carrying out the BIM implementation in Ceará state through a macro approach involving the various sector stakeholders (BÖES, 2019). Therefore, this study aims at presenting a theoretical model of BIM maturity matrix for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and applying it in the courses of Architecture and Urbanism and Civil Engineering in Ceará state, identifying the maturity of the HEIs in the state.

Teaching BIM
In order to prepare future professionals to meet the growing demand of organizations in the use of BIM processes and methodologies, it is necessary to include their concepts in the undergraduate curricula of Architecture and Civil Engineering (AEC), (BASTO; LORDSLEEM JUNIOR, 2016).
A positive perspective for BIM adoption in the Brazil was the publication of the Federal Decree 9.337: 2018 (CHECCUCCI, 2019), that was later replaced by the Federal Decree 9.983: 2019, which institutes BIM's National Dissemination Strategy, presenting its purpose, objectives, actions, indicators and goals (BRASIL, 2018(BRASIL, , 2019. Among its nine specific objectives, we can highlight three that have a relationship and (are the) responsibility of Higher Education Institutions, as shown in Table 1. More recently, still within the scope of the National Strategy, the Federal Government published the Federal Decree 10.306 (BRASIL, 2020) that establishes the BIM use in the direct or indirect execution of engineering projects and services performed by the agencies and entities of the federal administration (BRASIL, 2020). The strategies for BIM adoption in the teaching of AEC can occur through two approaches: (a) the creation of new disciplines with specific content in BIM; or (b) the introduction of BIM in several existing disciplines as a resource to help the BIM assimilation (BARISON; SANTOS, 2011; ANDRADE, 2018). Ruschel, Andrade and Morais (2013) propose a BIM classification in stages of implementation and their respective competence levels. At the first level, the emphasis is on parametric modeling; while the second level aims at multidisciplinarity and the third level aims at collaboration.
In Brazil, the National Meeting on BIM Teaching (ENEBIM) emerged in 2018, with the objective of bringing together didactic experiences and promoting discussion, uniting the scientific community, teachers, instructors and specialists around BIM teaching and learning (SALGADO, 2019). On ENEBIM two editions, 92 studies were presented, with emphasis on the states of Ceará (24 studies), Rio Grande do Norte and São Paulo (12 studies each). Among the universities that shared their experiences the ones that led the publications were: In an analysis of the classification of the implementation stages proposed by Ruschel, Andrade and Morais (2013) about the experiences shared at ENEBIM, it can be noticed that 9% are in the third stage (collaboration), 15% are in the second stage (multidisciplinarity) and 76% are in the first stage, parametric modeling. These data indicate that there is still a lot of room for improvement, especially in the multidisciplinarity and collaboration stages.

BIM maturity
The concept of BIM maturity is used to identify a set of process improvements that enable the achievement of specific benefits (SUCCAR, 2009), providing a better understanding of the growth and diversity of BIM's application (SEBASTIAN; BERLO, 2010).
BIM capacity can be defined as the ability to generate deliverables and services, whereas BIM maturity can be understood as the extent, depth, quality, predictability and replicability of this ability when performing a task or delivering a Bim service or product (SUCCAR, 2009). BIM maturity indicates the level of progress in the use of BIM (JUNG; JOO, 2011). The BIM Maturity Matrix (BIm ) developed by Succar (2010), proposes that the maturity of an organization must be supported through three BIM fields: technology, processes and policies, in which each field will present its own stakeholders, requirements and deliverables . Table 2 shows the BIM fields.
Maturity models should contribute to highlight the different stages of BIM development in the fields of technology, processes and protocols and not only contribute to the measurement of the general maturity index (LIANG et al., 2016).

Technology
The Technology Field gathers a group of actors specialized in the development of software, hardware, equipment and network systems necessary to increase the efficiency, productivity and profitability of AECO sectors. These include organizations that generate software and equipment solutions with direct and indirect applicability to the facilities design, construction and operation.

Process
The Process Field gathers a group of actors who acquire, design, build, manufacture, use, manage and maintain structures. These include facility owners, architects, engineers, contractors, facility managers and all other AECO industry participants involved in the ownership, delivery and operations of buildings or structures.

Policies
The Policy Field gathers a group of actors with a focus on training professionals, research, benefit distribution, risk allocation and conflict reduction within the AECO industry. These actors do not generate any construction products, but are specialized organizations, such as insurance companies, research centers, educational institutions and regulatory bodies, that play a fundamental role in the preparation, regulation and contract in the process of design, construction and operation.
Source: Succar (2010 To go with the phases, the work was divided into seven stages: (a) analysis of the existing maturity models; (b) theoretical development of m BIM (IES); (c) sample definition; (d) development of the research instrument to collect information; (e) research instrument testing; (f) research instrument application; and (g) results analysis and reflection.

Theoretical development of m²BIM-HEIs
The

Sample
In order to define the HEIs for applying the maturity model in this research, the adopted criterion was choosing HEIs that are accredited with the Ministry of Education (MEC), through the e-mec website. The sample was limited to in-person courses taught in the state of Ceará, and to the degrees of Architecture and Urbanism and Civil Engineering.

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The questionnaire was intended for Course Coordinators and Center Administrators, as a way to obtain an institutional response of the course. Despite obtaining an institutional view, the results are based on information resulting from the respondents' self-declarations, without going through any audit process.
In total, the research gathered a sample of 26 undergraduate courses, being 17 courses of Civil Engineering, and 9 courses of Architecture and Urbanism, from all regions of the state, both public and private institutions, being 5 public and 21 private undergraduate courses, as shown in Figure 1. The study included undergraduate courses located in the cities of Fortaleza (16 courses), Juazeiro do Norte (3 courses), Sobral (3 courses), Quixadá (2 courses), Crateús and Russas (both with 1 course).

Research tool, test and application
A research instrument was developed for the application of m BIM-HEI. It was a structured questionnaire which was applied online. The decision about this research instrument was due to the size and geographic range of the sample, making in-person interviews unfeasible. The questionnaire aimed at creating a mechanism to apply m BIM-HEI through guided questions. It was composed of open and closed-ended questions and it was organized into 5 sections: (a) introduction; (b) there is no contact with BIM; (c) BIM initiatives; (d) faculty training; and (e) technology.
The instrument was developed and applied through an online platform, and it was sent to the respondents' institutional emails.
After the first version of the research instrument was completed, a pre-test was applied simultaneously to three HEIs, as a way to test the instrument and validate it. After this stage, the instrument was updated and forwarded to the HEIs.

BIM Maturity Matrix for HEIs (m²BIM-HEI)
The BIM Maturity Matrix for HEIs (m BIM-HEI) is an artifact, an intended tool exclusively for Higher Education Institutions. Its focus may be on the institution or on the course itself. It can be applied by the members of the institution as an internal knowledge tool in order to measure performance, as well as it can be used for measurements by external agents.
The m BIM-HEI is divided into three BIM fields: Policy, Processes and Technology (SUCCAR; 2010), presented and conceptualized in Table 4 The advance in maturity levels is related to the gradual, continuous improvements and to the formalization and institutionalization of BIM within the HEI. The Pre-BIM level is the absence of BIM in the HEI, while the Optimized level consists of the highest maturity level.

Process
The Process Field gathers a group of actors who acquire, design, build, manufacture, use, manage and maintain structures.
The Process Field comprises the uses of BIM, the form and number of disciplines in which BIM is involved, the forms, quality and quantity of publications of scientific articles and the scope of trained students.

Technology
The Technology Field gathers a group of actors specialized in the development of software, hardware, equipment and network systems necessary to increase the efficiency, productivity and profitability of AECO sectors.
The Technology Field comprises all infrastructure for the development of teaching, research and BIM extension in Higher Education Institutions, whether by technological or physical means. It is related to institutional agreements with software developers and hardware manufacturers, the types and uses of software and hardware, in addition to the physical infrastructure of the BIM learning spaces. The faculty has no BIM knowledge and there is no engagement.
Up to 10% of the faculty knows the BIM methodology and software.
There is no kind of engagement.
Up to 10% of the faculty knows the BIM methodology and software.
There is a preliminary engagement of the faculty.
Up to 30% of the faculty knows the BIM methodology and software.
There is faculty engagement (study group, scientific initiation, academic extension, BIM inclusion in disciplines, etc.).
Over 30% of the faculty knows the BIM methodology and software.
There is faculty engagement (study group, scientific initiation, academic extension, BIM inclusion in disciplines, etc.). There is no formal BIM initiative in the academic extension. There are faculty or students' individual initiatives without the formalized knowledge of the HEI.

BIM
There is no formal BIM initiative in the academic extension.
There are faculty or students' individual initiatives with the formalized knowledge of the HEI.
There are institutionalized and formalized BIM initiatives in the academic extension.
The initiatives are not related to BIM strategic planning.
There are institutionalized and formalized BIM initiatives in the academic extension. There is no knowledge about its content.
The HEI has knowledge about its content.
There is no plan/strategy to meet the requirements and it has not been developing any action.
The HEI has knowledge about its content.
There is no plan/strategy to meet the requirements but it has been developing an action.
The HEI has knowledge about its content.
There is an established plan/strategy to meet its requirements.
The HEI has knowledge about its content.
There is an established plan/strategy to meet its requirements.
The HEI has the commitment to meet the decree criteria. There is no discipline that encompasses BIM.
There is 1 discipline that encompasses BIM.
There are up to 5 disciplines that encompass BIM.
There are up to 15 disciplines that encompass BIM.
There are over 15 disciplines that encompass BIM.

Publications (R.3)
There is no BIM publication in an article, journal, academic periodical, or similar.
Sporadic BIM publications, without an established frequency, mostly focused on the HEI internal events.
Sporadic BIM publications, without an established frequency, but with the reach of regional and national seminars.
Planned BIM publications with the reach of regional and national seminars and national periodicals.
Planned BIM publications with the reach of international periodicals.
Up to 50 trained students.
Up to 250 trained students.
Up to 500 trained students.
Over 500 trained students. Maturity is measured by the Maturity Degree (MD), through the Maturity Index (MI). The Maturity Degree consists of an arithmetic average of the 16 evaluated items (the sum of the scores divided by 16), with a maximum score of 50 points. The Maturity Index is a percentage value, in which the Maturity Degree is referenced to the maximum score (100%). The BIM Maturity Level is obtained through the relationship between Maturity Index and Maturity Degree (RODRIGUES, 2018), illustrated in Table 8.

BIM use characterization
When asked about the Federal Decree 9.337 (BRASIL, 2018), 46% of course coordinators informed that they were not aware of the decree content. This representative number raises a red flag about the adherence to the strategic actions and specific objectives of the BIM BR Strategy. It is essential that there is an understanding of the decree and that the HEIs have the responsibility to prepare future professionals for this demand and market requirement.
On the other hand, the coordinators who said they were aware of the decree, were asked about how they intend to put it into practice by 2021. 57% of them responded that the courses intend to offer disciplines in BIM, while 36% did not know how to report the actions to be developed. This last data shows a myopic view both of the BIM implementation process and of BIM concept. Most HEIs aim to offer "BIM Disciplines", mistakenly envisioning disciplines with a focus on the software.
The contact with BIM throughout the undergraduate course is present in 88% of the courses, in which the coordinators stated that this contact occurs in at least one moment along the undergraduate course. Among the types of contact, the most prevalent is lectures (73%) , followed by offers of software extension courses, as shown in Figure 2.
When analyzing the barriers faced on implementing BIM, it is clear that they are shared among the courses that have already implemented it, like us, and that have not implemented it (as shown in Table 9). The main barrier is related to the lack of faculty staff training, followed directly by the faculty's lack of interest in adopting it.
It is observed that the barriers diagnosis to the adoption of BIM meets the barriers identified in the literature (RUSCHEL; ANDRADE; MORAIS, 2013; CHECCUCCI, 2014; SACKS; PIKAS, 2013; SABONGI, 2009) mentioned previously in this study. Noticing the Brazilian use of BIM growth in the last decade, most prominently in the last three years, it is a great challenge to train the faculty staff of the HEIs. The professor possesses the main role in the teaching-learning process, which requires he/she to have total mastery over the subject. The lack of professor training leads to the inexistence of the BIM theme in the classroom, since the professor does not have enough knowledge to address the subject. The implementation of training programs or incentives for professors becomes an interesting alternative to solve this problem. However, it is possible to encounter resistance from professors in seeking knowledge in new technologies and methodologies. This fact has been identified in the research.
Altogether, 58% of the coordinators stated that the professors of the course have little or no knowledge in BIM, while 35% said they had an average knowledge and 8% had an advanced level of knowledge, highlighting the need to create faculty training and incentive programs for HEIs.
In an analysis of professors' responsibilities, not viewing BIM as a priority in the curriculum shows a lack of awareness, articulation, or knowledge on the part of the Structuring Teaching Nucleus (STN) of the courses, which is responsible for the changes in the curricular grades and has the ability to insert BIM in disciplines. At the same time, the lack of incentive from the higher levels of hierarchy of the HEI is mainly related to private institutions, since the request and distribution of resources and actions must follow the guidelines and strategic planning of the top level hierarchy. Such lack of incentive can be interpreted as natural in any process of implementing a new methodology and/or technology. The support from top hierarchy levels in these institutions is essential and must be obtained through an awareness of the benefits of implementation and the requirements at the legislative and market levels, BIM must be viewed as an action at the forefront of teaching excellence.

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Regarding the insertion of BIM in the disciplines, 90% of the courses that claimed to adopt BIM, indicated the use of BIM in disciplines. Table 10 shows the list of BIM uses (SUCCAR; SALEEB; SHER, 2016) developed in the disciplines. Altogether, seven BIM uses were mentioned in addition to the introduction. Despite a diversity of use, it is observed that 46% of citations do not refer to a BIM use itself, but rather to a BIM introduction. The most cited BIM use (22.50%) is Modeling, followed by Simulations (8.40%), and Dimensioning and Planning (7.00%). Disciplines were grouped into themes as a way to bring together the various related disciplines. Table 11 shows the disciplines that have the introduction of BIM.  It is observed that BIM is present in the disciplines in an introductory way, the vast majority of them do not involve model development or other BIM uses. This finding plays a great role in understanding the current level of BIM in the courses of Architecture and Urbanism and Civil Engineering in HEIs of Ceará state. It shows that although there are BIM initiatives in the undergraduate courses, most are still at an introductory level. This analysis is corroborated by Table 11, which shows that 61% of the disciplines in which BIM is employed are in disciplines of Computer Aided Design, Graphic Representation, Applied Drawing and Graphic Expression, that is, in drawing disciplines, and not project ones. This fact shows an under-use of BIM.
As a way to deepen the understanding of how BIM is approached in the disciplines, it was obtained that in 86% of the undergraduate courses BIM is approached as an introductory content, without further studies or applications; 71% said they use BIM as a tool; 57% considered BIM a methodology within their syllabi; and 38% adopted BIM to work on skills and competences. The main software adopted is Revit Architecture, adopted in 77% of the courses, followed by ArchiCAD, with 46%, and TQS with 30%, in addition to 8 other softwares, as shown in Table 12.
The choice of a certain software by the HEI may be related to market demands, faculty knowledge, as well as due to partnerships with software developers, as mentioned previously. This way, 42% of the HEI course coordinators interviewed stated that the course has an agreement or partnership with one or more software developers. The Autodesk company leads this initiative, it responds to 66% of agreements in courses that have some type of agreement and 23% of the interviewed courses. In second place comes Bentley with 34% of agreements among the courses that have partnership and 12% of interviewed courses. The partnership with software developers benefits the HEIs with the provision of BIM software, and training for professors and students, as shown previously in Table 9.  In addition to teaching, BIM is present in the scientific initiation, as previously illustrated in Figure 2, in which 46% of course coordinators stated that the students have contact with BIM through it. An important data for HEIs is the number of publications made from studies developed locally. In this case, 33.33% of course coordinators stated that they had published a scientific article in an academic or periodical event about BIM use. Another BIM initiative developed by the Architecture and Urbanism and Civil Engineering courses in the state of Ceará is the academic extension, which 62% of the courses claim to have it. Among the actions, we highlight extension courses (54%), project offices (38%), among other activities (8%).

BIM Maturity
Based on course coordinators' responses, the information was compiled, processed and inserted into the m BIM-HEI, generating a score for each course, as shown in Table 13, making it possible to calculate the Degree of Maturity and the Maturity Index.
Through m BIM-HEI, we can observe that the Civil Engineering and Architecture and Urbanism undergraduate courses have a low degree of maturity in the evaluation criteria, with an average of 15.87 points. As we can notice through a macro view in Figure 3 that presents the average score for each criterion of all courses. Only a quarter of the criteria reached over 20 points, showing that, on average, there is a low performance of HEIs in relation to BIM use. The most scored criterion was "Teaching BIM", with 25.38 points, with most of its content offered involving Introduction to BIM and the software use. However, although it has the best performance among its peers, its score is still low, being classified as Low Maturity BIM. The criterion with the worst score was "Institutional agreements with hardware manufacturers" followed by "Faculty Training", with 6.15 and 7.88 points respectively.
Of the 26 Civil Engineering and Architecture and Urbanism undergraduate courses analysed in this research, 39% are considered at the Pre-BIM level, with no BIM maturity; 35% at the Initial level, with low maturity; and 26% are at a Defined maturity level, with medium maturity, as shown in Figure 5. With this result, we can state that 74% of the Engineering and Architecture and Urbanism undergraduate courses have low BIM maturity or do not have maturity at all. 146

Conclusion
The present research had an exploratory profile, filling a gap in the literature by proposing a theoretical model of BIM maturity matrix designed to evaluate the HEIs and measure their BIM maturity.
A great number of undergraduate courses (46%) are unaware of the Federal Decree 9.337 (BRASIL, 2018), unaligned with the BIM BR Strategy which provides for the BIM dissemination and teaching. A distorted understanding is observed on the part of undergraduate course coordinators that have not yet adopted BIM at their institutions but that intend to. All course coordinators mentioned that they are focused on offering disciplines that aim at the use of BIM software.
The disciplines with the greatest adoption of BIM are related to graphic representation, using BIM as a design tool and not as a design methodology. In relation to the developed uses, most of them are related only to the Introduction and some Modeling initiatives, with no collaboration or interoperability applications.
In all, seven HEIs presented a Defined level, nine are at an Initial level and ten at the Pre-BIM level, therefore with no maturity level at all. It is observed that although there are seven HEIs at a Defined level, only one Civil Engineering undergraduate course has BIM institutionalized and formalized in the curriculum, where BIM is present in several disciplines in an integrated way, while the others are characterized by professors' individual initiatives, without engagement with peers or formalization with the curricula.
It can be concluded that the major obstacle to the adoption of BIM is found in the human capital, either through the absence of trained professors, or through their resistance to seek training, which is the greatest challenge for the HEIs.
This study will work as a milestone in Ceará state BIM maturity, where, for the first time, a measurement has been presented, serving as basis for actions of implementation and dissemination, allowing a continuous measurement of HEIs' performance regarding the implementation of BIM in the student curricular matrix of Civil Engineering and Architecture and Urbanism undergraduate courses.
The results of the present study made it possible to complement other BIM maturity surveys in the building industry sector in Ceará state, in order to delineate the current scenario and, based on this panorama, propose a BIM implementation plan for the civil building industry.
Finally, it is foreseen that m BIM-HEI can be incorporated with new criteria for future studies, such as: information sharing in the Technology field, and skill levels in the Process field.