#1 — A PATH to Quality
We live in the quality management “age of immediacy.” Increasingly, we expect both our work and the management of its quality issues to be captured, analyzed and resolved to perfection instantly. As a contemporary of mine notes, “When we started our careers, communication was by telephone call, meetings and mail—we usually had a week to resolve any issue and construction proceeded to that schedule. Now a team member’s email or text looks for a perfect answer within fifteen minutes!”
The immediacy context makes quality management ever more difficult to achieve. The situation is exacerbated by the wide range of communication tools and methods applied during the construction phase—each client, contractor and consultant seems to have their own software ostensibly designed to optimize their ability to manage what’s important to them. All good, but it makes the quality manager’s job even more challenging.
Against this complex immediacy context are ranged the “enduring ways” of building construction. These are the consistent objectives, fundamentals and elements that frame each building’s construction process. The explicit quality-related “enduring ways” include, for example: risk management; regulatory conformance; deficiency and nonconformance resolution—there are fifteen in total. Not every project will include all, but no project needs more. The fifteen enduring ways and the methods to manage them are described in detail in my 240-page book, An Architect’s Guide to Construction—Enduring Ways in the Age of Immediacy (AAGC2).
To simplify sometimes overly complex quality concepts as well as to memorialize the approach AAGC2 takes to quality, I developed the PATH approach described in my book:
PATH Elements include the four aspects of quality management that underlie any quality management system:
Principles are the bedrock that underlie any system, including:
· Record the Journey involves quickly creating from a master a project-specific work plan, what I call the PATH-Work;
· Resolve the Issues that occur throughout a project and include expected work actions such as requests for information, together with emergent actions such as risk management and deficiency resolution. I call these PATH-Actions;
· Review the Results covers the various inspection and review activities that happen throughout project execution. I use PATH-Tables for this purpose;
· Remember and learn to improve identifies the challenges involved in managing lessons learned as well as new knowledge received “on the fly” during a project. Each and every line item in PATH includes a mentoring and knowledge capture check box that alerts and involves Subject Matter Experts as needed.
Attributes, the “A” in PATH, are the qualifiers to a master PATH-Work that capture differing Core services, our Collaborators on a project, the Conditions of a project, and the Concepts that we apply to our creative work—the 4Cs. Selecting the correct Attributes, the specific Client, Consultants, Community, Climate, etc., will create a customized Work-PATH for each project.
Toolsets are just that, the means we use to manage quality data. My PATH software platform listed below briefly describes my approach—the Appendices to my book’s 2nd edition describe how to evaluate your existing Toolsets against quality-assured standards.
Habits, what I call the 8 ATEs, are the eight mini-processes you need to apply to each step in your work:
· ConcentrATE your processes by developing and continuously improving a coordinated set of PATH elements;
· InitiATE each element of your PATH for each project in a consistent fashion;
· ValidATE each executed step to ensure it’s been done correctly;
· CommunicATE the results of each step, either confirming completion and acceptance or identifying missed or incorrect aspects;
· MitigATE missed or incorrect aspects;
· EvaluATE the results of mitigation, when accepted;
· TerminATE each step or Action—it’s surprising how often there is no distributed record of completion or acceptance; and finally
· EducATE your team, colleagues and your master PATH-Work—a positive feedback loop resulting in continuous improvement to all aspects of your PATH.
Most of these Habits are managed automatically in the PATH platform outlined below. “Automatically” means things like: due dates trigger reminders; completions trigger confirmations; workflows are automated; assignments are responded to on any device without the need to log in; responses are automatically captured to the platform rather than needing copy/ paste; etc.
PATH Steps from the Table above describe a simple, logical approach to establishing and maintaining your PATH:
· Prepare for PATH development by collecting the current ways you go about your processes—not just explicit quality activities, all aspects of your work;
· Analyze your current state. My book’s Appendices identify one simple method to identify where you are, as well as periodic progress check-ins;
· Trial seems self-evident but is often missed. Before you adopt a complete system, trial it on a few projects and fine tune as needed;
· Harmonize is the continuous process of checking new and evolving work against your PATH system, refining or upgrading as necessary. PATH’s Knowledge check eases this historically challenging quality management system requirement.
PATH Media describe the continuum from my generation to yours:
· Paper systems may be sufficient for a small, tightly organized group that does not anticipate further growth;
· Analog systems are from the pre-Internet era, relying on physical servers and wired computers;
· Transportable systems are the earlier web-based systems built around laptop computers; and
· Handheld systems are where PATH is today—web-based, smartphone or tablet-based—essential for our work in the field.
My book’s Appendices include recommendations about how to evaluate the many systems available for building designers and builders. These recommendations are based upon my years of field research, understanding from project teams why they were doing things differently, rather than chastising them for not using pre-ordained approaches.
My PATH software platform needs only four interconnected web-based spreadsheets. These are best set up on a laptop but can be accessed and worked with on any smartphone or tablet:
· PATH-Work is where the richness and power of PATH reside. It might be thought of as a web-based work breakdown structure for any project, product or process, organized in general workflow order, e.g., setting up the project at the beginning, archiving at the end, and all that’s in between. My Master PATH-Work currently contains more than 400 Core considerations for a building project. Each line item/ consideration includes: work instructions for mentoring and reminding; a progress diary; assignment details and due dates; links to eleven PATH-Actions reports such as for risks, deficiencies, etc.; and immediate mentoring and review links to Subject Matter Experts. Knowledge capture and transfer is one of the biggest challenges in quality management, elegantly solved using the power of PATH’s web-based relational database. In addition to refining my Master PATH-Work to better match how you work, as you discover, for example, that Tampa and Tallahassee have different permit review processes, you can insert the variations into your master PATH-Work and tag them with the city name so that the next time your firm does a project in one or the other, its special requirements are not forgotten, rather are inserted into the project’s Work-PATH.
· PATH-Actions include in one location and format the twenty types of Actions that attend many building projects, including some less typical types such as: root cause analysis; warranty items; and of course, audit comments. These can be entered as they occur, then filtered with one click to produce, for example, a list of all open nonconformances.
· PATH-Tables or checklists are both technical such as “Masonry” and process-oriented, such as “Submittal review.” All Tables are organized consistent with Atul Gawande’s principles from his best-selling book, The Checklist Manifesto. PATH-Tables include a checklist template to assist you in developing your own.
· PATH-PAY is a straightforward sheet used to manage the math around payment certification processes.
Quality-conscious readers will have probably realized by now that PATH has been designed so that following its approach will automatically result in ISO 9001-compliant projects, processes or products from start to finish and at every step along the way. This will not eliminate the need for auditing but will make it easier for all concerned. Although PATH-Work data is based on the design and construction of physical structures and infrastructure, the platform works in any industry.
I look forward to sharing this PATH to quality in building design and construction early in 2021. Those interested may follow its progress on my Substack channel as well as LinkedIn and FaceBook “An Architect’s Guide” groups. Or you may contact me at bpalmquist@shaw.ca .
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This article first appeared in the American Society for Quality (ASQ) Design & Construction Division’s Winter 2020-21 Newsletter.
Brian Palmquist is a registered Architect, the first accredited Building Envelope Professional in British Columbia, a Certified code Professional and a LEED Accredited Professional. He was the Director of Quality for a large North American construction company for nine years, before leaving in 2016 to write about and develop software for The PATH Projects, for any project, process or product. The 1st edition of An Architect’s Guide to Construction was published in 2015. The 2nd edition was published in late 2019. In 2020 it won two Reader Views “Reviewers Choice Book Awards”—1st in the Business category, 2nd in Education. It also became a 2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist in the Education/ Academic category. The PATH Projects software Platform on Smartsheet.com will be available for trial and purchase early in 2021. Brian is available for consulting, teaching and presentations. He lives and works from Vancouver, Canada.