People, Process, Tools - and a "CAN DO" attitude

One of the recent construction projects in the UK that gained a reputation for an innovative approach to collaboration and best practice is BAA Terminal 5.

Under the T5 framework agreement, airport operator BAA took financial risk away from its suppliers and on to itself, allowing it to promote team working and to have greater logistical control. The successful completion of the project in March 2008 is thought to have been largely due to BAA’s willingness as a client to take on risk and play a central role in the management of the design and construction.

Although some would say that the takeover of BAA by Spanish firm Ferrovial in 2006, together with recent commercial pressures, has meant that BAA has taken a backward step on subsequent projects to a more traditional approach, there are still some very valuable lessons that the industry learned from T5. Those of my colleagues who worked on the project and others that I have talked with since all point to the emphasis on how people were encouraged to work together as the major lesson learned.

Looking back at some of the presentations I was giving as far back as 2003 we were already talking about "People, Process and Product" and the critical importance of making everyone involved in a project aware of the benefits of working together in a collaborative manner. Once everyone had the right mindset then getting the process of interaction within the team was the next most critical part. Adding increasing complexity to software tools was seen as the least important factor in a project's success - in fact, software manufacturers who didn't take enough heed of the people and the processes could often add risk to a project by delivering over-complex technology.

The importance of understanding the priorities of what is now more generally known as "People, Process, Tools" is echoed by many experts who are currently helping the industry take advantage of the benefits of BIM (Building Information Modelling) and IPD (Integrated Project Delivery).

To help motivate individuals amongst the co-located project teams during the BAA T5 programme the acronym "JFDI" was regularly quoted. Another (but possibly slightly more polite!) acronym relates to a similar initiative that Newforma started earlier this year with our customers in the US. This is our "CAN Do" award - where "CAN" stands for Creative Adoption of Newforma! There have been two awards so far. The first award went to SWBR Architects who gave prizes to those employees that reduced their Outlook mailboxes the most by filing emails using Newforma Project Center. The second award went to OWP/P who encouraged their people to use Newforma Info Exchange by disabling DWG attachments to emails and turning off the company FTP site.

Getting people working effectively together on projects is vitally important - sometimes, as seen in our "CAN Do" awards, just a little bit of extra encouragement is needed!