After implementing BIM in more than 200 firms, the same stumbles come back with an almost predictable regularity. None of them comes down to a lack of talent on the team.
Almost every firm that decides to move to BIM starts in the wrong place: by choosing the software. That is understandable, because the software is the visible part of the change, the part with a price, a demo and an installation date. But BIM is not a program, it is an information management process, and that is exactly where most implementations stall.
The standard that governs the subject says so outright. ABNT NBR ISO 19650 is about the organization and digitization of information on buildings, including building information modeling, and it organizes implementation around information requirements, an execution plan and a common data environment. Software appears as a consequence, not as a starting point. If the standard is still new to you, I wrote a whole article about it: what you need to know about ISO 19650.
The list below is not theoretical. These are the mistakes that show up most often when a firm comes to us after a first failed attempt at migrating, or in the initial assessment of a firm that is only now starting.
1. Treating the migration as a change of software
The mistake that produces almost all the others. The firm buys the licenses, hires a course on commands and expects the team to "learn the program". Six months later the projects come out just as they did before, only now modeled in 3D.
Modeling in 3D is not BIM. BIM starts when the information in the model begins to feed decisions: quantities, coordination between disciplines, documentation that updates itself, data that outlives the project. Without that, the firm has paid for an expensive tool to do what it was already doing.
How to avoid it. Before any training, decide what the firm wants BIM for. Which deliverables need to get better? Where is the rework today? What information do you lose between one stage and the next? The answers to those questions are what determine how the model should be built, not the other way around.
2. Skipping the assessment of the current process
Implementing BIM on top of a process nobody has mapped is standardizing the mess. If the firm does not know, today, who does what, in what order, with which file and under which naming rules, it will carry that vagueness into the new environment, now with a layer of technology on top.
ISO 19650-2 structures the process starting precisely from the definition of information requirements and from the BIM Execution Plan, the document that answers who produces which information, when, in what format and at what level of detail. This is not public-works bureaucracy: it is what keeps each architect from inventing a standard of their own.
How to avoid it. Map the real workflow before proposing the ideal one. The starting point is always how the firm designs today, bad habits included.
3. Implementing without a template of the firm’s own
This is the most expensive mistake and the quietest one. With no template of its own, every project is born from a different file, every architect builds their own layers, materials and sheets, and the result is a firm where nobody can open somebody else’s file without losing half an hour working out the logic.
The template is the base file that defines how the whole firm models, documents and automates: layers, libraries, Building Materials, sheets, schedules and the repetitive tasks that start happening on their own. Graphisoft itself treats office standards and templates as one of the central pillars of the BIM Manager role in Archicad.
How to avoid it. The template has to exist before the team starts producing in the new environment, and it has to reflect the way that particular firm designs. A generic template downloaded from the internet gets you through the first few days and creates technical debt for the years after. If your firm already uses Archicad but has never standardized anything, the usual route is to develop the custom template before anything else.
4. Training the team and then not following the first real project
Training teaches what the tool does. A real project teaches what to do when the client changes the brief in delivery week, when the consultant sends the file in an incompatible format, when the model gets heavy. That is the moment when the team decides, on its own, whether to hold the standard or go back to improvising the way it used to.
With nobody following the work, the decision is almost always to go back to improvising. Not out of bad will, but because deadlines tighten and the familiar route is faster.
How to avoid it. Plan close support through the first projects done entirely in the new process. The point is not to answer software questions, it is to keep the standard from dissolving under the first deadline pressure.
5. Picking the wrong project to start with
Many firms choose as the pilot the most important project on the books ("if we are doing this for real, let's make it count") or the most complex one ("if it works on this one, it works on anything"). Both are terrible choices. The first puts the most sensitive client inside the least stable phase. The second stacks process problems on top of design problems, and when something goes wrong nobody knows which of the two caused it.
How to avoid it. Pick a mid-sized project, with a realistic deadline, a known scope and a small, willing team. The pilot is there to produce learning under controlled risk, not to prove anything to anyone.
6. Modeling more than you need to
This is the mistake of getting carried away. The team starts detailing screws, baseboards and grout lines while the project is still a concept study, the model slows down, productivity falls off and the wrong conclusion arrives fast: "BIM takes longer".
This is exactly what the level of development discussion is for. The LOD Specification, published by BIMForum, is the most widely used international reference for defining how much information an element has to carry at each stage of a project. The principle is simple: information should only exist in the model when somebody is going to use it for something.
How to avoid it. Define, stage by stage and discipline by discipline, what level of detail is enough. Anything beyond that is cost with no return.
7. Leaving leadership out and calling the resistance "the team’s problem"
Resistance is a symptom, not a cause. When a team resists, it is almost always because it was told about the change instead of being brought into it, because it does not know what the goal is, or because it has worked out that leadership will not hold the process when the deadline tightens. If the partner keeps asking for the file "the old way, it is faster", the implementation ended that day, even if nobody says so out loud.
CBIC, the Brazilian construction industry association, points to the sector’s cultural resistance as one of the central barriers to BIM adoption in Brazil, alongside the cost of software and the lack of training. This is a change management problem, not a training problem.
How to avoid it. Alignment starts with leadership, before any change reaches the team. The people deciding need to know what will get worse for a while, for how long, and what they gain at the end. And they need to back that publicly.
8. Expecting an immediate gain and giving up halfway up the curve
Every implementation has a period when productivity drops. The team is learning a new tool, a new process and a new standard at the same time, while still delivering. That dip is normal, predictable and temporary, but if nobody said it was coming it gets read as failure, and that is the point where most implementations are abandoned.
How to avoid it. Treat the initial drop as part of the plan, not as a surprise. Agree with the team and with the partners on what a realistic expectation is for each quarter, and measure progress by process indicators (the standard being followed, rework going down, documentation coming out of the model) before asking for indicators of speed.
One extra mistake, and this one is not the firm’s: thinking it can wait
BIM has stopped being a competitive edge and become a requirement in a growing part of the market. In Brazil’s public sector, Decree 10,306/2020 set the use of BIM on works contracted by the federal public administration, including its agencies and foundations, in successive phases: from January 2021 for the design of projects of major significance, from January 2024 taking in construction and works management as well, and from January 2028 also covering operation and maintenance, with the scope widened to projects of medium or major significance. The decree is part of Estratégia BIM BR, the national BIM strategy established by Decree 9,983/2019.
Private architecture firms are not covered directly by the rule, but they work with developers, consultants and contractors that already are. Firms that arrive late tend to implement under contract pressure, which is the worst possible condition for doing it well.
What the eight mistakes have in common
They all have the same root: the firm treats implementation as an event, when it is a process. An event has a start date and an end date, a course and a certificate. A process has an assessment, a standard built to measure, support inside a real project and adjustment along the way.
That is why BIM implementation done well is not teaching software. It is applying the ideas of BIM to the way that one firm, specifically, already designs.
A quick checklist before you start
- We know why we want BIM, in terms of deliverables and business, not technology
- We have mapped how the firm designs today, with the real problems written down
- We have settled who answers for the standard inside the firm
- We will have a template of our own ready before the team starts producing
- We have picked a pilot project with controlled risk
- We have defined the level of detail for each stage
- Leadership is aligned and will hold the process under deadline pressure
- We have agreed on a realistic expectation for the first few months
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to implement BIM in an architecture firm?
It depends on the size of the team and the format of the implementation, but it is measured in months, not in weeks. In our experience a full implementation, including assessment, template, training and support inside a real project, usually takes 6 to 12 months.
Can BIM be implemented without stopping the firm’s production?
Yes, and that is how it should be done. The implementation runs alongside the day-to-day work, with planned time from the team and agreed adjustments to the projects already under way.
My firm already uses Archicad, but with no standard at all. Is that implementation or template?
In that case the usual route is developing a template, not a full implementation. The tool is already in the firm; what is missing is the standard that makes it pay off.
What if the problem is just one specific point in the workflow?
Then the usual route is targeted consulting, not a full implementation process. Working that out before you sign anything saves a good deal of money.
What is the biggest mistake of all?
Confusing software with process. It is the mistake that produces all the others.
Sources
- ABNT NBR ISO 19650-2:2022, information management using building information modeling, delivery phase of the assets.
- Decree 10,306 of 2 April 2020, the phases for BIM use on federal public works.
- Decree 9,983 of 22 August 2019, the national strategy for spreading BIM.
- CBIC, barriers to BIM adoption in Brazil, 22 June 2022.
- Graphisoft, Archicad Office Standards and Templates.
- BIMForum, LOD Specification, the international reference for level of development by stage.
Gabriela Zanin
Founder of Migra BIM
Gabriela Zanin is an architect and the founder of Migra BIM, a company that does Archicad implementation, training and consulting. She has taken part in BIM implementations at more than 200 architecture firms in Brazil and Portugal. Get to know Migra.
Published 26 Aug 2026 · Updated 26 Aug 2026
