Advanced specification writing with Chorus Premium

This article looks at three new NBS Chorus features that were previewed in a webinar by NBS Innovation Director Dr Stephen Hamil and NBS Chorus Product Owner David Morris.

As part of the product development process at NBS, we listen carefully to customer feedback, and we also take on board suggestions from our own specification consultancy teams, which develop specifications for large complex projects in the UK and overseas.

The set of features highlighted in this article have been developed exclusively for the new Chorus Premium subscription. These features are introduced below.

1. Detailed revisions

Over the years, one of the most popular features in NBS specification products has always been the ability to show which clauses in your project specification have been revised. The new ‘Detailed revisions' feature now goes one step further. In addition to showing which clauses have been revised, this new feature clearly shows how the clause has been revised.

Any newly added or removed text is visually indicated. Similarly, for any amended text, the old and new text are clearly presented side by side.

With the introduction of the new Building Safety Act and associated secondary legislation, the need for a process covering managing revisions to specifications is greater than ever. ‘Detailed revisions’ within NBS Chorus now provides greater clarity to the whole project team regarding specification decisions as they are tracked through the life cycle of a project.

The video snippet below previews this ‘Detailed revisions’ feature.

2. Variables

Specifications for large, complex projects will most likely be many hundreds of pages long. NBS has always helped users create well-structured documents with a robust editorial style. The new ‘Variables’ feature allows specification writers to improve consistency in language across all their specifications, and also allows the development of phrases that can be instantly changed depending on the stage of the specification or the type of project.

For example:

• A variable could be developed for the project title or address that will be instantly updated depending on the variable’s value.
• A phrase could be used that changes depending on the language used either in a JCT or NEC contract (e.g. ‘the client’ or ‘the employer’).
• A variable could be defined that, early in the project, refers a decision to the client and then, as the project progresses, refers to an architect’s or engineer’s schedule.

This is a powerful feature that has been used both by the NBS UK and Australian specification consultancy teams throughout 2023, and we’re pleased to introduce it now in this Chorus Premium.

The video below demonstrates this feature.

3. Cross-project and master search

The third feature that was introduced for the launch of Chorus Premium is the ability to search across all the specifications or masters that your organization has ever produced using NBS Chorus.

Chorus was launched in 2019, and some of our larger practices now have over 1,000 specifications that have been developed across multiple offices. This represents a huge wealth of information from a variety of projects and, with ‘Cross-project and master search’, this information can now be at the fingertips of all colleagues across your organization. Even for a smaller practice that may only have a handful of specifications in Chorus, it’s a very useful feature to be able to quickly search through old projects to find something you have previously specified.

The video below previews this new search functionality.

4. Coming soon

If you would like to find out more information and be the first to experience Chorus Premium get in touch.

Find out more