ISO 19650 Information Management — What the 2026 Revision Means for GCC Construction Projects

On 24 February 2026, a joint webinar hosted by the British Standards Institution (BSI) and NIMA attracted over 900 digital construction professionals from around the world. The subject was the proposed revision to ISO 19650 — the international standard that defines how information is managed in construction projects.

What was presented is not a minor update. It is a fundamental repositioning of how the construction industry thinks about digital delivery — one that has direct implications for every project team and asset owner across the GCC.

What ISO 19650 Is — And What It Has Been

ISO 19650 is the international standard for information management using building information modelling. Published initially in 2018, it defines the concepts, roles, and processes for how information is produced, exchanged, checked, and maintained across the lifecycle of a built asset.

For most of its existence, ISO 19650 has been understood — and sometimes misunderstood — as a BIM standard. A standard about models, software, and geometry. In reality, it has always been about information. The proposed 2026 revision makes that explicit.

The Key Changes Proposed in 2026

The proposed revisions address both terminology and structure:

What This Means in Practice for GCC Projects

The GCC construction market references ISO 19650 with increasing frequency in project contracts, procurement documents, and government frameworks. The proposed revision reinforces several principles that the most forward-thinking project owners in the region are already applying:

• Information requirements must be defined at the start — The Exchange Information Requirements (EIR) is not a handover checklist. It defines from day one what information the asset owner needs and in what format.
• The Asset Information Model is not a handover output — It is the ongoing source of truth that evolves throughout the life of the asset, starting from the first design decision.
• Asset owners carry greater responsibility — The revised standard places greater emphasis on appointing parties — clients and owners — defining clear, structured information requirements and governance frameworks upfront.
• Connected systems are required — Disconnected tools and file-based workflows will struggle to support the new unified process model.

The Connection to PMBOK 8

The direction of the ISO 19650 revision aligns precisely with PMBOK Guide Eighth Edition, published in 2025. PMBOK 8 reinforces the concept of Organisational Knowledge Repositories — structured information assets that serve not just the current project but the organisation's ongoing capability to deliver and manage built assets.

Both standards, independently, are arriving at the same conclusion: the future of construction is information-centric. Geometry is one component of that information. But the data attached to the geometry — the maintenance records, the equipment specifications, the compliance documentation, the operational parameters — is what makes a built asset genuinely useful to its owner.

What GCC Project Teams Should Do Now

The final ISO 19650 revision is not expected until 2027. But the principles it embeds are available today, and the most effective project teams are already implementing them:

• Define information requirements — not just model requirements — at project inception
• Structure the BIM Execution Plan around information delivery, not just software usage
• Plan the Asset Information Model from the first design stage, not at handover
• Engage the facilities management team before construction begins
• Select a Common Data Environment that supports the full asset lifecycle

The construction industry across the GCC is at a transition point. The standards, the technology, and the client expectations are all moving in the same direction. The teams that understand this shift — and implement it systematically — will define best practice in the region for the next decade.