A date without its source can look more certain than it is. A payment without its contract can answer the wrong question. A document without the circumstances of its creation can leave the next person guessing.
That is why the record belongs inside the process. It is not simply what gets filed after the work is finished. It is part of how the next action becomes possible.
Keep the reason close to the result.
When a workflow calculates, requests, prepares or records something, the relevant facts should remain connected to the outcome. The person reviewing the work should be able to distinguish what was supplied, what was derived and what still needs to be established.
This is a practical design principle. A later reviewer should not have to reconstruct the whole conversation to understand one decision. And a system should not fill a gap merely to make the record appear complete.
For us, a useful record makes the next responsible action clearer.
Consider an invoice received by a project team
The invoice file is one part of the record. The project it belongs to, the contract it relates to and the evidence of receipt each answer a different question. Recording a date without its basis can make the next calculation look settled while leaving its premise unresolved.
A connected process retains those distinctions. A reviewer can see the document, inspect the recorded event and resolve a missing fact before the next step relies on it. If the invoice changes, the earlier review still has a source someone can identify.
Design for the next person
The person who picks up a record tomorrow may not have attended today’s discussion. A useful handoff carries the decision and the relevant context: what was reviewed, what remains uncertain and what actually happened.
This principle shapes Tiercord’s connected project records and the six stages shown in our Tierby walkthrough. It also explains why preserving context between systems requires more than moving fields from one place to another.
From Tiercord Solutions
Written by Tiercord Solutions Inc., the Vancouver company behind the Tiercord construction platform. Read more perspectives.