The place of specifications in a digital construction industry

NBS has launched its latest survey to understand how the industry is changing the way it writes specifications as it continues to adopt digital ways of working.

Its fourth survey on this topic, Newcastle-based NBS is inviting construction professionals to inform the industry on changing needs in how specifications are being written and help NBS improve the tools and resources it provides.

“For a long time, specifications have been hastily written late in the design stage, and printed and passed on as static documents,” said NBS Chief Executive Richard Waterhouse.

“BIM is rapidly becoming the industry standard for developing, delivering and maintaining project documentation. As construction professionals continue to adopt these new digital ways of working, we need to understand how people are producing specifications and selecting products, how they do it and what tools or resources they use.”

The survey is now live and will close on Sunday December 4.

NBS, the leading global provider of construction information and construction knowledge management services, has run the survey since 2011, tracking the way in which the industry’s understanding of and attitudes towards specifications are changing.

The last survey showed 65% of respondents agreeing that in the future, a specification will have a life as long as its building.

Seventy-five per cent believed specifications will become ever more central and more than three-quarters also expected specifications to link digitally to both 2D and 3D drawings – the latter lying at the heart of BIM.

Topics covered in this survey will include: creating specifications, specification information, selecting products or performance criteria and improving the product selection process.

People can complete the survey here. Results will be published in early 2017.