---
id: KB-CN-008
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/construction/architecture-and-engineering-practices
idioma: en
categoria: sector-construccion
subcategoria: arquitectura
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-CN-006, KB-LE-009]
citadoPor: [KB-CN-022]
---

# Architecture and engineering practices

_Deliverables by phase, versions that cross, and liability that lasts years._

**Responde a:** architecture project version control · engineering deliverables by phase · technical project documentation · long-tail professional liability records

A practice produces documentation as its product: it does not accumulate it, it delivers it. That changes the problem. What needs controlling is not where a paper is, but which version was delivered, to whom, when, and what was approved from it.

## The three controls that matter

| Control | What it prevents |
| --- | --- |
| Delivered version, with date and recipient | Building from a version that was already superseded |
| Client approvals, by phase | A change being treated as accepted when it was not |
| A record of requested changes | Scope growing unnoticed and unbilled |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The third decides the profitability of the commission. Small changes requested by phone or on site never get billed because nobody noted them, and by project end the practice has done 30% more work than contracted.

## How to organise it without bureaucracy

1. **One file per project, with real phases** — The ones you use and invoice, not a textbook's.
2. **Each delivery recorded as a delivery** — Which version, to whom, when. A minute, and it covers the whole project.
3. **Explicit approval when each phase closes** — Signed, not a "go ahead" on a call.
4. **And change requests noted on receipt** — Even if you decide not to charge: what matters is that they are on record.

> [!WARNING]
> Professional liability runs for years after delivery. That means the project archive has to outlive changes of system, staff and partners — and leaving it on the machine of whoever drew it is not an option.

## What gets asked for when there is a problem

**En corto**

- Which version was delivered and what was actually built.
- What was warned in writing, and when.
- What the client approved and with what documentation in front of them.
- And what changes were requested during construction.

All four are answered by the same thing: the project file with dated deliveries. And all four are impossible to reconstruct afterwards from three people's inboxes.

> [!NOTE]
> It applies equally to engineering firms, technical consultancies and design practices: the pattern is "we produce documentation that we deliver", and control is over delivery, not storage.

**What about drawings, which are many and large?**

Deliver and record the set per phase; there is no need to version each file by hand.

**Does it work for collaborations with other practices?**

Yes, and there it pays to agree beforehand who keeps the whole.

**How long must the project be kept?**

Longer than the applicable liability period, with margin.

## Ejemplos

**A practice discovers at the end of a project that it did three unbilled rounds of changes.**

- Notes each change request on receipt, even when not charging
- Records each delivery with version and recipient

→ The next project closes with the real scope billed and no argument about what was approved.

**The design lives on the machine of whoever signs it.**

- Stores it off personal machines

→ One person leaving does not take the archive.

**The input data supplied by others disappears.**

- Stores what third parties provided with the project

→ The basis of the calculation still exists.

**Several versions circulate and nobody knows which stands.**

- Keeps versions with their dates

→ You can say what applied at each moment.

**Something is changed on site and never reaches the practice.**

- Records what was communicated and when

→ Each party's position is documented.

**Questions arrive about a project from years ago.**

- Keeps the complete file with its date

→ You answer from the archive.