Get readyGet ready: Week three…
The who-designs-what list
Aisha, the design manager, drafts it: every element of the centre, who designs it, to what level, and who checks it.
Stage 3 · Get ready · Stop 5 of 8 · The right way
Who designs what
The back alley's bill so far: 58 weeks · See the bill
The right way
The joins
She looks hardest at the joins, like the inlet chamber. Everyone argues about two lines for an hour, then agrees. It goes in every firm's deal and the parts list.
Aisha: Joins are where things go missing.
DesignDesign: Week nine…
Ready
Site is ready to build the inlet chamber. The design has been ready for a fortnight. The duck goes elsewhere.
Agreed over coffeeEveryone nodded, nobody designed the join, and a duck moved in.
The who-designs-what listEvery element, one designer, the joins argued over and agreed.
Now there is: The who-designs-what list (the design responsibility matrix), agreed before design starts and in every firm's deal.
What's going on here
When several firms design one centre, the joins between their work are where things fall through. Writing down who designs each element, to what level and who checks it, and agreeing it before design starts, means every part has exactly one owner.
In the town See it in the town: Two firms, one join. Who's drawing it?
Every part of the centre needs one designer, and the joins between firms are where parts go missing. The who-does-what list from the deal with the neighbours grows a design version here: every element, who designs it, to what level, and who checks it. It goes into every firm's deal and onto the parts list, so the inlet chamber has an owner long before the hole is dug, and long before the duck arrives.
Fix it Already a gap at a join? Name the owner.
- List the joins between firms' work on your next three elements.
- Write one designer and one checker against each join.
- Put the agreed list in every firm's deal and the parts list.
A note for the information manager: Spend the arguing time on the joins, because the elements in the middle of one firm's patch rarely go missing.
Try it on your job
Pick one join between two firms' work on your job. Who designs it? Is that written down anywhere?
ISO 19650 From who-does-what to who-designs-what
| ISO 19650 says | Means | In the town |
|---|---|---|
| Responsibility matrix | a table of who is responsible for which information, at a high level for the whole team and in detail for each task | the who-does-what list, and here the who-designs-what list |
| Task team | a group of people doing one defined piece of work, such as one firm's design | each firm's design team |
| Level of information need | how much detail, and of what kind, each piece of information needs for its purpose | "to what level" on the list |
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.