If a specification is older than 5 years, it is probably outdated or inaccurate.

If you are reusing specifications from old projects or tenders, make sure you check that the information in them is still current.

Sometimes a client will send you a specification that is from their files from previous projects. It can often be outdated information and needs to be checked that it matches the current standard or expectation.

For example, the electrical wiring might be specified to be a certain colour, yet new standards call for different colours. If you are supplying those specifications to a contractor, you would be responsible for specifying the correct colour; otherwise the contractor may install the wrong colour and ask for a variation to rectify it.

Tagged with: specification

Filed under: Client • Documentation

When reading a large specification, to avoid inducing sleep, scan it by key words.

If possible, when given a specification by a client, get the it in electronic form. This allows faster scanning and you can easily come back to important parts by a quick search function

If you have it electronically, use the find command to search it by one word to focus on one area at a time.

For example, search for pipes to find all the mentions of pipes areas of specification (colour, size, joints, type, etc).

Tagged with: pipes • scan • specification

Filed under: Contract • Documentation

An important lesson I have learned if you are on the design side of the project.

Make the specifications clear.

Unclear or contradictory specifications just end up leading to having to continually answer request for clarifications, and can also lead to contractors making extra claims for variations because  of different interpretations of the specs.

If you refer to standards, make sure to check that the standard you refer to is the current/newest one. If you specify an old standard (easy to do if you are using your organisations standard specifications) you could be specifying that the contractor do the project in a way that does not meet new requirements. This may mean they will claim for extra costs to cover changes to meet the newest standards or that the resultant product doesn’t perform to expected requirements.

Tagged with: specification • specs • standard

Filed under: Documentation