StreamFocus™ Blog

  
After 2 years of research and over a year of programming, we are happy to announce the launch of our Limited Beta.  Here is information on our concepts, features, pricing, and screenshots.  We look forward to collaborating with our users on making StreamFocus even better.

The Problem

My architectural firm began work on a large project with a team of 7 people, and we needed a way to manage the firm’s many tasks. We started using web based project management tools to organize our activities. At first, it seemed like a great tool. Tasks would be created and assigned, email reminders would automatically be sent, comments about the tasks could be made and viewed. In a short time, however, the quantity of open tasks became larger.

With a large project, the key is to always work on the top priority task. The web system provided no intelligent way to help determine what the highest priority task was. Entering deadlines for tasks is useful, but when a project-critical task is delayed because of an immediate deadline on a less important task, especially if the deadline is self-generated, the consequences can be dire for the success of the project. Task dependencies are also a nice tool, but again, someone has to spend time massaging these relationships on a daily/hourly basis with the currently available tools.

Our number of tasks became overwhelming. The only answer I could find was to actually have a new position created to focus on organizing these tasks, but then I would have to spend a great deal of time explaining how to prioritize in addition to the new person actually going through all these tasks to set priorities as they came up. In other words, the task management system slowed us down, added costs, and threatened the success of our project. Eventually, we threw up our hands and abandoned the web project management tool.

What We Need

The most important thing we need to know is: which of the many tasks that need to be done is the top priority. The other big issue is: what information do we need to have before starting on a task. We found that so many times tasks would be started and then have to be revised again (and again) later because information needed to complete the task was missing at the onset. This amounted to a great deal of lost time and productivity on the order of 30-40% of time spent working. Additionally, we needed to have the information necessary for the task available immediately while the task was being performed. Another 10-20% of time was lost looking for information for tasks.

For service companies such as my architectural firm, the material we work with is primarily information, and the processes are to a large extent mental. Managing this complexity seemed daunting, but the reward is to gain back the 50% of lost productivity and dramatically improve quality for our customers. This potential improvement in my firm was well worth finding an answer.

We needed a management system that allowed us to focus on the top priority task we needed to do, to focus on the exact information we needed to complete that task, and to not let us start a task until we had assembled all the necessary information and other processes to complete the task to avoid rework.

It was these problems that led to the development of StreamFocus, an on-demand project and action management application, with which we achieved a 50% productivity increase with better quality.

©2007 Organon Technologies LLC

Case Study: Architecture

We’ve been using StreamFocus at my architectural firm for the past 6 months, and we are having a dramatic experience: 50% increase in productivity, a large increase in quality, and happier clients and staff with a growing business. This sounds impossible, but it’s a fact.

Please read these articles to find out about the main features enabling us to achieve this large productivity boost:

• Project Templates establish Project priorities and organization
• Workflow Templates and constrained Workflows prevent costly rework and provide easy to use project and action management
• Information made available contextually for the action at hand allows users to move easily from one action to another and stay fully informed on the information they need to get the top priorty job done and collaborate in a powerful way.

With StreamFocus, we are able to customize our project and Workflow templates to optimize our business and continue to improve the flow and quality of our work. Additionally, because the action sequence is captured in the Workflow templates, users are able to benefit from that captured knowledge and operate at higher levels with less direct management input and greater satisfaction levels - allowing me to focus on designing a great project with less time spent managing.

©2007 Organon Technologies LLC

Case Study: Architecture - Back to: 50% Productivity Increase with Better Quality?

The guiding principle of my firm’s priorities is enabling the fastest completion time possible for a given project with the highest level of quality for our clients. We used methods from Toyota’s Lean Management with advice from the Lean Software Institute to restructure our business priorities in the following client focused way:

1. We have found that the most important productivity boost has been to listen more carefully and more frequently to our Clients. In the past, a delay in asking for and getting client feedback would lead to wasted effort on designs no longer considered relevant by our clients. A client’s decision can radically alter the entire workflow of a project. Understanding and acting immediately on client feedback is now our top priority.

2a. In order to start construction, permits are needed by various regulating government agencies. Without these permits, we cannot build and/or construction can be stopped: Permitting is our second priority.

2b. The most expensive and critical part of a project is the Construction process. A request for information, a change order, or an application for payment as well as other issues during construction, when not acted on immediately, can have devastating impacts on project delivery and construction costs. Construction issues are also our second priority.

3. As architects, we have to integrate our design with the many complex systems that make up a modern building. If we create details and specifications for a part of a building prior to knowing the final engineering design, we will waste the time we’ve spent in that area and delay the project because of the additional time needed to redesign the area. A day delay in getting information from our Engineering consultants equates to a day delay in completing the project as a whole. Coordinating with our engineering consultants is our third priority.

4. What we architects usually love to do most is design and produce drawings. But because our work can be turned upside down by a functional change request by our clients, by a regulatory change by the authorities, by an unknown issue during construction,or by a change in the engineering design, Architecture is our fourth priority.

We automate these client-focused priorities by setting up the following Project template hierarchy in StreamFocus:

Generating Projects and SubProjects with Project Templates

Once the Project Template hierarchy is established, Projects and Subprojects are created that inherit both the characteristics of the template and the underlying priority. The following is a simplified example of a Project hierarchy:

Setting Priorities Between Projects

Priorities are automatically set between projects based on the priorities established in the Project Template. If two Workflows have available actions in separate projects, and one of them is in a higher priority subproject, that Workflow will be the higher priority. If the two Workflows are in subprojects of the same priority, the Project with an earlier deadline will take priority. Additionally, within a priority level in a set of subprojects, each subproject can be assigned a priority so that an Workflow, all other priorities being equal, will then use the subproject priority.

Next: Constrained ActionStreams Prevent Costly Rework

©2007 Organon Technologies LLC

Case Study: Architecture - Back to: 50% Productivity Increase with Better Quality?

In StreamFocus, a Workflow is a connected flow of actions that creates a value for the customer. A Workflow template establishes a company-wide template for carrying out a Workflow. The diagram below is a simple example of a Workflow template:

Flow Constraints Within a Workflow

Within the template, constraints are set to control the flow of actions. A solid line indicates a mandatory path, and a dashed line indicates an optional path. An oval shape is an action, and a triangular shape is waiting for action. So in the above diagram, the “Building Survey” action can not be worked on until “Signed Contract” is waiting for action. After performing the “Review Survey” action, either the survey is approved and information can be sent on to the “Survey Files” wait for action, or errors were found in the survey and thus the survey information is sent to “Building Survey Revisions” wait for action and then sent back for revisions in the “Building Survey” action.

Flow Constraints Between Workflows

Constraints can be set on a Workflow which indicate that other Workflows must be complete prior to working on it. This allows for dynamic priority setting when unforseen issues arise. An example Project hierarchy:

For example, the Workflow “14. Model Structure” in the lower right of the diagram above has an available action to work on under SubProject “1. First Floor Plan” and is currently the top priority. Then the structural engineer submits revisions to his design because of an unforseen issue with the existing structure which affects Workflow “11. Prelim Design”. Because this issue is in Project priority 3, it overrides “14. Model Structure” and becomes the top priority on the project. Additionally, because “14. Model Structure” is constrained by “11. Prelim. Design”, “14. Model Structure” is no longer available to work on until “11. Prelim. Design” is complete.

Setting constraints between Workflows allows simple but effective project management. The combination of Project priorities and Workflow constraints allows for dynamic setting of priorities that flow with changes that occur on most projects, helping the team stay focused on the top priority and avoiding costly rework.

Next: Contextual Information Retrieval

©2007 Organon Technologies LLC

StreamFocus is an on-demand project and action (task) management system that keeps teams focused on creating value for customers.

This article has been moved to the home page, see the StreamFocus Software Introduction.