Follow a project
Watch the information grow and change over one job: The Glasshouse, a new shopping centre built next door to the old Janesfield Precinct, from the client's first worry to the first night shift, told by the information itself.
Take the quick run, 14 key moments in about five minutes, or follow the whole job: 51 stops in seven stages, ending with a quiz. Every stop is its own page, told by the information itself, so you can ride the line from start to finish.
Every stop shows the wrong way first: the back alley, the shortcut that's quicker today and dearer later. Then the right way. The back alley's bill adds up what every shortcut cost.
The need
No bidder is here yet, but the job starts here: in Client Town, with an old Precinct that's full.
In the standardPart 2: the client assesses its need, then invites tenders
1Why we need it
I start as a worry. The old Precinct is full, and Janesfield's new homes are coming. Somebody at the client has to say what happens next.
Emilia, in Client Town
2What we need
Now I have to be written down properly, as an order for whoever builds the centre. I can be 40 useful pages, or 900 borrowed ones.
Emilia, in Client Town
3Out to tender
I go out in the tender pack. Every bidder gets the same me. That's the whole point of me.
Emilia, in Client Town
Win the work
A contractor reads the tender pack, decides whether to bid, and promises how it will look after the information. Everything here is still a proposal until the job is won.
In the standardPart 2: the tender response, then the appointment
1Should we bid?Quick run 1
I've arrived at a contractor's office. Before anyone prices the job, somebody should read me and ask: can this firm actually do what I'm asking?
Tom with Helen
2The client's wish listQuick run 2
In the bid room I'm one pack among many. Somewhere in me is everything this client needs. Find all of it before you price me.
Sam with Tom, Helen
3Whose system is it anyway?
The client has its systems. This firm has its own. I need to know which one will be the Site Office, and how I'll travel between them.
Sam with Emilia
4Who's actually doing this?
Somebody has to look after me on this job. Not "the team". A name, with the hours to do it.
Sam with Bev
5The promiseQuick run 3
Today I become a promise: how this team will give the client everything it asked for, and who'll do it.
Sam with Emilia
6Can they actually do it?
Every firm in the team says it can look after me. A tick in a box isn't proof.
Sam with Bev, Alex
7Pricing the information work
Looking after me costs money. If nobody prices me properly, somebody pays later, usually double.
Tom with Helen
8The plan for day one
If they win, I'll need somewhere to live on the first morning. Plan it now, while it's still cheap.
Sam with Callum
9What could go wrong?
I can go wrong in plenty of ways: the wrong version, the wrong hands, the wrong place. Write those down like any other risk.
Sam with Tom
10What we sent
Submission day. Whatever goes out now is what's been promised. Somebody had better know exactly what that is.
Tom
11Signed, sealedQuick run 4
They've won. The promise goes into the contract now. I'm a promise with a signature on it.
Sam with Helen, Callum
Get ready
The job is won. The promises become the plan, the team arrives, and the Site Office opens its doors.
In the standardPart 2: plans confirmed after award, then mobilisation
1Bid handover
The people who promised me are leaving for the next bid. The people who have to keep the promise need to know what it was.
Tom with Callum
2Which one's the real one?Quick run 5
I need one home. Three systems all calling themselves the real one is how I end up in two places at once, disagreeing with myself.
Sam with Emilia, Megan, Rex
3The plan grows up
I was the promise the bid was won with. Now I have to grow up: the real team, the real dates, and put somewhere everyone can work to me.
Sam with Helen
4Requirements to every firm
The client told the lead firm what it needs from me. Now every firm the lead brings in needs to hear it too, before they price, not after they've drawn.
Aisha with Bev
5Who designs what
Every part of the centre needs one designer. If two firms each think the other one's doing a part, I don't get made at all.
Aisha with Alex
6Who makes what, and whenQuick run 6
I'm on a list now: every drawing, model and record, who makes it and when it's due. Keep the list alive, or I'll arrive late, or not at all.
Sam with Owen, Rex
7Ready before day one
Week 8: the site opens. I need a home that works before anyone tries to live in it.
Sam with Megan, Rex
8One model of the whole job
I'll be drawn by four firms in four offices. Unless everyone agrees where zero is, I'll be four centres in four places.
Josh with Stevie
Design it
The drawings and models get made, checked, shared and agreed, so site can build from them.
In the standardPart 2: making information together, then delivering it (authorise, then accept)
1What's already in the ground
Before anyone draws the new centre, they need to know what's already there. I'm the survey. Use the new me, not the one in the archive.
Stevie with Alex
2Made to the rules
Now I'm being made, on Alex's screen, before anyone else sees me. Give me a proper label: a name, what I can be used for, and which version I am.
Sam with Rex, Alex
3Checked, actuallyQuick run 7
Alex made me on Friday. Before anyone outside the team sees me, someone who didn't draw me has to look properly. Not a tick. A look.
Sam with Rex, Alex
4The night before
Every firm has checked its own part of me. Nobody's looked at all of me together yet. Do it before the milestone, not the night before.
Sam with Josh
5Questions to the designer
Site has a question about me. The answer needs to be written down where everyone can see it, and I need to change to match.
Stevie with Rex, Aisha
6Authorised and acceptedQuick run 8
Week 13. Site wants to build from me on Monday. Before it can, the lead firm and the client both have to say yes to me.
Rex with Aisha, Emilia
7Shop drawings
The precast supplier draws its own version of part of me. It comes in through Goods In like everything else.
Bev
Build it
The longest stage. The centre goes up, and every day on site makes more information: records, questions, changes and proof.
In the standardPart 2: making information together. Part 5: keeping sensitive information safe. The audit is certification against the standard, not the standard itself
1Ordered off the current revision
The escalators are ordered from me. Make sure it's the current me, not the one that came with the enquiry.
Bev
2Briefing and permits
The gang builds from what they're told. Tell them from the current me, and check the sums behind the lift.
Priya with Stevie, Rex
3Hold points
Some of me has to exist before the concrete does. An inspection record can't be written after the pour.
Priya with The Clerk
4Found on site
The ground knows things the drawings don't. When it tells you, write it down the same day, and tell the people who need to know.
Priya with Kofi, Dave
5Site records
Every day on site makes more of me: diaries, inspections, readings, fixes. If I'm not written down, I didn't happen.
Priya with Stevie, Dave
6Changes and instructionsQuick run 9
When the client wants more of me, that's a change. It needs an instruction from someone allowed to give one, and a price before the work.
Kofi with Callum
7Late, not extra
I was due three weeks ago. When I arrive late, that's a delay, and the dates on me prove it, if anyone kept them.
Kofi with Owen
8Valuations
Every month somebody measures the money from me. Measure from the current me, and get me accepted, or nobody gets paid.
Kofi with Rex
9The monthly report
The board reads a number made from me. Every number should say where it came from, who owns it, and how fresh it is.
Helen with Callum
10It got outQuick run 10
I show how The Glasshouse is controlled: its doors, its cameras, its screens and its speakers. Not everyone should be able to see me. Somebody has to decide who can.
Sam
11The drawing in the van
When I change, the old me has to go. Otherwise somebody builds from me anyway.
Rex with Helen, Dave
12Audit rehearsal
An assessor is coming to check I'm looked after the way the promise said. Better we find the gaps ourselves first.
Priya
13Audit day ★Quick run 11
The assessor says "show me". I'm the proof: the plan, the work, the records, and the trail between them.
Sam with Helen
Hand it over
Recording what was really built, proving it works, and handing the owner what it asked for. Then closing the door.
In the standardPart 2: delivering the information model, then close-out
1As-builtQuick run 12
Now I have to tell the truth about what was actually built, not what was drawn. A stamp can't do that. A tape measure can.
Stevie
2Commissioning certificates
The escalators run and the alarms ring. I'm the proof they were tested. Without me, nobody is allowed to open the doors.
Wes
3Manuals and asset data
I'm becoming the owner's record now: manuals, data, the numbers they'll use for the next thirty years. Use their numbers, not ours.
Wes with Bev
4The safety file
Whoever maintains the centre needs to know what's dangerous about it. I should have been collected all year, not in the last week.
Priya
5Signed out, signed forQuick run 13
Week 51: handover. The client should get what it asked for, checked against the plan. Not 2,000 files.
Sam with Rex, Dave, Emilia
6It's all on the drive
The team's moving on. Somebody has to close the door behind them, and decide how long to keep me.
Sam with Bev, Kofi
Use it
The builders have moved on, but the information hasn't. The last stop feeds the next bid, so the line ends where it started.
In the standardPart 3: the asset in use, and what it feeds back to the next job
1The first night shift
2.14am. The builders have gone, but I should still be here, where the night guard can reach me. This is what I was for.
Wes
2One year on, and fiveQuick run 14
A year on, I'm how the owner remembers the job. Five years on, I'm how they fix it.
Rex
3Lessons into the next bid
The last thing I do is help the next job. Then the line goes round again.
Tom with Sam
End of the line
Nineteen questions, from winning the work to using it, drawn at random from the stops you've just ridden past, so it's different every time. Do well and there's a certificate in it, and a word from one of the locals.
Take the quiz See the back alley's bill