This video introduces a practical assignment designed to help you map your current digital workflow across the full project delivery process, listing every tool your organisation uses today and identifying where manual handoffs, duplicated effort, and hidden workflow gaps are slowing your team down. The written guide below explains why fragmented tools create friction across project delivery, how to use the ready-made table in the business case template to audit your current tool stack, what categories of tools to include in your review, how to spot the download-upload cycles and email-based processes that represent integration opportunities, and why this exercise is the essential first step toward meaningful digital transformation.

Why auditing your current tools and workflows is the first step toward real improvement

When teams struggle with project delivery, it is rarely because the people are not trying. Most often, it is because the tool set is fragmented. Documents are created in one application, tracked in another, approved through email, stored in a third location, and referenced from a fourth. The result is a scattered collection of Word documents, spreadsheets, emails, PDFs, workflow tools, model viewers, scheduling systems, CDEs, and many more disconnected systems that nobody has a complete view of. You cannot fix what you do not fully see. This assignment is about seeing the full picture so that your organisation can make informed decisions about where to simplify, integrate, or replace.

The assignment itself is straightforward. Your task is to list all of the tools your organisation currently uses across the full project delivery workflow. A ready-to-use table is already available inside the business case template in the Plannerly library. You can access it, customise it for your specific workflow, and start filling it out immediately to build a clear picture of your current tool landscape. The goal is not just to create an inventory but to understand how information flows between these tools, where it gets stuck, and where manual steps are bridging gaps that should not exist.

Start by thinking about the major categories of tools your organisation uses. Document creation tools like Word and Google Docs are the foundation for most project documentation. Spreadsheet and tracking tools like Excel and Google Sheets often serve as makeshift databases for requirements, task lists, and project tracking. Electronic signature tools like DocuSign handle approvals and contract execution. Model viewers and authoring tools handle design data. Scheduling and programming tools manage timelines. CDEs and file storage systems hold project files. Communication tools handle team coordination. And there are often additional specialised tools for cost management, quality assurance, health and safety, and more. Each tool may be individually effective, but the connections between them are where the problems live.

Once you have your list, the real insight comes from analysing how these tools interact. Look for the manual steps that bridge the gaps between systems. How often are people downloading from one tool and uploading to another? How much of the approval process relies on email chains where the latest version is unclear? Where are people copying data between spreadsheets rather than working from a single structured database? Where are documents being created in Word, exported to PDF, emailed for review, and then manually updated based on feedback received through a completely separate channel? Each of these manual steps represents not just wasted time but a point where errors can be introduced, versions can diverge, and accountability can be lost.

These gaps are not just problems. They are opportunities. Every download-upload cycle, every email-based approval, and every duplicated data entry point is an area where automation and integration can make a measurable difference. Tools like Plannerly are designed to replace these fragmented workflows with connected ones. The Scope module replaces spreadsheet-based requirements tracking with a structured database where every item has an owner, a status, and a traceable connection to the deliverable it relates to. The Docs module replaces the Word-to-PDF-to-email cycle with collaborative, version-controlled documents where accountability is built into every section. The Contract module replaces disconnected contract files with structured agreements linked to the requirements and documents they govern. The File Manager replaces scattered file storage with a connected common data environment. And the Verify module replaces manual model checking with automated verification tied back to the requirements defined in Scope.

The purpose of this assignment is not to immediately replace every tool on your list. It is to create a clear, honest picture of your current state so that you can identify where the biggest improvements are possible. Some tools will stay because they serve a purpose that nothing else covers. Others will be revealed as workarounds for gaps that a connected platform eliminates. And some will turn out to be redundant once the manual bridges between them are removed. The business case template provides the structure to take this analysis further, turning your tool audit into a compelling argument for change that leadership can understand and support.

If you want additional support in mapping your workflow, the Plannerly team offers free consultations where they walk through this exercise with you, drawing on experience from working with organisations across the industry. Booking that call is one of the items on your course checklist. Once you have completed this assignment, the next lesson covers how to build a training plan that gets everyone across your organisation up to speed on the new workflows, which is the essential next step in making digital transformation stick.

How to complete your digital workflow audit

1. Access the business case template – Open the business case template from the Plannerly library. Locate the ready-to-use tool audit table and customise it for your organisation’s specific workflow and project delivery process.
2. List your document creation tools – Record every tool used for creating project documents, including Word, Google Docs, and any specialist document editors. Note who uses each tool and how documents move from creation through review to final approval.
3. List your spreadsheet and tracking tools – Record how Excel, Google Sheets, or other spreadsheet tools are used for tracking requirements, tasks, deliverables, or project data. Identify where spreadsheets are being used as substitute databases.
4. List your signature and approval tools – Record how electronic signatures and approvals are currently handled. Include formal e-signature tools like DocuSign as well as informal approval methods like email confirmation.
5. List your file storage and CDE tools – Record every system used for storing, sharing, and versioning project files. Include SharePoint, Google Drive, Dropbox, Autodesk Construction Cloud, and any other platforms where project data lives.
6. List your modelling, viewing, and scheduling tools – Record the tools used for BIM authoring, model viewing, clash detection, scheduling, and programming. Note how data from these tools connects to the rest of the project workflow.
7. Identify the manual steps between tools – For each pair of connected tools, note whether data flows automatically or requires a manual step like downloading, uploading, copying, emailing, or re-entering. Highlight every manual handoff as an opportunity for improvement.
8. Analyse your findings – Count how many tools you are using. Identify which areas have the most manual steps. Highlight where download-upload cycles, email reliance, and duplicate processes are creating risk and inefficiency. Use the business case template to structure these findings into an argument for change.

What you’ll learn

• Why fragmented tools create project risk – How the scattered landscape of Word documents, spreadsheets, emails, PDFs, model viewers, CDEs, and scheduling tools creates manual handoffs, version confusion, and lost accountability that slow teams down and introduce errors.
• How to map your current tool stack – How to use the ready-made table in the business case template to systematically list every tool your organisation uses across the full project delivery workflow, from document creation through to handover and operations.
• Spotting hidden manual steps – How to identify the download-upload cycles, email-based approvals, and duplicate data entry points that represent the real cost of fragmented tools, and why these gaps are the most important findings in your audit.
• Turning gaps into opportunities – How every manual handoff between tools represents an automation or integration opportunity, and how a connected platform replaces these fragmented workflows with structured, traceable processes.
• Structuring findings for leadership – How to use the business case template to turn your tool audit into a compelling case for change, presenting the current state, the cost of fragmentation, and the benefits of connected workflows in terms leadership can act on.
• Preparing for the next step – Why this tool audit is the foundation for the training plan and business case that follow, and how understanding your current workflow is the essential first step toward planning meaningful digital transformation.

Common questions

Explore further

• Assignment 1: Your information management toolset – The full assignment lesson with detailed guidance on completing the tool audit and analysing your findings.
• Business case template – The template that includes the tool audit table and provides the structure for turning your findings into a compelling case for digital transformation.
• Integrations and external connections – How Plannerly connects to other systems in your tool stack, reducing the manual bridges between platforms.
• How to centralise BEP information – A practical example of replacing fragmented Excel and ACC workflows with a centralised, structured approach.
• BIM Boot Camp – A structured programme that demonstrates the full connected workflow in practice, giving you firsthand experience of what replaces the fragmented tool stack.