Keep Seasonal Commissioning on the Calendar

A project can reach handover while a seasonal test still needs the right conditions. The leadership task is to keep that remaining work visible after the project team begins to disperse. Before the handover meeting closes, give each outstanding seasonal test an accountable owner, a review date and a clear record location.

The federal guide specification UFGS 01 91 00.15, Building Commissioning, places seasonal testing in the commissioning schedule in paragraph 3.7. Paragraph 3.14 also calls for the report to identify seasonal testing that must occur later. It is a guide specification tailored to a project, so use the adopted contract and approved commissioning plan to establish the actual obligations.

The following is our suggested management practice. Create one tracking row for each remaining seasonal test and link it to the applicable procedure. Include the system identifier, the reason the test remains open, the required conditions, the person coordinating the return visit and the person authorized to review the result. Keep the evidence link with the row so another team member can pick up the work without rebuilding its history.

A calendar invitation alone leaves too much to memory. Its organizer may leave the project, access arrangements may change, or the named equipment may be hard to locate in an occupied building. Connect the invitation to the open-item record and identify who will maintain that record after handover. Confirm that both the project team and the receiving facilities team can find it.

Do not invent a weather threshold or substitute a convenient date for the conditions in the approved procedure. Ask the commissioning lead to identify the required conditions and the likely testing window. Then set an earlier review date for checking whether people, access and documentation will be ready. The review date is a coordination checkpoint; it does not establish that a test can proceed.

As an illustrative example, imagine a remaining cooling-mode test after a late-season handover. The tracking row could link the approved procedure, identify the facilities contact and assign the commissioning coordinator to check the anticipated return window. If the required conditions are absent, record that observation and the next review. Keep the test open rather than treating the elapsed appointment as evidence of completion.

At the handover meeting, walk through who arranges access, who attends, who supplies the necessary records and where the results will go. Ask whether the receiving team knows how to contact the responsible people. Record unresolved coordination questions alongside the test instead of leaving them in separate email threads. Escalate an unanswered responsibility question through the project's established route before it becomes an orphaned obligation.

When the test eventually occurs, attach its results and the applicable review decision to the same record. Follow the project's approval process for resolving deficiencies and updating the commissioning documentation. A useful management measure is the number of remaining seasonal tests with a named coordinator, linked procedure and next review date, divided by all remaining seasonal tests. Track actual completion separately.

Choose one project approaching handover. Ask the commissioning lead and facilities representative to locate every remaining seasonal test in the schedule and report. Have them identify one owner and one next review for each open item. The value of this check is continuity: the next person should be able to see what remains, why it remains and exactly where to resume.

Source note: UFGS 01 91 00.15, May 2023, Change 3 August 2024; paragraphs 3.7 and 3.14, reviewed October 21, 2026. The tracking practice and example above are editorial recommendations, not additional specification requirements.

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