Architecture project management software: Coordinating plans, people, and progress

To understand how much architectural project management tools impact modern AECO workflows, it’s helpful to understand how the architects—as well as engineers, urban planners, and other professionals—worked before the digital era.

• Paper-based documentation: Blueprints, drawings, and project plans had to be manually updated, shared, and stored, leading to challenges in version control and accessibility.
• Spreadsheets and Gantt charts: The manual spreadsheets and Gantt charts previously used to plan and track project schedules, tasks, and dependencies scale poorly, are labor-intensive, and don’t offer real-time updates or collaboration features. With these documents, changes had to be physically shared so all partners and stakeholders could maintain updated copies.
• File exchange: Without project management software to streamline file exchange, stakeholders needed to send materials back and forth via email or other separate file management systems. This introduced challenges of interoperability and compatibility across different file formats, sometimes requiring rework and reformatting.

This manual approach was inefficient and added significant overhead to the project management process. Architectural project management software makes it easier for AECO professionals to collaborate efficiently, manage resources, and keep tabs on every aspect of a project. Other benefits include:

• Streamlined workflows: Architectural project management tools help AECO professionals organize tasks, track project progress, and manage timelines more efficiently. By centralizing project-related information, teams can streamline workflows, reduce errors, and optimize productivity.
• Enhanced collaboration: Project management tools facilitate communication among architects, engineers, contractors, and clients, enabling multiple team members to view and edit project information in real time, sharing updates, comments, suggestions, and questions in a common data environment.
• Efficient resource allocation: These tools assist in effective resource allocation for materials, manpower, and finances. Architects can also better manage budgets, schedules, and resources to prevent overruns or delays.
• Project oversight and control: Digital project tracking and documentation helps architects oversee and manage project milestones, tasks, and deliverables. This helps identify and address potential issues early, minimize risks, and ensure project success.

Architects can simulate, validate, refine, and coordinate designs in a digital project environment and workflow. This allows project managers to better coordinate architecture, MEP, and structural design intent, identifying potential clashes before projects move into construction. It also allows them to administer projects as they are being built, addressing issues in the field and ensuring design deliverables clearly communicate intent to meet the project requirements.

Digital project management within a common data environment ensures a unified view of the project and its data, thus improving communication and collaboration. Managing projects on a digital canvas helps architects detect issues early, make informed decisions to mitigate risks, and ultimately avoid costly rework during the construction phase.

A digital approach to architectural project management helps architects better assess and analyze environmental impacts such as operational and embodied carbon impacts, sun, shadow, and lighting studies, and building performance.