01.5
Information requirements, set before design
Has the owner stated what it will need to know in order to run this asset, before the design that produces the information begins?
What goes wrong without it
Handover specifications are usually written the other way round. Someone lists what a contractor can readily produce and hopes it turns out to be useful. The standard asks the harder question first, which is why it is so often skipped. Information requirements set after design has started cannot change what is captured, only what is compiled.
What to examine
- Find the organizational information requirements. Then check the asset information requirements derive from them rather than from a document schedule.
- Confirm the requirements name decisions, not deliverables. "Everything the contractor produces" is not a requirement.
- Check the date. Requirements issued after detailed design has begun are a compilation exercise.
- Establish whether operations were consulted, and whether anyone in operations can name the requirement.
Required by
- ISO 19650-3, information management during the operational phase of assets, under which asset information requirements derive from organizational information requirements.
- ISO 55001:2024, Clause 7.6, data and information, revised in the second edition; ISO/TC 251’s guidance says the revision clarifies how data and information differ and makes the requirements clearer and more concise.
Read the sources
- ISO 55001:2024, asset management system requirements2024 edition; read 2026-09-26.ISO’s product page: the publication details and ISO’s own summary of the standard, not the requirement text. The contents, foreword and introduction cited in this publication are taken from the standard’s preview pages hosted on the ANSI webstore, not from this page.
In the asset lifecycle method
The steps of the two methods that this domain examines.