InfoTown™
Stevie's journey · Engineering · Lesson 5

Show me your working

Before you start

In the story

The tick said "checked". Nobody had checked what went in.

Back to the story

The right way

The calc

Rex's calculation lists its inputs: where each number came from, and which revision.

The check

Stevie checks the inputs against the latest information first, then the sums, and writes down what he checked it against ("Escalator schedule C03, survey C02") before he signs.

Lift day

The delivery note matches the calc. The escalators are in before lunch.

A tick in the corridorPerfect sums, the wrong escalator, and a crane sent home.
Inputs checked, and written downThe right weight, a recorded check, and the escalators in before lunch.
Think like Stevie

Show me your working. A check starts with the inputs: where did each number come from, and is it the latest? A tick with no note of what was checked isn't a check. It's a tick.

Continue Stevie's journey

Story 6: The readings nobody read

The monitors on the old Precinct spot movement on Tuesday. The people who could act find out eight days later.
The right way, explained

The right way, explained

Every road out of the workshop passes a checkpoint. A guard who waves everyone through because the paperwork looks tidy isn't a checkpoint. He's a gate with a hat on.

If you're the designer

If you're the designer

When you issue information other people calculate from, like weights, loads or schedules, say what changed between revisions. A bigger number buried in C03 will find somebody's old calc.

In the town See it in the town: the sums were perfect. So why did the lift stop?

Stevie's view: the first checkpoint on the route. It only works if the guard actually opens the parcel.

Not working in the CDE. Your team works in its own system, and the four checkpoints happen there. Approved, the parcel crosses the hoarding into the CDE, and Goods In checks it at the gate: is it labelled right, in the right format, going to the right place? Only then does it reach the shared table. Your project decides which way it works. Either way, the four checkpoints still happen.

Four checkpoints between the Design System and the shared table A road runs from the Design System to the shared table in the Site Office. Along it are four checkpoint booths: originate, check, review and approve, each with a person and a barrier. A parcel stops at each one. Above the road hangs a noticeboard called the rulebook: the project's standard and step-by-step procedures. A padlock on the Site Office asks who can see it. A hoarding marks where the CDE begins: just past the approve booth, with a fifth check, Goods In, at its gate; or, when the team works inside the CDE, around the whole road. DESIGN SYSTEM SHARED TABLE in the Site Office: the CDE Who can see it? THE RULEBOOK 1. Who checks what2. What "right" looks like3. Who can approve it4. Who can see it THE CDE 5 GOODS IN labelled right? right format? going to the right place? Can it come in? THE CDE The CDE checks the label as you save your team's room in the CDE 1 ORIGINATE2 CHECK3 REVIEW4 APPROVE Is it finished?Is it made properly?Does it do the job?Can it be shared?
Pick a checkpointOn the road out

Originate

On the drawing
IM calls it
Watch out for

This is the Quality Check!

Someone who didn't make it checks it, including what went in, and writes down what they checked against.

Sam's Heads Up Your checker may be in another firm

InfoTown good practice: Someone who didn't make it checks it.

On your job: Temporary works may need an independent check from another firm. Same rule: they check the inputs too, and the record says what against.

For the audit What the auditor will ask
  • Show me how this calculation was checked, and what it was checked against.
  • How does a checker know the inputs were the latest?
For the audit What good evidence looks like
  • Calculations that list their inputs, with sources and revisions.
  • A check record saying what was checked, against what, by whom and when.
From the standard
ISO 19650 Checking before sharing

ISO 19650 expects information to be checked before it's shared with anyone else. How to check an engineering calculation is your own quality process, not ISO 19650's.

Based on the ISO 19650 series: the ideas come from the standard; the plain-English wording, examples and advice are InfoTown's. ISO 19650 is © ISO and BSI. You'll hear the same language across the industry. Read more for free in the Information Management Initiative (IMI) Framework guidance from BSI and nima. For the full requirements, use the standard itself.