Monday
Rex saves the calculation in his team's area of the project's shared system, the CDE. Not the desktop. Growth.
Part 1 · The Place
The Buildings
Which building do you work in, and which one do you share in?
Before you start
In the story
Rex's calc was saved where only he could find it. This lesson shows where work should live, and the one place everyone agrees to trust.
Back to the story
The right way: Rex's first calculation
Same week, saved in the shared system
Thursday
The laptop still dies (they always do). Rex logs in on a spare and carries on. Nothing lost.
Friday
Alex: I've marked up the one on the CDE. There's only one, so we can't get it mixed up.
Only on Rex's laptopThree copies, one dead laptop and half a day of detective work.
In the shared systemOne copy everyone works on, still there when the laptop isn't.
Look at the last three files you saved. Where are they actually saved? Would your team find them if you were off tomorrow?
Continue your journey
Story 3: Who's checking this?
Rex's diary. Week 3. Finished my first drawing! Turns out "the client" isn't the people upstairs. Not sure who checks it, though.
The right way, explained
The buildings in the town are your systems. Some belong to one team. One is shared by everyone and trusted as the record: the Records Office, your organisation's CDE. On a project, a shared Site Office joins it (Lesson 5). Work saved on a desktop or in an inbox never reaches a building at all. It's stuck in someone's bag, and Rex's calc only became safe when it left his.
In the town See it in the town: lots of buildings, and only one everyone trusts. Which one?
The scene
Every district has its buildings
Each district runs on its own buildings: the systems that part of the business works in. Engineering has the Design System, Commercial has the Commercial System, and so on. One building, the Records Office, sits in Information Governance and serves every district. Every building keeps information, but each one does a different job. Some are built to last. Some are built for one project and taken down at the end. And some information never reaches a building at all: it stays in someone's bag.
Look inside a buildingAround the districts
The Records Office
- What lives here
- IM calls it
- Watch out for
These are your Systems, and one of them is your CDE!
The Records Office is the CDE: just another building, but the agreed one. Its storage rooms are controlled, people come to get what they need, and outside parties can meet you there. The other buildings are the systems around it.
ISO 19650 describes the CDE as the agreed source of information for a project or asset, used to collect, manage and share every piece of information through a managed process. The other buildings still matter, but the CDE is the one everybody agrees to trust.
Fix it Still in your bag? Deliver it.
Still in your bag?
Deliver it.
- Move your unfinished work into your team's area on the CDE.
- Delete the copy on your laptop so there's only one.
- Bookmark the right building so it's the quickest one to reach.
A note for whoever looks after the town (that's IM): if more parcels are sitting in people's bags than in the Records Office, don't blame the people. Fix the road to the Records Office!
The building test Is your work in a proper building?
Would it survive if your laptop died?
Proper buildingYes. It lives on the CDE, not on your machine.
In a bagNo. It goes with the laptop.
Can your team find it without asking you?
Proper buildingYes. It's where everyone expects it.
In a bagOnly if you're in, and you remember.
Does someone look after the building?
Proper buildingYes. It's backed up, managed and has a keeper.
In a bagJust you, and only when you remember.
The real town Why does information stay in people's bags?
Because it's right there, and it never asks any questions.
It's one click away
The desktop is always closest, and it never asks you to fill anything in.
The proper building feels slow
Log in, find the folder, fill in six fields. Sigh.
Nobody said which building
New starters copy whatever the person next to them does. Bad habits included.
No signal on site
No signal in the cabin means saving to the laptop and hoping for the best.
ISO 19650 What a CDE has to do
| A project CDE should let you… | In the town |
|---|---|
| Give every parcel its own name, built the agreed way | The name on the label (Lesson 7) |
| Use the same agreed codes for every part of that name | Everyone speaks the same code |
| Show what each parcel is fit for, which version it is, and what kind of thing it is | The rest of the label (Lesson 7) |
| Let parcels move from room to table to shelf | Your own room, the shared table, the published shelf (Lessons 6 and 10) |
| Remember who moved what, and when | The trail (Lesson 8) |
| Decide who can open which parcel | The locked doors |
The four states
| State | What it means | In the town |
|---|---|---|
| Work in progress | Being made by one team | Your own room |
| Shared | Available for other teams to use and coordinate with | The shared table |
| Published | Authorised and accepted for use, such as construction | The published shelf |
| Archived | Kept as the record of what was shared and published | The archive |
The client (the appointing party) is responsible for the project's CDE, set up before anyone is invited to tender. It often hands some or all of the running to the lead firm or another party.
Based on the ISO 19650 series: the ideas come from the standard; the plain-English wording, examples and advice are InfoTown's. ISO 19650 and its UK National Annex are © ISO and BSI. You'll hear the same language across the industry. Read more for free in the Information Management Initiative (IMI) Framework guidance from BSI and nima. For the full requirements, use the standard itself.