The first is trust. "Trust" is indefinable. There are no academic courses in it. Perhaps it can't even be taught. We can't demand it either. Trust just builds; but when it does emerge, it does so because sufficient time has taken place for it to be fostered. Trust is directly proportional to time.

 Technophobia. We either love technology or hate it: technophiles vs. technophobes.  If you are reading this you are probably in the former group. You probably also know someone in the latter. There is a major gap between the 'philes and 'phobes. When it comes to a project team, many individuals on it may be technophiles, but for an entire team to take a leap into the technology supporting IPD, many participants may have to leap against their technophobic natures.

Risk. Risk takes many forms, but an owner may take pause when considering IPD's re-arrangement of risk. Among other dangers, the owner is expected to assume more risk by forfeiting the traditional rights of the implied warrant of plans and specifications, for example.  Altering the allocation of risk is risky.

THE CONFLUENCE OF INFLUENCE and ENRICHED DELIVERABLES

So how do we employ our best technology and exploit our technological influence? How do we penetrate this resistance to innovation?  Simple. We take what we have, not what we hope for. That is, we reverse-engineer our technological capabilities and not hold out for the ideal IPD solution.  Remember, with the count-them-on-one-hand exceptions, almost all current construction projects across the country are being planned, designed and built without IPD; but what can be guaranteed is that nearly all of these technologically-deprived projects will be built and handed over to their owners.  This offers a tremendous opportunity.

Ironically, the ability to overcome inertia is strongest at the end of construction. At that point architects and builders not only have, to one degree or another, data-rich information (enough to build a building), but the former barriers to innovation have been reduced or eliminated. There no longer is trust to build, or technology fear to overcome, and questions over the allocation of risk have been resolved.

This is the confluence of influence, the point of least resistance to technology for owners, and the point at which designers and builders can have the most impact, even for conventionally designed and built projects. Remember 100% of projects are passing through this phase, whether BIMed or not. 

Unless we are doing IPD—and most of us are not—the focus should be on deliverables. And the best deliverables are “data-rich” and CAFM (computer-aided facilities management)-ready. These are "enriched deliverables."

Why would owners consider innovative technology at this point?  Simple; they will otherwise be getting deliverables that probably were specified at project start, years ago. But if they had been told then, that for a comparatively small, early-stage cost of structuring the project for IPD (remember that “elephant”?), that at the end of construction they would be able to request revised hand-over documents as specified by the facilities manager, who is just as eager to get the most asset information as data, and the least amount of it as hard copies as possible; and even better, would love to have it in a CAFM format. 

Yes, converting data at the handover is costlier and less efficient, but it still is a bargain, looking at the operations time line. And it gives relatively quick returns, with high value, as the as-built moves toward the operation. Preparing, negotiating, and marketing project services for enriched deliverables should be our focus.

The goal is not to just convert data, but convert owners as well. Once this simpler approach is achieved it will be easier to move upstream. It will be easier to convince an owner of the benefits of specifying deliverables and gathering data much earlier in the process, and then to convince them of the value of project management software, and then of the value of earlier clash detection, and earlier still, the value of BIM design. Before we know it, we're talking IPD.