Design patterns

Table of Contents

Questions and answers

Projects commonly add questions and answers (Q&A) to their systems engineering (SE) model to facilitate clear communication, ensure alignment, and drive decision-making between the client and contractor. For example, in the tender phase, contractors send questions on requirementsobjects, and documents to the client, which can lead to changes in requirements and objects. On their turn, the client answers the questions and returns the result to the contractors. The naming of the type element Question in SE models varies across different projects, with terms used such as Comments, Technical Questions, and Request for Information.

Based on observations at projects, the basic model consists of a type element named Question, which includes type properties to store the description, date received, answer, date answered, and status.

Typically, the type property Description has a data type of Text (to contain the full text of the question sent by the contractor to the client), the type property Date received has the data type Date (to provide the date when the contractor sent the question to the client), the type property Answer has a data type of Text (to contain the full text of the reply sent by the client to the contractor), the type property Date answered has a data type of Date (to provide the date when the answer was sent by the client to the contractor), and the type property Status has a data type of List (to indicate the lifecycle of the question and answer process), with values such as Open, Answered, Ready to be sent, Sent, Rejected.

In the model, a type relation called is posed by is created between the Question and Stakeholder type elements. In most cases, the cardinality of this type relation is set to Multi. Further, a type relation called is answered by is created between the Question and Person type elements. Usually, the cardinality of this type relation is set to Single. Restricting the cardinality to single makes it clear which person is primarily responsible for the answer. This helps to know whom to contact if further explanation is required.

Multiple answers

Sometimes, projects receive questions that require multiple draft answers before being released as valid responses.

In the model, a derived type element called Answer is created for the type element Question. The cardinality is set to Multi, to support the creation of multiple answers for one question.

The type element Answer includes the properties Description, Date, and Status. Typically, the type property Description has the data type of Text (to contain the full text of the answer sent by the client to the contractor). The type property Date has the data type of Date (to provide the date when the answer was sent by the client to the contractor). The type property Status has a data type of List (to indicate the lifecycle of the answer process), with values such as Concept, Rejected, and Released.

TIP 1: Consider using the Lifecycle functionality for the Question type element. This feature allows users to track open questions, and Relatics can automatically archive closed questions.

TIP 2: You might find that a person is responsible for a question but does not necessarily need to provide the answer themselves. In this case, you could add a responsibility relation from the Question type element to the Person type element. This works perfectly in combination with the Relatics My to-dos functionality!

Approvals

Approvals can be done in various ways, and the approval process can be fully configured based on your organization’s requirements. Depending on your workflow, this model pattern might differ significantly from what you’re accustomed to. You could use value statuses, as mentioned in the model pattern above, or provide more structure to the approval process.

For example, you could combine the previous model pattern with an additional relation to the Person type element, using a role like is approved by. This can help track who approved the answer. If a more detailed approval process is needed, you could add properties such as Approval Status and Approval Comment, with status values like Approved, Rejected, or Changes needed.

TIP: With two relations to the Person type element, you could create different to-do definitions using the My to-dos functionality. For example, when the status of an answer is Open, a to-do would appear on the dashboard for Person A, and when the approval status is Open, a to-do would appear on the dashboard for Person B.

Allocation

When receiving questions, project members often need to allocate the question to its relevant subject. As you can imagine, a question could pertain to any number of subjects. In this case, we created a collection relation from the question to multiple possible subjects. Depending on the level of detail required, you can choose to make this relation a multi or single relation. We often find that when a question is received, it is analyzed and possibly separated into multiple questions, each with only one subject. Therefore, in this case, we opted for the single collection relation.

Note that the collection relation can only be assigned to a maximum of five type elements!

Combining this model pattern with others, such as the “One or more answers” pattern and the “Answer approvals” pattern, will significantly improve your management of questions/comments and answers!

Follow-up

Questions are often followed by more questions, creating a chain of follow-up inquiries. To keep track of this “waterfall” of follow-up questions, a multi-relation can be created from the Question type element to itself. This is especially useful when one question can lead to multiple follow-up questions. In this case, we have chosen to set the relation direction towards the question being followed up. This directionality prevents the deletion of the followed-up question before the follow-up question is deleted, ensuring the full history of questions is preserved.

By combining the follow-up model pattern with other related model patterns, you can effectively track the complete flow of questions/comments and answers across all parties within your project.

Responsibility

During a project, a large volume of questions and/or comments can come in, making it necessary to assign responsibility for answering them. Often, when a question first arrives, it is not immediately clear who should be responsible for answering it. By initially assigning the question to a discipline, the questions can be broadly categorized, making it easier to later assign them to the appropriate person.

Using circular dependency, we can implement a quality rule that ensures a question with a responsible discipline can only be answered by someone who is part of that specific discipline.

TIP: In this case, the circular dependency functionality works well with the My to-dos functionality! Try adding a to-do definition with the lifecycle of the question’s status property. Status values such as Open, In Progress, More information needed, and Closed (or Answered) can be used to track the progress and ensure the responsible person is notified when action is needed.

Relatics is the leading Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) software application for construction projects. It is the comprehensive tool that gives professionals access to all project information and offers insight into the growing number of dependencies between all disciplines in today’s projects.

The aim of this article, part of a series of articles, is to provide you with basic knowledge about Systems Engineering elements and its application within the Relatics 6 software. Should you wish to proceed with Relatics 6 on your own projects and require assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our consultants are ready to provide you with the support you need. If you miss an SE pattern in this series, please let us know.

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