There is no shortage of standards and guidance for the built environment. The challenge is that they often refer to specific stages of the asset lifecycle and it can be unclear how they join up. The Digital Operations Working Group has been formed to help address these increasingly pressing challenges
The Digital Operations Working Group (DOWG) has been established to move the sector beyond discussion and into direct action, bridging the gap between project delivery, technology-agnostic digital requirements and long-term estate management.
Led by Steven Boyd MBE, Gordon Mitchell and Justin Kirby, the group applies Right-to-Left thinking – starting with desired business outcomes – to create a Digital Handshake that connects capital delivery with operations.
Our first task is to map the landscape – identifying and aligning relevant standards, initiatives and policies to demonstrate how the dots join up. This process will also highlight where gaps exist – such as in Smart Handover and Digital Soft Landings – and where we can add immediate value by establishing a common language for the sector.
There is a well-known project-operations gap, with the high-quality data created during design and construction being lost as the building enters its operational phase. The challenge is more than data inefficiencies; it is systemic – procurement misalignment, disconnected capital and operational budgets, and a lack of lifecycle thinking in design. It is often compounded as asset management, facilities management and smart buildings work in silos with digital information maintained as a series of unconnected and passive records.
Decisions made during a building’s operational life affect approximately 70% of whole-life value and influence safety, carbon and occupant experience. Structured operational datasets present the opportunity to shape decisions, manage risk, effectively meet obligations and plan investment. Where this foundational data is layered with effective governance and processes, building operators can move from reporting performance to improving it, and from managing assets to enabling outcomes.
Right to Left thinking
A key principle of the DOWG’s work is “Right to Left” thinking. Starting with the asset owner’s desired outcomes, we can work back to the data required to deliver these in successful building operations, and then to the best ways to gather this data, including through project handover and the Digital Handshake necessary to deliver a digital soft landing.
This thinking is aligned to the RIBA Plan of Work and, importantly, recognises why buildings are built and used – they exist to drive business outcomes and value for the asset owner.
The landscape to which this thinking needs to be applied is complex and the digital maturity of built environment organisations varies considerably. In beginning to shape a Digital Operations Playbook, the DOWG seeks to define a minimum common language that works well in all stages of the asset lifecycle and to identify a minimum Common Data Foundation that can be used by all, and which can also form the foundation to develop digital twins and to apply AI as maturity develops.
Mapping the Landscape
The soup of available standards and guidance can be confusing. Mapping the Landscape is a first step towards integrating the various necessary activities required in the operational phase. To start the discussion that will shape the playbook, DOWG’s proposed framework for this mapping is at Figure 2. It starts with Asset Owner Value – both “carrot” (ROI and occupant experience) and “stick” (compliance with safety and carbon requirements) – and is underpinned by a Common Data Foundation.
Our aspiration is to co-create a minimum common language that resonates with all the elements in Figure 2, and to build a minimum Common Data Foundation that provides the DNA for a building enabling interoperability throughout its whole life.
In initiating a discussion to shape the playbook, DOWG suggests that data needed to inform the operational phase can be grouped by:
- Location: Minimum data to define the space in which an asset sits or in which performance is measured. Location data needs to be structured to enable drill down to more detailed levels and roll up of smaller spaces into larger zones or to a whole building.
- Asset: Minimum data to describe the asset. Asset data also needs to be structured to recognise that components/products are part of wider systems and that, in turn, these systems make up the building.
- Activity Data Layers: A series of additional data layers into which the data attributes required for the jobs that need to be done to deliver a single business outcome are grouped (eg attributes related to condition, sustainability, occupant experience etc). Attributes in these Activity Data Layers will be both reasonably static (eg residual asset life) and highly dynamic (eg thermal comfort).
Digital Operations Playbook
The primary output of the DOWG is the Digital Operations Playbook. This document will provide the strategic guidance required for planning and estate management, facilitating a vital shift from project-based silos to whole-life thinking centred on the operational phase.
The DOWG journey towards the playbook involves a series of upcoming roundtables that will help refine its structure and content, supported by a LinkedIn discussion forum to broaden engagement. A key milestone will be Digital Construction Week in June, when progress towards the playbook will be presented and discussed.
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