A great analogy came from a recent conversation we had with Bobby Roop, BIM Manager at Slifco Electric, during BIMTM’s webinar on surviving your first BIM project. While talking about why contractors struggle on BIM jobs, Bobby compared BIM projects to pies.
Honestly, this analogy explains the problem with BIM better than most technical definitions ever could.
The construction industry has a bad habit of treating every BIM project the same just because they all fall under the “BIM” umbrella. But saying every BIM project is the same because they all use BIM is like saying a pizza pie, a chicken pot pie, and a pecan pie are the same thing because they all have “pie” in the name.
Sure, technically they’re all pies, but the ingredients, prep work, timing, budget, tools, and baking process are completely different. That’s exactly what happens in BIM.
Let’s start with the most basic- the pizza pie.
The Pizza Pie: Warehouses & Simpler Commercial Projects
A warehouse project is your pizza pie: fairly straightforward systems, open ceilings, repetitive layouts, and more room for trades to work around each other. The coordination process is still important, but it is generally more forgiving than highly complex facilities. 
You still need planning, you still need the right ingredients, and you still need somebody who knows what they’re doing, but overall, the process is more predictable.
You know roughly how long it takes. You know what ingredients you need. And you generally know what the finished product should look like. The BIM workflow reflects that.
Coordination may move faster, the model may not need extreme levels of detail, the schedule may allow more breathing room, and field adjustments are easier to work through without completely derailing the project.
This is where a lot of contractors get comfortable. Then they make the mistake of assuming every BIM project works the same way, which brings us to the chicken pot pie.
The Chicken Pot Pie: Hospitals & Healthcare Projects
Now let’s talk hospitals. Hospitals are the chicken pot pie of BIM projects. At first glance, it still looks manageable. It’s still “just pie,” right? Yeah, until you actually start making it. 
Now there are way more ingredients involved, more trades, more systems, more owner requirements, more inspections, more sequencing, more coordination meetings, more pressure to get everything exactly right. ….More, more, more. You get the ‘gist.
The ceiling spaces alone can look like someone tried stuffing an entire mechanical room above every corridor.
Unlike the warehouse project pizza pie, hospital systems are heavily layered and tightly packed. Mechanical, electrical, plumbing, med gas, structural, ceiling systems, supports, equipment, and access requirements are all competing for the same limited space. This is where BIM stops being a nice coordination tool and starts becoming critical to keeping the project buildable.
One routing decision can affect multiple trades, one missed clash can create field chaos, and one unanswered RFI can stall multiple teams. If someone estimated this hospital project the same way they estimated the warehouse project, they’re probably going to realize pretty quickly they showed up to the grocery store with the wrong shopping list.
Not let’s talk pecan pie.
The Pecan Pie: Data Centers & High Pressure Projects
Data Centers are the pecan pie of BIM projects. At first glance, it looks simpler than the hospital project. The systems can appear repetitive: clean layouts, structured pathways, organized racks. Everything looks polished and controlled.
But anyone who has actually made a good pecan pie knows it is way less forgiving than it looks.
The timing matters.
The temperature matters.
The consistency matters.
One wrong move and the whole thing turns into a burnt, runny mess.
That’s a data center project.
These jobs are usually driven by brutally aggressive schedules, huge prefabrication opportunities, tight sequencing requirements, and extremely high expectations for precision. Electrical coordination, installation planning, and communication between departments all become critical.
One issue can ripple through procurement, prefab, installation, startup, and commissioning faster than people realize. Now BIM is no longer just “helpful:” it becomes essential to keeping the project moving.
The project team may need spool drawings, prefab assemblies, robotic layout points, detailed installation planning, and constant coordination between the field, prefab shop, BIM team, and project management.
And just like a pecan pie, the final product may look clean and polished when it’s done, but getting there takes way more precision and planning than most people expect walking into it.
Figure Out What Kind of Pie You’re Baking
This is where Bobby’s analogy really hits home. A lot of contractors approach BIM projects with the same budget, staffing plan, and timeline regardless of what kind of project they’re walking into. But that makes about as much sense as expecting a pizza pie, a chicken pot pie, and a pecan pie to require the exact same ingredients, prep work, and baking process.
Yet that is exactly how a lot of companies still approach BIM.
“Throw some hours at coordination.”
“Get us a model.”
“We just need BIM because the project requires it.”
Meanwhile, nobody has actually defined what the project really needs.
Is the model supporting prefabrication? Will the field use it for layout? Are spool drawings required? Does the owner expect accurate as-builts? What level of detail is required? How much coordination is expected between trades?
Those answers completely change the manpower, workflow, schedule, and level of effort required to execute the project successfully, and that’s where contractors get burned. They estimate for the pizza pie and accidentally sign up for the pecan pie.
At the end of the day, BIM is not just software. It is a construction workflow tool. The teams that succeed with BIM are usually the ones that understand the actual deliverables, expectations, and construction process behind the project before coordination even starts.
Watch the Full Webinar Conversation
This pie analogy was just one small part of the conversation. During the full webinar, Bobby Roop from Slifco Electric and Jared Sutliff from BIMTM also covered:
- BIM execution plans
- Estimating BIM scope
- Prefab workflows
- Field coordination
- LOD expectations
- Communication breakdowns between teams
- And common mistakes contractors make on their first BIM projects
If you’ve ever looked at a BIM requirement and thought, “How complicated can this really be?” … this webinar is probably worth the watch. Fill out the form below for a link: