Workflows
Draw the review and approval processes
The process is drawn as a diagram rather than picked from three fixed approval stages. A project does not run one single workflow but as many as it has kinds of paperwork: drawings, certificates and handovers each take their own route. The workflow also decides whether a new version may be created at all, so an upload is never one person's quiet decision.
- Drawn, not programmedA workflow is drawn and is then ready to run. No scripting, no configuration project, and nothing to maintain afterwards.
- Templates for the common casesReady-made workflows are there for the processes almost every project runs: usable as they are, or as a starting point to adapt.
- A complete trail
Who did what and when stays traceable on every document.
- Roles, not names
Tasks go to a role on the project, not to a list of names someone has to keep up to date.
- Decision points
At a decision point the path splits into as many directions as the process needs. Which one is taken is decided by rules set in advance, or by the user's input.
- Groups of steps
Several steps are combined into one section. Inside it, either one approval is enough or everyone involved has to agree.
- Signatures and versions
Individual steps can require a signature. And the workflow decides whether a new version may be created at all.
- Processes and templates
A project runs as many workflows as it has kinds of paperwork. Standard processes are kept as templates and adapted per project.
A process that can be drawn can be automated.
The review and approval process is drawn exactly as it really runs on the project, and then moves documents, models, coordination models and forms. Each workflow sets who is responsible at a step and what may be done to the document there. Issues are the exception: they follow the simple status flow defined by buildingSMART.
