BAM 087: The four step BAS design lifecycle

The Smart Buildings Academy Podcast | Teaching You Building Automation, Systems Integration, and Information Technology

I've been the victim of some really bad designs and if I'm honest with you, I've also created a few really bad designs... The thing is, no one really teaches this topic. Sure there are a ton of "webinars" out there that teach you "BAS" but mostly they are just feature fests, where some vendor goes through all the features that exist in their product. When I was first learning design back in 2007 my mentor had me draw out the design on graph paper from start to finish. At the time I thought this guy was an a$$, but in reality, he was teaching me several invaluable lessons. The first lesson was that the design should be independent and interdependent at the same time. Each document you create as part of a design should be able to stand on its own. And I learned this as I had to justify every document I created. However, every document must build upon one another and support one another to create a complete design. This is a skill that I quite simply don't see being taught anywhere. And that is what we are going to discuss in this episode. In this episode you are going to learn:

• The purpose of a BAS design
• The four-phase design lifecycle
• The importance of mini-design lifecycles
• The secret behind making sure you are always on-time with your design
• Strategies to reduce your submittal rejection rate
• And much more!