BIM COMPETENCY REQUIREMENTS FOR CHINA RAILWAY INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT

Authors

  • Dahuai Zhao 5School of Housing Building and Planning, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
  • Nurul Sakina Mokhtar Azizi 5School of Housing Building and Planning, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
  • Nazirah Zainul Abidin 5School of Housing Building and Planning, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
  • Weiwei Wang School of Civil Engineering, DEYANG COLLEGE OF URBAN RAIL TRANSIT, CHINA
  • Jiasheng Zhou School of Housing Building and Planning, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v24i44.2255

Keywords:

railway infrastructure, BIM, competency requirements, thematic analysis, delivery governance

Abstract

BIM delivery in railway infrastructure is shaped by dense subsystem interfaces and formal review-and-acceptance gates, which place strong demands on traceable, auditable information. However, BIM competency descriptions in the literature remain largely generic and provide limited guidance for railway-specific delivery governance and role profiling. This study investigates the BIM competencies required for railway infrastructure projects through a qualitative design using a structured interview protocol with open-ended prompts. Ten railway BIM practitioners were interviewed, and transcripts were analysed thematically; themes were developed inductively and reported using Succar’s Core-Domain-Execution layers. The findings indicate that competency is primarily judged by the ability to produce review-ready packages under controlled coordination and change, rather than by software proficiency alone. Five competency clusters were identified: data governance and traceability; integration and platform-enabled coordination; compliance and configuration discipline; model and workflow execution for deliverable production; and lifecycle readiness supported by scenario thinking and reality-capture/verification. The study proposes a preliminary railway-contextualised competency structure and links clusters to delivery nodes and verifiable artefacts to support assessment and training design.

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References

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Published

2026-10-07

How to Cite

Zhao, D., Mokhtar Azizi, N. S., Zainul Abidin, N., Wang, W., & Zhou, J. (2026). BIM COMPETENCY REQUIREMENTS FOR CHINA RAILWAY INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT. PLANNING MALAYSIA, 24(44). https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v24i44.2255

Issue

Vol. 24 (2026): PLANNING MALAYSIA JOURNAL : Volume 24, Issue 5, 2026

Section

Article

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eISSN: 0128-0945 © Year. The Authors. Published for Malaysian Institute of Planners. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.

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