It was designed to promote standardisation of, and detailed coordination between, bills of quantities and specifications.

CAWS has been used for the arrangement of the National Building Specification, the National Engineering Specification and the Standard Method of Measurement of Building Works (SMM7) (7th ed).

The new edition aligns CAWS with the Unified Classification for the Construction Industry (Uniclass) which was published in 1997.

Over 300 work sections are defined in detail to give: The classification of work sections is separate from, and complementary to, the classification of other concepts such as building types, elements, construction products and properties/characteristics.

Uniclass, published in 1997, is the definitive overall classification tables, one of which is for work sections for buildings, comprising the Common Arrangement group, sub-group and work section headings.