Setup a workflow for an RFI

The general contractor is the hub for all subcontractors, architects, engineers, owners, and other parties involved in a construction project. Any communication between the parties can only be routed appropriately by the GC. Hence, it becomes GC's responsibility to duly forward an RFI from the creator to the responsible parties for processing by setting up a workflow, depending on the nature and context of the RFI.

Once the workflow is set up, Linarc automatically moves the item to respective companies in successive steps for their actions as per the workflow.

RFI Workflow Overview

The RFI workflow dictates how an RFI is routed through successive stages for review, response, and approval. In a typical sequence, an RFI created by the project manager of an SC progresses as follows:

SC (Create) → GC (Review) → Architect (Respond) → GC (Approve and Close)
Linarc empowers company administrators to create and manage custom workflow templates at the company level master list. These templates define different sequences of actions, assign company types responsible for each action, and specify the default permissible days for completing each step. Any company—whether it’s the Owner, GC, SC, or Architect—can be assigned responsibility for answering an RFI, depending on the requirements of the RFIs.
Once RFI workflow templates are defined at the company level, they become available for selection in project-level workflow template lists. RFI workflow managers can select templates specifically for individual projects from the master list. 
While handling RFIs, the managers can choose and apply the most suitable template for each RFI based on its creator and the nature of the questions, and configure its specifics.
At any stage in the lifecycle of an RFI, the manager has the flexibility to modify the workflow by updating responders and adjusting due dates for current or pending steps. Linarc also offers the versatility of dynamically adding steps to the primary workflow. For example, parties assigned to review, respond to, or close an RFI can introduce ad-hoc steps to route the item to other parties—such as the creator—for additional clarifications or reviews.
Once these ad-hoc steps are completed, the RFI seamlessly returns to the original assignee as per the primary workflow, allowing the process to continue. This dynamic capability ensures that RFIs can adapt to evolving project needs, and ad-hoc steps can be added as many times as necessary during the RFI’s lifecycle.

 This section explains how a GC PM can set up the primary workflow for an RFI.

Roles and permissions:
1. Only users with roles having the 'Manage' permission enabled for the RFI module can set up the workflow.
2. You can view the persons designated with the above permissions for a project in the Team > Workflow screen. See Workflow managers for more details.

By default,

• RFIs created by you - You can set up a workflow in the draft stage itself
• For RFIs created by office and field staff of your company, other than RFI workflow managers  - The item is shown as 'Draft' on your RFI board. You can review, add comments, and set up a workflow for it.
• RFIs created by other stakeholders, like the owner, subcontractors, and architect - The item is automatically assigned to you for initial review and shown as 'Open' in the 'In Progress' column.

You can perform an initial review of the RFIs and move forward with setting up a workflow for legitimate ones. 

• Approve - If the RFI deserves clarifications from other stakeholders, you can set up a workflow and forward it to the next step, typically to the design team. You can add your comments to the RFI, which are viewable by the stakeholders.
• Answer- Depending on the context, you can answer the questions in part or full.  You can still set up a workflow and forward the RFI to the responsible party for the responses.
• Reject - If you can answer the RFI through other communication means like the built-in collaboration or if the RFI is trivial, you can reject the RFI after adding your comments to the questions. The rejected RFIs are automatically closed. See the next section, Reject an RFI, for guidance on declining an RFI.

To perform an initial review and set up a workflow

• Open the RFI if not already done. To do so:
  • Open the project management console
  • Click the app launcher icon  in the top-right and select 'Documents'
  • Click 'RFI' on the top, then choose 'Boards' or 'Log' from the left
  • Click on the RFI card (in board view) or the name (in the list view)
• Open the 'Q&A' tab
• Review the question
  • Click at the text box on the bottom right in the comments pane to add your comments to the questions. See Add Comments in Project Documents for more details.
  • If you can answer the questions in part or full, click 'Add Answer' at the bottom and enter your responses. See Answer an RFI for more details.
  • You can attach plan sheets, images, and/or link other project documents like submittals to support your comments and answers.
• Open the 'Workflow' tab

The 'Workflow' tab lets you configure the stakeholder companies to whom the RFI should be routed at subsequent steps for review, response, and approval throughout its life cycle. You can also manually define the duration for each step to override the default durations inherited from the applied template. 

The drop-down at the left shows all available templates for you to choose from.

Tip: If the template you want to choose is anot available in the list, first add the template to the project. See Configure Workflow Templates for the Project Documents to learn more.

• Choose a template depending on the creator, the context, and the entities responsible for various actions on the RFI.

Once chosen, the actions and the responsible company types in the workflow template are shown as a list. 

• Step - The serial number of the step - gets auto-populated once the workflow is saved and published.
• Action - The activity involved in that step. This can be 'respond,' 'review,' 'close,' etc., per the chosen template. 
• Company Type- The role of the collaborating company in the project responsible for the respective step. This can be the owner, general contractor, subcontractor, architect, etc.
• Company Name- The business name of the company. You can choose the company for each step from the respective drop-downs. Any team member from the company with the required permissions can perform the action. However only the persons designated as RFI workflow managers for the project from the company can route the RFI to the next step.
  • Click inside the 'Company Name' field and choose the company from the options.
• Process days- The default days allowed for the step as defined in the template. You can manually edit them as required. The 'Due Date' for each step auto-updates depending on the set process days. 
  • Double-click inside the 'Process Days' field to manually enter the number of days 
• Received Date - The date on which the RFI was received for the action from the previous step.
• Due Date - The target completion date of the activity. The date is auto-populated based on the completion date of the previous step and the allowed process days of the current step, excluding weekends and holidays. 
• Response Date - The date on which the action was completed.
• Status - Whether the action is complete, pending, or in processing.
• Select the responsible companies and enter the permissible days for each step
• Click 'Save' to apply the workflow to the RFI.

The first two steps of 'Create' and initial 'Review' get automatically added.

• Click the 'Edit Workflow' button to change the assignee companies and/or the process days, if required. You cannot add or remove steps or change the sequence of actions by editing.
• Click the at the top right to forward it to the next step

You can view the status of an RFI in its workflow at any time by clicking the 'Workflow' tab.

Add Watchers (Optional)

The 'Watchers' pane allows you to specify your team members to notify them of the RFI progress and details. Linarc sends a notification to the persons on each activity on the RFI. If given access, they can view the details at each step from their Linarc project consoles.

To add watchers to an RFI

• Start typing the name of the person in the text box under 'Watchers' and choose from the options 
• Click the 'Add' button
• Repeat the process to add more watchers

See Add and Manage Watchers for more guidance on adding watchers.