I love this topic because it is something I am particularly passionate about in my company. (Also a fun abbreviation story at the bottom)
We have a Google Drive library where we keep all these documents. There is an individual document per topic to minimize scrolling and searching time.
I like to format these documents in a consistent way so that people become familiar with navigating them.
Here is a sample of my typical format:Title at the top
Date last modified
One or two sentence intro on what the document contains
A "Why it Matters" header with an explanation
(the rest can greatly differ depending on the topic, but here is an example for drainage design...)
Goals of Design
Pre-Design Considerations
Grading Considerations
Drainage System Sizing
Design Analysis
Presentation of Results
What I like about this format is often engineers in training are taught what to do but not necessarily why to do it. I try to briefly capture why it matters and the impact it has so the importance of following the guidelines is understood.
Okay, story time now.When I was a first-summer intern, one of the PEs took me out to a site visit for one of his university campus projects. The contractor had called him out because their excavations had uncovered some items that they didn't know were there. (Super common on university or school campus projects). The contractor was showing him a few things, but then with a very grave expression he said, "We have also discovered some RCP in the excavation over here. Follow me." We were following him, and I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what RCP would stand for. I'd had 3 years of chemistry, and it definitely sounded like some kind of chemical. We walked over to a deep excavation where he told my mentor about all the RCP they'd found and in what areas.
Then a sub called the contractor over, and I asked my mentor what RCP was. He said, "oh! I didn't even think about you not having learned about that yet. It's reinforced concrete pipe." A wave of relief washed over me. No toxic pollutants in the campus soil after all.
Later the contractor realized I was still in college and said, "If you have any questions or if anything doesn't make sense, you just ask. I'm proud of you for sticking with it. After being a contractor I tried to go back and get a civil degree 'cause I thought lookin' at the plans it didn't seem that hard. But tell you what, I had to drop out. Hang in there, girl, it'll be worth it."
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Heidi Wallace EI,P.E.,M.ASCE
P.E.
Tulsa OK
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-11-2021 01:30 PM
From: Danielle Schroeder
Subject: Task Aids Documents (Especially for Onboarding)
Hello all,
I would like to start a discussion on task aid documents, especially onboarding documents that can be used for new hires and interns. We brought on two new graduate engineers last summer and as they started asking me after meetings what something mentioned during the meeting stood for, I started to realize how much 'alphabet soup' we tend to use. As someone who was in their shoes not too long ago, I know personally how it can sometimes be intimidating as a grad engineer or a new hire to pump the brakes in the middle of the meeting (or don't want to take more time) to ask what that acronym just used actually means. Inspired by these events, I took the initiative to create a document for my group titled "Bridge Group Acronyms and Common Terminology". In this document, I have included things like DM-4 - a PennDOT Design Manual, Part 4 – Structures (and then a link to the most recent publication). It has also led to some great discussions within our group and we continue to add to this now living document.
My question to you all is what documents for onboarding or other task aids have you created or contributed to for your group?
Looking forward to your responses! I would be especially interested if anyone has developed a CADD workflow and production procedure specific to their group. I have started to record short videos on tools in MicroStation like Activate, but want to try to take this a step further in the future!
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Danielle Schroeder EIT, A.M.ASCE (She/her)
Associate Engineer
Pennoni Associates
Philadelphia PA
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