Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) is one of those rare and arcane accounting tricks accountants use to help us understand which tire, window, home appliance, or building facade system is most cost effective for the benefits delivered. Pretty rarefied stuff for most of us, but when you stop and think about it CBA is one of those data inputs we need when making good decisions in a collaborative IPD / BIM environment.
One of the great benefits of BIM is the ability to quickly substitute individual component elements for others using global commands. The BIM authoring tools do all the counting for us, we just need to put in the modifying variables like life cycle times, cost per unit measured and a benefit ranking analysis. Some BIM authoring tools allow you to store