Construction Documents and Contract Documents
Today's post will try to explain where Specifications stand in the array of Construction Documents, in order to better describe their content and their limitations compared to the other essential elements of project documentation.
This discussion is shown in greater detail in CSI's Project Resource Manual (PRM). I recommend you buy a copy to study. (Available from www.csinet.org). The book has a lot more information than can be compressed into this brief post and you should buy the book.
Today's slide depicts the Construction Documents illustation by CSI called "The Building". This diagram shows the various documents required to complete a construction project and identifies their grouping as Procurement Documents and Contract Documents.
Zoom in to see the documents designated as floors in a skyscraper. The drawings form the basement or parking garage, while modifications like addenda and change orders extend up the side since they can modify both written and graphic documents.
The dotted lines at the left show the various groupings of the documents that occur in different stages of project development with their names.
Please note the subtle distinction in terminology. The generic term "Requirements" is used for overall discussion of the documents by their function. The more specific term of "Documents" is used to designate the overall "package" of documents of the various types when considered as the whole. That is, "Procurement Documents" include Procurement Requirements and Contract Requirements.
Procurement Documents comprise all the Contract Documents except the Clarifications and Modifications since, by definition, Clarifications and Modifications take place after the Contract is signed. Pre-Contract Revisions such as Addenda are included in Procurement Documents.
Contract Documents are a shorter pile since the Procurement Requirements are discarded after the Contractor is selected and so are not made part of Contract Documents. Contract Documents are those which are enumerated in the Owner-Contractor Agreement and form the basis of the Construction Documentation. This term includes Pre-Contract Revisions such as Addenda, as well as Clarifications and Modifications which occur after the Contract is signed.
If you plan to take a CSI Certification exam, it is important to know these distinctions in terminology.
Next Post: The Project Manual Concept.
