To our chagrin, we have discovered that our number one hurdle with transitioning to Revit is not the software learning curve, it’s not the user’s need to shift to a new workflow mindset, it’s not even convincing PICs or the board that it’s time to buy new licenses. It’s the Project Managers.
You need to be sure you fully educate your non-production PMs about how a Revit project will go. Best bet is to have someone on the team who has already gone through a Revit project. Someone who is willing to gently, or not so gently, let the PM know what is possible, what isn’t possible and most importantly what makes sense.
Your typical PM of this nature simply knows that they usually get plans at this week of the project, elevations here, and then sections here. With Revit, the workflow and document production is shuffled all around, and that’s a good thing!
We have had more than one Revit models that were on the edge of failure because a PM demanded X, Y, and Z at very specific times. Why? Because it’s what he always had gotten before. He didn’t want to hear about what made sense. The team was too new to Revit to argue, so they built the model to support X, Y, and Z. Unforunately, in Revit, they should have been focusing on A, B, and C at that time. So the model suffered, and the team spent more time picking up pieces later on simply to accomodate this PM’s backward demands.
Every firm has at least one PM like this. There is no easy way to deal with him or her. Just keep a close eye on the model and work hard to make sure that there are no drastic flaws in the workflow that can bite you down the road.
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