• Examines chained coordination of IM under BS EN ISO 19650-2 • Applies Activity Theory to analyse structural tensions • Reconceptualises EIR, BEP and MIDP as mediating systems • Differentiates activity, inter-activity and system-level effects • Extends AT to clause-structured regulatory environments The increasing complexity of information modelling-enabled projects requires a standardised approach to information management (IM). BS EN ISO 19650-2 provides a framework for managing information during the project delivery phase in the United Kingdom (UK), with appointment IM resources, including Exchange Information Requirements (EIR), the BIM Execution Plan (BEP), and the Master and Task Information Delivery Plans (MIDP and TIDP) central to coordination. Existing research has examined challenges associated with these resources; however, they are largely analysed in isolation, limiting understanding of how tensions arise across them and are shaped by institutional and technological conditions. This study applies Activity Theory (AT) to investigate the implementation of IM resources in BS EN ISO 19650-2 projects in the UK. An exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach was adopted, combining 15 semi-structured interviews and 41 survey responses. The AT-informed analysis conceptualised EIR, BEP and MIDP/TIDP as a chained activity system and identified activity system contradictions, inter-activity tensions, and chained activity system conditioning factors. The identified factors were synthesised into a Chained activity system model and an IM framework integrating standards, technology and operational workflow components. The findings highlight challenges that constrain effective IM enactment across activities, including stakeholder misalignment, contractual inconsistencies, divergent standardisation approaches, limited client capability, reliance on manual workflows, platform constraints and interoperability limitations across common data environments. The study repositions IM resource implementation challenges as structurally relational rather than resource-specific and contributes to AT-informed research by illustrating how activity systems may evolve through stabilisation patterns within regulated, clause-structured standard environments.
Panagiotidou et al. (Fri,) studied this question.