Commissioning Plan Template for Building Services: The CIBSE Code M Structure

Commissioning is where a services package is proved, and where a client's consultant decides whether to accept it. A commissioning plan that is a programme bar chart with a paragraph of prose will not survive the first witness visit. This article explains what a commissioning plan is for, the structure that CIBSE Commissioning Code M sets out, what goes in each section, and how the plan relates to the inspection and test plans, the test records and the witnessing that produce the evidence.

What the commissioning plan does

Three documents carry a commissioning process. The inspection and test plan says what is tested, against which acceptance criterion, at what level of witnessing. The test record form carries the result, with the acceptance limit printed on it so that pass or fail is decided on the sheet. The commissioning plan says who does what, in what order, when, and witnessed by whom. It is the management document: the organisation, the sequence, the notice arrangements, the instruments, the records and the handover. It does not contain the acceptance criteria; it points to the ITPs that do.

CIBSE Commissioning Code M (2022), Commissioning management, is the reference for how commissioning should be managed, and BSRIA BG 8/2009 gives a model commissioning plan. Between them they set out the structure below: scope, organisation, programme, pre-commissioning, commissioning, witnessing, documentation and handover.

The structure, section by section

1. Purpose and scope

The project, the package, the systems this plan covers and the systems it excludes. Who the plan is for: the commissioning team, the client's witness, the principal contractor. What it commits the contractor to.

2. Project and systems

Project, contract, client, principal contractor, commissioning contractor, specialist subcontractors, the consultant or client's witness, the specification reference and the programme reference. Then a table of systems to be commissioned, each with its extent, the ITP that governs it, the record forms it produces and the specialist responsible. For a typical commercial M&E package: LV electrical, fire detection and alarm, emergency lighting, air systems, heating and chilled water, domestic hot and cold water, BMS and controls, and the integrated systems test.

3. Organisation, roles and responsibilities

Named people. The commissioning manager owns the plan, sequences the work, issues witness notices and signs every ITP release. The quality manager approves ITPs, controls nonconformities and holds the calibration register. The site managers release boards, pipework and ductwork for testing. The commissioning engineers balance. The BMS engineer does point-to-point and tuning. The fire alarm specialist commissions to BS 5839-1:2025 and issues the certificates. The client's witness attends hold and witness points. The principal contractor provides permits, building readiness and the interfaces with other packages.

4. Programme and sequence

The commissioning sequence is fixed by dependency, not by preference. Nothing is commissioned until the ITP that releases it is signed: no fan runs before the ductwork leakage certificate and the fire damper drop tests; no pump runs before the pressure test and the water quality certificate; no board is energised before the initial verification. Set the sequence out as stages with the activity, what it depends on, the ITP or form, the planned dates and the witness required.

5. Pre-commissioning

The checks that prove a system is complete, clean, safe and ready to start. In practice: installation ITPs signed for the system; the Electrical Installation Certificate and schedules issued for every board feeding it, to BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 Chapter 64; pressure tests and water quality certificates signed before any pump runs; ductwork leakage and fire damper records before any fan runs; pre-commissioning checklists completed, to BSRIA BG 49/2024 for air systems and the manufacturers' checklists for plant; instruments listed with serial numbers and calibration due dates; permits, isolations and safe systems of work in place, with commissioning method statements and task briefings issued.

6. Commissioning

For each system: the ITP, the source of the acceptance criteria, the tolerances the designer has set, the record forms and the specialist doing the work. The acceptance basis for the main systems is well established: air distribution to CIBSE Commissioning Code A (2024), BSRIA BG 49/2024 and BS EN 12599:2012; water distribution to CIBSE Commissioning Code W (2025), which replaced the 2010 edition, with BSRIA BG 2 and pre-commission cleaning to BSRIA BG 29/2021; domestic water to BS EN 806-4:2010, BS 8558:2015 and flushing and disinfection guidance in PD 855468:2015, with legionella control to HSG274 Part 2; controls to CIBSE Commissioning Code C; fire alarm commissioning to BS 5839-1:2025 Section 5; emergency lighting to BS 5266-1:2025, BS EN 50172:2024 and BS EN 1838:2024. Balancing tolerances are usually project-specification values, so state them from the specification rather than quoting a guide.

7. Witnessing, hold points and notice

The notice period for witness and hold points, which the contract usually sets at 24 or 48 hours; the form used to give notice; what happens if the witness does not attend; and who may sign in their absence. The four levels are the same as on any ITP: a hold point stops work until the named party has attended and signed; a witness point invites the named party and proceeds after the notice period if they do not attend, with non-attendance recorded; surveillance is unannounced; review is document review only. The witness notice and the witness test record should be one form, so that the notice, the attendance and the result sit on the same page.

8. Test instruments and calibration

Every instrument that will be used, what it is used for, its serial number, its calibration due date and its register reference. Nothing is used out of calibration, and a test result from an uncalibrated instrument is a result the client can reject.

9. Documentation and records

Every test produces a record on the day, on the form named in the ITP, signed by the person who did the test. Records are indexed against the ITP line and filed where the client's reviewer can find them. The table in this section lists each record type, the form, who produces it, who reviews it and where it is filed: electrical test results, pressure test certificates, flushing and water quality, air and water balancing, cause-and-effect and integrated systems test, emergency lighting, BMS point-to-point, witness notices and records, and nonconformities.

10. Integrated systems test

The IST is planned here and executed under its own ITP. State the initiating events, the systems that must respond, who attends, the date and how the building is made safe for the test. The cause-and-effect matrix from the fire strategy is the acceptance basis; every initiating event is tested and every expected response is recorded as observed or not observed.

11. Handover, training and seasonal commissioning

What is handed over: certificates, records, O&M content, as-built drawings, software backups. What training is delivered and recorded. What is deferred to seasonal commissioning, with dates, because a heating system commissioned in July has not been proved at design conditions.

12. References

A table of every standard, code and guide the plan relies on, at its current edition, with the ITP or form that uses it. Editions move: confirm every one against the project specification before issue, and where the specification names a different edition or a tighter value, the specification takes precedence.

Why commissioning plans get rejected

• Acceptance criteria in the plan instead of in the ITPs. The plan becomes a hundred pages, and nobody can find the witness arrangements.
• No dependency logic. A programme that shows air balancing before the leakage test, or BMS commissioning before the field devices are proved.
• Job titles, not names. The client's witness wants to know who will be on site at 08:00 on the day.
• Notice arrangements missing. No stated notice period, no form, no rule for non-attendance. The first dispute follows within a week.
• Instruments not listed. Or listed without calibration dates.
• Test records without limits. A form that records a value but not the acceptance limit leaves the pass or fail decision to be argued later.
• Superseded editions. A plan citing CIBSE Code W 2010 or BS 5839-1:2017 in late 2026 will be marked up in the first five minutes.