One Platform, One Truth

How Construction Can Learn from Software Collaboration Best Practices

Why Construction Needs to Catch Up on Collaboration in Project Management

In software development, we learned early: If you let every team use their own Excel sheets, emails, and side chats, projects fall apart.

That’s why platforms like Jira and Confluence became the standard:

• One place for issues, tasks, bugs.

• One place for documentation and decisions.

• One source of truth that everyone can access, update, and trust.

In construction, Procore is slowly becoming that same nerve center:

• Observations

• RFIs

• Defect Lists

• Inspections

• Correspondence

But the cultural change is still dragging behind.

Today, many construction projects still live in a chaos of:

• Email threads lost between 47 people.

• WhatsApp messages with no traceability.

• Verbal instructions that disappear into thin air.

• Forgotten decisions and finger-pointing when things go wrong.

It’s time to change that.

One Source of Truth Isn’t Optional: It’s Survival!

When every decision, instruction, and defect is logged in one platform (Jira for software, Procore for construction), several things happen:

✅ Transparency: Everyone sees what’s happening. No more "I didn’t know."

✅ Accountability: Tasks are assigned, deadlines are tracked. No more "I thought someone else was handling it."

✅ Speed: No more waiting for six reply-all email chains. You raise a ticket or an observation, and the right person is notified.

✅ Historical Memory: Months later, when questions arise, you don’t rely on “what I remember”, you have a documented trail.

✅ Better Collaboration: Architects, engineers, PMs, subcontractors, all working from the same playbook.

Tracking Work: How Software Does It, and What Construction Should Copy

In software, if a stakeholder wants to know the degree of completion of a task, they don’t send an email.

They open Jira and instantly see:

• Task in Backlog (waiting)

• Task In Progress

• Task Under Review

• Task Done

The full life of the work is visible in real time.

In construction, it should be exactly the same. If the owner, architect, or site manager wants to know the status of:

• An RFI

• A Defect

• An Observation

• A Site Task

...they shouldn’t have to call five people.

They should simply open Procore and read the status: In Study, In Progress, In Review, Completed.

You can pilot your construction backlog like software teams pilot their sprint backlog.

Responsibility Is Shared, Not Dumped on the Product/Project Manager

Another key lesson from software:

Everyone is responsible for the truth of the system.

It’s not just the Project Manager’s job to update tasks.

• Developers update the status of their own tickets.

• QA testers update test outcomes.

• Product Owners manage priority but don’t do all the admin work.

  
  

In construction, it must be the same.

Everyone on the site should be responsible for:

• Updating the status of their assigned Observations, RFIs, or Defects.

• Flagging blockers immediately (mark the task "Blocked" if needed).

• Communicating through the platform, not parallel email threads.

If you’re working on something, you update it.If you’re stuck, you flag it.

This keeps the entire team synchronized, without waiting for the weekly crisis meeting.

Email Is Not a Project Management Tool

Every time you send an email instead of raising a ticket or creating a task, you:

• Fragment information.

• Lose traceability.

• Increase the chance of critical info getting buried.

In software, if you have a bug, you open a Jira ticket. In construction, if you see an issue, you should create an Observation, an RFI, or a Defect in Procore.

Same logic.

Different industries.

Same need for discipline.

Procore: The Jira of Construction Project Management

If used properly, Procore isn’t just a document repository. It’s a living, breathing command center for the entire construction project.

• Design change? → Issue a Correspondence.

• Site problem? → Create an Observation or Defect.

• Missing info? → Open an RFI.

• Progress tracking? → Log it through Observations or Site Diaries.

Everyone works inside the system.

Everyone sees the same reality.

How to Build This Culture on Site

1. Set the Rule Early: No undocumented instruction is valid. "If it’s not in Procore, it doesn’t exist."

2. Train Properly: Don’t assume people will magically know how to use the platform. Short, practical training is critical.

3. Lead by Example: Site Managers, Engineers, Project Managers, you must model the behavior.

4. Make It Easier Than Email: Set up QR codes, mobile forms, fast templates, make entering Procore faster than typing an email.

5. Share the Responsibility: Everyone on the project owns the truth, not just the PM. Update your ticket. Flag your blockers. Keep the flow alive.

You can't build skyscrapers on scattered information.

You need one foundation, one source of truth.

Software teams have known this for years.

Now it’s time for construction to build smarter, too.

At Romulus Technology, we specialize in helping construction teams transition from chaos to clarity, one project, one system, one team at a time.

Ready to stop emailing and start building better? Let’s talk.