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Chapter 3 · Lesson 2 of 3Topic: BEP and roles

The pre-appointment BEP and the tender response

A tender response proves the team understood the requirements and can deliver them. The BEP is one of four parts, and the one most often written from a template.

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If you already do this for a living: Answering each requirement. A pre-appointment BEP that restates the team’s standard approach without going through the EIR line by line tells the client nothing it can compare.

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A tender response has to answer one question for the client: can this team deliver the information we asked for? ISO 19650 asks the prospective lead appointed party to answer with four things, written for this project and this set of requirements.

Basics
  1. The pre-appointment BEP: how the team will manage and deliver information.
  2. A capability and capacity summary: evidence that the team knows how and has the people and IT (the previous lesson).
  3. A mobilisation plan: how people, IT and methods will be made ready and tested before production starts.
  4. A risk register: what could stop the information being delivered on time, and what the team will do about it.

What goes in the pre-appointment BEP

The standard lists the points to consider. In plain terms:

  • The people. Who will carry out the information management function, so the client can see it is resourced.
  • The delivery strategy. How the team will meet each requirement, at the level of information need and on the dates the client set; the team’s objectives; its organisation, commercial relationships and how it splits into task teams.
  • The federation strategy. How the information will be broken into models and containers that teams can own.
  • A high-level responsibility matrix. Which task team is responsible for which information.
  • Additions to the methods and the information standard. What the team proposes on top of the client’s rules.
  • Software, hardware and IT. What the team will use, so other teams and the client can work with it.
Who does what in information delivery
Appointing partyThe client
Lead appointed partyMain designer or contractor
Task teamsArchitect, engineers, trades
Tender Response Appointment TIDP tasks Shared Submitted↺ needs changes
1Set the information requirementsResult: EIR in the tender
2Answer with a BEPResult: Plan and capability
3Appoint the teamResult: BEP becomes binding
4Mobilise and planResult: MIDP from the TIDPs
5Produce and checkResult: Shared in the CDE
6Review and authoriseResult: Model set approved
7Accept the deliveryResult: Published and kept

Each arrow that crosses a lane is a handoff: one party finishes, another takes over. Dashed: information sent back for changes.

Story · Two BEPs on the table
How it goes wrong

Bidder A sends a 60-page BEP from its library: company history, a description of ISO 19650, a list of software. None of it mentions the client’s 40 requirements. The client cannot tell whether the door data or the COBie it needs is priced.

How it goes right

Bidder B’s BEP is 18 pages. Its delivery strategy is a table of the client’s 40 requirements with, for each, the task team, the method, the milestone and any assumption. Two requirements are flagged as unclear, with a question. The client can compare B with the others line by line, and does.

Templates and headings

If the client provides a BEP template or a list of headings, use them, even if your own format is better. The client chose them so it can compare bidders. If nothing is specified, the format is the team’s choice: a document, a spreadsheet or a tool.

In BIMpediaWalk through a BEP: tender or appointment version, the sections, and the appendices that come from the other tools.

One plan, two versions

After the client indicates its choice, and before the appointment is signed, the BEP is revisited. Names replace roles, software versions are confirmed, the delivery strategy and high-level matrix are updated if the team changed, and accepted additions go into the project-wide standard. The result is the delivery team’s BEP, confirmed with the client and with each appointed party, and kept under change control from then on.

Key takeaways

  • A tender response has four parts: the pre-appointment BEP, a capability and capacity summary, a mobilisation plan and a risk register.
  • The pre-appointment BEP shows who will run information management, how each requirement will be met, how the work is split, and what the team will add to the project’s rules.
  • It is a first version: after appointment the same BEP is confirmed with real names, software and a detailed responsibility matrix.
  • If the client gives a template or headings, use them; it is how responses are compared.

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Check yourself

3 questions · 2 right to complete
  1. 1. Which of these is not one of the four parts of a lead appointed party’s tender response?
  2. 2. The client’s EIR has 40 numbered requirements. What should the BEP do with them?
  3. 3. After appointment, what happens to the pre-appointment BEP?
0 of 3 answered
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