Rationale

E1693 is one of a group of 20 ASTM standard classifications that together constitute a method for determining user requirements and associated building serviceability. Parts of this set of standard classifications, originally issued in 1995, need to be updated because the ways that office buildings are used, office technology, furnishings and other equipment have all evolved. Furthermore, users of buildings now give greater importance to sustainability than was typical in 1995, resulting in additional user requirements and new building features to satisfy them. There have also been lessons learned from applying the process since 1995, resulting in adjustments to the parsing of details in the scales and its graphical presentation to users that improve effectiveness and economy that need to be incorporated into the standard classifications at the same time. Finally, other standard classifications and standard practices have been established or updated, both by ASTM and other standards organizations such as ISO and ANSI/TIA, which these classifications should take into account or reference. E1693 needs to be updated as part of keeping the entire group of standard classifications relevant and useable as well as consolidated to eliminate repetition and simplify access to information. Each revised scale deals with an individual function required by users or individual building feature that provides a level of serviceability whereas each original scale included a number of functions or features grouped together. The new format makes the typical approach to strikeout and underline text awkward for the scales themselves. For this reason, the front-end sections, with the scope, referenced documents, terminology, significant use, basis of classification, and keywords uses the standard strikeout and underline convention. However, each scale to be replaced is presented in its entirety with a strikeout “X” through the entire graphic followed by the revised scales in their entirety, with strikeout and underline to clearly indicate content changes from the prior edition. There is not always a one-to-one correspondence between replaced and revised scales, so usually a replaced scale will typically be followed by a number of revised scales.