I love working in the BIM environment and helping other architects work in a smarter, more efficient manner. I started using ArchiCAD in 2006, founded the Minnesota ArchiCAD Usergroup in 2009, and began blogging about ArchiCAD in 2010. I'm always looking for guest bloggers who also want to share their experiences with ArchiCAD and BIM.

Parallel Teams, Serial Teams, and the Critical Importance of Templates

Posted: October 4th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Long Posts | Tags: , | 6 Comments »

Parallel Teams

a group of people working on a given project, at the same time.
Teams working in parallel are well discussed in the world of ArchiCAD and BIM. There are a variety of options for ArchiCAD users: independent .pln files, hotlinked modules, and of course Teamwork 2. It’s pretty safe to say that, regardless of what other software venders will tell you, there is no better solution for parallel teams than Teamwork 2. I’ve recently used it on two large residential projects and it is just awesome. But extolling the virtues of Teamwork 2 is not the point here. So let’s talk about…

Serial Teams

a group of people working on a given project, one after the other.
Serial teams are less discussed, but probably happen just as often as parallel teams. And in the world of residential architecture, it’s a constant of working life. So here’s an example that starts at the end: a pretty picture of a recently completed project by SALA Architects.

Projects like this are the bread and butter of the work at SALA Architects. A client buys a home that hasn’t been updated in close to 40 years and they want help turning it into their dream home… but on a tight budget. The lead architect on this particular project was Eric. He met with the client, agreed upon a course of action, and then sent Chris out to measure the existing conditions. Chris measured the home and modeled it in ArchiCAD 11. By the time Schematic Design started in earnest, Chris was off working on another project so Abbie joined the team. Abbie worked on the drawings and got them almost to completion. But then she went on maternity leave for 3 months. So Carol came on board and finished up the drawings. Then Carol went on vacation (I think to California for her oldest son’s college graduation). As with all projects, there were last minute changes and the submission for permitting needed to happen while Carol was gone. So I joined the team. In the end the lead architect (who doesn’t know ArchiCAD) had 4 different people helping him on this remodel, each joining the team after the previous person had left. The project was completed on-time and on budget. It was a huge success.

The Critical Importance of Templates

While it helped to have a great BIM manager who was aware of this project for its entire life, adherence to a solid template is what really made this giant serial team work. As a BIM manager one has to accept that not everyone will perfectly follow your well crafted, pure template. In fact no one will. Probably not even the BIM manager–though the BIM manager will just say s/he’s developing it further rather than not following the template. At least that’s what I tell myself. Anyways, a good template should have flexibility built into it. It should work well for all users with their various skill levels, strengths, and weaknesses. Here’s a diagram I’ve been developing and thinking about recently:

The red circle represents how a particular user works in ArchiCAD. The user on the left will work well with others in the office. The user on the right won't.

For every template there’s a zone of acceptable variation around it. If a user deviates from the pure template, but stays within this zone (the white area surrounding the pure zone) then others can easily work both in parallel and in series with this user. If the user’s ‘personal template’ strays into the unacceptable variation zone, then trouble will arise. This is the type of user who insists on doing things their way. It might be using special objects, their own custom libraries, pensets, layers, fonts, backup systems, etc. Some of this is okay. And some deviations are more acceptable than others. But as people stray from the agreed upon template, no matter how awesome or logical their changes and improvements are, the ability for teams to function degrades.

Do all your coworkers follow everything the template defines perfectly or are they individualistic to the point of making the template useless? Is your template flexible enough to allow people to express their own styles without inhibiting the ability to share work?

Or am I a softy and need to crack the whip more, forcing my coworkers into rigid, unerring adherence?

6 Comments on “Parallel Teams, Serial Teams, and the Critical Importance of Templates”

  1. 1: Archicad Know How said at 4:43 pm on October 5th, 2011:

    You must allow templates to evolve continually. At any point in the future your best efforts and a more successful project just might be the best template you have ever had.
    Just keep control & discuss template changes with those who matter don’t allow free for all refinement or you could find yourself back at stage ONE template.

  2. 2: Jared Banks said at 4:53 pm on October 5th, 2011:

    Well said! Kristian Bursell has some similar good advice in his comment in a discussion on this post on LinkedIn.

  3. 3: Christian Gladu said at 8:10 am on October 6th, 2011:

    We are a small 4 person firm and we keep a running list of improvements we want to make to the template and before we start new major projects we invest some time in dialing in the template a little further.
    It also seems that we are developing different templates for project types. Remodel vs new for example.

  4. 4: Jared Banks said at 8:46 am on October 6th, 2011:

    Christian, just checked out your website and work. Very nice.

    Revamping the template before starting major projects is a great idea. I often do that as well.

    Do you have separate template files or do you have one master template file that you then delete things from at the start of the project? For example, deleting demo layers and layer combos for new construction. At one point I had two template files (one for project creation and one for standard objects, etc.). I’ve mostly gotten rid of the second one. 2D info is now on a worksheet in the main template, 2D & 3D are favorites, etc. There are a few 3D parts that aren’t saved as objects in the 2nd file, but that file has nothing else in it. No views, no layouts, nothing to maintain but the objects.

  5. 5: Dhaval Shah said at 7:21 am on March 22nd, 2012:

    Besides using template, Every Project should have a ‘short description Text’ showing how and why some special elements, layers, pensets, viewmaps, other non-elemental things and hotlinks have been used (i.e. non-traditional management of file), this will be helpful for anybody who will review/work on the project files even after few months or years.

  6. 6: Jared Banks said at 8:47 am on March 22nd, 2012:

    Dhaval, you are absolutely right. I keep all the information explaining the standards within my template file. I think I have a blog post somewhere half-started that talks more about that! Thanks for sharing.

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