About: Making Sausage in AECO

AECO = Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Owner/Operator

The industry focused on the built environment - generally, anything that we think of as being built, - not manufactured - whether it's buildings, roads, or other infrastructure

It's what I have done for the past 34 years - as a student, a practicing engineer, and as a participant in the high-tech sector. It's no exageration to say that it's my life's work....

Making sausage - you've probably heard the old saw that there are somethings that it's probably just best not to dig into HOW they're made - making sausage, being one of the prime examples.

It seems to me that the AECO industry often adopts that view of its own work processes. Many segments of our industry are remarkably adverse to deep consideration of its common work processes.

I am involved in a number of activities that have caused me to explore the process-oriented aspects of the AECO industry, as a:

• product manager in the AECO technology business
• entrepeneur, starting a company serving the AECO industry
• client, watching this process at work in the design and construction of our own home*

I hope this blog will promote some interesting conversation about the AECO industry and the opportunity that exists for our industry to be transformed by deeper consideration of the processes by which buildings and other infrastructure are designed, built and operated over their lifetime.

* Until I get a chance to write a little bit about my experience as a client in the design and construction of our own home, check out "House" by Tracy Kidder.