Digitize a field change request in under 1 hour

Ursula Cullen00:00

Hello everyone, and thank you for joining FlowForma's virtual workshop, where you'll see a construction process digitized in just under an hour. I'm Ursula Cullen, and I'm joined by my colleague Paul Stone, Product Strategist at FlowForma.

Ursula Cullen00:18

Construction is our primary sector. We've found the industry is very heavily reliant on paper, so we wanted to show our construction audience how easy it can be to digitize processes quickly, gain rapid adoption and get an early return on investment.

Paul Stone00:49

I've worked with FlowForma since its inception, and today I focus on the construction sector, delivering FlowForma processes to construction clients. Today I'll walk you through building one of those processes.

Ursula Cullen01:13

When you registered, we asked which process you'd like to see digitized, and there was a really clear winner: field change requests, with 50% of registrations.

Paul Stone01:35

That's interesting. A field change request is quite data-light, but there's certainly some workflow involved, as opposed to something like a hot works permit, which tends to be very data-heavy with not much workflow. It should be no problem building it in an hour today.

Paul Stone02:01

The first thing you need to do with any workflow is define it. You probably already have a field change request process documented, on paper, in a typed document or in a flow chart. Many teams map processes in Microsoft Visio, with a box for each task and swim lanes for the different people involved.

Paul Stone03:11

What matters with FlowForma is that you understand the process before you begin. It doesn't have to be a perfect definition. Once you start digitizing, the build itself helps you understand the process better and spot any issues.

Paul Stone03:54

Here's the process I've mapped. You raise the field change request, classify it as major or minor, then it goes for approvals, such as a client approval and a site engineer approval. A minor change is answered by the site engineering manager; a larger scope goes to the project engineering lead.

Paul Stone04:48

The tasks vary from one construction company to the next, and from one project to the next, so you need a tool that's flexible enough to handle that. In FlowForma, you can alter the process slightly for each project to cater for its resource makeup.

Paul Stone05:37

FlowForma digitizes processes that often run on paper forms, spreadsheets or email chains, and captures all the information centrally so you can report on it. It runs on top of SharePoint, in my own SharePoint environment here, and stores all the data and documents for the workflow in the SharePoint site.

Paul Stone07:02

I give the new process a title, Field Change Request, and a form prefix. Every request the system generates gets a unique number, and the prefix lets me quickly tell an FCR apart from the permits and other processes running in FlowForma.

Paul Stone07:38

Saving opens the Flow Designer. A flow is a process template that you design as an administrator, and people across the organization follow the same template every time, so you enforce some structure and can measure performance as more processes run.

Paul Stone08:08

Steps are the tasks people carry out. I usually get the workflow right first, so I create the steps: raise FCR, classify FCR, a site engineer approval, a client approval, answer the FCR, and validate the FCR, which the client does only for major changes.

Ursula Cullen10:36

On the classification step, could you add an explanation, so people know what it means?

Paul Stone10:43

Absolutely. For every step we'll add the data that needs to be recorded: the design document when you raise it, the classification, and the approvals. I'll create the steps first, then the data.

Paul Stone12:12

The two approvals happen at the same time, in either order, so I create a parallel group called Approvals and drag both steps into it. The validate step only happens when the classification is major, so I hide it for now.

Paul Stone13:41

The way FlowForma works is that you define a draft and refine it until it's right. I keep going back to check my edits. Opening the process now, I can see the steps, the two smaller parallel steps, and no validate step, because it's hidden. A good start, but I need the data and document management too.

Paul Stone15:00

On the raise FCR step, I first capture a summary. The question type is about the answer I want, so I make it multiple lines of text, a block people can type a paragraph or two into, and I make it required so they can't complete the task without it. I add help text too.

Paul Stone16:30

Next, the design document. I ask people to upload it with a file upload question. The document is uploaded to SharePoint, stored there, and used later in the workflow.

Ursula Cullen17:31

If someone needed to upload multiple documents, is that possible?

Paul Stone17:37

Absolutely. There are a few ways to do it; it takes a little longer to configure, so I'll keep a single upload for now.

Paul Stone18:00

Then some instructions on the screen, which matter so much for adoption: provide a summary, upload your document and press submit to get approval. I drag them to the top. The form is rendered automatically for any browser, and on mobile devices too, so you can get 10 other forms in front of people just as quickly, get their feedback and make changes.

Paul Stone20:09

To classify the FCR, I add a choice question with two options, major and minor, shown as radio buttons and required. As you change the question type, the form changes with it. You're always filling in a form and never writing any code, and the training cycle on the system is two days or less.

Paul Stone21:20

For the site engineer approval, I add a yes/no question, then a hidden multi-line reason for rejection. A business rule, a hide/show question rule, makes the reason appear if they say no, and it's mandatory, so they have to say why.

Paul Stone23:29

If they say no, I also want the workflow to jump back to the start, so I add a pass-back rule: if the approval equals no, go back to raise FCR.

Paul Stone24:07

The client approval uses the same logic, so I add the existing questions from the question bank rather than defining them again, and set the same hide/show rule.

Ursula Cullen25:43

Is there a limit to how many approvals you can have?

Paul Stone25:50

No, you can add as many approval steps as you like. One client in Australia has 30 approval steps in a parallel group. You can hide and show those steps, vary the number of approvers each time the process runs, and assign them to different people.

Paul Stone26:28

The validate step works the same way. It's hidden, so I add a business rule to show it when the classification equals major. If you had 10 approval steps, you could show only five of them under certain circumstances.

Ursula Cullen27:35

I can see how having the process mapped out in Visio helps, so you don't forget any steps.

Paul Stone27:47

That's it. You can always refer back to it, see the decision points and take actions based on them.

Paul Stone27:58

When you answer the FCR, you want the design document in front of you. I add a design document question to this step, then a set question value rule on raise FCR that copies the document across, so the person answering has everything on the same page. We have lots of rules to cover different scenarios; I'm only showing a few.

Paul Stone30:13

Then a large clarifications box, and a question asking whether you've completed your edits, so people have to say yes before they can submit.

Paul Stone31:42

I also record who answered the FCR, with a person or group question set to the current user. The system always knows who's logged in, so it can tell whether you're the right person for the step, and it keeps an audit trail of who did what and when. I make it non-editable, so my name appears and can't be changed.

Paul Stone33:54

A validation rule says the person must answer yes before they can progress, with an error message: you must complete your edits. With a paper-based system you can't check information at the point of entry, and checking it as the workflow progresses means much less looping around and rework. You can build very complex validations if you need them.

Paul Stone35:21

On the validate step, I add a required confirmation checkbox: I confirm that this FCR is complete.

Paul Stone36:13

I create a tile on the home page for the field change request, then run it. I enter a summary, upload a document to SharePoint and submit, and it moves to classification. I choose major, and the validate step appears.

Paul Stone38:02

In the parallel group, both approvers have to say yes. I say no, supply a reason, and submit, but I didn't add the pass-back rule on that step, so it moved on to answer the FCR, with the document and my name stamped in. And my validation rule is the wrong way around: it tells me I must complete my edits when I answer yes. Two fixes to make, no problem.

Paul Stone39:20

I correct the validation so the error shows when the answer equals no, and add the missing pass-back rule on the client approval, so a rejection loops back to raise FCR.

Ursula Cullen40:29

Ben asks: what are the fields at the bottom of each step, attachments, comments and email CC?

Paul Stone40:41

By default, people can add attachments and comments to the bottom of a step, and name people to copy in on emails. When I want control over how documents and explanations are captured, I use file upload and text questions instead and turn those sections off. That lets me control SharePoint permissions on the document and copy it around the workflow. If document control doesn't matter, they're handy to leave on.

Paul Stone42:35

In the form settings I hide the step numbers, which are useful while testing but a distraction in production. You can also set estimated durations for the whole workflow and for each step, so you can report on estimated against actual durations.

Paul Stone43:57

The forms designer changes how the form looks: the step color, the separator color, a logo for branding, collapsing sections and a layout for mobile devices.

Paul Stone45:34

Every form you build on the desktop is automatically available on mobile, on Android and Apple devices. After a short connectivity hiccup, the new field change request appears in the mobile app, with mobile enhancements such as labels above the answers.

Paul Stone47:52

On a site, the upload button lets you take a photograph and synchronize it to SharePoint. There are features built specifically for construction too, such as annotating images and capturing a GPS location on a map.

Paul Stone48:41

You can launch the request from a link in a site or in an email, send emails with the form's data and documents attached, convert the design document to PDF automatically, and report on the data. This form is more about workflow and documents; many construction forms, such as permits, are check sheets, and the system handles complex and tabular data as well.

Ursula Cullen50:47

Can you quickly show how you assign people and roles?

Paul Stone50:59

Good call, since I assigned everything to myself. Each step has a default owner, but most workflows need dynamic assignments. I add a person or group question, who's going to classify this FCR, and a step assigned to rule that gives the classify step to whoever is named. You could also look up a project, find who's in the project manager role, and assign the step to them automatically.

Ursula Cullen53:20

Is it possible to hide the process steps at the top of the form, so people only see the ones relevant to them?

Paul Stone53:41

By default, the step bar shows what's happened, what's next and what step you're on, but you can hide the other steps and show only the current one using business rules. The security wizard also governs who can create a form, and who can read or is denied each step, so on the client approval, for example, only one named person can see that step.

Ursula Cullen55:20

Can we assign steps to people outside the organization, such as external designers or subcontractors?

Paul Stone55:32

Yes. You can assign a step to an external user, even an anonymous one with the right link, or secure it to a specific account such as a Gmail address. They authenticate, see only that single step, enter their details and attach documents, and the data and audit trail come back into your Office 365 environment without them having any access to it.

Paul Stone57:11

The most common use is supplier management, where suppliers send you a quote through a step, and external contractors logging timesheets.

Ursula Cullen57:52

You can book a one-to-one demo at flowforma.com/demo, and register for a free trial, where you'll find the field change request process ready to customize for your organization. Thank you all for joining, and please fill in the quick survey at the end.