Last month's "Getting it Right" column (September, 2005) acknowledged that there are various levels of testing rigor currently provided by commissioning professionals. When developing their commissioning procurement scope of work, facility owners need to make an effort to specify the level of testing rigor and documentation required. Simply requiring the commissioning professional to "test" systems is risky, because that term is not universally defined or understood.
There is a continuous spectrum of testing preparation, execution, and documentation rigor in practice today. The following table captures a range of approaches taken by commissioning providers. It is safe to say that each commissioning provider's approach is unique and falls somewhere within the bounds of this table.