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What Do You Think: 3 Greatest Changes to Specification Writing in the Last 10 Years?

By CSI HQ posted 08-30-2018 05:47 PM

  
What Do You Think is a weekly CSI conversation starter to help you share your experiences, insights, and observations about the work you do on the CSIResources.org CSI-Connect Community.

This week’s post asked: What are the 3 Greatest Changes to Specification Writing You’ve Seen in the Last 10 Years?

Here are a few of the replies. You can read the entire thread here.

Lack of succession planning, i.e.: Mentoring
1. Lack of succession planning, i.e.: mentoring
2. Lack of budget and/or schedule
3. Declining quality of the National Master Specification

Peter S. Emmett
NSAA, MRAIC, CCCA
Senior Architect, Practice Leader, Contract Administration
Architecture49 Inc.

My top 3 changes over the last decade would be:
1. The increased use of technology (production software/BIM integration).
2. Tighter design durations (affecting quality of the deliverable), and
3. The impact of new delivery models on the role of the architect (and subsequently, specifications).

Unfortunately, at least 2 of these 3 seem to be a negative, but I am encouraged by a sense of renewed commitment by AIA to restore the importance of an Architect and by CSI to increase the value of their education and certifications. Excited to be a part of both and helping recruit the next generation who can help us change the tide.

Jill Goedken CSI, CCS, AIA, LEED AP
Architect, Specifier
SPECcetera LLC

I absolutely agree with Jill regarding technology—we don't do anything on paper anymore, including reviewing drawings.
1. Project delivery methods in multiple, sometimes overlapping packages. We have deadlines every week (sometimes multiple times a week) for packages, review sets, combined sets—we're producing far more documents than we used to.
2. The practice of providing “not to exceed” pricing at DD (or before) requires that we produce a more complete document earlier in the process.
3. And, I’m going to throw in sustainability—we’re writing documents differently due to these multiple, demanding criteria.

Anne Whitacre FCSI, CCS, LEED AP
Senior Specifier
HOK
San Francisco CA

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