Reinventing Collaboration across Internal and External Project Teams

The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry is in the midst of unprecedented change. With project teams that span the globe, increased pressure to accelerate timelines and reduce costs, and continued advances in technology, AEC professionals have to reevaluate their business processes to remain competitive. Top of mind for many professionals is finding more effective, secure ways to collaborate across internal teams and with the growing number of outside consultants, contractors, and regulators involved in projects.

A study conducted online in April 2006 by Harris Interactive for Adobe highlights the challenges and opportunities for improving collaboration across project stakeholders. The research involved interviewing more than 650 U.S. architects, engineering and construction professionals, project managers, and facility owners and operators, and represents the opinions of only the study participants. A constant theme that emerged from the responses received centered on the importance of improving project collaboration and document exchange. While 94 percent of respondents said they collaborate with peers, design partners, and clients (see Figure 1), only 20 percent of these described their experiences as very satisfactory. Several factors were behind the collaboration problems, including:

• Delays receiving input,
  
• Challenges communicating across time zones,
  
• People using incompatible software applications, and
  
• Difficulty interpreting feedback.

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Similar Approaches, Different Needs

Although most collaboration occurs among project team members at the same office, nearly three-fourths of those who collaborate also do so with people outside of their offices. In fact, compared to the other AEC professionals in the study, architects and engineers are significantly more likely to collaborate with outside consultants and service providers.

Regardless of who collaborates with whom, the methods of collaboration are similar, with the study results showing that:

• More than 66% regularly use e-mail, fax, and audio conferencing.
  
• In-person meetings are common, requiring more than 50% to travel for business each month.
  
• Almost 33% say they would like to conduct more meetings via web conferencing to reduce travel costs and time out of the office, as well as better to allocate already limited project budgets.
  
• Only 16% currently use web conferencing to facilitate meetings with clients, suppliers, and partners.

Real-World Obstacles

Design and engineering practices are collaborative by nature. AEC professionals have to collaborate, whether it is with internal project staff, clients, contractors, government regulators, concerned citizens, or others. Traditionally, paper has been the main method of distributing project documents, particularly to people outside of internal teams. A primary reason is that paper is a known entity and alleviates concerns about whether or not reviewers can open and view materials.

Unfortunately, reliance on paper comes with problems. Delays are a constant challenge, which is only exacerbated by paper-based processes. Project team members wait as materials are copied, collated, and shipped to reviewers. Once received, reviewers frequently have their own workflows involving additional copying and routing of materials. In many cases, AEC professionals might wait weeks to receive input from all parties working on large-scale construction projects.

After feedback is received, AEC managers cite repeated problems with interpreting input. Illegible faxes and poorly written notes scribbled on materials require additional follow up—and time—for clarification. Even seemingly minor miscommunication on designs can have major impacts, potentially causing costly rework and extensive project delays.

Another issue impacting collaboration is the challenge of clearly communicating design intent. Increasingly, designers and engineers want to share richer, more detailed images that show all design elements. As a result, demand for 3D designs is on the rise, with project teams needing more dynamic ways to exchange and communicate information. Obviously, paper-based collaboration does not support this goal.

Threats to intellectual property further hamper collaboration by making many professionals resistant to distributing electronic files. After all, the ease of sharing, copying, and editing native application files can create a host of problems, from companies losing control of proprietary design ideas to reviewers making design changes that could result in expensive rework after construction begins.

Building Collaboration into Processes

With so many issues impacting collaboration, it is not surprising that AEC professionals are dissatisfied with existing workflows. Fortunately, managers are taking steps to improve collaboration—and thereby streamline and accelerate project completion—by leveraging technologies that combine the flexibility and reach of web-based systems with more secure, easily managed digital documents. To highlight the opportunities for improvement, it is helpful to examine how AEC professionals are addressing the challenges.

Managers at Good Fulton & Farrell (GFF) Architecture, an award-winning firm based in Dallas, have achieved real results by automating previously paper-based, manual workflows. GFF traditionally plotted or printed thousands of pages of blueprints, environmental studies, building schedules, and other materials for delivery to project participants. With design and construction costs on the rise, the firm wanted to implement new processes and technologies that could control costs and act as "force multipliers," enabling one person to do a job that once required several employees. In working with clients such as Crate & Barrel and The Container Store, GFF is leveraging the Internet along with platform- and application-independent Portable Document Format (PDF) files to streamline creating, reviewing, and managing thousands of documents, including CAD drawings, project budgets, environmental impact reports, and other materials. The staff can reliably send a single design or package a variety of project documents into one PDF file for easy delivery and management. Project team members inside and outside of the firm can open the documents—with free software often already installed on their computers—and electronically comment on them, adding digital notes, redlines, review stamps, and other mark-ups to communicate feedback.

By distributing documents in PDF for review, the firm is reducing printing and handling costs for a project from $45,000 to $5,000—a dramatic per-project savings. Furthermore, the fully searchable digital files reduce the need to archive paper and accelerate finding current and older project information. Now, architects at the firm can retrieve information electronically, easily accessing it whether they are in the office or traveling for meetings with clients. Collaboration is greatly improved as the problems typically associated with sending native application files are overcome. Reviewers can return detailed, easier-to-read comments faster, improving both the quality as well as timeliness of input.

Project Documents Take Many Forms

The experiences at GFF map closely to the findings of the study conducted by Harris Interactive. Almost half of the respondents rated the ability to have all project materials stored in a searchable, reliable, and secure digital format as an important attribute, with PDF being one of the most leveraged formats for exchanging documents externally (see Figure 2). The focus on a reliable, more secure digital format was linked to the need to control documents and protect information, as well as to the ability to set access permissions to limit who can view documents.

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While the need to rapidly transmit project documents electronically to team members was rated as a top priority by respondents, this was only one step in streamlining processes. The study also showed that forms play an increasingly important role for the AEC professionals surveyed. This makes sense, given the constant coordination and tracking of design and build activities across many groups. Ideally, efforts to improve document exchange processes would also address the automation of completing and processing project forms.

Great Design Requires Solid Collaboration

In the AEC industry, collaboration is intimately linked with communication—and to success. Great design ideas are realized through the hard work of many people. If design ideas cannot be effectively communicated, reviewed, and modified, then it is unlikely they will be realized in line with the designer's intent.

What is evident is that workflows dependent on paper or native application files often hinder collaboration. Instead, by combining the latest open technologies and web-based solutions, architects, engineers, and others are discovering viable ways to work together. The bottom line is that how AEC professionals approach collaboration can make or break a project. By continually removing barriers to collaboration, managers today are enabling project team members around the globe to assist each other in completing projects on time and within budget.

About the Author

Patrick M. Aragon is a senior product marketing manager in the Knowledge Worker Solutions Business Unit of Adobe Systems Incorporated. He is responsible for driving all aspects of product marketing for the Adobe Acrobat product line and the Portable Document Format (PDF) in the AEC and manufacturing industries. Aragon has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of the Pacific, and an M.B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, Walter Haas School of Business.

Note: The views expressed in Viewpoint articles are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of AECbytes. Also, no advertising or sponsorship is accepted for Viewpoint articles.

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