Process Guidance Framework: towards a simpler ISO 19650
From PAS 1192 to ISO 19650: the British Process Guidance Framework helps to apply the new international standard on information management.
- Topic
- Standards and procurement
- Published
- 20 November 2019
- Author
- B1P Group editorial team
In June 2018, the British Standards Institution (BSI), the UK national standards body, stopped revising the PAS 1192 series, issued in response to the UK government's need to implement the adoption of BIM in the national construction industry. Moreover, as the ISO working group drafting the international standard on BIM had completed its work, the BSI representatives withdrew their own national technical standards to avoid the coexistence, in their market, of technical standards of different rank covering the same subject.
The PAS documents were merged into ISO 19650. Following international agreements, the Vienna Agreement, between ISO (the international standards body) and CEN (the European standards body), the latter was bound to adopt the technical standards issued by ISO without changes. It became legitimate to reference ISO 19650 in construction industry contracts internationally, and EN ISO 19650 in Europe.
As for Italy, the agreements set out in the European treaties provided for European technical standards to apply in the member states with priority over pre-existing international standards. The same reasons that led the drafters of the standard to limit the use of terminology and of references to well-defined contractual aspects, which could have introduced elements of conflict and a constraint on future regulatory developments within individual legal systems, have guided and are guiding the working group preparing the “Process Guidance Framework”, whose publication is expected shortly, in autumn 2019.
This guidance is deliberately short and high-level. It is intended to be read together with ISO 19650 and should not be considered a substitute for it. The first part is eagerly awaited, to help understand the standard, which can already be referenced in contracts. The annex, on the other hand, provides legal and contractual guidance to legal representatives and to those responsible for contract documents, helping them understand and choose the actions needed to comply with ISO 19650.