InfoTown™
Kofi's journey · Commercial · Lesson 1

Who pays when the infor­mation changes?

Before you start

In the story

Four months of extra work, no change agreed, and nobody paid.

Back to the story

The right way

The first email

Sam checks it against what we agreed to deliver: it's new. The same day, Kofi raises it as a change: what's being asked, who does it, how long it takes, what it costs.

Before anyone starts

The client agrees the price. Or decides it doesn't need it after all.

Office hours

Rex types serial numbers in office hours, on a job number someone is paying for.

"Should be quick"Four months of free work, and a client who never asked to pay for it.
A priced changeChecked, priced and agreed before anyone typed a serial number.
Think like Kofi

Every request for more information is a request for more work. Is it in what we agreed to deliver? If not, it's a change, and changes are priced before they're done, not after.

Continue Kofi's journey

Story 2: Measured from the wrong drawing

Kofi values the month's work from Rex's quantities. Rex measured from C02. The basement is now on C03.
The right way, explained

The right way, explained

The order says what the town delivers. If the client adds to the order, it goes through the order desk, gets a price and gets signed. Extra parcels handed over the fence for free are still parcels someone had to make.

If you're the project manager

If you're the project manager

Don't let "can you just" skip the change process because it's information, not concrete. Send every new information request through Sam and Kofi before anyone starts.

In the town See it in the town: four months of free work. What should have stopped it?

Kofi's view: the order is the order. Anything added to it goes back through the order desk with a price on it.

Show:
The need, travelling from the client to the design team and the site team On the left, the Client Town asks "What are we building?". The need travels to the project site. From there it splits: up to the Design System, where Alex plans 40 drawings and starts designing in the work-in-progress room, and down to the site cabin, where Dave lists detail drawings, RFIs and inspections to prove the work is right. CLIENT TOWN "What are we building?" THE NEED PROJECT SITE PROJECT CDE DESIGN SYSTEM WORK IN PROGRESS WE NEED: ☐ 40 drawings☐ 3 models☐ 1 design report Who · by when "OK, we need 40 drawings. Let's plan it." SITE CABIN WE NEED: ☐ 6 detail drawings☐ RFIs for any issues☐ 9 inspections to prove it's right "Details, RFIs and inspections to prove it."
The need, turned into a plan. Who makes what, and by when.

This is Change Control!

A change to what information is needed goes through the same route as any other change: priced and agreed before work starts.

Sam's Heads Up Not every request is a change

InfoTown good practice: Anything outside the agreed requirements is a change.

On your job: Some requests only clarify what's already asked for. Check against the requirements first; if it's already in there, it isn't extra, it's late.

For the audit What the auditor will ask
  • Show me how changes to the information requirements were agreed.
  • Who decided this request was outside what we'd agreed?
For the audit What good evidence looks like
  • A change log that includes information changes, with prices and agreement.
  • The requirements list updated to match.
From the standard
ISO 19650 Changing the requirements

ISO 19650 expects the information requirements to be part of the appointment, so changing them changes what was agreed. How a change is priced is set by your contract, not the standard.

Based on the ISO 19650 series: the ideas come from the standard; the plain-English wording, examples and advice are InfoTown's. ISO 19650 is © 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.