EPC Workflow Automation Software

Project Overview

The company handles large-scale infrastructure EPC projects, each with thousands of documents. Each document goes through an average of 3-5 revisions. Each revision cycle consists of 3-5 people. Doing the math clearly shows how this can lead to inefficiency and document control errors that can be detrimental to the project.

The aim of this software was to automate the engineering document revision cycle as well as digitize the project documentation and maintain its version control. After looking at platforms on the market, the senior management decided to create something customized from scratch. This was due to ensuring that all the desired functionality was present, but without redundancy, and to make it as simple as possible so that it is easy to transition to this tool -- particularly for some managers who might not be very technically adept.

Results

After multiple iterations and usability testing sessions, I held a number of training sessions for the staff to learn how to use the web application effectively, hosting specialized in-depth training for Document Controllers who would be in charge of maintaining the Master Document Register, upload of documents and tracking revisions as well as setting up the workflows.

Within the first two months, the software usage led to a 10% increase in resource efficiency and 22% reduction in document control errors.

The Research Process

Initially, I conducted focus groups with each of the engineering departments, each with 3-10 engineers, at a time. After doing the same with the senior management, procurement and selected staff from the construction team, I was able to grasp a better idea of each of the stakeholders, how involved they were in the documentation of the project and the overall arching challenges and issues they felt in the way things were currently being handled.

This was followed by a quick short survey across all employees to validate the need for such a solution and gain approval of the senior management to allocate a budget for it. The survey showed that there was a clear need for this.

Given the technical nature of this product and its nuances, I decided to adopt IBM's Enterprise Design Thinking for my process and four sponsored users: a document controller, a junior engineer, a senior/lead engineer, and the engineering manager). They provided feedback and were interviewed regularly for each phase of the project and involved in usability testing from low-fi prototypes to the final UI design, and beta testing throughout the product lifecycle..

In the context of IBM's Enterprise Design Thinking, "sponsored users" refer to individuals or groups who are involved in the design process and provide valuable insights and feedback. These users are typically representatives from the target user group or stakeholders who have a vested interest in the outcome of the design project. Sponsored users are instrumental in bringing diverse perspectives to the table, allowing the design team to uncover a wide range of user insights. By actively involving sponsored users throughout the design journey.

The four sponsored users were each interviewed extensively to understand their current flow using traditional tools, their pain-points & challenges, as well as use their expertise to come up with the desired features of the product.

Then, before we look deeper into each of our stakeholders/sponsored users and map their journey, it is crucial to understand how the typical workflow of company works. There are two main type of engineering documents: internal and external. Internally Issued Documents refer to those that are initiated, reviewed internally and approved by the engineering team itself. External documents, however, required the engineering team to only review and comment on them until their approval. Rather, they are issued initially by consultancies (engineering, PMC, etc.) or by vendors & suppliers who provide the technical documents and drawings of the systems and equipment to be used during construction.

User Journey

Instead of mapping out each of the journey for each of the user personas, I opted to create two journeys that reflected the of the document types: internal and external. Within each journey, it is segregated into phases and sub-phases that showcases the owner of that stage, and the collaborates he/she works with. Then each sub-phase is analyzed for pain-points, challenges and opportunities.

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Information Architecture

There are three information architectures created.
1. Super Admin -- that has access to edit everything on the platform including users and permissions
2. DCC -- the Document Controller has ability to control workflows, create and edit them
3. Engineering Team & Engineering Manager -- the least authorized parties, responsible for responding to assigned tasks

User Flow

The diagram below showcases the user flow of all three user types in one flow.

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Home - Dashboard

In this page, the user sees the overview of his assigned tasks, progress, and latest documents uploaded related to him. If he is the Document Controller or Planning Engineer, they will see the tasks and documents of the whole project they are assigned to.

The Admin Console (Users, Permissions and Project Set-up) are only available for the software admin. The user/engineer will not see that part.

Home - Track My Tasks

In this page, the user sees every single task assigned to him or tasks created by him. He user can take four actions: reply to the task, view further detail including attachment and previous replies & document revisions, forward it to someone else on his team, or re-assign it if the task does not pertain to him.

There is also a sorting and advanced filter option to see which tasks are overdue, upcoming soon, date duration, status, urgency level, etc.

Task Inbox

In this page, similar to an email inbox, the user receives all the tasks assigned to him along with the necessary information and attachment to download. There are four actions to take: Reply (submit revision comments), View Task History (see any changes, replies from other departments, revision history of document, etc.), Forward (assign to someone else on the team) or Re-assign (Assign to an appropriate party different that his team in case there was an error)

Notifications

Users

This admin page allows the user management on the platform: add new user, edit current users information, as well as update or recover credentials.

User Permissions

This admin page allows the the management of a team or user's permissions for specific pages, authority level, workflow authorizations, assigned projects and document read / read & write permissions/

Project Set-up

This is an admin page that allows configuration of the pieces to make the workflow automation. The Projects, the specific discipline code, positions (can be assigned to multiple users which is useful when sending a task to multiple users at once) and document types. All these tabs have a code that reflects the company's document numbering code & procedure.

Documents

This page contains an advanced filtering algorithm tailored to the company's document numbering system. There are three different parts to the documents: Personal Documents (specific and viewed only be specific user, saved on the cloud), Project Documents (created automatically by the system and contains version control: the subfolders followed the List of Documents (LoD) Master Register) and Shared Documents (which can be manually created by each user and shared with a team or specific users)

Tasks

Contains the assigned tasks, with its status. This view is how the Document Controller sees it. It has the option to start a new task as well as three actions for existing tasks: edit, view task information, and send reminders.

Workflow

This is the automation part of the software. Tasks, during creation, can be assigned manually directly to users, and upon their comments, to be assigned to the next user afterwards until the end of the document cycle. However, for the sake of efficiency, documents that have a repetitive cycle and line of communication can be pre-programmed as a workflow. The Document Controller can simply choose a Workflow for a task and the system handles the full revision cycle.

List of Documents (EDDR)

The List of Documents is the master register of any engineering project, where every task stems from and can be used to calculate the project's progress. This is the main logic control of the software and must be maintained carefully by the Document Controller. The Import function was created to ease the transition of the company from the traditional method of working into the software.