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agcXML is a set of extensible Markup Language (XML) schemas designed to automate and streamline the exchange of information during the building design and construction process. agcXML facilitates the electronic exchange of typical business information between different programs that would otherwise be exchanged in unstructured construction documents.

Current State

As of February 2014, AGC re-focused on starting the schema development and adoption phase. AGC engaged the Burger Consulting Group(BCG)in Chicago to manage this process. To encourage collaboration with AGC and BCG, an Advisory Board comprising of software vendors, contractors and AGC’s IT Forum Steering committee members that work to determine and verify the direction of the agcXML PMO.

In October 2013, revisions to the existing schema Request for Information (RFI) and Change Order Directive began. The revisions to the alpha schema were completed on March 4, 2014 and a live RFI transaction demonstration was held at AGC's National Convention. The demonstration was a resounding success and the schema will now go onto the public review period. Progress still continues on the Change Order Directive with a public review period expected in May of 2014.

Advisory Board Members

Advisory Board Members included:

  • Charlene Atkinson, VP, Chief Information Officer, Swinteron, Inc.
  • Karmyn Babcock, IT Director, The Weitz Company
  • Tom Garrett, Vice President, Chief Safety & HR Officer, Brasfield & Gorrie
  • Maxime Montreil, IT Director, Colas, Inc.
  • Marc Goldman, Director of Strategy, The Blue Book and Construction Network
  • Yan Llamas, R&D Solutions Architect, COINS-Global
  • Eric Foster, Vice President, Development, Maxwell Systems
  • Ken Damon, Product Manager, PMWeb, Inc.
  • Dennis Stejskal, Vice President – Product Management, Sage Construction and Real Estate
  • Robert Humphreys, Vice President, Product Management, Viewpoint Construction Software
  • Bill Cobb, President, Haverstick-Borthwick Company
  • Kurt M. Koenig, Vice President of Product Management, Penta
  • C. Fara Francis, Chief Information Officer, AGC
  • Jason Rutkofsky, Project Manager, Burger Consulting Group
  • Angus Frost, Senior Consultant, Burger Consulting Group

agcXML Industry Steward

In early 2013, AGC engaged Burger Consulting Group (BCG) as the agcXML Industry Steward for the agcXML initiative. In this capacity, BCG will, in coordination with AGC, act as the Project Management Office (PMO) working with contractors and construction software developers to accomplish easy data exchange and integrated systems using agcXML schema.

In this role, BCG is responsible for driving this initiative forward in a timely manner. They will be involved in all aspects of this project and will specifically provide guidance to both the agcXML Advisory Board and Application Workgroups, establish and clarify responsibilities for each group, track the project’s progress to ensure its success, facilitate open and clear communications between all parties both internally and externally and ensure the project stays within budget.

Since 1994, BCG has been the premier provider of information technology and information systems management consulting to construction companies. Deeply experienced in the construction industry and familiar with the range of software applications in this sector, BCG remains completely vendor-independent making them an excellent choice as agcXML Industry Steward.

To find my out more about Burger Consulting, please visit our website at www.burgerconsulting.com

Get Involved

Participation early in the development of process based schemas will allow contractors to influence the level of detail in the schemas

  • Join the LinkedIn group “agcXML for Construction”
  • Follow us on twitter @agcXML
  • Talk to your software vendors about adopting agcXML
  • Volunteer for a Schema Workgroup
  • Sign up to be beta site for schema deployment

Contact AGC to find out more about getting involved.

History

The agcXML Project was an industry-wide initiative funded and led by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) and managed, under a contract with AGC, by the National Institute of Building Sciences. The goal of the project was to enable the efficient and reliable exchange of electronic construction project information among all building design and construction professionals. While building information modeling (BIM) is designed to facilitate the electronic exchange and the effective use of information about a building facility throughout the life cycle of a building facility, the agcXML Project focuses on transactional data—which may or may not be “building information”—that architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, material suppliers, and building owners typically exchange during the building design and construction process. Most of this information is still commonly exchanged in paper documents (or electronic equivalents of paper documents) such as owner/contractor agreements, schedules of values, requests for information (RFIs), requests for proposals (RFPs), architect/engineer supplemental instructions, change orders, change directives, submittals, applications for payment, and addenda, to name a few.

The project resulted in a set of extensible markup language (XML) schemas that will enable design and construction professionals to reliably exchange project information among dissimilar and proprietary software applications, without requiring the reengineering or redesign of those applications. The agcXML schemas established a common, non-proprietary data format and classification system. Software developers will be able to modify their applications with minimal effort to import and export data in agcXML format, without having to change or even share their proprietary software code and data formats. The schemas will remain the property of AGC, will be made publicly available and will be licensed at no cost and in perpetuity to any party for any legitimate purpose in support of the exchange of agcXML data. The project is coordinated with other data format standards development efforts worldwide to ensure the compatibility of agcXML data with those efforts.

Features

The agcXML schemas include the exchange of information commonly included in the following document types:

  • Request for Information (RFI)
  • Request for Pricing/Proposals
  • Owner/Contractor Agreements
  • Schedule of Values
  • Change Order
  • Application for Payment
  • Supplemental Instructions
  • Change Directive
  • Bid, Payment, Performance, and Warranty Bonds
  • Submittals

Original Project Scope

The agcXML Project will result in a set of XML schemas for the project specific, user-defined building design and construction data that is now commonly exchanged in the following types of construction contract documents and forms:

  • Owner/Prime Contractor Agreements
  • Owner/Construction Manager Agreements
  • Contractor/Subcontractor Agreements
  • Schedules of Values
  • Requests for Information
  • Requests for Pricing/Proposals
  • Architect's Supplemental Instructions
  • Construction Change Directives
  • Submittals
  • Change Order Requests/Approvals
  • Application for Payment Requests/Approvals
  • Addendum Notifications

Planned Features

Tentatively planned XML schemas may be developed for the data now commonly exchanged in the following additional document types:

  • Purchase Orders
  • Punch Lists
  • Daily Reports
  • Meeting Minutes
  • Owner/Architect-Engineer Agreements
  • Owner/Trade Contractor Agreements
  • Owner/Design-Builder Agreements
  • Design-Builder/Architect-Engineer Agreements
  • Contractor/Contractor (Joint Venture or Teaming) Agreements

Limitations

The agcXML schemas will only enable the exchange of user-defined data; as such, they will not facilitate the exchange of any standard contract language that is the intellectual property of any publisher of any of these types of documents. To the extent feasible, agcXML will accommodate the technical requirements of leading software vendors for incorporating support for agcXML into their software applications.

Project Plans

The project will result in a set of extensible markup language (XML) schemas that will enable design and construction professionals to reliably exchange project information among dissimilar and proprietary software applications, without requiring the re-engineering or redesign of those applications. The agcXML schemas will establish a common, non-proprietary data format and classification system. Software developers will be able to modify their applications with minimal effort to import and export data in agcXML format, without having to change or even share their proprietary software code and data formats. When completed, the schemas, which will remain the property of AGC, will be made publicly available and will be licensed at no cost and in perpetuity to any party for any legitimate purpose in support of the exchange of agcXML data. The project will be coordinated with other data format standards development efforts worldwide to ensure the compatibility of agcXML data with those efforts.

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