Spring into Standards, Part 3: Take Action on Your New CAD Standards

CAD Manager Column: You’re off to a great start on revamping your company’s CAD standards to make work processes more efficient — but how will you prioritize the implementation?

Make a Prioritized List

First, take the list you created above and prioritize it in this order:

1. The ideas that had support from everyone
2. The ideas that were important to one group, but widely supported
3. The ideas supported by only one group
4. The ideas that senior management / IT can’t support.

Next, break the list down further:

1. The ideas that had support from everyone
   
   a. That are cheap/easy to implement
   b. That are easy, yet cost money to implement
   c. That are challenging and costly to implement
    
2. The ideas that were important to one group, but widely supported
   
   a. That are cheap/easy to implement
   b. That are easy, yet cost money to implement
   c. That are challenging and costly to implement
    
3. The ideas supported by only one group
    
4. The ideas that senior management / IT can’t support.

Create the Action Item List

Now you can create a standards action item list that dictates your plan of attack. Work down the list starting at (1a) and (2a), then back to (1b) and (2b), then (1c), (2c) and (3), while eliminating any ideas that fall under (4).

Why in that order, you may ask? For these reasons:

Get a running start with broad consensus (1a and 2a). If everybody agrees on a problem and the problem can be solved easily and inexpensively, nobody is going to argue with you about taking it on. This gives your standards program a fast start that gets results while making everybody happy — and that’s the best way to start.

Move on to the problems that are easy, yet have a cost to address (1b and 2b). If you’ve already knocked off the cheap-and-easy problems, you’ll have gained trust from users and managers alike. Now you can proceed to the problems that can be solved quickly, yet require a bit of investment, so that management must get on board and fund you.

Save things that are challenging and costly for last (1c, 2c, and 3). These problems will be harder to implement and require more management buy-in to solve, so it’s best to hold off until you’ve demonstrated prior success.

Avoid anything that management or IT can’t support (4)! If you try to push through issues that make management flinch on funding, or that IT can’t secure, then you’ll have angry users, managers, and IT staffs to deal with. These are battles you can’t win! You can, however, put these issues on a long-term standards plan so that management and IT will keep them in mind; changes in company finances or capabilities may make them more appealing in the future.

Implement, Train, and Evangelize

Now that you know which standards problems to tackle first, you simply need to pick your first item from the action plan list, inform those who will be affected, solve the problem, and keep everyone informed/trained as you go.

As you solve the simple standards problems, remember to keep evangelizing about standards in general — to users, PMs, management, and IT alike — and build steady momentum so the next standards problem you tackle will be that much easier to solve. This implement–train–evangelize sequence is simply repeated over and over as you work your way through your action plan list.

Summing Up

Obviously, tackling the standards problems at your company will require work, communication, and tenacity, but if you use the approach I’ve outlined, you’ll find it much easier to accomplish. Just remember that it took years for your company to acquire these standards-based problems, and you won’t eliminate them in a day. Patience and persistence will win in the end.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this Spring into Standards series so far, and that you’ve found useful strategies to help you solve your standards problems. Don't miss Part 4 of the series, which addresses what happens after standards implementation.

If you have any comments about the series, please contact me. Until next time.

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