Processes and in particular sub-processes can be reviewed and the key exchanges of information identified. What information must exist beforehand? What information must be added? The buildingSMART IDM standard for capturing process  helps, and the results of the IDM process can be published as BIM Guidance.

• IDM is published as ISO 29481. Tutorial information is available at idm.buildingsmart.no
• A framework for BIM Guidance will be published in early 2011 as ISO 12911 .

Data about buildings and products should be available in a form that is not owned or locked by any one vendor. This ensures that interoeprability can be achieved without one-to-one mapping between specific versions of applications. IFC covers not only the geometry of building objects but also the attributes and relationships between all the processes, objects actors and constraints that define an exising or planned facility.

• IFC is published as ISO 16739. All information is freely available from www.iai-tech.org .
• IFC is circulated as STEP format (ISO 10303 part 21) or as IFCXML (ISO 10303 part 28).

Where names are agreed for objects and for the properties of objects, they are being registered in a common international repository called the IFD. This repository can hold equivalences, such as the same concept in several languages and synonyms, the same concept in the same language.

• The IFD is documented at www.ifd-library.org
• The IFD is based on ISO 12006 part 3.