Win the workWin the work: Contract award…
The handover meeting
Before anyone has a biscuit, Tom and Sam, the firm's information manager, spend an afternoon walking Callum's team through the bid: what was promised, priced and assumed.
Stage 3 · Get ready · Stop 1 of 8 · The right way
Bid handover
The back alley's bill so far: 44 weeks · See the bill
The right way
The commitments
Every promise becomes a line with an owner: the named people, the monthly asset data, the client's system training. The spreadsheet nobody opened gets opened: three assumptions matter.
Callum: I'll sign for the list. Not the folder.
DesignDesign: Month two…
The client asks
The client asks about the monthly asset data. Callum hands over the first month's.
Callum: Due on the fifth. It's the fourth.
Over the wallA link, a "good luck", and promises learned from the client.
Handed overAn afternoon, a list with owners, and nobody surprised in month two.
Now there is: Handing over the commitments: what the bid promised, priced and assumed, each with an owner in the delivery team.
What's going on here
The bid team makes the promises and the delivery team keeps them, so the promises have to cross from one to the other. A folder isn't a handover. An afternoon walking through the commitments, with an owner for each one, is how the delivery team starts the job knowing what it has signed up to.
In the town See it in the town: the bid team is leaving. Who keeps the promise?
The promise, the price and the assumptions crossed into the deal with the neighbours; now they have to cross the room, from the bid team to Callum's delivery team. Nothing moves physically, but the information still has to travel, line by line, each with a new owner. Leave it in a folder and the promises reach the delivery team the long way round: back out of Client Town.
Fix it Handed a folder? Turn it into a list with owners.
- Ask the bid team for an afternoon, not a link.
- List every promise, price and assumption, each with a delivery owner.
- Find the assumptions spreadsheet and check which ones matter.
A note for the information manager: A folder of 412 files is storage, not a handover, so push for the list with names on it.
Try it on your job
Ask your project manager what the bid promised about information. Can they find it in under five minutes?
ISO 19650 From the bid team to the delivery team
| ISO 19650 says | Means | In the town |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery team | The firm leading the job and all the firms under it who will actually deliver the job's information | Callum's team, now owning every promise |
| BIM execution plan, after appointment (BEP) | The confirmed plan the delivery team works to once the job is won | The promise the bid made, handed over with an owner for each line |
| Not from ISO 19650: the bid-to-delivery handover | Ordinary project practice: passing commitments, prices and assumptions from the people who won the job to those who'll run it | Makes sure the monthly asset data is due on the fifth and ready on the fourth |
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.