**2. Methods—SWOT Analysis**

The SWOT analysis is commonly used in strategic management when building the strategy of a given organization. It is a kind of diagnostic tool, often used at the very beginning of the process of defining future strategic plans. The SWOT analysis is a simple but powerful tool for sizing up an organization's resource capabilities and deficiencies, its market opportunities, and the external threats to its future [2]. SWOT is the acronym created from the initial letters of words that describe the characteristics of an organization's resources and its environment. The analysis has two dimensions: internal and external. The internal dimension includes organizational factors, also strengths and weaknesses, while the external dimension includes environmental factors, as well as opportunities and threats [3]. The SWOT analysis allows to obtain information on the possibilities of using strengths and enhancing the weaknesses in order to take advantage of the opportunities the environment offers and limit the risks that the environment can bring about. Strengths and weaknesses are of an internal nature, while opportunities and threats are of an external nature. Thus, the two dimensions generate four categories of factors:


The analysis performed by the authors aims to assess the opportunities offered by the introduction of the BIM technology in Poland, to evaluate risks, as well as analyze the strengths and weaknesses of support for the construction and the investment process using the BIM technology. The combination of strengths and weaknesses with opportunities and threats in the analysis strives for finding the best use of the potential that the BIM method offers in Polish conditions. The measure of the internal strength of the BIM technology, its strategic attractiveness and probability of strategic success will also be determined.

Advantages and disadvantages of the BIM technology will be presented in the analysis as strengths and weaknesses; moreover, the opportunities and risks of implementing BIM will be identified. The analysis will be performed in three stages:


### **3. BIM Technology**

According the United States National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) "A BIM is a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. As such, it serves as a shared knowledge resource for information about a facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its lifecycle from inception onward" [4].

The task of the BIM technology is, therefore, to support the activities performed during the entire life cycle of a building by providing information on the geometry of the building as well as descriptive information on the building and its individual elements. The development of BIM and other digital technologies supporting the construction industry allows to improve the construction process and accelerate the implementation of buildings. Along with the development of such technologies as building information modeling (BIM), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and the Internet of Things (for instance, near-field communication (NFC) and radio-frequency identification (RFID) sensors), new hardware and software tools have been introduced into the construction industry. These technologies allow the automation of construction processes, monitoring of construction works and management of information flow, as well as quality inspections [5].

The main advantage of BIM is the possibility to collect data in one place, namely in the BIM model, together with the method of geometric presentation of the building structure in a three-dimensional view. Collecting data through the design, construction, and operational phases would allow for further analysis of these data, generating new insights and simulations to identify clashes and interdependencies. Moreover, creating new methods of data visualization using visual and mixed reality improves communication and provides on-site information [6].

What should be emphasized is that, in comparison to the traditional construction process, not only the way of presenting geometric data (3D view) and collecting all the necessary data in the BIM model differ, but also the view and mentality of the participants in the construction process should also be changed. For example, the process of cost analysis benefiting from the availability of the BIM model differs in terms of quick extraction of information and data necessary as input for the developed predictive models [7]. However, every participant in a construction project has access to the data throughout the entire construction cycle. The cost data can, therefore, be adjusted on an ongoing basis. Moreover, each participant has access to the model and the data it contains, so they can, for instance, verify the data on an ongoing basis or have up-to-date information about the sample cost analysis and its changes.

Another advantage of BIM is the possibility to check the geometry and information included in the model easily and quickly. Revising the possible clash detection which can make works difficult to implement in order to discuss other solutions or remove errors occurring already at the pre-execution stage, is a significant advantage of the BIM technology. BIM is at the forefront of digital transformation in the AEC industry, [ ... ] with a view toward streamlining a number of operations, such as collaboration and design review while addressing issues such as speed, cybersecurity, and data exchange integrity [8].

Considering the evolution imposed by the use of BIM, Table 1 summarizes the basic differences between the possibilities of using the BIM model in the construction process and the possibilities of CAD software supporting the traditional construction process.


**Table 1.** Comparison of CAD and BIM software capabilities (own study).

Based on their research of publications on BIM published since 2004, Liu et al. [9] concluded that, in the recent decade, the research in the field of BIM was developing continuously, which had completely subverted the traditional operation mode of the AEC industry and attracted more and more researchers' attention at the same time. Considering the advantages of BIM technology and the pace of its development in many countries around the world, but also taking into account the disadvantages of this technology, the authors decided to investigate the trends in its development in Poland.
