A BIM Execution Plan (BEP) is the document that sets out how a project team will produce, manage, and exchange information on a project. It is the operating manual for the model — who authors what, to which standard, by when, and where it lives.
Get it right and coordination runs on rails. Get it wrong — or skip it — and every team invents its own conventions, files drift, and the model stops being a single source of truth. This guide covers what a BEP is, what belongs in it, and a structure you can start from today.
What a BIM Execution Plan actually is
A BEP translates the client's information requirements into a concrete plan of action. It answers the practical questions a delivery team needs settled before modelling starts: which software, which naming convention, which Level of Information Need, which coordination cadence, and which Common Data Environment (CDE) workflow.
Under ISO 19650, the BEP is produced by the lead appointed party (typically the main contractor or lead consultant) and agreed with the wider team. It is a living document — it gets revised as the project moves through stages.
Pre-appointment vs confirmed BEP
There are two versions. The pre-appointment BEP is submitted as part of a tender — it is the team's proposed response to the Exchange Information Requirements (EIR), showing capability and intent before contracts are signed.
The confirmed (post-appointment) BEP is the version the team actually delivers against. It is more detailed, names real people against responsibilities, and locks in the programme, the federation strategy, and the information delivery plans.
What goes in a BEP — the checklist
A complete BEP covers the following. You will not need every line on every project, but you should make a deliberate decision about each one rather than leaving it implicit.
- Project information and key contacts
- Information management roles and responsibilities
- Milestones aligned to the project programme and data drops
- Level of Information Need (LOIN) per stage and per discipline
- Federation strategy — how discipline models combine and align to shared coordinates
- Naming conventions and file structure
- The CDE workflow and its states (WIP, Shared, Published, Archive)
- Standards, methods, and procedures the team will follow
- Software, versions, and exchange formats (e.g. IFC, BCF)
- The Master and Task Information Delivery Plans (MIDP / TIDP)
- Quality assurance and model-audit process
How the BEP connects to ISO 19650
The BEP does not stand alone. It sits inside a chain of ISO 19650 documents. The appointing party issues the EIR; the team responds with the BEP; the BEP then drives the Master Information Delivery Plan (MIDP), which aggregates each task team's Task Information Delivery Plan (TIDP).
Those plans schedule every information container to a delivery milestone, and the CDE is where they are produced, shared, checked, and published. The BEP is the hinge between what the client asked for and how the team will actually deliver it.
What most BEPs miss
The common failure is a BEP written once, filed, and never opened again — generic boilerplate that does not reflect how the team really works. The federation strategy is vague, the LOIN is copied from a previous job, and the CDE workflow is described but not enforced.
A BEP earns its place when it is specific: real coordinate systems, real responsibility names, a clash-cycle cadence the team has actually committed to, and an audit process someone owns. If it cannot be used to settle an argument on a Tuesday afternoon, it is not detailed enough.
A starting template
If you are writing your first BEP, start with this skeleton and expand each heading to fit the project. Keep it as short as it can be while still being unambiguous.
- 1. Project overview and information management roles
- 2. Information requirements (link to the EIR) and LOIN per stage
- 3. Standards, methods, and procedures
- 4. Naming conventions and the CDE workflow
- 5. Federation and coordination strategy (clash cycles, sign-off)
- 6. Software, formats, and IT
- 7. MIDP and TIDP
- 8. Quality assurance and model audit