On January 1, 2018, the BGB will come up with a completely new regulation for architects, which is sometimes referred to in the literature as the goal-finding phase or as the performance phase 0.

 

It then applies if essential planning and monitoring goals have not yet been agreed. In this case, the architect first has to create a "planning basis" for determining exactly these goals. When he has created it, he submits the planning basis together with a cost estimate for the project to the customer for approval.