DesignDesign: Month four…
The clash
Stevie finds the old sewer under the outfall chamber. This time he asks through the Site Office, with the photo. It gets a number: TQ-017.
Stage 4 · Design it · Stop 5 of 7 · The right way
Questions to the designer
The back alley's bill so far: 82 weeks · See the bill
The right way
The proper question
Alex answers where everyone can see: 600mm north. Aisha, the lead firm's design manager, won't close it until 051 is redrawn, Kofi knows it's a change, and site has C02.
BuildBuild: Month nine…
The chamber
The precast chamber arrives made to the new drawing. It drops in 600mm north of the sewer.
The chatA right answer nobody else saw, and a chamber 600mm out.
The proper questionOne number, one answer, a new drawing, and a chamber that fits.
Now there is: The proper question (a technical query), its answer, a new version of the drawing and a change raised.
What's going on here
A question to the designer changes the design, so the answer is information everyone downstream needs: the drawing, the price, the supplier, the site. Asking and answering in the Site Office, and not closing it until the drawing matches, means the change actually reaches everyone.
New at this stop
- The proper question
- A question asked through the Site Office, so the answer is tracked and everyone can see it. (A technical query, or RFI.)
In the town See it in the town: A right answer in a chat. Who else ever saw it?
Month four, and the question starts in the ground: Stevie finds an old sewer that no library copy ever showed. Sent as a photo in a chat, the answer never leaves two phones. Asked as the proper question, it lands in the Site Office with a number, so the answer, the new revision of 051, the change for Kofi and the news for the supplier all travel from the same place. Aisha won't close it until the label on the drawing says C02.
Fix it Answer living in a chat? Bring it in.
- Search your chats with designers for answers that changed something.
- Raise each one as a proper question in the Site Office.
- Keep it open until the drawing carries the new revision.
A note for the information manager: Make "closed" mean the drawing, the price and the supplier have all caught up, not just that someone replied.
Try it on your job
Scroll back through your chats with a designer. Is there an answer in there that never made it onto a drawing?
ISO 19650 From the question to the new revision
| ISO 19650 says | Means | In the town |
|---|---|---|
| Common data environment (CDE) | The one agreed place where the job's information is shared, so exchanges are visible and kept | The Site Office |
| Revision | The new version of a piece of information whenever its content changes, so everyone can tell which one is current | Revisions (P and C) on the label |
| Not from ISO 19650: the technical query (RFI) | A formal question to the designer with a tracked answer. It often changes the design, so the answer is information too | The proper question |
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.