A VDC Manifesto

In 2001, a number of software developers met to discuss various methods of developing software. Together, they created a Manifesto for Agile Software Development. The release of this document added momentum to various lightweight software development processes that had started to appear as incremental improvements on a traditional waterfall development process.

In that same vein, I proposed the following manifesto for Virtual Design and Construction of Civil Works as a list of guiding principles in applying technology to dramatically improve the start of the art in design and construction civil engineering projects.

Manifesto for Virtual Design and Construction of Civil Works

1. Safety over all other competing priorities.
2. Dynamic views over static output.
3. Shared databases over discrete file transfer.
4. Metadata over folder hierarchy
5. Open data formats over proprietary ones.
6. Platform independence over specific hardware.

Similar to the Agile Manifesto, I posit that values on the left are preferred over those on the right.

1. Safety

Canon 1 of the Code of Ethics for the American Society of Civil Engineers reads as follows:

Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public… in the performance of their professional duties.

In the face of competing factors in weighing a decision, the considerations of safety trump all other concerns. VDC can help improve jobsite safety by providing a digital walk-through of a proposed construction sequence or activity before it is actually to be undertaken in the field. Skilled tradespeople that will actually be performing the work can view the simulation in advance and offer suggestions for improvement that would otherwise have not been identified until those activities are actually taking place.

Additionally, time-enabled modeling of construction activities such as picking and placing a structural beam can identify conflicts with overhead utilities and or adjacent public areas that would be left vulnerable if a failure of some sort were to occur.

2. Dynamic Views

Currently, one of the most-often heard phrases in the design office or job trailer is something along the lines of “Is this plan sheet the latest and greatest?” True, we have moved from physical paper and mylar to electronic sheets, but the pain point is still present. As soon as an electronic sheet is generated, it is limited as a view of the model at that specific point in time. With a shared data model that can propagate updates to all views (plan sheets) in a matter of seconds, VDC eliminates this source of friction.

As in all things, it is possible to have too much of a good thing in this regard. It is understandable and necessary for the certifying professionals to control the change management process in regards to releasing revisions for fabrication. However, changes can be managed in a multi-state fashion as opposed to the current state of affairs.

Today, revisions are often limited to a binary state - invisible or released. With a robust change order management system, updates proposed in design can be released to the entire project team as draft, pending or the like. The ease and speed of publishing revisions once they are approved also adds transparency to the “submit, review, and revise” cycle. A superintendent in the field could pull up the proposed changes on their device of choice and overlay the new information on the currently released version of that part of the work. This workflow helps break down the silos of information and communication that often form between the design team and the construction staff.

3. Shared Databases

In a similar way, a shared data model that functions as the “single source of truth” allows for greater collaboration and reduces cognitive load in managing versions of data as a project progresses. Before computer networking was common, users would share information by passing around a floppy disk containing new or revised data with some type of file naming pattern that functions as version management by proxy. How many times have you come across a folder like this:

Plan.dwg
Plan2.dwg
Plan-old.dwg
Plan-new.dwg
Plan-junk-john.smith.dwg
zzz-KEEP-Plan2-new-junk-old.dwg

(Don’t do this. Just don’t.)

Modern data environments such as Bentley’s ProjectWise theoretically can support a single shared data model, but are typically used in a manner much closer to a glorified FTP site. Which, when you think about it, is just a glorified version of passing around floppy disks. An easy way to remember this concept is to recall a guiding principle I received from a mentor years ago: Share Data, Not Drawings.

4. Metadata - Use Tags, Not Folders

This tenet builds on previous ones in that it advocates a workflow recalibration. Again, rather than digitizing a legacy paper-based workflow, maximize differentiating features of technology that let the magic happen.

In the paper-based design office, documents were physical sheets of paper (or vellum or mylar). When it was time to store these physical media, they were ‘filed’ into ‘folders’ in a large cabinet or drawer. Although we are much less reliant on physical media in our design workflows, we still carry around these legacy paradigms. This is keenly apparent in the network file share. We have multiple drives (cabinets) full of hundreds or thousands of folders containing files of our design data and drawings. In this setting, many pounds of blood, sweat, and tears have been shed in order to arrive at the “correct” folder structure to be used on each project. This structure somehow has to meet a Goldilocks ideal - not too big, not too small. In practice, you end up with something much closer to Frankenstein with hundreds of folders that are empty or containing no more than a handful of documents each.

Browsing through these folders day after day builds up neural pathways and mental connections that are not easy to re-wire. Good luck if you recently came on board from another firm that organized data in a similar, but slightly different manner.

The answer here is to use metadata - tags and other information - to allow users to group and locate data based on whatever types of associations are most useful to them as an individual. Technology then allows you to create virtual folders that work like “magic”. Not only does this eliminate the need for one-size-fits-all across all users and all projects, but it allows for functionality not otherwise possible with traditional data management.

Case Study - Email Discovery During Litigation

I have had the unfortunate experience of dealing with litigation on more than one project. In both cases, the discovery phase required extensive effort in poring over past project communication - the vast majority of which was stored in email. In both cases, we were provided a list of items that were to be discussed as part of one party’s claim for damages.

As you might expect, there were abundant instances where a given email discussion was not isolated to a single claim issue. Heavy Civil construction projects are complex, and problems do not typically manifest themselves in a vacuum.

In both these instances, we ended up having to make a number of decisions on an individual basis as to which issue was most specifically related to a given email chain. That correspondence was then filed into an appropriate folder. In the legacy workflow, a document can only be in one folder at a time because that’s how it works with paper and manila folders hanging in your desk drawer.

However, we could have created categories for the damage claim issues, then associate one or more of these categories to each email thread. Then, Search Folders in Outlook would provide the same grouping that we would see with traditional, hard-coded folders. However, we would have gained a killer feature by being able to “store” a thread in two or more (virtual) locations based upon the categories we had assigned.

5. Open Data Formats

Open, well-documented data formats are more valuable than those that hold the user hostage. In this case, we are focused on “free as in freedom” - freedom to use the tool that you like, freedom to inspect the data being generated by or shared with a user, and freedom to archive information knowing that you can retrieve it again in ten years without worrying about whether you still have a working copy of a specific package that is proprietary to a company that might have gone out of business in the meantime.

6. Platform Independence

Just as the Industrial Age was kick-started by the invention of the automobile, the Information Age correlates to the arrival of the Internet. Over time, computing becomes more and more platform-agnostic. Indeed, the success of ChromeBooks confirms that the browser is the new Operating System. Likewise, VDC should not be restricted to a particular manufacturer, platform, device, or delivery mechanism.

Conclusion

Disruption is complex and messy. By focusing on a half-dozen key tenets and guiding principles, we can prioritize effort towards initiatives that provide value and avoid spinning our wheels unnecessarily.