Win the workWin the work: Tender · week two…
The town map
The order names three client systems. Sam draws a town map: the client's systems on one side, the firm's on the other, and the roads between them.
Stage 2 · Win the work · Stop 3 of 11 · The right way
Whose system is it anyway?
The back alley's bill so far: 21 weeks · See the bill
The right way
The Site Office
On the map, the client's document system becomes the Site Office. The firm's system stays its Records Office. The home line joins them, on a schedule, not on a bicycle.
Sam: If it's on the map, it's in the price.
Get readyGet ready: Week one of the job…
One home
Everything goes in the Site Office. The home line copies what the firm needs to keep. Dave keeps his bicycle for weekends.
Sorted after awardTwo real ones, a USB stick and three days a month.
Mapped at the bidOne Site Office, one home line, priced.
Now there is: A town map of the client's systems and the firm's (an information landscape map), with the Site Office named (the project's CDE).
What's going on here
Every organisation is a town with its own buildings. On a job, two or more towns share one Site Office. Knowing whose system is which, and how information gets between them, is cheap to work out at the bid and expensive to discover on site.
New at this stop
- The Site Office
- The one shared place where everyone on the job keeps and finds the project's information. The client is responsible for it. (The project's CDE.)
- The Records Office
- Each firm's own trusted store, where it keeps its information for good. (The organisation's CDE.)
- The home line
- The home line is the route between a firm's own Records Office and the Site Office.
In the town See it in the town: two towns, one shared building. Whose?
The order names three of Client Town's systems; the bidding firm has its own. Sam draws both towns, and this is where the Site Office appears: the one shared place where everyone keeps and finds the job's information, provided by the client. The firm's own system stays its Records Office, and the home line carries what the firm needs to keep between the two, on a schedule rather than in Dave's pocket.
Fix it Working in two systems? Draw the map, then pick one.
- Draw the client's systems and yours, and the routes between them.
- Name one as the Site Office, and tell everyone it's that one.
- Agree what crosses the home line, how often, and who checks it.
A note for the information manager: If two systems are both being treated as the place for the job's information, neither one is.
Try it on your job
Draw your current job as two towns and a river. Where does each kind of information live, and how does it cross?
ISO 19650 From two towns to one Site Office
| ISO 19650 says | Means | In the town |
|---|---|---|
| Common data environment (CDE) | The agreed source of information for a job, where it is collected, managed and shared through a set process | The Site Office |
| The client's responsibility for the CDE | The client sets up, or arranges, the CDE for the job and makes sure it works | The Site Office belongs to Client Town's side of the map |
| Common data environment solution and workflow | The actual systems and the steps used to run the CDE | The three client systems on Sam's map, and the routes between them |
| An organisation's own common data environment | Each firm keeps its own information in its own agreed system, beyond any one job, and connects it to the job's shared place | The Records Office, and the home line that joins it to the Site Office |
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.