The written part of the design: what materials must be, how work is carried out and checked, and how it is measured and paid.
Specifications are the written part of a design. Where drawings show where things go and how big they are, the specification says what they must be made of, how well, how the work is carried out and checked, and, on many civil projects, how it is measured and paid. Together, drawings and specification make up the design's instruction to the builder.
Specifications are prepared by each discipline in parallel with the drawings, often from a master library adapted for the project. Contractors price from them, suppliers deliver to them, and inspectors check against them. For a BIM coordinator they decide which properties model elements should carry (a concrete class, a fire rating, a finish), and how quantities taken from the model must be grouped and measured.
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