Week 1
Funmi (design lead): What are we building? Right, that means 40 drawings. Let's plan it.
Turning the client's need into a list. The roof detail can wait.
Part 2 · Getting Ready
What Have They Asked For?
Plan it! What are we making, and what do we need to get it right first time?
Before you start
In the story
Nobody asked for the drainage layout, so nobody made it until it was urgent. This lesson shows how the client's question becomes a plan.
Back to the story
The right way: The drawing nobody asked for
Same project, starting with the question
Week 1
Priya: And we'll need inspections to prove we built it right.
Planning the proof before anyone's dug a single hole. Rex adds it to the list.
Week 1, Thursday
Alex opens the design software and starts on 042, the drainage layout. Needed, planned, then made. That's how the drainage drawing is born.
Nobody askedLots of work, the wrong things first, and nothing to prove what was built.
Started with the questionEveryone knows what to make, why, and by when. Including the proof.
Pick something you're making this week. Who asked for it, what is it for, and when do they actually need it?
Continue your journey
Story 5: Where do I put this?
Rex's diary. Week 8. Moving to site on Monday. Asked where we keep everything once we're there. Got a shrug.
The right way, explained
You already know this one. Your clothes were all over the floor, so you ordered a wardrobe that fits, and it turned up as twelve boxes and a parts list. The shopping centre is the same, just bigger: the client places the order, and the teams turn it into a parts list of everything to make, who makes it and when. If it isn't on the parts list, it doesn't get made, or it gets made in a panic. Alex's roof detail was a lovely extra shelf nobody ordered. Priya's inspections only existed because they were on the list in week one.
In the town See it in the town: one order, one parts list. What turns a wish into a plan?
The scene
"What are we building?"
Every project starts with the client's question. The design team turns it into a list of drawings to make. The site team turns it into details, questions and inspections. Only then does anybody start making things, inside the right building.
Show:
The need, turned into a plan. Who makes what, and by when.
This is the Information Delivery Plan!
The order and the parts list: the client's needs (the information requirements), turned into a list of every part to make, who makes it, how much detail it needs, by when, and whether it goes to the client.
ISO 19650 calls the client's needs information requirements, from the organisation's big picture down to each individual delivery. The list of what each team will make, and when, is the information delivery plan. Information still being made sits in the work in progress state, inside the team's own space.
Fix it Already making things? Check the need.
Already making things?
Check the need.
- Ask what the client actually needs from you.
- Write the list: what, who, by when.
- Add the inspections and records you'll need to prove it.
A note for the Coordinators (that's IM): start every project with the client's question: what are we building, and what do we need to prove it? Then turn the answers into a list everyone can actually see!
The need test Before you make anything, can you answer…
Who needs it?
Written downA named person or team is waiting for it.
In someone's head"I just assumed someone would want it."
What for?
Written downIt answers a question or lets someone do a job.
In someone's head"It seemed like a good idea at the time."
By when?
Written downA date that fits the work that depends on it.
In someone's head"ASAP." So, never, then everything at once.
The real town Why do people start making before anyone's asked?
Because making things is the fun part, and planning feels like a delay.
Everyone's itching to start
Designing beats writing lists. Every time.
The client assumes you know
And you assume they'll tell you.
"It's in the contract somewhere"
Page 214. Nobody has read page 214.
Proof is an afterthought
Until someone asks for it, six months later.
ISO 19650 From the order to the parts list
| ISO 19650 says | Means | In the town |
|---|---|---|
| Organisational information requirements (OIR) | What the client's organisation needs to know to run itself | The client's big picture |
| Asset information requirements (AIR) | What they need to know to run the asset | What the drain needs for the next forty years |
| Project information requirements (PIR) | What they need to know to make decisions on this project | "What are we building?" |
| Exchange information requirements (EIR) | Exactly what each appointed party has to deliver, and to what standard | What goes to the client, and when |
| Information delivery milestones | When information has to be delivered | The delivery dates on the order |
| Level of information need | How much detail is enough, and no more | "How much detail does this ingredient need?" |
| Task information delivery plan (TIDP) | Each task team's list of what it will make, and when | Each team's page of the parts list |
| Master information delivery plan (MIDP) | All the TIDPs joined up by the lead appointed party | The whole parts list |
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.