Improving the Design-Review Process: The Reviewer's Assistant

Abstract

Organizations using architect/engineer (A/E) services typically require reviews of partially completed designs prior to submission of the final design. Many A/E firms also conduct internal quality-control reviews. The objective of these reviews is to increase the cost-effectiveness, timeliness, and overall quality of the completed construction project. Including all project stakeholders in these design reviews is crucial. This paper reports the results of an analysis of the design-review process and the development of a tool to assist design reviewers. The tool, called the Reviewer's Assistant, assists reviewers by capturing, storing, and retrieving design-review comments, and compiling lessons learned. The storage of comments and compilation of lessons learned enable future reviewers to benefit from the experience gained on past reviews of similar projects.