CADDManager on July 20th, 2009

I have used a method of management in many areas of my career that defines not the target, but the boundary limits of a successful task or function.  When I started looking on the internet for supporting documents to what I thought was fairly commonly used, I found very little.  What I did find was spot on, but not very extant.

I have not fully defined when to use what I call Boundary Management, but I can give you a few examples.  I think it is a change in perspective that makes a few things easier and works well in some cases, but not all.

  • It can make delegations easier
  • It can make defining CAD Guidelines easier
  • It can allow flexibility while still following the rules

First here is my definition:

Boundary Management consists of defining the general target and the limits of constraint.  It may consist of setting a small well defined target and allowable area of deviation.  It can also define a task that does not even have a hard target at all.  It may just be defining the target by stating what it “is not” rather than what the target “is”.

Think of it as a fence around an area of freedom.  As long as you are inside the fence, you are free to do what you think is most effective.  If there are any limits to the freedom, they are stated.

Sometimes it is easier to define what something is not, rather than what it is.  At times like these, the fence is defined by your “NO” rather than your “YES”.  Even when you end up defining what the target may be, you may get started by defining what it is not.

Let’s apply this to a CAD issue. CAD Standards are a good place to start because I know that I apply this method to my CAD Standard.

When I define what is in the CAD Standard, I include exact targets to hit.  Like Text sizes, Fonts, and such.  I specifically say that ROMANS will be used.  That is a hard target.

But there are also areas that I do not define, like creating Building Elevations.  I define the file name, the layers to use, but I do not define how they actually create the file.  Some may generate it from plans, or draw it from scratch.  There may be other ways like attching xrefs and drawing lines out from the plan drawing (like hand drafted methods).  They may rotate the plan or pull the elevations out like an unfolding box (I call this the Happy Meal method). They can choose to create the elements any way they choose as long as they meet the hard targets for layers, text, line weights, etc.

There are two parts to the above discussion.  First, some hard targets and second, some boundaries.  The hard targets are defined and the fences extend to whatever we tell  them that they cannot do.  If I do not want them attaching XREF’s, I will put that in the standard.  If I do not want them to create Happy Meals, I will put that in the standard.

Hopefully you get the idea…

Another area may be assigning tasks to a group of CAD users.  You may ask them to brainstorm on a better way to get plotting done.  You will paint the target by telling them that it needs to be easy to use and the solution has to answer the open issues of plots not being consistent.  You also include the boundaries, if any.  Boundaries may include not buying new plotters, not buying software, not editing the pen table, etc.  These are the limits and the boundaries.  Anything that hits the target and does not violate the boundaries will be considered.  It provides a large area of options, allows the team to be creative and sets a target.

This is what I call Boundary Management.  It can be used effectively in many areas but not all.

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