SPECSINTACT Interagency Configuration,
Control and Coordinating Board Meeting

Welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Informed board members the representatives of the NASA Configuration Control and Coordinating Board (NS-CCCB) all agreed NASA should become a part of the UFGS.
Informed board members NASA still does not have a transition plan to join Unified Facilities Guide Specifications (UFGS).
Stated in 2002 Kennedy Space Center (KSC) successfully designed two projects using the UFGS Masters.

ACTION: Miguel Morales will petition JX to formally request from the NS-Board a plan for NASA to transition to UFGS.

Update of Reference Working Group Meeting - Jim Quinn, Army

Completed the review of the Unified Master Reference List (UMRL) and updated references used by other agencies.
Eliminated 100 reference entries in the UMRL
Updated references to line up closer with the original organization and how they are identified.
Stated National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) is updating 25% of the UMRL each quarter.

Update of Stand Alone Submittal Register - Pat Robinson, InDyne

Stated due to workload of releasing the new editor and the demise of WordSpec there had not been any programming done on the SASR.
Stated the SASR was ready for Beta testing.
Ed Gallaher requested a copy of the software for Norfolk to conduct beta testing.

ACTION: Carl Kersten will send the SI development team a completed submittal register to use for documenting the help for the SASR.

Update of CSI Revised MasterFormat™ - Carl Kersten, NAVFAC

Stated Construction Specification Institute (CSI) MasterFormat™ is currently undergoing an expansion.
There are two drafts for the proposed expansion of the Construction Specification Institute's (CSI)/Construction Specifications Canda's (CSC).

The draft labeled "Scheme A" is a revision of the December 31, 2001 expansion draft posted to this site for distribution February 19, 2002
This approach adds new divisions while leaving existing divisions 3-14 largely unchanged. The highlights of Proposal A's second draft are: The content of current division numbers 15 (Mechanical) and 16 (Electrical) would go in a group of new divisions called Building Engineering (divisions 31-35 in Draft 2). Those divisions would have expanded mechanical, electrical and plumbing content
In all, there are 37 operative divisions. Some division numbers have no content. They anticipate new topics to arise in future revision cycles. That will make revising MasterFormatTM more efficient and be less disruptive to its overall structure
The total number of divisions, including those with and without content is 49.
The draft labeled "Scheme B" is a new proposal provided in response to commentary received by the task team requesting a more complete restructuring of MasterFormat™
At the end of January a meeting will be held to decide with which format Masterformat ™ will adopt either Scheme A or B.

Review Change Requests - Pat Robinson, InDyne

A total of 23 change request were reviewed. Below is a summary of the results of the change requests reviewed:

Accepted - 15
Withdrawn - 1
Rejected - 5
Deferred - 2

Web/User Tools Update - Cheryl Mansfield, InDyne

Updated board members on the status of the following user tools:

On-screen Help
CCB release
Beta release
Up-coming 4.0
Conversion to html format
Users Guide
QuickTours
xxxRevamping for 4.0
Action Learning Tools
xxxDevelopment will begin again after other 4.0 documentation completed
Web site
xxxSecurity shut down for six weeks (Aug - Oct)
xxx31,750 hits thus far in 2002
xxxSoftware downloads since Oct. 1 releases: SI3 - 791, SI4beta - 393
xxxRevamping Knowledge Base for 4.0
xxxAdds to email list since June - 50+
xxxMajor notifications since June
xxxBeta release
xxxNASA Masters released
xxxSupport email address change
xxxWordSpec elimination

ACTION: Cheryl Mansfield will document in a flyer for National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) to mail out with the next Construction Criteria Base (CCB) compact disc distribution.

ACTION: The technical support staff will not support WordSpec users after October 2003.

ACTION: Jim Quinn and Carl Kersten will provide a link on their websites to the SpecsIntact web page about WordSpec.

Changes to SI/Word Interoperability - Ken Tichy, InDyne

WordSpec is a tool created with the intent of translating SpecsIntact files into MS Word. The product took a wrong turn and evolved towards a non-desirable state
WordSpec is no longer going to be a supported part of SpecsIntact.
SpecsIntact will maintain the conversion tool aspect of the system, which shall be known as Word Publishing.
New features will be added to the Word Publishing, or, the conversion from SpecsIntact to Word format such as:

Automatic Header and Footer handling
Ability to convert files with paragraph renumbering and reconciliation.
Simplified conversion process

Positive gain from the decision

Greatly diminished volume of calls for the help-desk
Double-efforts no longer necessary to update WordSpec
Users using the correct tools for editing their specifications
Less confused users
More document conformity

Reference Processing Automation - Jim Whitehead, InDyne

Demonstrated reference automation features in the recently released SpecsIntact Editor, including the Reference Wizard, mouse-over hints for Reference Identifiers (RIDs), and automated comparison of reference information in a Section's Reference Article with that in the user's primary Master reference file.
Described pending and possible future enhancements to SpecsIntact Reference processing.
A lengthy discussion was held regarding the best way to ensure that Reference information in SpecsIntact Sections is correct. The SpecsIntact CCCB commended the new Editor reference automation features, and directed additional enhancements to take even better advantage of the new features. Suggestions for additional Reference processing enhancements were also discussed.

ACTION: Jim Whitehead will assess the software impact for renumbering itemized paragraphs. A teleconference will be held to discuss and decide when this task will be incorporated into the software.

XML Compliance Issues - Jim Whitehead, InDyne

Described XML (Extensible Markup Language) and its significance, and compared it to SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language).
Described the advantages for SpecsIntact of XML compliance, including the ability to allow XML compatible applications to process SpecsIntact Specifications.
Explained that SpecsIntact is well positioned to take advantage of the burgeoning market in XML applications, tools, and services, because the current SpecsIntact specifications are nearly valid XML documents already.
Enumerated the software and specification changes required to make SpecsIntact Specification Sections valid XML documents, and recommended that the SpecsIntact CCCB prioritize this work.

Support Issues - Cheryl Fitz-Simon, InDyne

Conducted an overview of the problems the support personnel have experienced in working with customers using the UFGS database.
Reviewed the UFGS Master reports for references, submittals, section verification, and other markup issues.
Discussed standardizing section formatting requirements using the Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC 1-300-02) as a guideline.
Provided a status report on actions of the UMRL Meeting held October 8 - 9, 2002.

ACTION: Carl Kersten and Jim Quinn will be given the bracket reports to correct the section indicated on the report.

ACTION: Carl Kersten will work with Maggie Muller to update Appendix B of the UFGS format standard. He will send a draft to the UFGS Working Group for review and approval. He will send the final document to the coordinating panel to publish in January.

ACTION: Jim Quinn will provide the UFGS Section Template for the SI 4.0 release.

ACTION: Jim Quinn will globally remove the ++and ** from the UMRL before it is posted on the web site.

Submittal Format - Round Table

A lengthy discussion was held regarding the agreed on submittal format.
Mr. Quinn stated he did not agree with the submittal format and would like to have the committee revisit the submittal format. The disagreement relates to the requirement to include and tag all submittal items somewhere in the text of the spec section. This was a SI-CCCB agreement reached in November 1998.
Mr. Quinn stated he has changed all the specifications to reflect the agreed format. He has submitted the specifications to Rick Dahnke and is waiting to get the proponent approval before the changes will be implemented in the UFGS database.
The SI-CCCB did not agree to revisit the issue.

ACTION: Miguel Morales is requesting Rick Dahnke to have all submittal discrepancies cleaned up for the April Construction Criteria Base (CCB) disc.

Proposal for Central Maintenance of UFGS Database - - Round Table

Jim Quinn wrote a proposal for USACE (CEHNC) be assigned the job of UFGS database manager.
A discussion was held and it was decided personnel with the expertise to maintain the UFGS Database was at Kennedy Space Center.

ACTION: Miguel Morales will request SGS to provide a proposal for InDyne to manage the UFGS database.

Priority of Work - Round Table

1. Provide estimate to implement renumberable paragraphs and implement this (subject to SI/CCCB approval via teleconference)

2. Enhance Reference Wizard

3. Implement Reference processing enhancements

4. Correct any identified problems with the reports and modify wording on the reports

5. Implement improved table capability in the Editor

6. Make SpecsIntact save and process XML compliant documents

7. Allow alternate paragraph numbering formats

FY 2003 Projected SpecsIntact Milestones Assuming Approval of New Renumberable Paragraphs

Quarter 1

Release SpecsIntact Beta V4.0 with new 32-bit Editor
Complete assessment of software impact for renumbering itemized paragraphs

Quarter 2

Begin work on new Reference editing enhancements, as directed at November 2002 SI CCCB meeting.
Complete new RoboHelp WebHelp integration
Release SI Editor version 4.0 (non-beta). This is subject to change if the release is delayed until after the completion of the new Word output functionality.
Complete changes to SI Report text and some related 1620s.

Quarter 3

Release SpecsIntact software with new Word output functionality.
Release SpecsIntact software with support for renumbering new itemized paragraphs.

Quarter 4

Complete new Reference editing enhancements, as directed at November, 2002 SI CCCB meeting.
Release new SpecsIntact Reference processing enhancements for UMRL

FY 2003 Projected SpecsIntact Milestones without New Renumberable Paragraphs

Quarter 1

Release SpecsIntact Beta V4.0 with new 32-bit Editor
Complete assessment of software impact for renumbering itemized paragraphs

Quarter 2

Begin work on new Reference editing enhancements, as directed at November 2002 SI CCCB meeting.
Complete new RoboHelp WebHelp integration.
Release SI Editor version 4.0 (non-beta). This is subject to change if the release is delayed until after the completion of the new Word output functionality.
Complete changes to SI Report text and some related 1620s

Quarter 3

Release SpecsIntact software with new Word output functionality.
Complete new Reference editing enhancements, as directed at November 2002 SI CCCB meeting.

Quarter 4

Release new SpecsIntact Reference processing enhancements for UMRL.
Begin work on XML compliance. Approximately 50% completed by end of quarter.

Wrap-Up

The next meeting will be held the end of June.

ACTION: Pat Robinson will distribute a separate list of the action items to all Board Members.

SpecsIntact and WordSpec are software products of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and are developed and maintained under the Joint Base Operations and Support Contract (J-BOSC) at the Kennedy Space Center.  All other products mentioned are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies.
SpecsIntact, Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899
Technical Support line - (321) 867- 8800, Fax - (321) 867- 1444
Email - specsintact@ksc.nasa.gov

Web Site Curator: Cheryl Fitz-Simon
NASA Official Responsible: Miguel Morales

If you have questions, problems or comments regarding this web site, email: Cheryl.Fitz-Simon@jbosc.ksc.nasa.gov

Last modified: July 31, 2002