Digitally transforming FM standards and their development process: Allowing experts to focus on what matters

Abstract

Abstract For many years, standardization has been a driver of innovation and the acceleration of societal developments, both generally and within the built environment (BE) and facility management (FM). Recently, new acceleration factors – digitalization and digital transformation – have presented valuable opportunities for the industry of standardization (i.e. ISO, CEN, BS, IFMA, etc.) that may have a rippling effect on other industries; for example, increased standardization and digitalization are seen as key in reducing carbon footprints, and the digitalization of standards is believed to be particularly beneficial as it will improve required information flow. The purpose of this research was to identify the opportunity space for digitalization and digital transformation within standardization by investigating the nature of the life cycle of standards and the requirements for digitally transforming them. Two types of experts were interviewed: FM standardization experts who are well acquainted with standardization processes and digital experts working primarily with information and communication technologies (ICT). The interviews revealed that many see a need for digitalization and that machine-readable standards, AI-based text search tools and more are viewed as valuable possibilities. Two ways to look at digitalization opportunities in standardization were identified: the digitalisation of standardization work and standards enabling digital FM practice. The digitalization of standards offers excellent opportunities to improve the quality of standards, increase efficiency of both the use of and the development of standard, including improving the experience of subject matter experts involved in the process of standardization. Jointly, these efforts may be the catalyst for FM’s digital transformation.