Why Construction Handovers Go Wrong (And How to Avoid It)
Watch the episode on YouTube right here!
A lot of building data is created every year, and most of it is lost the day the building opens.
For years, dozens (sometimes hundreds) of professionals work on a construction project. Architects model it. Engineers analyse it. Contractors document it. Suppliers deliver specifications, manuals, certificates, and quality assurance data. By the time the building is complete, an enormous amount of information has been generated.
And yet, the moment the building is handed over to operations, much of that information becomes surprisingly difficult to use, or it’s delivered too late.
Why?
Because the industry often treats handover as the end of the project, instead of what it really is: the beginning of a building’s operational life.
In our latest podcast episode, we spoke with Jonas Brandenborg, an ICT coordinator at Bygningsstyrelsen (The Danish Building and Property Agency). His experience highlights a simple but uncomfortable truth: the problem isn’t a lack of data.
It’s a lack of planning for how that data will actually be used by facilities management.
In the following article, we’ll discuss:
- The most forgotten phase of a construction project
- Digital handover starts long before the building is finished
- When handovers fail, the work starts again
- Not all data is useful (and asking for too much creates new problems)
- The missing bridge between design and operations
- Timing matters more than most people realise
- What the future of facility management might look like
The most forgotten phase of a construction project
Construction projects typically focus heavily on design and delivery. These phases receive the majority of attention, resources, and coordination.
But the operational phase of a building can last 30, 40, or even 100 years.
And that phase relies heavily on information. Facility management teams need to know:
- What equipment exists in the building
- Where it is located
- What maintenance schedules apply
- Which suppliers delivered which components
- What documentation, warranties, and manuals are associated with each asset
Without structured data, operations get a slow start, is more expensive, and more manual.
As Jonas explains in the podcast, huge amounts of data are generated throughout the project’s many phases. But without a proper digital handover once the building is finished, that information often ends up sitting in archives instead of being used operationally.
In other words: the industry does the work of collecting the information—but fails to deliver it in a usable way. The operations team then goes out and collects all this information again. Repeating the work.
Digital handover starts long before the building is finished
One of the biggest misconceptions about handover is timing. Many projects treat digital handover as something that happens at the end of construction. But by then, it’s too late.
If the right requirements weren’t defined earlier, the necessary information simply won’t exist.
According to Jonas, the process should begin at the very start of a project with clear ICT agreements and data requirements coming from the client.
These agreements define:
- What data must be delivered
- Which building elements require information
- How information should be structured
- Which classification systems should be used
This is what allows data to flow smoothly between project teams and facility management.
Without those early definitions, each discipline produces information in its own format. The result is a mountain of data that doesn’t integrate.
And when operations finally receive it, they often can’t use it directly and needs to map it onto their own classification systems. Something that takes a long time to do.
When handovers fail, the work starts again
One of the most frustrating consequences of a poor handover is something the industry rarely talks about: double work.
When facility management teams don’t receive usable information, they often have no choice but to start over.
They go back into the building.
They count equipment.
They register systems manually.
They create their own asset lists.
All the information that already existed during design and construction gets recreated from scratch.
This costs time. It costs money. And it delays the moment when operations can actually focus on running the building efficiently.
The irony is that the data already exists.
It just wasn’t delivered properly.
Not all data is useful (and asking for too much creates new problems)
Another challenge in digital handovers is the temptation to request everything. Clients often assume that if they ask for as much data as possible, they’ll cover all future needs. The same goes for the facility management teams.
But asking for too much information can actually reduce quality. When teams are required to produce huge volumes of data that may never be used, two things happen:
- Project teams spend time generating information with little operational value.
- The truly important data becomes harder to manage and verify.
Instead, successful digital handovers focus on relevant data.
That means understanding what facility management teams actually need to operate and maintain the building. And that conversation needs to happen early.
Sometimes even before the facility management team is fully defined.
The missing bridge between design and operations
A recurring challenge in digital handovers is the disconnect between those who design buildings and those who operate them. Design teams structure information around design classification systems using BIM models.
Facility management teams, however, work within completely different operational systems. Different classification systems.
Without coordination, the handover becomes a translation problem. Operations teams receive data that doesn’t match how they manage assets, forcing them to reorganize everything manually.
Bridging this gap requires people who understand both worlds:
- design processes
- data standards
- operational workflows
It also requires collaboration between advisors, clients, and facility management teams early in the project.
Because if operations are not involved early, their needs simply won’t be reflected in the data structure and output.
Timing matters more than most people realise
Another common failure point is when data is delivered doing the handover. In many projects, the final digital documentation arrives late, sometimes after operations have already started running the building. People have moved in.
At that point, facility management teams can’t wait.
They need to maintain equipment, manage systems, and respond to issues immediately. So they start building their own operational data sets.
Later, when the official handover documentation finally arrives, they already have a running system. And the cycle of duplicated work continues.
Better planning can avoid this.
Some information, especially data requirements and asset structures, can be defined years before construction finishes.
When that happens, digital handover becomes a process rather than a deadline.
What the future of facility management might look like
Looking ahead, Jonas sees facility management becoming increasingly connected to digital building models. But not necessarily in the way people often imagine.
Instead of maintaining complex digital twins of entire buildings, Jonas predicts a more practical approach: lightweight 3D models used primarily for navigation and location.
In this scenario, the model acts like an interactive map of the building. Users can locate rooms, equipment, and systems quickly.
Detailed information remains stored in operational systems, but the model provides visual context and navigation. This approach reduces complexity while still unlocking the value of digital models during operations.
And it reinforces an important principle:
Digital models are tools for understanding buildings, not necessarily containers for every piece of information. Maintaining digital twins for several hundred assets could show itself to be completely unrealistic. And unnecessary.
But all of this still require better digital handovers, industry wide.
A successful digital handover ensures that the knowledge built during design and construction continues to support the building throughout its operational life.
And that requires planning for operations much early in the project.
Because in reality, handover is not the end of a project. It is the beginning of a building’s operational life.