A practice platform: connecting projects, tasks and files

Start with information relationships

For each project, identify its current stage, important dates and responsible people. Connect tasks to the files or decisions required to complete them. Keep drawing and model issues understandable so a colleague can tell which information supports the next action. The objective is not to create a task for every minor activity. It is to prevent important dependencies from being held only in one person's memory or scattered across separate messages that other team members cannot easily follow.

Define a few working rules

Agree who creates projects, who assigns tasks and who marks an issue ready for review. Choose a consistent place for current files and separate superseded versions. State how site visits, milestones and issues should be recorded where those features serve the practice's work. Keep naming simple and explain how BIM12 requests relate to the wider architectural project. A platform can hold information, but the practice still needs to decide what counts as an approved instruction or an accepted delivery.

Test the workflow with a real need

Select one representative project and walk through a drawing submission, a question, a delivery and a review. Ask whether the responsible person can find the current state without reconstructing the conversation from an inbox. Confirm access requirements, file handover and any particular office needs directly. Do not assume a demonstration proves that an unmentioned integration or custom workflow is already included. Where a requirement is additional, define its scope before relying on it in the practice's operating process.

A platform-workflow check

• Connect each important task to its owner, current file and required decision so the next action can be understood without searching through several separate communication channels.
• Agree who issues models and accepts deliveries, keeping active and superseded information distinct and avoiding duplicate records that present different project states to different colleagues.
• Walk through one representative submission and review before assuming an unmentioned integration or custom requirement is included, and confirm particular access or handover needs directly.