A recap of the October 1 call, for anyone who could not attend.
Module 11 Live Discussion · What the Cohort Covered
A recap of the eleventh live discussion, on quality assurance and quality control. The hour restated Grace’s QA/QC process, covered how to schedule and budget the review, and set out how to right size the process from small, fast projects to large, slow ones. This summary carries the substance of the full call.
This week ran out of order: Module 11 came ahead of Module 9. The hour had 3 goals. Restate Grace’s QA/QC process, cover why preparation matters, and agree how to right size the process for small, medium, and large projects.
RolloutIs this process new?
When does the formal rollout happen, and is this a new process or a continuation of what Grace already does?
PreparationHow do we protect the review from the end of phase crunch?
Many comments named a lack of preparation, and asked how to keep enough time for review when the deadline arrives.
Right sizingHow does this fit a small or fast project?
The process has several parts and seems to assume a long schedule. How does it scale down?
The first show of hands: was this process new to you? Many hands went up. Then: who had seen the QA/QC Implementation slide before? Few hands, mostly senior staff.
The process is on MILO, and the formal rollout is October
Every document behind the lesson came from MILO. Grace built the process by collecting the best practices that the offices already used, with input from senior staff. That is why senior staff knew it first. The formal rollout is October, and the session ran on October 1. If the process is new to you, start using it now.
Who Does What
The PM is accountable. The storyteller does some of the steps.
The process has 5 roles: the project manager, the QC Reviewer, the design team, the architect of record, and the storyteller. Most of the feedback questions were about the storyteller, so a participant who works with storytellers explained the role.
The project manager
Runs the process. Schedules the review, makes sure the documents are ready on time, runs the QA prompts and the back check, and issues the set.
The storyteller
Records the data points on the project: what decisions were made, why, and what was unique. Keeps the QA/QC steps on track and gets the Quality Control Form to the QC Reviewer. One description from the room: the storyteller is the shadow of the PM.
The team fills out the Quality Control Form
The QC Reviewer reviews and signs off
The architect of record confirms the review happened
The PM issues the set
The PM does not hand off accountability
A storyteller can do many of the steps. The PM is still the accountable owner for quality and makes sure the process happens. Being accountable for a process and doing every step yourself are 2 different things.
QA/QC runs across the whole design process, with checks of different depth at each phase. The old habit was a review of the drawings the night before the 100% CD set, then a rush to pick up the redlines. The final review only goes well when the earlier steps are done.
Right Sizing The Storyteller
Every project has a storyteller, even a project of 1
Some feedback called the storyteller a role that doesn’t exist in practice. The room agreed on what it is.
1
A team member who is already on the projectThe storyteller is a design professional who also does design work on the project. On a team of 2, the PM or architect leads and the second person takes the storyteller role.
2
A team of 1 still tells the storyOn a very small project, the one person on it records the story and completes the A3.
3
The story fits the projectA bathroom upgrade gets a short story: a few data points and one or two unique conditions. It doesn’t need a long A3.
4
Anyone can do itAn intern, a project architect, the PM, or a project director. One participant said it is a good way to learn a project from concept through CA, and asked people to volunteer for it.
One participant listed what was new in the process: the storyteller, the QA prompts, the Quality Control Form on ASIs, and the A3. Planning for QA/QC and a review by the architect of record or a QC Reviewer are not new.
Step 1: Schedule The Review
A review needs a person, a budget, and a time on the schedule
The room was asked to guess what firms like Grace spend on QA/QC as a share of the design fee. The first answers were 10% to 15%. One participant added that it depends on size: about 5 hours on a small bathroom project, and 10% to 15% on a very large project.
Small projectA larger share of the fee
Some QC work takes the same time on any project. On a $5,000 project, 4 hours of review is $800 to $1,000. That is 20% of the fee.
Large projectA smaller share of the fee
The internal review and the QC Reviewer together can take hundreds of hours. That is still a small share of a large fee. The hours are real, so they need a place on the schedule.
The guideline: allocate typically 2% to 5% of the fee to QC, depending on the phase. The worked example on screen used a $1,000,000 fee with $50,000 of programming taken out.
CD phase: 5% is about $17,500
A senior QC Reviewer: 40 hours at $210 an hour
2 reviews, 80 hours, $16,800
Part of that amount can go to the PM’s internal review before the set reaches the QC Reviewer. Even so, 40 hours from a senior person is close to a full week. Few senior people have an open week.
1
Pick the right reviewerMILO has a quality control roster. It is much smaller than the staff of Grace, so these reviewers are a limited resource. Match the reviewer’s experience to the technical needs of the project and their rate to what the budget can pay for. A simple project may not need the most senior architect in the firm.
2
Put the review in BSTSchedule the reviewer’s hours the same way you schedule any other task.
3
Tell the reviewer earlyFor example: “I’d like you to review this set. It goes out in 2 months, and I’ve added it in BST.” The reviewer may be booked on 5 other projects that week.
Second show of hands: who has at least 1 project that needs a QC review, with no reviewer named, no time in BST, and a reviewer who doesn’t know yet? The expected answer was all of us. That is the first gap to close.
Step 2: Prepare The Reviewer
2 tools, and both need the PM
QA prompts
A checklist in the Revit template, released a few weeks before the session. It is there when you start a project. The PM edits the list so that every prompt applies to the project. Remove the prompts that have nothing to do with the work.
The Quality Control Form
Available as a PDF and in Centerline, where parts of it fill in from the project data. It records the project data, the reviews by phase, and team wins, such as a unique detail that the BIM team can reuse. Whatever the review finds goes on the record.
Most of the room had just seen the form. One office saw it an hour before the session.
A good task for a junior storyteller
The PM makes sure the form is complete and in the project record. The storyteller can lead the work: get the form, make sure it is filled out, read it, and think about how its data becomes part of the story. It teaches a junior staff member why quality control matters.
The 3 Week Window
Plan the review time in the 3 weeks before the issue date
The set is rarely complete until the day before it goes out. A full week of uninterrupted review on a finished set is unlikely. The Grace guideline is to name every person 3 weeks before issue and plan the review time in that window. The time can come in parts, as long as there is time left for comment pickup and the back check.
The room had 2 ideas for using the reviewer well.
Walk the reviewer through itMeet the reviewer at interim points
Run through the set and explain the scope, the same way you brief a specifications writer who doesn’t know the project. Then answer the reviewer’s questions as they come.
Send the most complete work firstReview in priority order
Week 1: the parts that are most complete. Week 2: the next most complete. Week 3: the parts finished last.
This only works when the PM leads QC as a planned process across the phase, with time and fee set aside.
Right Sizing The Process
Some parts are fixed. Some parts flex.
FixedOn every project
A Quality Control Form. A review for every phase that issues a deliverable. A QC Reviewer on the 100% CD set. A reviewer booked well in advance.
FlexibleSized to the project
How many QA prompts apply. The timing of the review. How deep the review of consultant coordination goes. How much fee goes to QC.
One participant runs a series of small, repeat projects. The core of the process stays firm, but the formal structure can be lighter. On a prototype project, spend an afternoon with the reviewer on the first job. On the next one, the reviewer already knows the client’s decisions and goes straight to the usual problem areas.
No project is too small for QA/QC
The parts of the process are the same on every project. The hours and the formality change. On every major deliverable, get a second set of eyes, follow the process, keep the record, and carry the lessons forward.
One more point from the room: anything shown to a client should have some form of review. A design review process is the next part in development.
Questions From The Room
Who pays for the storyteller’s time?
One participant asked whether storyteller and A3 time is billed to the project or to overhead. Some of it can look like marketing, and new storytellers will be slow at first.
1
Most of the data goes in onceThe storytelling module in Centerline captures much of the information automatically and reuses it.
2
It helps the clientThe project progress report is a client report. The storyteller work is part of the management services Grace provides, so it is billed to the project.
3
Budget it like meeting minutesThere is often no separate line for it. It is part of managing the project, even when someone other than the PM does it.
4
It is new everywhereParticipants from legacy offices confirmed that the storyteller role is a new Grace practice, and every office is adjusting to it.
Take It With You
The whole process is on the Module 11 page
Everything shown in the session is collected on the Module 11 page of the training site. The documents come straight from MILO and are collected in one place for training.
The tools
Walk the process, then keep the job aid open
The Grace QA/QC Process page shows how to think about the process, how to run it, and which forms to use. The Quick Reference Guide is the job aid.
The roles. who does what, and where the PM stays accountable
The phase tasks. what happens at each phase, from planning through the 100% CD set
The tools. QA prompts, the Quality Control Form, the A3, and where each one lives
The Quality Control Form. what each row of the form proves
The Takeaway
Plan the review like any other task
1
Name your reviewer this weekFor each project with a review coming, pick the reviewer, put the hours in BST, and tell them the date.
2
Name your storytellerEven if it is you. Someone records the story from the start.
3
Edit the QA promptsMake the list fit the project before the reviewer starts.
4
What comes nextNo new content on October 2. The Centerline technical session ran on October 8. Module 9, Leading with Data, opened October 9, and Module 12, Closeout and Debriefing, opens October 16. The program ends with an onsite project simulation.
PM Excellence