Practice Management Member Conversations

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Is there any standard AIA or other endorsed tree structure format for filing of electronic data for architectural projects?
 If so, please let me know where to access them to review them. We are a full service firm and ours has just evolved over time and is becoming cumbersome.
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Jeffrey Nagel AIA
Cities Edge Architects
Willmar MN
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The attached excerpt from The Architect's Handbook of Professional Practice should assist you.

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Richard Hayes AIA
Director, Knowledge Resources
The American Institute of Architects
Washington DC
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Be careful about creating too complex of a structure.  The more involved / complicated something is, the less intuitive it will be and the less likely people will be to use it properly.  I took a very quick look at the excerpt from the Handbook, and recoiled at the 8 digit numbering system.  We have a system that we set up 12-15 years ago that has stood up pretty well:

• Bidding
• Billing
• Budget & Schedule
• Construction Admininistration
• Corres
• Dwg
• Feasbility Study / Master Plan
• Interios & Finishes
• Landscape
• LEED
• Meeting Minutes
• Photos
• Presentations
• Programming
• Record Sets
• Renderings
• Research
• Specifications

These, of course, have their own sub-directory structures, but, in general, we try to keep the folder list under a dozen or so, to keep it from being overwhelming.

For file names, for better or worse, we don't prefix a file name with the project number.  For anything that was sent out, serves as a record, or has versions, however, we do prefix the file names with the date, in YYYY-MM-DD format, followed by a description of the file.  This helps keep the files sorted chronologically (even if somebody opens and resaves the file later).

As with any system, there are still times when somebody puts a file in a place that is logical to them, but not to others, but somehow in an office of 25 people we make it work.  The only things that I try to be on top of people about are 1) the dates in front of record files and 2) putting complete / compiled PDFs in the Record Set folders of any "milestones", such as pricing sets, permit sets, drawings for approval, or anything that I may get a call about from a client, municipal official, or the like saying, "I'm looking at this file you sent me, and I have a question." 

I hope this helps.

John
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John Cluver AIA
Partner
Voith & Mactavish Architects
Philadelphia PA
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-15-2011 16:37
From: Richard Hayes
Subject: file storage for easy access


The attached excerpt from The Architect's Handbook of Professional Practice should assist you.

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Richard Hayes AIA
Director, Knowledge Resources
The American Institute of Architects
Washington DC
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Jeff:

I'm not sure what software you are using, but many of the promenent CAD/BIM and Office Suite's have customizable file structure and autosave features. In fact, AutoDesk products create their own directory structure right out of the box. We are a multi-disciplinary office. Once we create a main project folder, we let the "project navigator" features of the software do the file organization and directory structuring for us. We gave up fighting this automation years ago and it has saved countless hours of file maintenance.

Regarding correspondence and reports created outside of AutoDesk products, we have adopted the spirit of the AIA standard. However, the numbers are useless to anyone who is not familiar with this format. We found the standard to be too time consuming to maintain and found the information was not adequately integrated and difficult to search.

Another App we have found to be a great tracking and document management tool is ACT by Sage Software. It is a pretty powerful CRM software that carries all your contact information. From inside of ACT you can generate customized transmittals, letters and emails, or create notes from a phone call that are permanently attached to the specific contact record(s). It also has some pretty cool opportunity tracking features.

The bottom line is that unless your client is requiring a particular folder structure, you have to evaluate the various systems out there and adapt one to work best for you.

Hope that helps.

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Gordon Rogers AIA
Architectural Manager
Kitchell CEM, Inc.
Sacramento CA
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