Contract documentation

7. Summary

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Contract documentation is both a product and a process.

Products may be pre-made or custom-made.

Architecture can be defined as custom-made buildings.

Purchasers of architecture need to document their requirements and the contract terms – hence building contract documentation.

Documentation is part of the risk management strategy.

The design, and hence the documentation, may be complete, or not. This affects certainty of outcome, allocation of risk, profit, efficiency and so on.

Pre-tender documentation is preferred to post-tender documentation.

Contract documentation comprises rules of play for both parties, and the  description of products and services to be provided.

The documentation is organized as a suite of complementary documents.

Rules of play anticipate events and state how they will be managed.

The description covers relevant entities and their attributes.

Entities may include manufactured, fabricated and built products, as well as higher level things such as elements and facilities.

Different attributes are described using different types of document, e.g. assembly is shown on the drawings, quality is described in the specification.

Reactive documentation comes in several forms.

Different types of information are usually mixed in hybrid documents, such as annotated drawings, though this is not generally desirable.

The process of documentation is a project in a nest of projects.

For head contracting, disassembly of the contract documents is the responsibility of the contractor.

For package contracting, the documentation team must decide where the boundaries between packages lie. Each contractor remains responsible for disassembly of its own contract documents.

Proactive documentations is prepared by the employer's team of designers.

Reactive documentation is prepared by the contract administrator, contractor and subcontractors.

Documentation needs to be integrated, by a neutral overseer, typically the architect.

Documentation has many users, including authorities, estimators, contractors and the courts.

The proactive documentation can be handed over to the contractor at any RIBA work stage up to the end of stage F/G.

The earlier the handover, the more the contractor is involved in design.

Handover at different stages corresponds to different forms of procurement.

Different types of reactive documentation are prepared at different stages, from H to L.

The various documents used and produced can come as national standard versions, office standard versions, or project versions.

Standardisation leads to certainty and efficiency.

Most national standards are intended to be responded to on a project basis – they shouldn't be called up globally.

Project versions may be derived from national, office or previous project versions, or may be generated from scratch. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages.

The various documents need to be tied together, e.g. through a web of cross-references. CPI sets out some rules for this.

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