The importance of an information release schedule, and how to use it?

The IRS is a document prepared on construction projects to clarify the information necessary and when it is required.

A good IRS will help prevent delays by ensuring information is released, and decisions are made in a timely manner.

In its simplest form, an IRS needs to include two items:

• A description of the information necessary, and
• The date the information is required.

But a good IRS will go a lot further and will also include:

• The parties responsible for providing the information.
• The extent of any contractor design items.
• The interfaces between the elements of work.
• The information format and document best practice principles agreed for the project.
• An update on the information issue and its status under the contract.
• A programme showing the timescales and interactions required to prepare and approve the information.

A good project will have an IRS prepared from day one, often long before a contractor is engaged. The lead designer should prepare an IRS that clearly charts the information required from the team and client from conception through to planning, detailed design, tender, construction, handover and occupation.

Often, at the point of contractor selection, the contractor will become responsible for preparing the IRS for the remainder of the project. There is a lot of sense in this, but this should not dissolve the lead designer’s duty to coordinate the design information. The contractor is often best placed to advise on the information they require to construct the works.

Depending upon the complexity of your project, you are likely to encounter the following challenges in preparing an IRS:

• Late contractor engagement, leaving insufficient time to mobilise and coordinate the design.
• Unrealistic dates to consider, coordinate and prepare the information.
• Lack of early specialist input.
• Insufficient resources from the design team.
• Lack of clarity or misaligned expectations on the content and quality of the information.
• Design responsibilities and extent of any contractor or specialist design are unclear or contractually vague.
• Integrating design coordination and workflows, such as Building Information Modelling (BIM).

There are, however, some straightforward steps you can take, even under time constraints, to provide yourself with the best opportunity to prepare a good IRS:

• Create a clear design responsibility matrix that covers the interfaces between elements and include this within the consultant appointments.
• Prepare a design programme to sit alongside the IRS, showing the timescales and interactions needed to coordinate the design.
• Ensure that the contract includes a detailed statement for each element of contractor design, clearly stating the responsibilities and information that will be provided.
• Work with the consultant team to ensure the programme and delivery sequence align with their resource.
• Finally, the key item we always stress is the importance of an early appointment of all the key parties, including the contractor, to give you time to properly plan and coordinate.

If the contractor has not yet been appointed, the lead designer should be responsible for monitoring and updating the IRS. This responsibility typically reverts to the contractor once they are appointed.

When an IRS is updated correctly during the project, there is often no hiding place for late or inadequate information, as the IRS will make these items very clear. This can cause issues within the team and result in poor-quality information being issued purely to meet a deadline.

The main pitfall to avoid when updating the IRS is focusing on hitting dates rather than the quality of information. It’s crucial to appraise the information adequacy as information is issued and before the team moves on to the next set of requirements.

From our template, you will observe that, in addition to the update column, we have two further status considerations. The first is whether the issue information has been distributed correctly, for instance, to your chosen document portal, such as Capsa. The second relates to the status of the information under the contract; for example, is it clear whether the document has been formally instructed under the contract?

Construction projects are typically complex, a single ‘required by’ date on a schedule doesn’t tell the full picture about the amount of coordination and number of different parties involved in finalising information. That’s why we suggest that a design programme is prepared to sit alongside the IRS to help plan these interactions.

To help get you started, we have prepared an information release schedule template, which is free to download. You can contact our team at support@capsaapp.com with your details if you would like a fully editable version. This template is aimed at small and mid-size projects not incorporating BIM or third party approval processes.