Projects

A Project is the core organizational unit in Novant. It encapsulates all data, configuration, and tooling related to a specific building or group of buildings. Projects define the boundary for modeling, integration, automation, and user access.

Project Scope and Isolation

Projects in Novant are typically scoped to a single building, campus, or group of buildings in the same city. This reflects how building systems are deployed and operated, and helps keep data organized and manageable.

Each project contains its own isolated set of data and configuration, including:

Data integrations with sources and nodes
Assets, spaces, and zones
Points and trend data
Schedules, tasks, and files

Projects are logically and operationally isolated — changes or issues in one project do not affect others. Data collection nodes are tied directly to a project, ensuring all incoming data is processed in the correct context.

Why Use Projects?

Scoping each project to a building, or a logical group of buildings, provides a clean boundary for modeling, operations, and data management. This structure supports local use cases like automation, scheduling, and troubleshooting, while also enabling enterprise-wide reporting and oversight through a portfolio layer.

Simplifies Modeling: Keeps assets, points, and relationships cleanly scoped and easy to manage.
Reduces Complexity: Prevents cross-building entanglement that can lead to errors and brittle logic.
Improves Performance: Keeps query scopes small and operations fast, even at large scale.
Enables Modular Rollouts: Projects can be onboarded, cloned, or managed independently.

Best Practices

To keep projects clear, scalable, and easy to manage, we recommend the following guidelines when planning your deployment:

Use one project per building or logical group of buildings (such as a campus) in the same city.
Avoid cross-project modeling—instead, use a portfolio layer for aggregate logic.
Name projects clearly based on location and purpose to support clarity and search.