Get readyGet ready: Week two…
The lead's order
Aisha, the design manager, and Sam, the firm's information manager, turn the client's order into one for each firm: what information, in what form, named how, by when.
Stage 3 · Get ready · Stop 4 of 8 · The right way
Requirements to every firm
The back alley's bill so far: 53 weeks · See the bill
The right way
Before they sign
Alex's firm and every subcontractor get it before they sign, and price it. Bev, who buys everything the job needs, has their logins ready for day one.
Alex: So no house blue?
Aisha: The client's blue.
DesignDesign: Month three…
Right first time
Every drawing arrives named and formatted to the client's order. Nobody renames anything. Kofi has no invoice to look at.
The folder called CLIENTOne-page letters, house style, and four weeks of renaming.
An order for every firmPriced before they signed, right first time.
Now there is: An order for every firm (the lead's exchange information requirements), priced and inside their deals.
What's going on here
The client's order binds the lead firm, but the drawings are made by everyone else. Every firm the lead appoints needs its own order, before it prices and signs, so it can plan and price meeting it. Anything they don't know about at signing becomes a variation later.
In the town See it in the town: The client told the lead firm. Who told everyone else?
The order left Client Town in the tender pack and landed with the lead firm. But the drawings are made by the neighbours, so the lead firm turns it into an order for each firm and puts it inside the deal with the neighbours before they price. Their logins go into the plan for day one, and their drawings arrive in the Site Office named the client's way, not by email in a zip.
Fix it Firms already drawing in house style? Hand over the order now.
- List every firm on the job and which order each one received.
- Send each firm its own order, with naming, format and dates.
- Agree the cost of changing now, before more drawings pile up.
A note for the information manager: Every requirement a firm learns about after it signs is a variation waiting to happen, so make the order part of every enquiry pack.
Try it on your job
Pick one firm on your job. Did they get the information requirements before they priced, or after they started?
ISO 19650 From the client's order to every firm's
| ISO 19650 says | Means | In the town |
|---|---|---|
| Exchange information requirements (EIR) | what one party needs from another, in what form and by when, set out for each appointment and passed down by the lead firm to each firm it appoints | the order, and the lead firm's order for each firm |
| Appointed party | any firm that provides information under an appointment | the neighbours |
| Appointment | the agreed instruction to provide work, goods or services, with the information requirements inside it | the deal with the neighbours |
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.