RFI coordination is the management of the full RFI process across a project: logging, routing to the right reviewer, tracking response timelines, and connecting each RFI to whatever downstream document (a bulletin, a change order) it eventually generates, as opposed to simply the individual act of submitting and answering a single RFI in isolation.
On a project running dozens or even hundreds of open RFIs simultaneously, coordination in this broader sense becomes a real operational challenge, distinct from the content of any single RFI. Which architect or engineer needs to answer this one? Is it still within the contractual response window, or already overdue? Was the answer captured and reflected in the bulletin? Or was the answer simply captured as an RFI answer and then forgotten?
Common mistake: The RFI gets answered; the project goes ahead according to the answer, but the answer is not reflected in any drawings, creating an inconsistency between the actual project being constructed and the documentation. Months later, during a comparison of the actual construction with the final drawings, someone finds a discrepancy and traces it back to a Ted response to an RFI that was acted on and answered correctly but was never documented.
The best RFI coordination involves more. Rather than assessing RFIs on a case-by-case basis and assuming no impact beyond the response, the best involvement recognises that no answer is a single event. It evaluates whether the answer and the impact have been recorded in every drawing and every trade that was impacted.
