## 1 Introduction  
### Research Background and Objective  
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility usable to plan, design, construct, and operate the facility [1]. As facilities projects have become larger and more complicated than before, the amount of information to be produced and managed has also increased. As a result, there has been an escalating interest in BIM as a method for managing information and supporting collaboration among project participants. In Korea, since 2012, the application of BIM to public construction projects worth more than USD 40 million has been mandated [2]. Additionally, the Architectural Service Industry Promotion Act (ASIPA) and the National Competency Standards (NCS) were enacted in 2014, aiming at enhancing architectural design quality in the public sector and standardizing the technology levels of various industries (including BIM), respectively [3, 4]. Given the ASIPA and the NCS, the role of public owners (POs hereafter) has been emphasized significantly in the field of project management involving BIM service management. Construction works consist of both private and public sector business, depending on project ownership. In case of Korea, ~70% of total construction volume nationwide belongs to the public sector [5]. To achieve high-quality BIM service, the PO should play a pivotal role from the planning stage of a project onwards as a BIM coordinator. In accordance with the ASIPA, if the PO plans to build a facility whose design fee exceeds USD 200,000, they should first obtain official approval for the preliminary feasibility of the facility, includingBIM service procurement. However, in spite of having to follow this new policy, there have been few BIM experts in PO organizations. Many POs have consequently been cautious in procuring BIM service [6]. There are rarely regular BIM education programs for POs, and since the workforces in the organizations are regularly rotated to different job positions--usually every two years--they are typically not able to educate themselves and accumulate enough experience to be competitive BIM coordinators [7]. POs, in general, have a different perspective on BIM compared to private vendors or designers. While private entities are interested in developing BIM products, POs are concerned with a structured and justifiable buying process for BIM service from the private entities; they like to know how to develop the proper specifications to purchase the BIM service, what principles should be included in the specifications, how to manage rather than produce the intermediate BIM products during the BIM execution process, and how to verify the quality of the BIM service even if the service is produced in accordance with the specifications. In the past 10 years, several BIM guides have been developed, and diverse international ones have been referred to for POs to procure BIM service in Korea. Many POs, however, consider that the guides suffer from certain deficiencies in meeting their requirements, such as being easy to follow and tailored to meet the public procurement process, i.e., scope definition, supplier invitation, supplier choice, implementation, and closing and payment [7]. The POs indicate that it is necessary to develop a more PO-oriented BIM guide that can meet the requirements of the new BIM policies--i.e., the ASIPA and the NCS--so that it can be used as a comprehensive reference for the POs to develop proper guidelines for their BIM service contracts. At the beginning of 2021, the Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT)--the central governmental entity responsible for developing public guidelines and policies to provide quality infrastructure--established the hierarchical structure of BIM guidelines shown in Figure 1, and developed the Construction Industry Fundamental BIM Guideline (CIFBG) (i.e., Level 1-1 in Figure 1) as that sort of reference [8].