COBie (Construction-Operations Building information exchange) (COBie)

COBie — Construction-Operations Building information exchange — is a standard data format and process for handing over an asset's information from project delivery into operations and maintenance. Its focus is the maintainable asset and facility-management data, not the model geometry.

It exists to deliver, in a structured form, exactly what the operations and maintenance team needs at handover: assets, spaces, systems, locations, contacts, warranties, manuals and maintenance data. The point is to stop information being lost or delayed in the gap between construction finishing and the facility-management system starting up.

COBie is typically represented as a spreadsheet / table structure (Excel- or XML-based), and is also defined as a Model View Definition of IFC — a non-graphic subset carrying the data relevant to operations. In lifecycle terms it populates and supports the asset information model the owner relies on after handover. It is recognised in the US NBIMS standard and described by buildingSMART as an IFC-based exchange. In Italian it is the scambio di informazioni costruzione-gestione, though COBie is normally kept.