Conspectus, Inc., a specialty consultancy providing
specifications and other services to the construction industry, has developed Evolving
Specifications, a new approach for delivering specifications for the
construction industry. The Evolving Specifications approach uses a custom, and
proprietary web-based tool, ConspectusCloud, to facilitate and allow active
participation by all project stakeholders. A first in the industry. Conspectus is responding to the industry's demand
to eliminate information gaps arising from uncoordinated data across multiple
sources presented in multiple formats. The gaps have caused significant amounts
of uncertainty and risk necessitating value engineering, schedule delays,
project friction, and often rework needed to correct the issues and increased
risk, but only after the fact.
Evolving Specifications records the owner's project requirements keeps it at the forefront throughout the project. It effectively integrates all specifications data in a single cohesive platform, eliminating the gaps and ensuring the utmost coordination among all the data and parties. In addition, ConspectusCloud opens the black box used for specification production and allows the complete project team including the designer, owner, contractor, subcontractors, and material suppliers to review and proactively participate in the specifications process. The approach allows multiple design options can be defined and analyzed by performance, schedule, and cost to select the optimal solution meeting the owner's objectives before committing massive resources to document the design. It is design management at its best. This on-going analysis is especially helpful to inform owners and obtain their consent to the design approach. It also helps design‑builders to assemble contracting teams and to manage project costs against the owner's budget.
In the process of creating the Evolving Specifications
system, it became obvious that a cloud-based tool would be ideal to promote
communication and problem solving among the team members unlike any other
specification writing system. This tool is ConspectusCloud and it allows participants
to see documents develop in real time as well as pose and answer questions
about particular specification requirements in a totally new way. Comments are
captured as threaded discussions for all to see. This single feature allows
questions to be asked and resolved before becoming RFIs and Change Orders. Each
participant can see the status of each specification document including
unresolved comments and unresolved choices in the project dashboard to know
what documents need attention. Each issue required by the project contract can
be saved and retained for historic record. Comparisons between of any two
issues or a current document can be effectively analyzed, discussed,
articulated, while leaving a trail to understand what changes occurred and why
for the project and for future projects. Perhaps most importantly participants
can know who did what and when. The complete record is captured in the audit
trail for each document.
In development since 2014, Evolving Specifications and ConspectusCloud were debuted in 2018. The new approach has been used successfully on 6 completed projects, including Delano Indian Wells, California; San Jose Sharks Arena Expansion, California; Glendale Hotel Louis, California and others are currently in development.
Now, Conspectus clients including WATG, Stantec,
Perkins+Will, FXCollaborative, and SOSH Architects are requesting the new
Conspectus approach and ConspectusCloud as the specification delivery method
for their projects. Plus Conspectus is proud to have contributed experience
from our new approach to the National Research Council of Canada by
incorporating many of the concepts into the Canadian National Master
Specifications.
Specifications are qualitative data defining the owner's
project requirements, setting design and performance criteria, and recording
decisions from project conception through design, construction, commissioning
and building operations.
Conspectus, Inc. is revolutionizing construction
specifications by thinking beyond the specifier's traditional role and focusing
on the right priorities. To every
project, we bring a broader, more comprehensive approach that creates value and
lowers risk for every stakeholder before, during, and after construction.