The capitolato informativo is the document in which an Italian contracting authority states what information it wants from designers or contractors, when, in which format and how it will be checked. Annex I.9 of Legislative Decree 36/2023 requires it in every procurement that uses BIM, and it is Italy's equivalent of the Exchange Information Requirements (EIR) of EN ISO 19650.
Paragraph 8 of Annex I.9 sets its minimum contents: information requirements and levels of information need, production and archiving rules, specifications and properties of the common data environment (ACDat in Italian), and long-term interoperability. UNI 11337-6 provides drafting guidance. Here are the ten sections that, in our experience on both sides of the tender, separate a capitolato that gets used from one that gets filed.
The 10 things to write
1. Objectives and model uses
Before any technical requirement, the document must say what the models are for: clash coordination, quantity take-off, design verification, asset operation. Each use generates different requirements, and a requirement that serves no use is cost without benefit. Link each use to a concrete client decision, such as approving a design stage or validating the bill of quantities.
2. Information requirements and level of information need
This is the core. For each element category and each stage, state which geometry, which data and which documents are needed, ideally in a matrix rather than prose. The LOD A to G classes of UNI 11337-4 help as a summary, but the matrix is what binds. We explain how to build it in our article on Italian and international LOD.
3. Delivery schedule
The document must say what is delivered and when, linking each delivery to design stages and planned checks. Without dates and contents for each delivery, the appointed party will organise work around its own internal deadlines. The schedule then becomes the basis of the delivery plan that the winner develops in the pGI.
4. Open formats and long-term interoperability
Article 43(3) of the Code requires interoperable platforms and open, non-proprietary formats. The capitolato must turn the principle into concrete choices: IFC for models, with version and export rules, BCF for coordination issues, open formats for documents and data. It should also say whether native files are required, since whoever edits the models later will need them.
5. Common data environment
Annex I.9 requires the contracting authority to have its own ACDat, through which all deliveries pass. The capitolato must state which platform is used, who provides it, how folders are organised, which states information containers go through and who approves each transition. If the appointed party works in its own environment, synchronisation rules with the client's must be written down.
6. Production and archiving rules
File coding, object naming, coordinate system, units, model breakdown by discipline and zone, classification system. These are tedious rules, and they are what make models from different teams federate. Attach concrete examples of correct names: they are more useful than a page of definitions.
7. Roles and responsibilities
The capitolato must name the roles required from the appointed party, such as BIM manager, BIM coordinator and BIM specialist, and the expected skills. It must also identify the client-side counterpart: the information flow coordinator that Annex I.9 requires for each project. A responsibility matrix per delivery and per check stops issues from being left without an owner.
8. Checks and acceptance criteria
Every requirement should be checkable on the delivered model, preferably with an automated rule. The capitolato must say which checks are run, how often, with which tolerances and what happens when a model fails. Required properties can be written as IDS and checked directly on IFC files, which is the work of our BIM validation service.
9. Models versus drawings
Under the mandate, contractual precedence moves to the information models, as far as technologically practicable. The capitolato should therefore ask bidders to state which drawings derive from the model and which do not, and how a discrepancy is handled. The Ministry's guidelines suggest recording this in the pGI as a matrix, and the capitolato can require it explicitly.
10. As-built and operational data
At final acceptance the contractor delivers the as-built models and a specialist report on information modelling. The capitolato must say at which level of information need and with which attributes, starting with the asset codes that the operator will use. It is the most neglected section, and it decides whether the model can become a Digital Twin or stays an archive.
The mistakes we see most often
- Requirements copied from a template, which do not match the authority's real decisions.
- Standards transcribed in full: the text grows and becomes impossible to check.
- One LOD for the whole model, with no distinction by category, stage or use.
- No acceptance criteria: without checking rules the document is a statement of intent.
- Operation left to the end: operational attributes collected in the last month are always incomplete.
From the other side of the table
A clear capitolato also helps those who respond. On the Napoli-Bari high-speed railway BIMON supported Pizzarotti from the tender stage, bringing BIM into the technical bid: the model of the whole route made it possible to verify proposed improvements and real savings in cost and time. At MIND Milano Innovation District we run masterplan data management and BIM management for Lendlease, with a business intelligence tool that validates project data, the same principle of requirements written to be checked. At Rome Fiumicino airport, under framework agreements with Aeroporti di Roma, surveys, BIM process management and model validation follow rules shared across the airport's projects.
Where to start
Before drafting, check whether your procurement falls under the mandate with the BIM Mandate Checker, and review the legal framework in our article on the Italian BIM mandate. To see how many tenders fall within the mandate, our BIM tender observatory 2025 analyses ANAC open data on works lots above €2 million. Definitions of EIR / capitolato informativo and oGI and pGI are in the glossary.
We support contracting authorities in drafting the capitolato and setting up the ACDat, and contractors in responding with the oGI. Our BIM management team can review your requirements against what the law asks and what the site will actually need. This article is for information only and is not legal advice.
