Today we talk about why it’s important to get Specifications written and out fast.
An obvious response to this is that, well…life is just too short to spend more than a day writing a Spec for one project. But let’s be less cynical and look at this logically.
It is true, you should not have to spend more than a day on any full-version Spec. Even though the Specification is a very important document, there are so many other things to be done too.
And often, Spec writing is done late in documentation because of all those other things to do. When you have a good Master Spec that enables you to get a Spec done in one day, you can leave it to the last without additional stress.
And leaving the Spec writing to nearly the last is advantageous because all the decisions have been made and there will be less Spec related questions to decide on.
The quickest form of full-version Specification writing that allows fast editing is the ‘Read & Delete’ principle, where the writer simply reads the Master and deletes what is not wanted in the project, without
adding anything to the Spec.
The only way to achieve this ‘Read & Delete’ system is for the Master to have only common/universal construction content, while project specific detail (selections, products, colours, arrangements, etc) go on the drawings or into the schedules. Adding anything to the Spec takes too much time.
