IDM (Information Delivery Manual) (IDM)

An Information Delivery Manual (IDM) is the methodology — developed by buildingSMART and standardised as ISO 29481 — for capturing and specifying the processes and information flows across the lifecycle of a built asset. It identifies the sequence of processes a project goes through and, for each, the information needed to carry it out.

What it documents is process plus data. An IDM maps existing or new processes and the information the parties must exchange — who delivers what, and when — using process diagrams and responsibility maps, so that the right data reaches the receiving software in a form it can actually interpret. To be operational it has to be supported by software.

It pairs with the Model View Definition: the IDM defines the process and use case, the MVD filters the IFC data for that use case, and IFC delivers the structured model. The basis is ISO 29481-1 (the methodology and format) and ISO 29481-2 (the interaction framework — process maps and responsibility maps). In Italian it is the Manuale di Consegna Informativa.