Two weeks before
Sam, the Coordinator, sets up the project's shared system, as the client's requirements ask, links it to the designers and the client, tests every link, and pins up a one-page guide to where everything goes.
Part 2 · Getting Ready
The Project Site
Where do we all work together?
Before you start
In the story
Rex turned up on a site nobody had set up, so everything went to email. This lesson builds the site properly, before day one.
Back to the story
The right way: Where do I put this?
Same project, set up before day one
Day one, 7am
Rex signs in, gets his login, and follows the guide.
Day one, lunchtime
Rex: Drawings in the shared system, photos in the app, RFIs in the register. Sorted. Where's the kettle?
Knowing where everything goes by lunch.
Nobody set it upEmail avalanches, three "Drawings" folders, and two months of setting up while building.
Built before day oneOne shared system, every firm linked, a guide on the wall. Rex was useful by lunchtime.
On your current job, could a new starter find where every kind of work goes on their first day?
Continue your journey
Story 6: Everything for Area 2.pdf
Rex's diary. Week 10. Alex says he's sending the drawings over on Friday. All of them. In one go. Efficient, apparently.
The right way, explained
A project is a shared place where several organisations work together for a while: the project site. Someone has to build it before day one: the shared system (the Site Office), the links to every firm (the lines) and a guide to where things go (the signposts). Sam did all three two weeks early, so Rex was useful by lunchtime.
In the town See it in the town: what has to be built before anyone turns up?
The scene
A shared place, just for this job
A job brings several firms together: the client, the firm leading the work, and the firms doing it. Each has its own town, and nobody moves into anyone else's. Instead, they set up one shared place for this job: the project site. The client is responsible for it, and often hands some or all of the running to the lead firm or another party. Everybody works through it, and it closes when the job ends. Before anyone can use it, it has to be built, connected and signposted. That's mobilisation.
Now mobilise it: build and connect the site
In the middle sits the Site Office: the project's CDE, joined to your own Records Office by the home line. Lines run out to every town: the design line to the designers, the client line to the client, the home line back to your own Records Office, the feeder line to the site apps and footpaths to the cabins. The workflows running along all these lines are how one system passes work to another. Signposts tell everyone where each kind of work goes, and the gate decides who gets in.
- Build the Site Office
- Connect the towns
- Plug in the site apps
- Put up the signposts
- Set up the gate
- Test everything
The towns are there. The project site is an empty plot. Your job: mobilise it.
Design line. To and from the designers.
Home line. Back to your own Records Office.
Client line. To and from the Client Town.
Feeder line. What's captured on site must reach the Site Office: by hand, on a schedule, through a link between systems, or because the app is part of the CDE.
This is Mobilisation!
Setting up, connecting and testing the project's systems, access and routes before the real work begins.
In ISO 19650, mobilisation is when the delivery team gets its CDE, its connections, its people's access and its ways of working in place, and tests them, so information can flow from day one. Controlling who can get in, and what they can see, is part of a security-minded approach.
Sam's Heads Up Your Site Office might be three buildings in a trench coat
Here the Site Office is one tidy building. On your job, the CDE might be one system, or three systems pretending to be one, with a shared drive lurking round the back.
Find out which before day one: what goes where, which one is the real record, and who decided. If nobody can tell you, that's your first job.
Fix it Already on site, and it's a mess?
Already on site,
and it's a mess?
- Map what people are actually using today, shortcuts included.
- Pick one home for each kind of parcel, and signpost it.
- Connect the other towns properly, then close the shortcuts.
A note for the Coordinators (that's IM): build and test the Site Office before day one! A site you set up while you're building on it is a site nobody trusts.
The site test On day one, can everyone answer…
Where does my work go?
SignpostedEvery kind of parcel has one home, and it says so.
Not signposted"Try the shared drive. Or ask Dave."
How does it reach the other towns?
ConnectedA tested line to the designers and to the client.
Not connectedEmail. Lots and lots of email.
Who let me in?
A real gateAccess set up, and taken away again when you leave.
No gateSomeone shared their login. Nobody ever turned it off.
The real town Why do sites start before they're set up?
Because the diggers are booked, and setting up feels like it can wait.
Everyone's in a rush
The start date was fixed months ago. The site office wasn't.
Every job is set up differently
So nobody knows what "ready" looks like.
Connections are "an IT thing"
Until the designers can't get their drawings in.
Nobody tests it
The first test is day one, with everyone watching.
ISO 19650 Mobilisation, step by step
| The firm leading the work should… | In practice | In the town |
|---|---|---|
| Get the people ready | Make sure every team can actually turn up, knows what the job needs and when, and has the skills to do it | Getting people through the gate, ready |
| Get the technology ready | Set up the CDE and everything that plugs into it, then prove parcels can move between teams and up to the client | Building the Site Office and testing every line |
| Get the ways of working ready | Try the agreed methods for real, make the templates, check the way work is split into parcels holds up, and tell everyone | Putting up the signposts |
Who runs the Site Office on this job?
| The client… | What that means for you |
|---|---|
| Runs it itself | You work in the client's system, to its rules. Ask for access, training and the rules early |
| Hands part of the running to the lead firm | Write down who does what: who sets up the folders and workflows, who grants access, who fixes it when it breaks |
| Hands all of the running to the lead firm | Your firm builds and runs the Site Office for the client. It is still the client's, and it goes back to the client at the end |
The client is responsible for the project's CDE (the Site Office). It often hands some or all of the running to the lead firm or another party, and sometimes runs the whole thing itself. Your Records Office is your own organisation's CDE, joined to the Site Office by the home line.
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.