After starting construction in 2006, Berlin Brandenburg Airport planned to open in October 2011. The first flight took off in 2020. What caused a nine-year delay? Poor planning, execution, and supervision -- favoured by inadequate documentation. A list of deficiencies compiled by inspectors in 2020 found:
"Many examples of poor workmanship due to a lack of proper supervision and documentation, most notably concerning the wiring. Reports have surfaced about cable conduits that hold too many cables or hold cables in incompatible combinations, such as phone lines next to high voltage wires. A total of 60 kilometres (37 mi) of cooling pipes were allegedly installed with no thermal insulation. To correct this, the demolition of numerous walls may be necessary. Furthermore, exterior vents appear to be in improper locations, allowing rainwater from the western facade to enter them."
The case illustrates why good documentation is so critical in construction, engineering, or infrastructure projects.
With the rise of AI, document management in such projects is transforming. Cumbersome, manual work with blueprints, contracts, meeting minutes, and related documents can now be automated to reduce errors and speed up processes. In this article, we first cover the basics of construction document management and provide a downloadable checklist to help you diagnose where your current systems and processes might fall short. We then discuss how construction firms are adopting AI to solve their document management problems.
Why is document management so important in construction?
Large building projects involve many parties – such as clients, architects, engineers, planners, subcontractors, authorities or government stakeholders, and consultants. Coordinating so many parties toward a common goal requires a large amount of communication: to plan, monitor progress, resolve issues, and make decisions. Heaps of documents are produced over the course of a project’s life cycle, including blueprints, permits, submittals, meeting minutes, email threads, punch lists, and RFIs. Estimates indicate that 500,000 drawings and 5,000,000 documents were produced for the Crossrail project in London.
Estimates indicate that 500,000 drawings and 5,000,000 documents were produced for the Crossrail project in London.
In some sense, documents are a record of the thought process of a construction project – one that also shapes ongoing decision-making toward project completion. As such, good documentation is essential for successful projects – that means storing documents and organizing them in a way that makes it easy to quickly find relevant information.
The perils of poor construction document management
The consequences of inadequate document management can be severe, including:
- Delays and cost overruns: Poor document management can delay decision-making and project completion. When necessary information is not readily accessible, errors are more common, requiring rework that increases project costs.
- Risks and liabilities: When inaccurate or missing documentation leads to errors, projects are exposed to legal and financial risk. For example, if compliance with regulations is not documented, costly penalties are a likely outcome.
- Disputes: Costly disputes cannot be resolved if documentation of past decisions cannot be found or is incomplete.
- Reduced quality and safety: Without easy access to documentation, workers may skirt safety protocols or quality standards.
- Reputational damage: Issues caused by a lack of good documentation erode the trust of other project counterparties, making it harder for the firm to secure future projects.
Part I. The tenets of construction document management
1. Standardized file management
A standardized file system is the foundation of document management. It ensures that information is easy to access, in a consistent way. Key things to consider are:
- Consistent directory structure: Create a consistent folder structure to store and organize construction documents. This could include top-level folders for each project, with subfolders for document types such as Drawings, Submittals, or Meeting Minutes.
- Document templates: Create templates for common document types like RFIs, meeting minutes, or change orders. This promotes consistency in how information is presented and makes it easier to find key data.
- Naming convention: Use descriptive and consistent file names to make it easy to search for files. The file name could include the project name, document type, revision numbers, and date. For example, "Project ABC_Architectural Drawings_Rev2_2023-06-01.pdf".
Avoid special characters such as /, <, >, :, *, ? and spaces that cause errors in some file systems. Instead, use underscores (_) or hyphens (-).
2. Version control and archive standards
Implement a version control system to track changes to documents over time. This allows you to revert to previous versions if needed and ensures everyone is working based on the most up-to-date information. A good version control protocol includes:
- Consistent version numbering: Increment version numbers systematically to identify the most recent version at a glance, e.g. Project ABC_Architectural Drawings_Rev2_2023-06-01.pdf.
- Clear document status: Indicate document status, such as "draft," "for review," or "approved."
- Archiving: Store previous versions for reference and auditing purposes. For archived documents, establish a data retention policy and periodic reviews to maintain an organized archive.
With modern software, pre-set triggers can automatically track version changes, such as when a document is checked in or published. Some tools also offer branching and merging workflows to enable parallel development of documents. That way, team members can work on separate branches and then merge their changes back into the main document.
3. Security
A document management system should prevent unauthorized access to documents. Critical security features are:
- Access controls: Ensure information is only accessible to those who have authorization. Limit access to those users that need access to perform their work, to reduce the attack surface (the principle of least privilege).
- Encryption: Encrypt documents at rest and in transit to protect against unauthorized access. Document editors such as Microsoft Word or Excel can be used to password-protect sensitive documents like financial reports and project bids.
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA): Require MFA for all accounts that have access to project management software.
- Digital signatures: Require digital signatures for key documents like contracts, change orders, and submittals. Digital signatures provide a secure, tamper-evident way to verify the authenticity and integrity of documents.
- Backups: If not done automatically, schedule regular backups of all critical project documents to secure locations, such as encrypted cloud services or drives. If using hard drives, maintain multiple backup copies to guard against site-specific incidents.
- Training: Educate all team members on document security best practices, such as password management, phishing risks, and how to report suspicious activities. Regularly repeat these training sessions to build a strong security culture.
4. Centralized document storage
Create a single source of truth for project documentation and dedicated repositories for specific document types, such as specifications, safety records, or meeting minutes.
For example, Cogram is a software platform that can be used to store project communication records, such as meeting minutes and emails. The tool makes it easy to search for specific information across months of past meetings and email threads.
5. Construction document management software
Construction document management software automates and combines many document management processes, such as regular backups and version control, which would otherwise require separate solutions.
Modern tools are cloud-based and can be accessed from mobile devices — ideal for collaboration, especially if some team members work in the field. Look for software with the following key features:
- User-friendly interface: Intuitive and easy to navigate with a short learning curve.
- Support for different document types and search: Different file types should be supported and should be searchable.
- Version control and tracking: Automatically tracks document versions and change history to ensure up-to-date information and reduce errors, along with an advanced search function.
- Security: At minimum should include end-to-end encryption, access controls, and audit trails. For maximum security, opt for dedicated hosting or private cloud storage.
- Integration capabilities: Integrations with other tools, such as your project management platform or BIM software help to automate manual filing work.
- Collaboration: Real-time editing, markup, commenting, and document sharing from desktop or mobile devices make collaboration easy.
For an overview of different document management software vendors, see G2 or Capterra.
6. Training
Regularly train your team on best practices for document management. For complex projects with high documentation volume, appoint a dedicated role to oversee document management processes. They will be responsible for establishing procedures for document creation, retention, and archiving. They can also reinforce those procedures by retraining staff regularly.
Download a construction document management evaluation checklist
Use this checklist to evaluate the current state of construction document management in your team. The list covers the foundational principles of document management to ensure you have the basics right. In the following sections of this article, we discuss advanced techniques, with a focus on how you can use AI to automate document management.
To diagnose document management issues, the checklist contains a short survey that you can share with team members.
Download the construction document management evaluation checklist (in Word).
Part II: Transforming construction document management with AI
AI is transforming document management in construction and engineering projects. By automating tasks like data entry and extraction, analytics, search, or drafting of documents, AI improves productivity and frees up time for higher-impact work.
Here’s how construction and engineering firms are using AI for document management:
1. Automated data entry
AI can automatically enter data and organize files. This reduces manual errors, speeds up paperwork, and accelerates approvals.
2. Automated data extraction
AI can extract data from documents. Retrieval-augmented-generation (RAG) systems, can scan 100s or 1000s of files in a repository and retrieve the right sections of those documents that are relevant to a user’s question. For example, architecture, construction, and engineering firms use Cogram to quickly get project status updates based on a repository of meeting minutes and email threads.
3. Improved compliance and risk management
AI can analyze documents to ensure compliance with zoning codes and regulations, or to identify risks and inconsistencies before they escalate.
4. Streamlined communication and collaboration
AI can provide real-time updates on document changes, approvals, and project milestones, keeping everyone informed and supporting timely decisions. Transcription tools and AI assistants can translate conversations or documents to overcome language barriers on international projects.
5. Data analysis and insights
By processing project documentation, AI can generate insights into resource allocation and cost management. This allows project managers to make informed decisions based on data.
6. Automated reporting
Similarly, AI can automatically generate reports by compiling information from multiple sources. For example, architects and subcontractors use Cogram’s mobile application to transcribe on-site meetings and to take photos of progress and deficiencies. Cogram’s AI then combines transcripts and photos to draft a site visit or inspection report.
Wrapping up
To determine how you can take advantage of AI, start by understanding what problems exist and what AI technology can do. Get feedback from staff and project participants—such as project managers, engineers, or subcontractors. Talk to other firms, to understand what they have found to work. Newsletters such as TLDR AI or Cogrammatica can help to stay on top of the many exciting developments in AI in general, and tools for project management or client work in particular.The next few years will transform how the AEC industry works with documents in project management. Manual search, drafting, and reviewing of information will be handled by AI assistants that can instantaneously access and process information. Firms that are early to adopt such technology will gain a competitive advantage that will allow them to deliver projects faster and more cost-effectively.
