Getting people to follow standards!

[Anonymous]

Just wondering how other CAD Managers out there are getting people to follow standards?

With a template developed over 7 years i think we have a fairly good template and a extensive manual. If only people followed everything, everyone would be SO MUCH better off. But I am beginning to learn that no matter how much you put in a manual it all depends on how many people look at it? Should we expect everyone in the office to look at the manual everytime they need to do something.

I have tried a very textual manual to a very graphical manual, thinking drafting and architectural staff may look more favorably on a "picture" manual, but not much success.

Of course the obvious solution is training. But I have also learnt there is only so much you can explain before it is just to much to take in. The problem lies in

1) Some people just don't care, greatly a small percentage in the office i think.
2) The people who do, may not use a particular standard for a while, at which time they forget what it was.

So what does everyone else do. Slap people on the wrist if they do something wrong? There is only so much we can look over their shoulder.

Other ideas we are looking at doing audits. Has anyone else used this idea.

Another idea, involves a internet site, some type of interactive manual that is more graphical than anything, but still have to try and get people to look at it in the first place!

The ultimate goal is to get everyone to follow standards, make everyone more efficient and therefore spend more time on design, the fun part, and everyone gets paid more!. If only people could understand there is the potential to acheive this.

[Anonymous]

Laura wrote:
...although standards have been established (they even published a book on the subject) they have not been enforced...

One quick note: The standards must be promoted before they can be enforced. Properly promoted they become self-enforcing. Trying to impose standards is shoveling sand against the tide.

[TomWaltz]

Matthew wrote:
For those who haven't discovered this yet (or heard me talk about it before); I have found (after years of trying just about everything) that the best program for writing and maintaining the manual is ArchiCAD (especially now that PlotMaker is rolled in). Everyone has it and (presumably) knows how to use it. It publishes the PDFs like a charm - with bookmarks and everything. And you have direct access to all the tools and features you are documenting.

Archicad does work pretty well... though I'm eying converting that to a Wiki for better linking and integration with other office manuals.

[Anonymous]

TomWaltz wrote:

Matthew wrote:
For those who haven't discovered this yet (or heard me talk about it before); I have found (after years of trying just about everything) that the best program for writing and maintaining the manual is ArchiCAD (especially now that PlotMaker is rolled in). Everyone has it and (presumably) knows how to use it. It publishes the PDFs like a charm - with bookmarks and everything. And you have direct access to all the tools and features you are documenting.

Archicad does work pretty well... though I'm eying converting that to a Wiki for better linking and integration with other office manuals.

So you're still using it then?

I am always looking for something better too. Wiki looks interesting but I'm not convinced about the ease-of-use/quality-of-product balance. Please keep us posted if you come up with something interesting.

[Laura Yanoviak]

STANDARDS!

[Brad Elliott]

The only other input I have is pick your people. If the bottom rung people show no desire to improve you have to abandon them. Typically they are transient anyway. Spend your time on your opportunities. Find at least one person who shows interest and give them all the information they can take. If they take the ball and run with it find a way to reward them (even if it is despite management, I paid for a few lunches out of my own pocket) and get them positions over roughly equal staff. Even if it is just being placed senior with no obvious benefits it puts them ahead in the promotion line or gives them job better protection when the market crashes again. Once you get a few people to by into the program you can use peer pressure to at least keep the others somewhat in line.

I also was pretty aggressive about listening to the input from my good staff and trying to implement it while being pretty hard on those who were counter productive. Sometimes they would straighten up just to get the right to bitch at me.

The other thing as Tom mentioned work to their strengths. If someone is into the modeling, or schedules, or layouts try to work from that point. Usually, the interest expands to get them competent with the rest of the program.

As mentioned in the end it isn't much different from the pencil & paper days. I worked with people who couldn't draw a straight line or a 90º corner or had any idea how to get a different line weight out of a pencil if their life depended on it. Or even if they cared.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the wiki idea. It is easily editable and you can just add content on the fly and link to external tips like web sites, etc.

I started ours over a year ago and I just add things as they come up. Then it is instantly searchable by anyone.

I highly recommend tiddlywiki becuase it requires no installation...it's just a single file. You're up and running in 2 minutes. See www.tiddlywiki.com for more info on it.

Other than that, you have to make sure your standards make as much sense as possible. If users have to fight them to get their work done then they will abandon them. Remember the standards are in place to help them get their job done, collaborate effectively, ensure consistency in documentation (graphic and content), and maintain predictability in what users are doing.

If they still don't get it then send them to "time out"! Oh wait, I'm disciplining my kids again....

[Anonymous]

I find the best approach is to make it easier to follow the standards than not to. It's all about the art of placing and removing obstacles. That's why I consider Ganesha to be the patron god of CAD managers.

Seriously, I find that when people understand that the standards are designed to help them get their work done without having to reinvent, or even remember, everything (like what pen to use to draw a section marker) they become insistent on the implementation rather than resistant to it.

[Andy Thomson]

One idea is to remove pen, fill, line and composite dialogues from the 'draftie's' WE, (CAD Manager sets all favorites). Most people I work with don't need that kind of top-down management.

Then users can select but not modify. I used to set all nonstandard (non-architectural pens) to print white, as punishment for not using the right pens. That didn't go over well. But it made people aware of the problem.

Someone needs to hack the AM to make core office attributes lockable and password-protected. Karl?

I managed to lock the first 10 fills, but that was only possible because of exploiting a bug in the program.

I think the larger question is how to train people to model the building. I have a very short fuse when I inherit or am forced to clean up a mess of sloppy 3D patched over with 2D elements. ArchiCad is hard to learn. It needs to be easier, and it needs to behave better (composite cleanup/reflines/intersection priorities everywhere - this stuff is one clear example)

[Laura Yanoviak]

andyro wrote:
One idea is to remove pen, fill, line and composite dialogues from the 'draftie's' WE

Hmmm -- interesting idea...

...another article that addresses the issue...