I have been reminded recently that building systems commissioning, as it has evolved and been defined in the North American building industry over the past 25 years, is not universally understood by all facility owners or design and construction professionals. This has clarified the importance of defining the term “commissioning” for all new project teams in order to clearly define expectations and roles and responsibilities.
In some industries and in some other countries, “commissioning” still carries the connotation of something the contractors and equipment suppliers need to do in order to make all of the equipment and controls work together as a system. I believe industrial plants and shipbuilders were using the term long before the building design and construction market adopted it for our purposes. As such, the industrial default of commissioning by the contractor needs to be respected; it just needs to be understood as something different than commissioning in today’s new building projects.