 I distinctly remember the day it dawned on me that architectural design was a PROCESS. I was still under the care of a mentor (babysitter). It suddenly dawned on me that he was trying to teach me his design process, even though he didn’t present it that way. Then the large wattage bulb went on - everyone has to have a process, or you would never pull it all together.
This episode happened pre-Internet. Trying to find information about the ideal process was a waste of time. The information was not out there. However, at about the exact same moment, 1973, the AIA was preparing their first Document D-200, Project Checklist. Finally the recipe I sought was available. Kind of.  Over the past year I have spent a lot of time looking into how architects do bookkeeping. My focus was on small firms of less than 15 people. I have interviewed about 75 firms and received almost 1500 survey responses. For most of my career, my firm was seven people or smaller. For about 20 years we used Deltek Advantage and liked it. It is only in hindsight that I realized what gross overkill that software was. That is the problem that everyone in the small firm category has: Finding a bookkeeping solution that doesn't cost too much money and TIME. After a year I know that solution does not exist. I continue to look for programs that could be the solution - even if it means "tricking" them into being what is needed. Along the way I have learned a lot about what small firm architects use and how things could be better, even if perfection remains elusive. These six articles describe what I have discovered. |
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