Friday, 4:55pm
The Checker: I'll check it properly on Monday. Our checking procedure gives me a day.
The client gets it Tuesday. Nobody dies.
Part 3 · The Journey
The Checkpoints
Can I trust it?
Before you start
In the story
Three signatures and no checks put a drain through a foundation. This lesson shows the four checkpoints, and who writes the rules.
Back to the story
The right way: The rubber stamp
Same drawing, actually checked
Monday
The Checker: Wrong template, and the drain clips the foundation.
Back to Alex with comments. Fixed by lunch.
Tuesday
Dave: Right first time? Who are you people?
Genuinely confused.
Rubber-stampedThree signatures, no checks, and a digger standing still for a week.
Actually checkedOne day later, right first time, and the record says who did what.
Think of the last thing you approved. What did you actually check it against?
Continue your journey
Story 10: Just send them everything
Rex's diary. Week 44. Handover's in seven weeks. Dave has about 2,000 files and a plan to send all of them.
The right way, explained
Before work is shared it passes four checkpoints: someone makes it, someone else checks it, someone reviews it, and someone approves it. The rules for each are written down before the job starts, in the rulebook. A signature without a check is just a rubber stamp.
In the town See it in the town: four stops before anything is shared. What's the whole thing called?
The scene
Four checkpoints on the road out
Between the Design System and the shared table sit four checkpoints. The maker finishes it, someone else checks it's made properly, someone reviews whether it does the job, and someone with the authority approves it for sharing. Above the road hangs the rulebook that says how. Pick a checkpoint to see what happens there.
Not working in the CDE. Your team works in its own system, and the four checkpoints happen there. Approved, the parcel crosses the hoarding into the CDE, and Goods In checks it at the gate: is it labelled right, in the right format, going to the right place? Only then does it reach the shared table. Your project decides which way it works. Either way, the four checkpoints still happen.
Pick a checkpointOn the road out
Originate
- On the drawing
- IM calls it
- Watch out for
This is an Approval Process!
Originate, check, review, approve: a parcel is only shared once someone with the authority says it's right.
ISO 19650 expects a quality assurance check and a review against the information requirements before information is approved for sharing and moves from work in progress to the shared state. The project's information standard and its production methods and procedures set out how the team does this, and a security-minded approach (ISO 19650-5) decides who gets to see what.
Sam's Heads Up Four checkpoints is the minimum, not the maximum
Your company's check-and-approve process might have six steps, two signatures and a form nobody can find. That's fine, as long as the four here are in there somewhere and someone actually does them.
The rules for your job live in its information standard and procedures. The BEP says which way the team promised to work; the procedures say how, step by step. If they say something different from this page, they win. If they say nothing at all, that's a bigger problem.
Sam's Heads Up Being able to click it doesn't mean you're allowed to
Approving, authorising and accepting each commit your firm to something. Only the people your firm has actually given that authority to should do them, and the CDE should only let those people press the button.
Check who on your job can approve. If the answer is "whoever's in a hurry", or someone who passed the job to a colleague along with their login, fix the permissions before the next Friday afternoon.
Fix it Got a rubber stamp problem?
Got a rubber
stamp problem?
- Pick one recent drawing and ask who actually checked it, and against what.
- Write down your four checkpoints and who owns each one.
- Put them in the project's procedures and the CDE workflow, so the route enforces them.
A note for the Coordinators (that's IM): write the rulebook before work starts, and build the checkpoints into the route so parcels can't skip them. A stamp without a check is just ink!
The checkpoint test Before you trust a parcel, ask…
Who checked it?
A real checkSomeone who isn't the maker, and their name's on it.
A rubber stamp"It was checked." By whom? "Er…"
What did they check it against?
The rulebookThe project's standard, and what the order asked for.
A feelingTheir gut, at 4:56 on a Friday.
Who should see it?
DecidedOpen, restricted or need-to-know, sorted before it's shared.
Not decidedEveryone. Including the bloke from the other job.
The real town Why do checkpoints get skipped?
Because the deadline was yesterday and the Checker is a nice person.
Deadlines win
Checking feels slow, until you count the rework.
Nobody wrote the rules down
So every Checker checks something different.
Signing is easy
A signature takes two seconds. A check takes longer. Guess which one happens.
It's someone else's job
The maker thinks the Checker will catch it. The Checker thinks the maker got it right.
ISO 19650 The checkpoints in the standard
| ISO 19650 step | What happens | Checkpoint |
|---|---|---|
| Generate information | The task team makes it to the project's standards and methods | 1 · Originate |
| Quality assurance check | Checked against the project's information standard and methods. Fails go back for rework | 2 · Check |
| Review and approve for sharing | Reviewed against what was asked for. If it's right, approved into the shared state with a status code | 3 · Review and 4 · Approve |
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.
UK National Annex The codes used at the checkpoints
Status codes
| Code | State | What that means to you | Build from it? |
|---|---|---|---|
S0 | Work in progress | Someone is still working on it in their own team's area. You shouldn't normally see it, and you shouldn't rely on it. | No |
S1 | Shared | Shared so other teams can check their work fits around it. Expect it to change. | No |
S2 | Shared | Shared for information. Read it, refer to it, plan with it. | No |
S3 | Shared | Shared so people can comment on it. If you've been asked to review it, now's the time to speak up. | No |
Revision codes
| Code | When | What that means to you |
|---|---|---|
P01.01, P01.02… | Work in progress | Still being worked on. The second number is the version within that revision, so the team can keep track of its working versions before the next shared revision. Nobody outside the team should be using it. |
P01, P02… | Shared | A shared draft. The number goes up every time it's shared again, so check you've got the highest one. |
Every status and revision code, and the naming rules, are in one place: Lesson 7, The labels.
Based on the UK National Annex to BS EN ISO 19650-2. Your project's information standard can add to it. ISO 19650 and its UK National Annex are © ISO and BSI. InfoTown explains the ideas in its own words, for learning; 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.