The Plan of Work 2013 now embraces BIM and digital workflows Photograph: © RIA Novosti/Alamy
The RIBA Plan of Work has been rewritten in response to the construction industry’s changing landscape. Dale Sinclair explains what’s new.
The RIBA Plan of Work has always evolved in response to trends within the construction industry. However, 2013 is the Plan’s 50th year of use and is an appropriate time for it to undergo a major evolutionary change. 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.
The drivers for change are significant and the development work has had to consider many new themes. The UK Government Construction Strategy, published in May 2011, was a major catalyst for the RIBA and the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 is part of the RIBA’s response.
The RIBA development work was led by a task group whose work was coordinated with the Construction Industry Council’s BIM and Plan of Work groups. The result of this coordination was the unified industry-wide project stages that are also used in the recently published PAS1192 and the digital Plan of Work (both downloadable from www.cic.com). This work was essential as the RIBA stages are widely recognised. The content of the stages may vary or overlap to suit specific project requirements bearing in mind that the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 is a guidance document that should be used for the preparation of detailed professional services contracts and building contracts.
One of the fundamental changes addressed by the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 is acknowledging the shift from design team activities to project team activities and considering the client, the contractor and the design team as a whole. As part of this shift it has been necessary to make the Plan of Work a flexible tool that can be customised. This tool is available at www.ribaplanofwork.com where a bespoke practice or project Plan of Work can be created with flexibility around procurement, programme, (town) planning, sustainability and government gateways.
Progressive BIM projects
BIM is a hot topic and although the Plan of Work is designed to work on any project it can work with the most progressive of BIM projects, acting as a tool that facilitates the transition from “analogue” to “digital” thinking. For example, level of detail currently relates to drawn scales (1:5, 1:50, etc.) although projects have been drafted “full-size” for some time. Aligned with government thinking, the RIBA Plan of Work advocates consideration of what information will be exchanged at the end of each stage (Information Exchanges) acknowledging that this will eventually be 3D models prepared for a purpose (planning application submission, for client approval, or to allow a specialist subcontractor to start design work).
The new stages (0 and 7) create exciting new opportunities for those involved in the construction industry. Stage 7 acknowledges that design information will be harnessed during the operational (In use) period of a building for the more effective running of a building. The UK government is in the process of pooling the information from its estate to allow mining of this data. This is an immense task; however, the resulting analysis will inevitably lead to the next generation of evidence based design processes.
Better feedback and better benchmarking post occupancy will result in the conclusion of one project leading to the beginning of the next and the logo for the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 has been designed to emphasis this circular process. More important, when the end of one project becomes the beginning of the next, briefing needs greater consideration. Stage 0 encourages and advocates strategic briefing considerations before the nitty gritty aspects are considered. For example, is a new building required? Would an extension, a refurbishment, a new space planning layout deliver the desired project outcome?
New briefing techniques will be needed to make the start of projects more effective. Project outcomes becomes a crucial new briefing subject. How can outcomes, that might comprise objective and subjective items, be briefed in a way that they can be effectively measured and benchmarked on completion? Or, be prepared in a manner suitable for including in a building contract?
The contractual landscape has been a crucial consideration. The RIBA Plan of Work is not a contractual document, but it sows the seeds for these. In recognition of this, the RIBA appointment documents have been updated to work in conjunction with the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 and a new publication sets out the tools to assemble a collaborative project team. These tools, which will be published in the summer, will work in conjunction with all standard forms of professional services and building contracts. The notion is simple: by setting out who will do what and when at the outset of a project, the flesh will be added to the collaborative bones of the team resulting from the selection of its initial members.
With the number of themes and subjects that are addressed a comprehensive communication exercise is underway with feedback being a crucial part of this. All feedback is welcome and can be sent to [email protected]
Dale Sinclair is a director of Dyer, an international architectural practice based in London. He is an RIBA Councillor, chair of the RIBA Large Practice Group and led the RIBA Plan of Work Task Group. He is also a member of the CIC BIM Forum.
The eight new stages
The new RIBA Plan of Work compresses 11 stages into eight, which are loosely defined as follows
Stage 0 is new. In it a project is strategically appraised and defined before a detailed brief is created.
Stage 1 merges the residual tasks from the former stage A with the stage B tasks that relate to carrying out preparation activities and briefing in tandem.
Stage 2 maps exactly to the former stage C.
Stage 3 maps broadly to the former stage D. The strategic difference is that in the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 the developed design will be coordinated and aligned with cost information by the end of the stage.
Stage 4 comprises the residual technical work of the core design team members.
Stage 5 recognises the importance of design work undertaken by specialist subcontractors and/or suppliers employed by the contractor (Performance Specified Design in JCT contracts).
Stage 6 maps to the former stage K – but also includes stage J.
Stage 7 maps to stage L but is likely to embrace further duties arising from post-completion and post-occupancy evaluation activities.
A design manager’s take on the new Plan of Works
The RIBA Plan of Work is the most widely known and used PoW in the UK. However, it is amazing how many people don’t really understand the significance of the stages and the activities required. Very few understand how design develops, and how to manage the process effectively to deliver the project objectives and create value for the client. Familiarity can indeed breed contempt!
So an opportunity to recalibrate the RIBA PoW and in a broader sense, our industry, is both welcome and long overdue.
The design manager, whoever they’re working for, endeavours to ensure that the right information is delivered to the right people at the right time, engaging all the project stakeholders and maintaining the project parameters of time, cost and quality. In very broad terms, in this new plan of works the flow of the overall process remains the same, ie Brief, Design, Procure, Deliver and Operate, but it is possible to define the kinds of activities that take place, the outputs, and also the quality of the deliverables produced at any stage, as the RIBA PoW online tool can be customised to suit the exact circumstances and requirements of your own project.
BSRIA, in its Framework for Design Services, has defined both roles and deliverables and transformed this into a working tool that defines the outputs and who is going to produce them.
If not already on the case (I haven’t seen the online tool yet) it would be worth the RIBA following BSRIA’s lead here, and defining the quality of the model and data sets at each stage, and who will produce that information.
How many times have you been told, “this design is Stage E+, whatever that is, when in reality key aspects are incomplete and uncoordinated”? Hopefully, as we move forward in BIM, this will become a thing of the past. As a design manager using BIM validation and compliance tools, I can check what I’m being given and can quickly respond with “yes that’s fine or no, go away and finish this off properly!”
In the transparent goldfish bowl of BIM project data, we can all see what everyone else is up to (or not). Responsibility and accountability will drive better collaboration and produce increased value.
The RIBA PoW 2013 is significant on the journey to 2016 BIM Level 2, but we still have a long way to go in terms of understanding, adoption and collaboration.
John Eynon FCIOB is author of The Design Manager’s Handbook
