What do I need to know about the RIBA 2013 Plan of Work?

​I've come to the conclusion that shared terminology and understanding are at the centre of this BIM thing. In fact, even if we were not grappling with new modelling technologies, we would still be facing a vital need to understand what we all 'mean' in order to achieve 'collaborative working' - which our industry has been groping unsuccessfully towards for years.

 

 

Up until now in the UK we have had a misalignment of the various 'Plans of Work' published by RIBA, the CIC, the ACE and the rail industry, to name a few. A variety of lettered, numbered and named stages have overlapped and gapped, leaving plenty of space for confusion and dispute. It is great news indeed that these UK bodies have grabbed the need for updated PoWs due to BIM and used this as an opportunity to finally try and align what we are all talking about.

 

After a false start last year RIBA were first out of the blocks with the new system. Gone are stages described with letters! Here are our brand new, pan-industry agreed, numbers stages from 0 to 7. That is the obvious change, but what does a structural engineer like me need to know about what lies under the surface?

 

As their downloadable overview says "The RIBA Plan of Work 2013 organises the process of briefing, designing, constructing, maintaining, operating and using building projects into a number of key stages. It details the tasks and outputs required at each stage which may vary or overlap to suit specific project requirements."

 

The PoW is not a contractual document itself but directs users to various tools and core documents including documents relating to professional services contracts, project protocols and to the commonly used Building Contracts. Evidently a revisit of your Schedules of Services is likely to be one of the key things this new PoW needs you to do.

 

From my reading of it, the main things to understand about the RIBA PoW 2013 are:

• What the stages are, and how does the old 'lettered' version of the PoW map onto the new version?What do the new 'configurable' parts of the PoW mean for Procurement, Programme and Town Planning, and what does the online tool do?
• How is this supporting the BIM thing?
• How is this supporting sustainability?

What are the stages?

For a start there are two brand new stages - 0 and 7 - although this structural engineer perhaps doesn't need to worry about them too much! Stage 0 is for strategic appraisal that defines a project before the detailed brief is created - particularly relevant for sustainability. Some Stage 0 activities are taken from the old Stage A whilst Stage 1 merges the remainder with Stage B, to complete the briefing. Stages 0 and 1 are called the 'Preparation' phase by RIBA.

 

At the other end of the job there is Stage 7 for Post-occupancy Evaluation and a review of Project Performance alongside other possible 'in use' activities. Government and other owners clearly want to understand more than before about the building they have just been sold by the project team, and I can imagine definition of these activities evolving greatly in the next decade.

However, the meat in the sandwich for structural engineers (and others) lies in Stages 2 to 6 (not a metaphor often used by this vegetarian, with 2, 3 and 4 being 'Design':

• Stage 2, Concept Design, maps exactly to Stage C. That's easy.
• Stage 3, Developed Design, maps broadly to the former Stage D, Design Development (a subtle change in terms), but also now includes the requirement that the design must be coordinated and aligned with the Cost Information. This may not increase design work required, but extra time will be needed to review information and implement changes.
• Stage 4, Technical Design, the remaining work of the core design team members, apart from any Design Queries that arise from construction work during Stage 5 - and if you have done our job right there should not be many! This Stage will incorporate work by specialist subcontractors and suppliers employed by the contractor.

I much prefer this 'three steps to design heaven' description compared to the old four step one. It is a much closer match to how I have always seen things working:

• During 'Concept Design' you work out the basic idea.
• During 'Scheme Design' you make all the decisions needed to define the finished building.
• During 'Detailed Design' you turn the handle to produce all the information need to construct it.

I never did understand the old RIBA split between Technical Design and Production Information, and no one could ever explain the difference to me apart from "Stage F is when we do the reinforcement drawings". I also fully approve of more complete scheme designs, so extending Stage 3 beyond the end of the old Stage D is a move in the right direction. All design decisions should have been made by the end of Stage 3, and the biggest threat to cost certainty are teams that continue to design into Stage 4.

To complete the picture with the Construction Phase:

• Stage 5 maps to the former Stage K (Construction to Practical Completion) but also includes Stage J (Mobilisation).
• Stage 6 maps broadly to the former Stage L (Post-practical Completion).

The Ps

The RIBA recognised that Procurement, Programme and (town) Planning activities vary widely from project to project. To overcome this variability, the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 allows users to generate their own bespoke Plan of Work at www.ribaplanofwork.com selecting a specific task bar for each of these three tasks from a pull-down list (go on, give it a try - I have).

As a structural engineer the Town Planning activities don't impact me much, so I won't discuss them here.

The basic RIBA Plan of Work 2013 assumes Programme with a sequential series of stages progressing from commencement to completion and beyond. However, a client's procurement strategy, may dictate that a number of stages have to occur simultaneously or overlap. As structural engineers we know this well - we have one job going through the office at the moment where the piles are going in the ground before Concept Design is complete.

The Programme task bar allows a bespoke Plan of Work to illustrate and highlight these stage overlaps. This task bar enshrines in the PoW the Project Programme that has been a core requirement of collaborative contracts for some time, ensuring that each party agrees timescales and is fully aware of the risks that the programme generates in relation to their specific Schedule of Services. This programme should dovetail with the Design Programme prepared by the lead designer, and the more detailed Construction Programme prepared by the contractor.

All this should have been happening before, but the Programme task bar helps make sure the PoW accurately reflects what is needed.

Finally the Procurement task bar allows a number of forms of procurement, to be incorporated based on a pull-down list. Once the procurement route is selected, the practice or project specific Plan of Work that is generated will contain a task bar that includes the specific procurement and tendering activities at each stage. These can cover, traditional contracts, one- or two- stage design and build contract, management or contractor-led contracts or the wonderfully named ‘To be determined’ option.

Conclusion

There will be more updates to this document in the future but the RIBA PoW 2013 is a big step forwards and an important part of industry convergence. Alongside PAS and BS 1192, this is central to making BIM really work for us all. The body language of some architects talking about this new PoW is very uncomfortable - they appear to think they are losing power. To some extent they are probably quite right.