Standards and Process and Vault, Oh My!

Standards and Process and Vault, Oh My!

Case Study of a CAD Modernization Project

Standards and Process and Vault, Oh My!

Case Study of a CAD Modernization Project

Catherine Wagenaar -K-TEK Solutions

BO5347

Not every organization is rushing to leverage the new features in AutoCAD® 2012. This class profiles an organization that realized that it needed to move their CAD operation into the 21st century. Tasks included redefining CAD standards, establishing a documented design process, standardizing on a specific version of AutoCAD, switching from paper markup to redlining, implementing a tracking system based on Autodesk® Vault that would facilitate use of the new standards and process, and much more. With so many elements, this project entailed a number of unique challenges. The focus of this class will be on these challenges and how they were overcome.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this class, you will be able to:

• Describe techniques to get a "big picture" view of an organization's CAD design needs
• Identify methods to define a complex project with multiple deliverables
• Articulate what is needed to successfully overcome organizational inertia and fear of change
• List the value, key features and functions in Autodesk products to modernize an organization and make it more efficient

About the Speaker

Ms. Wagenaar possesses extensive knowledge of all aspects of the consulting business and has a reputation for attention to detail and commitment to quality. She has led consulting organizations, as president of K-TEK and as owner of Wagenaar Consulting. While with Autodesk Consulting, Ms. Wagenaar was responsible for large engagements—ensuring they were professionally managed, that deliverables met client expectations, and that teams achieved on-time project completion. Her 30-year career has been focused on the application of methodology in the deployment of software: project management, quality management, configuration management and software development lifecycle methodologies. She is skilled in building rapport with clients, partners, and team members. Ms. Wagenaar graduated from Mohawk College, with an applied arts and technology degree in computer systems technology. Her post-graduate training has included configuration management, ISO 9001, 6 Sigma, and Rational Unified Process.

Cathy Wagenaar, President and COOK-TEK Solutions

510.230.4991

Introduction

This class profiles the CAD Modernization Program for the LADOT, City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation, an organization that realized it needed to move their CAD operation into the 21st century.

K-TEK joined forces with U.S. CAD and DLT Solutions to deliver a program to redefine their CAD standards, establish and document a design process, standardize on a single version of AutoCAD®, implement digital redlining and implement a tracking system based on Autodesk® Vault.

The focus of this class will be on how we approached the challenges of this multi faceted project and how they were overcome.

The Consultative Methodology

Let’s begin by looking at how K-TEK approachesevery consulting engagement. We call it the Consultative Methodology.

In the Assess phase, we gather information about the customer, their organizational roles and responsibilities and their goals. We request a series of representative documents and drawings so that we can assess their current workflow. Collecting this information ensures that we are more efficient and effective in dealing with our customers and that we can tailor our recommended solution to their specific needs.

In the Plan phase we use the information from the assessment and develop a plan to guide the project. A proper plan defines the scope of the project, what is to be done, who will do the work, and when it will be done. The plan also sets the expectations for the project team and the customer.

In the Solve phase, we review the customer’s business and workflow processes, and carry out the plan, which can include services, training, configuration, and other tasks (for example things like a skill gap analysis).

I believe that services projects rarely fail due to our inability to solve technical problems. Projects fail due to misaligned expectations. Preparing a plan, communicating the plan, and then managing the plan are all mechanisms to communicate with the customer, and ensure that everyone’s expectations continue to be aligned.

In the Confirm phase, we follow up with the customer to verify success.

You’ll notice that the process is shown as cyclical. That’s because we work to involve the customer in every phase of the project. In fact, you can think of the customer as being in the center of this cycle. After each deliverable, we meet to confirm that we’ve met customer expectations. If necessary, we revisitany of the phases to make corrections and updates.

This approach applies to all types of projects, not just those related to CAD. Getting a better understanding of how to plan, execute and solve a problem will help you in all types of project work.

So, this process helps us answer questions like ‘where do we start?’ with a program like CAD Modernization.

Describe techniques to get a "big picture" view of an organization's CAD design needs

In this learning objective we discuss activities in both the Assess and Plan phases.

Utopia

A few years ago, K-TEK built a series of videos that included AutoCAD®,Revit® MEP, Autodesk® Ecotect® Analysis, Autodesk® 3ds Max® and a number of other products. In one of the videos, we positioned a building at a particular lat/long, told the technology what day of the year it was, and what time of day, and then visualized the angle the sun was coming in through the windows. We visually flew through the mechanical systems, we had avatars walking through the scenes and we saw various other moving parts.

Really entertaining to look at, and it made for what I called at the time, “great TV”. The problem was, that many of our customers use their products very much like they did when they first started using them – and as a result, are probably using a very small percentage of the features and functions available to them. They might like the new tools and concepts, they get it when they see it, but they simply have no idea how to get from where they are now to the technical utopia that is being presented.

Forgetting about that utopia for a moment, let’s get down to earth. One of our K-TEK consultants used to work in Autodesk Support. I remember her telling me that, after a new software release came out, the number one question coming into the support lines was ”how do I make the software look the same as it did before the upgrade?”

And on a personal level, after the “ribbon” came out, did you spent considerable time and frustration trying to figure out where they moved that command you relied upon?

So the question becomes how do we, in the Autodesk ecosystem, help customers modernize their CAD environments and take advantage of all of the great productivity tools now available while still working with the familiar product that they love?

The case study we discusshere is a project that K-TEK is currently engaged in with LADOT, the City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation. The DOT commissioned an initiative called the CAD Modernization Program. The department was using several different versions of AutoCAD®, going back to AutoCAD® 2005. LADOT had identified that they lacked standards and documented processes. They realized that they needed to upgrade to the latest versions of software and standardize. K-TEK and DLT recommended a phased approach to the customer. We offered short-term initiatives that addressed standardization of processes and tools and improved consistency of drafting skills, and we also offered medium- to long-term initiatives to further increase team productivity and open up entirely new capabilities for making their CAD drawings more “data rich”.

It’s not about Technology

But, technology is only part of the story. We all know that modernizing a CAD environment is not only about Features & Functions. Nor is it always about buying more technology. It’s about being more effective & efficient with what we have.

To do that:

•We need to address how we approach data, process and standards.

•We need to be more effective with what we have.

•We need to manage and protect our investments: Organizations make huge investments in data (drawings, documents, databases, X-refs, spreadsheets) without addressing the question of how they will manage or protect that data.

•We need to consider our other resources, such as people, and how we can maintain our process and standards if we lose those people.

•Yes, technology is important, but we need to consider how people, technology and teams work together.

•Finally, and maybe most importantly, we need to address the psychology of, and the fear of, change.

Where to start?

In the Assess Phase, we started by looking at the big picture & how technology serves as a tool. To make the technology sing, the fundamental elements - Data / Process / Standards / Software - need to work together.

We need to understand the entire spectrum:

•Where’s the data?

•How do you find it?

•Is it current?

•Is it protected?

•Can you get to it when you really need it, even if you can’t get to the office?

•Are your processes consistent & efficient?

•Do you have standards?

•Should you?

•Are they being adhered to?

•What technology is available for what?

Start with the end in mind

Recognize that things are interconnected, so don’t look at anything in isolation. You need to start with a high level concept of where you want to go – what does success look like?This enables you to implement the right solutions, step by step, with forethought.If you know where you’re going, you can choose the appropriate processes, technology, project team and training modality.

Also, stay as flexible as possible for as long as possible, while understanding the project’s constraints. That is, when do you say ”yes” and when do you say “no”.Don’t try to overdesign the solution too early. Don’t try to anticipate all details of the requirements. And, be ready to change your mind as you learn more.

Since end users often can’t visualize what they will want until they start to see what they can get try to avoid the ‘big bang’ and take small bites. The ‘big bang’ approach can be very risky.A successful project is like eating an elephant – you can only take one bite at a time.Make incremental improvements, at the rate at which the customer can absorb them, both from a cultural and economic perspective.

This approach also serves to mitigate risk, in that individual program elements are smaller, can be implemented more quickly, and will start generating return on investment sooner. Incrementally implementing change in the environment over time, while the implementation team is still actively engaged in the overall program, allows customers to support their end users while having our support.

At K-TEK, we have seen that these methods allow us to develop projects in a highly flexible and interactive manner, proving success along the way.

We like to teach our customers to ‘fish’ by assigning a customer support team for the project.

Support requests are funneled through the support team by the customer team.This creates internal experts (champions) over time.K-TEK also encourages involvement in the project by the local partner (in this case, U.S. CAD), with the intended result that they can continue to support the customer after the K-TEK project team has moved on. The more the partner is involved in what we did, the better they will be able to support their customer after we’re gone.

Program Components

Let’s take a look our case study for LADOT, the CAD Modernization Program. These are the high level components that we identified.

•CAD Upgrade (Software & Skills)

•CAD Standards Update & Improvement

•Process Rationalization & Documentation

•Project & Document Tracking System (using Autodesk® Vault)

•Electronic Redlining

•Automated Materials Lists

•Training on each component

Let’s look at each one of these individually.

CAD Upgrade

This component included:

•Upgrading theentire team’s software so they all had the same tools

•Defining and implementing true CAD standards, layers, blocks, line types, etc.

•Determining how to maintain and enhance the CAD standards

•Methods for enforcing the use of CAD standards

•Developing a job description and duties for a CAD Manager – the department didn’t have a CAD manager.

•Creating a training plan for staff on CAD standards and AutoCAD® Map key features

•And implementing ongoing skills reviews

CAD Standards Update & Improvement

As I’m sure you know, the challenge with CAD Standards is everyone thinks they already have them.

But we have learned that with a few key changes, we can offer great improvements to existing (or non-existent) standards.

We asked the DOT the following types of questions:

•Do designers and drafters still create their own layers or blocks for items not in your standard?

•Do designers explode blocks to get the results they need?

•Is it difficult to bring new staff up to speed on your CAD Standards?

•Does your team create designs that look right on paper but are inconsistent within the CAD files themselves?

We worked with the DOT to evaluate existing CAD Standards, create a plan for improving them where necessary (including CAD files and documentation) and provide training to the design and drafting teams to ensure that their new CAD Standards were being used and maintained going forward.

One sample improvement was that the DOT revised their block library to take full advantage of AutoCAD®'s dynamic blocks. Leveraging the dynamic block feature alone has cut the size of their block library by nearly 60%, andmade it easier locate the correct blocks, provided more drafting flexibility and it simplified training.

Process Rationalization & Documentation

Most organizations have a standard design process, or at least they have good intentions and strive to follow a design process. What we found was that for the department, the process was passed down by mentoring from senior staff, and it often wasn’t formalized. The consequence was that everyone followed what they believed the process to be, but inconsistencies created inefficiency and increased risk.

K-TEK worked with the DOT to improve their processes in several areas:

Process Rationalization: Different groups within the organization followed processes that were similar at a high level but differed greatly in the details. Some of the details included how status was tracked, how responsibility was assigned, how projects were managed, and what documentation was maintained. These inconsistencies created inefficiency and increased risk. K-TEK, being outside of the organization, could more easily identify where discrepancies occurred. We took a dispassionate view of how things were done and worked with the department to identify inconsistencies and rationalize design and drafting processes.

Process Documentation: Sometimes the very act of writing down a process can identify gaps and weaknesses. Our diverse project experience gave us the necessary skills to gather process information from individuals at all levels in the department, and structure, review and revise it to match the their desired process. Once it was approved, we packaged it into a web-based format that was easily accessible by the entire team.

Process Training: and finally, we created and delivered customized process training courses that matched the new processes. These courses were delivered as a web-based, eLearning.

Project & Document Tracking System

With respect to implementing a project and document tracking system, we asked LADOT these types of questions:

•Do you lose track of drawings?

•Are you unsure what the latest version is?

•Do you ever lose track of design project status?

In the past year, K-TEK has been working with the Autodesk® Vault Workgroup product. Autodesk® Vault has been used for many years as a mechanical design solution. But, we found that Autodesk® Vault is in truth, a general purpose application, and we think it was the perfect platform for document management and project tracking for the department.

The key to a successful Autodesk® Vault implementation is proper configuration, so we gathered information on:

•Overall project flow

•Project and document tracking data

•Important project milestones

•Review and signature process

•Distribution and archiving documentation

Armed with this information, we developed a specialized configuration for Autodesk® Vault to meet the department’s needs.

Electronic Redlining

The DOT followed a traditional engineering approach to designs and updates, where engineers indicate changes by marking up paper, typically with a red pen. We gathered, from everyone involved, that this approach was costly because large drawings are time consuming to plot, deliver from one location to another, and then to digitally enter those marked changes into AutoCAD®.