CPD 28 2014: Project information management

INTRODUCTION

“Project information” refers to the universe of models, drawings, emails, mark-ups, submittals, transmittals, meeting minutes, images, contracts, specifications, change orders and other documentation created in the course of designing, building and operating large facilities.

Construction projects involve the creation of rapidly increasing quantities of information in a diverse range of file formats, some of them very large. These must be easily but securely shared among team members across different organisations and technology platforms, and stored in a searchable format for future reference.

“Project information management” addresses the basic needs of organising, finding, tracking, sharing, monitoring and reusing technical project information and communications in a way that is completely aligned with the people and processes that depend on that information.

For example, files may reside within different systems, either in the cloud or in company servers, and team members will need to access them within the office and when working remotely or from site. As well as allowing files to be shared, commented on and marked up, project information management also involves creating and logging transmittals and requests for information and capturing an audit trail of who has downloaded what and when.

This CPD will discuss the role of project information management software, the key features and components that solutions should have, and how such software can support project collaboration and the implementation of quality management systems.

CHALLENGES OF MANAGING PROJECT INFORMATION

Construction projects involve the creation of rapidly increasing quantities of information in a diverse range of file formats, some of them very large. These must be easily but securely shared among team members across different organisations and technology platforms, and stored in a searchable format for future reference.

For example, emails need to be filed with project documents, and email attachments such as compressed ZIP files need to be searchable. Files may reside within different systems, either in the cloud or in company servers, and team members will need to access them within the office and when working remotely or from site. As well as allowing files to be shared, commented on and marked up, project information management also involves creating and logging transmittals and requests for information and capturing an audit trail of who has downloaded what and when.

Project information management is becoming increasingly complex as the technology used with the construction industry develops. By 2016, all centrally procured government projects of any size will have to be carried out using building information modelling (BIM) to level 2. This target was set in the UK government’s March 2011 strategy paper on BIM, in which level 2 was defined as a situation where each discipline creates its own model and these are shared throughout the team, with all project data shared electronically as a common resource. The implementation of BIM is already challenging established work practices, requiring ever-larger quantities of information about a project to be shared and stored efficiently. There is also a growing emphasis on capturing construction and in-use data so that it can be used in a building’s ongoing maintenance and eventual demolition, which means that information must be archived in such a way that it is accessible for potentially many decades to come.

Sustainability accreditation standards such as BREEAM and LEED also require that increasing quantities of detailed information about a building’s systems, components, resource consumption and waste is captured, stored and, increasingly, monitored on an ongoing basis.

Meanwhile, the growing use of mobile devices to gather and access information remotely, from external partners’ offices, from home or on site, is creating additional challenges for those responsible for managing project information. For example, a “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) approach to corporate IT, where employees can access secure company servers and applications using their personal mobile devices, creates productivity gains but at the cost of greater security risks to confidential data.

In the past, the task of managing project information was left to individuals, who developed their own methods. Some companies promote best practice by issuing rules and guidelines, but for the most part, individual project managers developed and refined their own methods, learning their craft on the job.

Typically team members would cobble together systems based on some combination of email, Microsoft Office documents, FTP sites, and other general-purpose software. Today, they are also adding cloud storage services such as Dropbox and apps for tablets and smartphones to the mix.

The disadvantage with these ad-hoc solutions is that they create silos of information, and opportunities for information to be lost or altered each time it is transferred.

One way to address these problems is to put all the information about a given project on a cloud-hosted project management website. This means that the information is stored remotely on a network of virtual servers provided by a third party – data can be delivered via the internet to wherever it is required but a company does not know exactly where it is stored physically, so it is said to be “in the cloud”. Such sites are excellent for enabling collaboration across project teams, but can suffer from a lack of integration with internal systems and technologies.

Another solution is to use project information management software hosted on a server behind the company’s IT firewall. We will discuss the benefits of server-based software and the features it should provide in the next section.

SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS FOR PROJECT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Project information management software comes in many varieties. A comprehensive solution should offer the following benefits:

• It should be focused on the workflows used by design and construction companies, as opposed to being generic and applicable to many industries. Solutions that complement existing work processes rather than forcing teams to work in new ways will be easier to adopt
• It should integrate with a firm’s existing IT infrastructure, and be compatible with existing processes and technologies, including email and document management systems
• It should be able to manage information across competing file formats, integrating with a wide range of software platforms and technologies to eliminate silos and gaps between processes
• It should facilitate secure communication among internal and external team members, providing audit trails for transparency and accountability
• It must provide network access to all project information for team members in the office, browser-based access via the internet for external team members, and remote access for those working with mobile devices
• In contrast to construction project management software that was developed primarily to manage paper-based processes, today’s project information management software is designed to manage electronic information.

In particular, project information management software can streamline BIM workflows in several ways. These might include:

• making it easier to generate sets of PDFs from models, named and sorted in the way that users require
• making it possible to link model elements to action items managed by the project information management software, linking to a view of the model that illustrates the issue
• allowing users to publish models to the cloud where they can be viewed by all team members, even those without dedicated BIM software.

Because a key role of such software solutions is to make project information available wherever it’s stored and wherever people are working, a complete solution includes three elements:

• A server that sits securely behind a company’s firewall and indexes its files, similar to the way in which search engine Google indexes the World Wide Web. This enables quick searches of computer servers containing project information, even when those servers include enterprise cloud storage solutions. This component is typically accessed using a desktop software package, installed on each machine.
• Web access from a server located in a perimeter network, to enable people working outside the secure corporate IT system to upload and download project information. This would typically be accessed through a web browser. (A perimeter network is a subnetwork that is exposed to the internet but separate from a company’s internal network to provide an additional layer of security.)
• Mobile apps, which close the gap between project information management in the office and remote locations, allowing information gathered on site or in other offices to be used wherever it is needed. These should be able to run on a range of devices – for example, those running Apple iOS, Android or Microsoft operating systems.

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND ISO 9001 

Project information management software can also play a valuable role in helping construction companies to demonstrate compliance with quality management systems. This can act as a point of differentiation in the market or be used as supporting documentation for tender submissions. For example, when registering with Constructionline, a prequalification service run by the UK government, companies may simply provide evidence of prior certification to ISO 9001 or an equivalent standard, rather than completing the quality standards questionnaire.

The ISO 9000 series is an internationally recognised set of standards that apply to the management of quality systems within organisations. It was developed by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), an independent, non-governmental membership body which sets voluntary standards to ensure quality, safety and efficiency. This includes ISO 9001, the key standard that sets the requirements for a quality management system (QMS).

A QMS is defined as a set of policies, processes and procedures that an organisation uses in its core operations. Though the term is often used to apply to the set of documents required for ISO 9001 accreditation, it really refers to the whole system – the documents only describe the system.

Using a QMS enables organisations to monitor and manage quality in every aspect of their operations.

In the UK construction industry, “quality management” refers to both the finished product and to the processes used during design and construction. Poor quality in the construction processes leads to poor quality in the finished product. This extends the time and cost that must be devoted to snagging at the end of a project, a major cause of schedule and cost overruns.

Construction quality improves when a variety of processes work well:

• Strong communication contributes to accurate identification of client needs
• Strong collaboration contributes to more informed decision-making
• On-site management is the main contributor of overall construction quality.

Project information management software enables companies to maintain complete records, a vital element of a QMS and of ISO 9001 certification.

For example, project information management software enables companies to demonstrate what has been issued to whom and when, assuring that files have been downloaded and communications are complete. It may also include components to manage meeting minutes, action items or snagging lists. By combining mobile apps with desktop software, project information management software also closes the gap between site operations and the office, improving the management of snagging and other quality processes.