Design Basis Memorandum

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Record the project design basis, boundaries, assumptions, source precedence and unresolved inputs.

This Word template contains prepared headings, tables, project fields and completion notes. Add your information, review the completed document and remove the notes before issue.

Prepare project brief

The form prepares a separate brief; it does not fill the Word or Excel file.

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Design Basis Memorandum · Document preview — Selected page preview · DOCX

Learning

How to use this template

When you need it

Prepare the design basis memorandum when design objectives, operating requirements and site information need to become a common technical foundation. Update it when verified inputs or authorized requirements alter assumptions across disciplines.

What it helps you decide

It gives designers an explicit basis for consistent choices and exposes unresolved inputs. Reviewers can determine whether a proposed solution follows the same operating, site and scope assumptions as the rest of the project.

How to complete it

Define design boundaries and operating objectives, then gather survey, investigation and applicable contractual or jurisdictional requirements with their confirmed revisions and limits of use.
Record design parameters, values or requirements, units and sources, naming verification owners and keeping unresolved assumptions visible alongside the approach adopted for current design development.
Review cross-discipline consistency and unresolved basis items, document the effect of new evidence and route material changes through the competent design review and approval process.

Who prepares and reviews it

The design manager coordinates discipline leads, process or operations representatives and investigation specialists. Competent technical reviewers assess adopted approaches; approval of the design basis follows actual contractual and project delegations.

A mistake to avoid

Do not allow provisional operating assumptions to become invisible design commitments; identify their owners, evidence needs and consequences for affected disciplines before finalization.

Illustrative example

Illustrative example: a warehouse design begins before final storage heights are confirmed. The memorandum records the adopted operational basis and the unverified parameter affecting several disciplines. The employer's confirmation later allows designers to assess changes coherently before freezing layouts and engineering calculations.

Explore the wider topic

Document contents

Design boundaries
Basis inputs
Adopted approach
Unresolved basis
Project records
Preparation, review and approval

Required inputs

Project objectives and operating requirements
Survey and investigation data
Applicable contractual and jurisdictional requirements

Practical tools.
Professional judgment.

Confirm the adopted edition, local amendments, National Annex where relevant, and contract requirements.