In BriefBuilder, there are modules for requirements and for the management of those requirements.
The requirements modules, often referred to as ‘trees‘, represent different types of objects, such as Objectives & principles, Spaces & Locations or Systems & Elements.
The management modules (IFC, Analysis, Risk, Verification, and RFC) are designed to support the process of working with requirements.
Please note: when having a BriefBuilder Lite subscription, access to modules is limited. Only the Spaces & Locations, Systems & Elements, and IFC modules are available.
The relevance of the modules depends on the specifics of your project. For instance, in a hospital project, the User Equipment module is likely to be very relevant (to manage detailed lists of medical equipment), while it will be less relevant for an infrastructural project such as a road or tunnel.
Important: To be able to add or remove module, you need to have the role of requirements manager.
The setting menu for the modules can be found in BriefBuilder’s navigation bar on the left hand side, at the bottom (Settings > Project model > Modules).
Watch this quick guide on how to add or remove modules. More information on module and tree definitions can be found further down.
Overview of modules
General
Under ‘General’ you will find the essential modules to start building a requirement model for AEC projects, allowing you to define strategic objectives, overall design principles and to create spatial and technical compositions in a project model.
Available modules
- Objectives & principles
- Spaces & locations
- Typical objects
- Systems & elements
Good to know: when creating a new project model, these modules have been selected by default.
Process
The process-related modules allow users to define the scope of a project in terms of the processes and activities that need to be performed by the contract party (e.g. particular design tasks, engineering activities) and the products that needs to be delivered (e.g. specific BIM models, certificates, warranties).
Available modules
- Processes & activities
- Deliverables
Use
This group of modules allows you to be explicit about the intended use and functionality of a facility. You can define different types of building users (e.g. visitors, employees, pupils) and different types of user activities (e.g. office work, meetings, teaching) and the different types of user equipment that will/should be placed in the facility.
Available modules
- Users
- User activities
- User equipment
Services
This group of modules is relevant for integrated contracts (e.g. Design, Build & Maintain or DBFMO-contracts) where services (e.g. maintenance, cleaning or catering) are part of the contract. With these modules you can specify what services need to be delivered and what the required service levels for those services are. Furthermore, you can define how the contract should deal with performance failures and quality measurement.
Available modules
- Services
- Performance failures
- Quality measurements
Texts
This module enables the capture of requirement texts in a breakdown structure and link them to the relevant project parts (e.g. particular systems, spaces, processes). This enables project teams to work systematically with requirements even though they are captured in a traditional text format.
Available module
- Requirement texts
Standards
This module allows you to be explicit about all the norms and standards that the project needs to comply with. It allows you to make a systematic list of all relevant standards, describe these, link them to pdf-documents or refer to online documents, and link the standards to the relevant project parts (e.g. specific systems or spaces).
Available module
- Standards
Management
The management modules provide tools to analyse, assess risks, verify, and manage the requirements within a project model. These tools enable tasks such as importing IFC data to generate floorplans and compare information, assessing and reviewing requirements using the analysis and risk tools, verifying requirements, and submitting RFC’s (Requests for Change).
Available features:
- IFC
- Analysis
- Risk
- Verification
- RFC
TIP: We recommend you to be critical about the number of trees that you need. While trees are highly effective for managing specific information, an excessive number can contribute to information overload. Only add trees when they are truly necessary.
Adding / removing modules
Use the blue toggle buttons to activate or deactivate the different modules and requirement trees in BriefBuilder.
Please note: Modules and requirement trees can only be deactivated when they are not in use. First, clear a module or tree of all its contents before deactivating it.
