If you already do this for a living: The difference between an addition and an amendment. Tenderers may propose both; additions are cheap, amendments change rules other teams already follow and need a plan for what is already shared.
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Every delivery team needs the same rules and the same starting files. If each team brings its own, the client receives five naming conventions, three classification systems and models that do not line up. ISO 19650 asks the client to settle this once, for the whole project, before the first tender goes out.
- The information standard says how information is structured: container naming and its code lists, status and revision codes, classification, units, coordinate system, the level of information need.
- The information production methods and procedures say how information is made and moved: how it is captured and generated, how it is checked, reviewed and approved, how it moves through the CDE, how models are federated.
- Reference information and shared resources are what teams start from: surveys, existing asset data, templates, object libraries, title blocks.
Set once, issued with every tender
The appointing party establishes these resources in the first stage of the process, assessment and need, and includes them in every invitation to tender. Each tenderer then knows the rules it is pricing against, and every team appointed later works to the same ones as the teams before it.
The architect, appointed first, invents a naming convention. The contractor, appointed a year later, uses its own company standard. The CDE now holds two conventions; the client’s asset system can read neither without manual renaming, and every search needs two queries.
The client issues a project information standard with the first tender, based on its own organisational standard. The contractor’s tender proposes one addition, a room numbering system, which the client accepts. Every container on the project follows one convention, and handover data loads without conversion.
Keep it consistent with the organisation
The project ends; the asset and its information stay with the client for decades. A project standard that differs from the client’s own rules produces information that has to be converted before anyone can use it. Start from the organisation’s standard and add only what the project needs.
Additions and amendments
A tenderer may propose changes in its pre-appointment BEP. There are two kinds, and they are not equal.
Nothing already shared breaks; new containers follow the new rule.
Additions are usually welcome: they add a rule without breaking what exists. Amendments change a rule other teams already work to, so they need the client’s agreement, a date, and a plan for what has already been shared.
Shared resources save everyone time
Templates, libraries and starter files are the cheapest way to get consistency. A shared template with the right levels, coordinates, title block and parameters means a new team produces correct information from its first day, instead of discovering the rules in its first rejected submission.
Key takeaways
- The information standard says how information is structured: naming, classification, codes, units, coordinates, level of information need.
- The production methods and procedures say how it is made and moved: capture, checks, reviews, approvals, CDE workflow.
- Reference information and shared resources are what every team starts from: surveys, templates, libraries, existing asset data.
- All three are set once per project by the appointing party, issued with every tender, and kept consistent with the organisation’s own standards.
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