Parties, Teams and Activities – BIM Academy: Learning and Development

The appointing party is the client or the party managing information on behalf of the client.

A lead appointed party is a party appointed by the client.

An appointed party is a party appointed by the lead appointed party.

The appointed party is the party that provides the information.

The appointing party (the client) is likely to have several appointments with lead appointed parties (for example, for architecture, engineering, project management and construction), and a lead appointed party is likely to have several appointments with appointed parties (especially where they are the main contractor) – remember that an appointed party is the party that provides the information.

A project delivered according to a “design and build’ structure could have just one lead appointed party (for design and construction). The more common scenario, where there is an element of design carried out prior to the appointment of the design and build contractor will mean that there are multiple lead appointed parties. In this scenario, a lead appointed party may be appointed for architecture for the first part of the project.

However, when the architecture element of the project is novated to the design and build contractor, the architect will become an appointed party to the contractor and the function of the lead appointed party for architecture will cease.

The change in the architect’s appointment from a pre to post novation scenario.

However, when the architecture element of the project is novated to the design and build contractor, the architect will become an appointed party to the contractor and the function of the lead appointed party for architecture will cease.

The change in the architect’s appointment from a pre to post novation scenario.

A lead appointed party and their appointed party/parties make up a delivery team.

Where there is a lead appointed party there will be a delivery team (even if the delivery team only consists of one lead appointed party organization). Most projects will therefore comprise multiple delivery teams, regardless of the structure of the overall project (traditional, design and build, management and so on).

Activities can be categorized as:

• Project level (per project) – This means the activity relates to the project as a whole
• Appointment level (per appointment) – This means the activity relates to the lead appointed party appointment.

Activities set out in ISO 19650-2 clauses 5.1 and 5.8 relate to a project as a whole.

Activities set out in clauses 5.2 to 5.7 are repeated for each piece of work the appointing party (client) tenders (be it for consultants, contractors and/or specialists). The colours represent parties that are active within each stage.

Firstly – make sure that your information management function is fulfilled by people within your organization or people acting on your behalf or a combination of both.

Then wherever the ISO 19650 series refers to the “appointing party” this means the organization(s) fulfilling the client’s information management function.

• Identify existing information and/or resources that are relevant to the delivery teams you will be appointing to this project
• Establish the project’s information protocol for incorporation into all project appointments.

You will also need to establish a common data environment (CDE) to support the project and the collaborative production of information. You may wish to appoint a third party to host, manage or support the CDE.

Then for each separate piece of work you are sending out to tender, you need to establish your information requirements. Your outputs in compiling each tender package should consider, and where appropriate include:

• Exchange information requirements (EIR)
• Existing information and resources that are relevant to the tendering opportunity
• Details of how the tender will be evaluated
• Overall project requirements for information delivery, standards and processes
• The project’s information protocol.

It is up to you to determine how these project level and appointment specific resources are assembled into the tender and appointment package for a lead appointed party.

In the process of confirming an appointment (of the lead appointed party, for example, the main contractor) you will both need to agree on any changes to the information standards and they should inform you of any risks/ issues which could impact project information delivery milestones. The appointment documents should then include information and information requirements relevant to the appointment.

This is a process/activity that is repeated for each confirmed appointment.

The ISO 19650 series refers to the lead appointed party in two ways:

1. The prospective lead appointed party i.e. a party tendering for the role of lead appointed party; or

2. Lead appointed party i.e. a party who is confirmed in that role.

In ISO 19650-2, most of the requirements below the level of lead appointed party are directed at a task team.

There is a lot of flexibility within ISO 19650 regarding the relationship between appointed parties and task teams – in some cases, each task team might be a separate appointed party, in other cases, an appointed party might include a number of task teams, and in yet more cases a task team might include a number of appointed parties.