What is the RIBA Plan of Work?

Since its conception in 1963, the RIBA Plan of Work has been the definitive model for building design and construction processes in the UK, and has also exerted significant influence internationally. The RIBA Plan of Work framework has served both the architects’ profession and the wider construction industry well.

The initial Plan of Work was conceived as a ‘Plan of Work for Design Team Operations’ and consisted of 12 stages and three columns that set out ‘the purpose of work and decisions to be reached at each stage’, ‘tasks to be done’ and ‘the people directly involved’. This Plan of Work was updated in 1967 and again in 1973. In 1998 a major revamp was undertaken. The 12 stages were reduced to 11 by the deletion of the ‘Completion’ stage and, although the general thrust of each stage remained the same, only two stages retained their original titles. The 1998 RIBA Outline Plan of Work defined ‘the work stages into which the process of designing building projects and administrating building contracts may be divided’. This Plan acknowledged that some variations to the work stages apply to design and build procurement, although it did not set out what these variations might be. This Plan was updated in 2007, with five stages renamed and additional descriptions of the key tasks added along with the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) Gateways, which were the old Government ‘checkpoints’, now renamed ‘UK Government Information Exchanges’. More importantly, guidance was added on how the Plan might be adapted to different forms of procurement, although the Outline Plan of Work continued to relate to traditional procurement.

This brief synopsis of the Plan of Work’s history underlines its continual evolution in response to changing trends. The RIBA Plan of Work 2013 represents the next significant evolutionary stage of the RIBA Plan of Work.

This Guide to Using the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 sets out the reasons behind the fundamental changes, clarifies the amendments to the project stages, details changes to the key tasks to be undertaken and provides additional narrative on the core subjects that must be considered in relation to the RIBA Plan of Work 2013. More importantly, this guide sets out how the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 can be used to assemble an effective project team. This shift in emphasis from the design team to the project team is, in itself, one of the major cultural changes that the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 acknowledges and reinforces.

The principal purpose of the RIBA Plan of Work 2013, in line with its predecessors, is explaining to clients the circular processes involved in a building project, although these are expanded and adjusted to relate to the briefing, design, construction, maintenance, operational and in-use processes involved in a building project. Within this explanatory framework the stages continue to set particular and specific boundaries for those involved in the process. While the RIBA Plan of Work is devised by the RIBA, it is intended for use by all the parties involved in a project.

Why is a major update of the RIBA Plan of Work necessary?

The RIBA Plan of Work has continued to evolve in response to changing processes within the broader construction industry. For example, the RIBA Plan of Work 1998 acknowledged the reduced use of bills of quantities by amending Stage G to Tender Documentation and redefining the nature of Stage E. In a similar vein, the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 has been created in response to a number of drivers. The eight most important factors necessitating a major review of the RIBA Plan of Work are considered below:

• 1. Previous editions of the RIBA Plan of Work related to one form of procurement: traditional. The RIBA Plan of Work 2013 consultation process confirmed the fact that many different forms of procurement are used. It is now essential that the Plan of Work is relevant to any of the procurement routes currently in use.
• 2. Time constraints inevitably place greater pressure on front-end design work. There is a need to recalibrate the initial stages to ensure that the brief is properly developed and the project team is properly assembled.
• 3. The RIBA Outline Plan of Work 2007 acknowledged the potential increase in the scope of post-occupancy duties. The nature of post-occupancy duties has certainly become more onerous, but a crucial factor is the need to identify these duties at the outset of a project.
• 4. There has been a shift in emphasis from the design team to the project team (consisting of client + design team + contractor) and the lead designer role is frequently underplayed and misunderstood. The new RIBA Plan of Work must address the concept of the project team and redefine and reinforce the lead designer and project lead roles.
• 5. The RIBA Outline Plan of Work 2007 does not recognise the design work undertaken by specialist contractors. For some time now JCT contracts have acknowledged this subject by including a clause requiring such work to be stated in the Building Contract. The RIBA Plan of Work needs to embrace this common way of working.
• 6. The Information Age is fundamentally changing the way that we design, communicate, store and harness information. The RIBA Plan of Work has to address the implications of what some people call the ‘Third Industrial Revolution’. While BIM is used as a catchall phrase for this important subject, the RIBA Plan of Work must consider the broader context.
• 7. Many practitioners utilise terms such as C+ or D− to refer to the point when a planning application is made. The RIBA Plan of Work must reflect these cultural ‘norms’ as well as acknowledging the need for pre-application activities or the increased importance of addressing any conditions attached to a planning consent.
• 8. The information produced at Stages D, E and F1 varies widely depending on the client, practice or project. The RIBA Plan of Work 2013 aims to provide greater clarity on this subject.

The RIBA Plan of Work is not a contractual document. Schedules of services and other contractual documents are used for contractual purposes.

What are the main changes to the RIBA Plan of Work?

On first sight, the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 appears to be a radical shift from the RIBA Outline Plan of Work 2007 (see the fold-out template at the back of this book). This is not the case. The RIBA Plan of Work 2013 maintains the tradition of explaining to clients how the briefing, design, construction, maintenance, operation and in-use processes work by mapping key activities against project stages. It still specifies the core activities undertaken at each stage. While the concept is the same, four key points need to be digested in order to understand the changes to the RIBA Plan of Work, before considering how it responds to the issues that have been highlighted:

• • The RIBA Plan of Work 2013 has eight stages and eight ‘task bars’. The task bars define groups of related tasks that run across all the stages. This is a shift from the 11 stages and two task bars (headed ‘Description of key tasks’ and ‘OGC Gateways’) contained in the RIBA Outline Plan of Work 2007. The new stages and task bars are set out in detail in Chapter 2.
• • The RIBA Plan of Work 2013 has been developed as a template that allows a bespoke practice- or project-specific Plan of Work to be created via www.ribaplanofwork.com. Selecting the correct task bar from the three variable task bars for Procurement, Programme and (Town) Planning, and thus defining your own practice- or project-specific Plan, is a crucial part of the RIBA Plan of Work 2013.
• • The eight stages have shifted from letters to numbers to avoid confusion in the change from eleven to eight stages and also to align with the unified work stages agreed during discussion with representatives of the broader construction industry.
• • The stages relating to tendering activities have been removed from the RIBA Plan of Work 2013, as these were specific to traditional procurement; however, they have been replaced by a Procurement task bar. Procurement and tendering activities therefore continue to be an important component of the RIBA Plan of Work. Indeed, procurement activities now receive more attention as they are included at every stage.

How does the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 respond to the issues raised?

In response to the points raised above on the necessity for redrafting, the RIBA Plan of Work 2013:

• • recommends the strategic consideration of the client’s Business Case and the preparation of a Strategic Brief during the newly created Stage 0, before a more specific project brief is generated at Stage 1, along with any Feasibility Studies required to assess how the brief relates to the chosen site
• • advocates the use of a specific set of documents in the creation of a project team during Stage 1 and, as part of this process, establishing communication, software, design responsibility and other protocols prior to design work commencing in earnest at Stage 2
• • reflects opportunities for new post-occupancy duties during Stage 7 and, more importantly, highlights the actions required earlier in the project process to facilitate these
• • acknowledges that planning applications might be submitted at Stage 2 or Stage 3 and emphasises the need to consider the risks that are created when applications are submitted at the end of Stage 2
• • acknowledges the design work undertaken by specialist contractors and the need for the lead designer to integrate this work into the coordinated design during Stage 4, and
• • introduces the concept of Information Exchanges to ensure that appropriate consideration is given to the information that must be exchanged during and at the end of each stage, and the need for Project Strategies to co-exist alongside the design as it develops.

New Schedules of Services for the RIBA suite of appointment documents have been produced in parallel with the RIBA Plan of Work 2013. These, along with this guide and the new RIBA publication Assembling a Collaborative Project Team, provide the tools necessary to successfully build a project team during Stage 1.

How does the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 differ from the 2007 Plan?

While the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 is the second major evolutionary change to the RIBA Plan of Work, it is important realise that it is not a fundamental shift from the RIBA Outline Plan of Work 2007. To emphasise this point, the transition from the 2007 stages to the 2013 stages is mapped out in the new stage definitions on pages 20 to 35, and the defined terms that have been introduced to bring greater clarity to a number of core subjects are listed in Chapter 10. The rationale behind the new task descriptions, now referred to as task bars, is set out on pages 10 to 18. This section also defines how the variable elements of the task bars can be harnessed to generate a bespoke practice- or project-specific Plan of Work.

When considering fee proposals, the areas that have the most significant impact are the integration of tendering activities within each project stage and the additional coordination work required during Stage 3.

Before considering the eight task bars and eight stages (see Chapter 2) it is important to consider that the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 represents merely the tip of the iceberg. The process outlined in Chapter 3 for assembling a successful project team is not prescriptive but it does offer the opportunity to reinvigorate the documentation necessary to support a project and the processes of briefing, designing, constructing, maintaining, operating and using a building.