Document Precedence and Conflict Questions Checklist

List every document that describes the work, including drawings, written specifications, schedules, correspondence relied on, and anything a supplier provided.

A conflict is only visible once the documents are known to exist, and several of them usually arrived without announcement.

Note who produced each document and when, since documents from different parties are the ones most likely to disagree.

Two parties describing the same element from their own perspective is the ordinary origin of a conflict.

Record the version and date of each document, and check whether anybody else is working from a different one.

An apparent conflict is frequently two people reading different versions of the same document.

Ask what documents exist that you have not been sent, particularly specialist design produced for one party and information supplied with a product.

Specialist information routed between other parties often never reaches the owner and can govern something you care about.

Note anything informal being relied on, such as a marked-up sketch or a message describing a change, and ask what status it has.

Informal documents carry real information and an unclear status, which is a conflict waiting to be found.

Keep the list of documents up to date as new ones arrive, since a set that has grown without a list becomes unmanageable quickly.

The list is the cheapest part of this checklist and the part everything else depends on.

Ask, before work starts, which document governs if two of them disagree, and get the answer in writing rather than in conversation.

The question is uncontroversial in advance and contentious once a specific conflict is on the table.

Put the question to each appointed party separately and compare their answers, rather than assuming that one party's answer covers everybody else.

Different parties often hold different views about which document they are working to.

Check whether your own arrangement already says something about precedence, and take that question to your own legal adviser.

Precedence is frequently addressed in an arrangement, which settles the question independently of anybody's preference.

What your arrangement says about which document governs is a legal question; ask your own legal adviser rather than reaching a view from the documents.

Ask whether the answer is the same for every subject, since a document may govern for one kind of question and not another.

Precedence is often subject-specific rather than absolute, which is easy to miss when asking in general terms.

Write the answer down in a single line and share it with everybody who works from the documents, rather than holding it yourself.

A precedence rule known only to the owner has no effect on what happens on site.

Ask specifically where manufacturer's documentation sits in relation to the drawings and the specification, rather than leaving it unmentioned.

The published material is direct that product literature is sometimes the governing document for how an item is installed.

Ask what happens when a manufacturer's requirement conflicts with a drawn detail, and who resolves that particular kind of conflict.

This conflict is common, has a standard resolution route in most teams, and is never explained to the owner.

Ask who holds the documentation for each specified product, and whether whoever installs the item will actually have read it beforehand.

Literature supplied and unread is the practical route by which a product's own requirements go unmet.

Note that substituting a product substitutes its documentation too, and ask for the new literature whenever a product changes.

A substitution can change a governing requirement without anybody treating it as a change to the documents.

Ask whether any part of the project is governed by a separate design carried out by somebody else, and how that ranks against the rest.

The published records note that requirements determined by a separate design can take precedence over other records of the same element.

Where a separately determined requirement applies, confirm with the appointed professionals how it reaches the people doing the work.

Ask who a conflict should be raised with, and whether that is the same person for a drawing conflict and a specification conflict.

Sending a conflict to the wrong party adds a delay and sometimes produces a second answer.

Raise a conflict by describing both documents and quoting what each of them says, without proposing which of the two you think should win.

An owner proposing a resolution invites agreement rather than analysis, which is the opposite of what is needed.

Describing a conflict is an owner's role; deciding which document governs a technical question is not, and should be left with the appointed professionals.

Quote each document exactly, including its reference and its version, rather than paraphrasing what you believe each of them means.

Paraphrase frequently removes the conflict or creates a different one, and neither is helpful.

Say what work the conflict affects and whether anything is waiting on it, so the urgency is visible without being asserted.

A conflict affecting imminent work is answered differently from one found months ahead.

Raise a conflict even where it seems small, since a small discrepancy in a document often indicates a larger one elsewhere.

Discrepancies cluster, and the first one found is rarely the only one.

Ask who resolves a conflict for each kind of subject, such as structure, water, services or appearance, rather than in general.

Different disciplines own different conflicts, and the routing is usually obvious to the team and invisible to the owner.

Ask what happens when the two conflicting documents were produced by two different parties, and who decides between them.

This is the hardest case and the one least likely to have a default answer.

Ask who tells the people doing the work what the resolution is, by what route, and how quickly it is expected to reach them.

A resolution that does not reach the site is not a resolution, and the gap is where work proceeds on the wrong document.

Ask what happens if a conflict is not resolved before the work is reached, and who decides whether work proceeds.

Work reaching an unresolved conflict is decided by whoever is present, which is the situation to avoid.

Ask what is expected of you in a resolution, and be clear about which decisions are yours and which are being routed through you.

Owners are frequently asked to choose between two documents when what is needed is a technical decision.

Keep a single short log of conflicts raised, with what each document said, who resolved it, and what the resolution was.

One log is what makes it possible to notice that the same conflict has come back.

Record which document was followed and whether the other one is being amended, since a document left unamended will produce the same conflict again.

A resolution that leaves both documents unchanged is temporary by construction.

Ask whether the superseded document will be marked up or reissued, who is responsible for doing it, and by when it will happen.

Amending the losing document is what stops the conflict recurring, and it is frequently nobody's task.

Note who else holds the document that was not followed, and make sure the resolution reaches every one of them rather than only the site.

Documents circulate more widely than anybody tracks, and an unamended copy can surface much later.

Date each entry and record who gave the resolution, so a later query starts from a person rather than from your summary.

Attribution is what makes a log usable by somebody who was not part of the conversation.

Keep the log factual and free of any view about why the conflict existed, since it may be read by people you did not anticipate.

A factual log remains useful in every scenario; a critical one narrows your options.

When a conflict is resolved, ask whether the same discrepancy exists anywhere else in the documents, and record the answer.

Discrepancies usually originate in a single change that was not carried through, so they come in groups.

Read your conflict log after each document reissue, and check that resolved conflicts have actually been carried into the new version.

A reissue produced from an earlier source can quietly reintroduce a conflict that was already settled.

After any change, ask which documents now describe something different from what was decided, rather than assuming all of them were updated.

Changes reach the documents at different speeds, and the interval is where new conflicts are created.

Ask how superseded documents are withdrawn from circulation, and whether anybody is still holding a version that has since been replaced.

Superseded documents circulate for a long time and are the ones somebody eventually works from.

Keep the conflict log with the project papers at handover, since it explains why the finished work follows one document rather than another.

Somebody comparing the papers later will find the discrepancy again, and the log is the answer.

Send any conflict about how something is built or how it performs to the appointed professionals without offering a preference of your own.

An owner's preference between two technical descriptions carries no information and can foreclose the analysis.

Send any conflict about obligation, entitlement or scope to your own legal adviser rather than settling it in a project conversation.

These conflicts look the same as technical ones in a document set and have entirely different consequences.

Interpreting what any contractual document means is a matter for your own legal adviser, not something to be settled by comparing documents yourself.

Take any conflict that touches what applies locally to your local authority or the relevant body rather than resolving it within the team.

Requirements vary by location and by project, and only the relevant body can say what applies.

Avoid telling anybody which document to follow, and route the question instead, since an instruction from you changes where responsibility sits.

An owner instructing a choice between documents is making a decision that was not theirs to make.

Keep technical questions, contractual questions and questions about local requirements in separate lists, since mixing them makes every one of them harder to answer.

Mixed lists get sent to the wrong person and produce answers that address only part of what was asked.