Alignment is all about staying on the same page, and it’s 100% necessary for any joint venture, project, or task – that is, if you want a successful outcome.

For example, football is a game of strategy, and a solid game plan is key to a winning team.

If you’re not familiar with the term, a game plan is a set of strategies and tactics put together by the team’s coaches before a game. They’ll form plays for offense and defense that are specific to the game ahead. Without it, there’s no alignment and everyone’s operating independently – a recipe for disaster for any team sport.

Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) is meant to accomplish the same thing – getting everyone on the same page from the very beginning. However, construction projects operate on a much larger scale with way more moving parts.

When it comes to AWP, information is key. Here’s our take on gaining and retaining alignment through information management:

FIRST, WHAT IS ADVANCED WORK PACKAGING?

Presented by the Construction Industry Institute (CII) as a best practice for engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC), AWP is a project delivery process that encourages beginning with the end in mind.

At the very start, stakeholders seek alignment on the path of construction and set expectations on scope, time, and cost to support workface planning. Based on those set expectations, stakeholders produce work packages that go hand-in-hand to enable a more efficient, productive project execution.

With six different work packages and an overwhelming amount of information needed for each one, you’ll need to know how to manage that information chaos – or onboard experts equipped with that knowledge and skillset.

According to one of CII’s case studies on AWP, adopting the practice can:

HOW TO GAIN ALIGNMENT: INCLUDE INFORMATION EXPERTS FROM THE START

AWP is all about getting on (and staying on) the same page, which isn’t an easy feat when there are so many key players involved.

One essential player that’s often overlooked, or treated as an afterthought, is the information expert. While it seems easy enough to stick information in a repository for the next key player to find and interpret, doing so without care can lead to unnecessary delays.

Maybe the Construction Management Team can’t find a file from Engineering & Procurement because it wasn’t uploaded to the right folder. Or maybe they’re drawing information from an old, outdated version of the file because the file names were inconsistent.

Whatever the information-related issue is, it can be easily avoided with an information expert on board. This key player would be tasked with managing information throughout the entirety of the project.

To do this the right way, information experts need to have a seat at the table from the start. This is especially important with AWP since crucial project information (i.e., work packages) is determined at the very beginning.

Then, when everyone goes off to focus on their specific deliverables, that information is key to keeping each group aligned. So, an information expert should be on board to ensure it’s reliable, easily accessible, and available from the start.

HOW TO RETAIN ALIGNMENT: DOCUMENT CONTROL

Maintaining the reliability, accessibility, and availability of a project’s information goes a long way to retain alignment between all parties. And the best way to accomplish this is through a strong, robust Document Control program. Here’s how:

Reliability

Reliable information is up-to-date and accurate, meaning it’s trustworthy. You don’t have to constantly worry about working off of an out-of-date document with old information, which only results in loss of time and money.

A good Document Control program will make sure all construction documents (e.g., CAD, BIM, and standard PDF files) are labeled and organized intuitively, so it’s clear to users which documents hold the most recent, up-to-date information.

Accessibility

Accessible information can be easily found and obtained whenever it’s needed, so stakeholders don’t need to spend unnecessary time sifting through documents required to start the next task.

Similar to maintaining reliability, Document Controllers should label and organize documents in a way that makes them easily findable for users. In addition, the repository housing information should have a remote, mobile capability – this way, documents are accessible from anywhere.

Mobility of information has become increasingly essential as the construction industry moves more and more towards modularization. Users should be able to access essential project documents from anywhere, so that needed information is on-hand at all times.

Availability

By “available information,” we mean that all relevant project documents are available to the right people – and restrictions are put in place for documents containing sensitive, confidential information.

In addition to making information available, Document Controllers should also play a big part in protecting information from falling into the wrong hands. Permissions should be closely evaluated and monitored, so EPC teams stay compliant and secure in today’s rapidly evolving regulatory environment.

Upholding information’s reliability, accessibility, and availability only scratches the surface of what a strong Document Control program can do to align all parties in AWP – and really, all major capital projects.