Project Colin – rethinking documentation in the context of ISO 19650

Project Colin tackles one of the industry’s biggest blind spots: documents. Despite all the talk of digital transformation, we’re still held back by shaky information foundations and a stubbornly paper-based mindset.

This session takes a fresh, honest look at documents and asks some deceptively simple questions: what if we focused on content rather than titles? What if documentation followed a consistent naming logic and breakdown? And what if documents were treated not as information inputs, but as purposeful outputs – presentations of information designed to meet real use cases?

We’ll explore how understanding purpose and information requirements can reshape delivery planning and transform how documents are broken down, named, structured, and reused. By applying consistent syntax and repeatable patterns, duplication and overlap can be significantly reduced. We’ll also show how a smarter use of the common data environment (CDE) allows information to be grouped flexibly, assembling outputs like O&M manuals and health and safety files without recreating content each time.

Let’s stop patching cracks and start building better information foundations.