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In this episode, we talk to Jeff Carmichael, a civil engineer turned software developer and co-founder of Qualomate, about his experience with quality management in construction projects, the challenges he faced, and how he overcame those challenges. He also talks about his company, Qualomate, which is a cloud-based software company that helps with quality management in construction projects, and how engineers can use existing software to make it their own.
***You can view the video version of this episode here.***
Engineering Quotes:
Here Are Some of the Questions We Ask Jeff:
- What are some of the biggest challenges in infrastructure projects?
- What would someone need to know to leverage a product like yours?
- How did you manage the quality management and quality control of the software you have developed?
- Does your software need to be installed on a computer or is it cloud-based?
- What advice do you have for someone who has a software idea that they want to make but does not have any experience in software development?
Here Are Some Key Points Discussed in This Episode About How to Implement Quality Management in Construction Projects:
- One of the biggest challenges in infrastructure projects is effectively communicating the planning and execution of the projects to everyone involved in the projects.
- Qualomate software is designed to incorporate existing workflows and is based on emails. It has a user-friendly design with a shallow learning curve.
- It is easier to be the only person prototyping, developing, and then troubleshooting software before it goes to production. Quality control in software development is vastly different from quality control in civil engineering and requires different procedures to be followed.
- In software development, using a section of code as a function is the key to repeatability without duplicating the work many times over.
- Qualomate software is cloud-based and runs on Amazon Web Services. Using a cloud-based service to run your software is very powerful because you utilize their servers to make your software accessible across the globe.
- If you have a software idea that you would like to create, learn how apps work on no-code platforms, and read about software creation and software languages like python. Try to make a few basic applications and then broaden out as your knowledge and skills expand. Do a lot of research and watch many YouTube videos to help you get the ins and outs of writing code. Write your code on the architecture of how apps work and slowly build your knowledge until you can make the software you thought about.
- Putting comments in your code is a great way to document what you have done and to have some quality assurance. It is also helpful to anyone else who is looking at the code to understand what has been done and why.
More Details in This Episode…
In the Power of Experience segment, Jeff talks about the benefits of saying yes to opportunities even though you feel hesitant about them.
About the Guest: Jeff Carmichael
Jeff is a civil engineer turned software developer who is currently building Qualomate, a tool for contractors that automatically visualizes inspection and test data from PDF documents on a map of the project. He started his career doing materials testing and then moved to work for a contractor. During this time, he learned about no-code app development, cloud computing, and then software development so he could build his tools.
About Brian Wagner, P.E.
Brian Wagner, P.E., is an engineer who specializes in civil site design and plan implementation. In addition to a career spanning nearly two decades of civil engineering, he has experience in Emergency 911 Communications, law enforcement corrections, and fire/rescue services, including K9 Search and Rescue. This different and diverse range of experiences has not only prepared Brian for his career but also positioned him to be an excellent speaker with a wide range of valuable experiences. He strives to motivate others to change their world and wants to do the same for you.
Sources/References:
Qualomate
Amazon Web Services
Google AppSheet
Connect with Jeff Carmichael on LinkedIn
We would love to hear any questions you might have or stories you can share on how you implement quality management in your construction projects.
To your success,
Brian Wagner, P.E.
Engineering Management Institute
Host of The Engineering Quality Control Podcast
