How to manage laboratory projects: running accreditation preparation on a board

A board keeps the status of the work in one place that everyone sees at the same moment; in a spreadsheet, the status depends on who last updated the file. A familiar week in accreditation preparation: on Monday the quality manager updates an Excel file and emails the owners, and the answers come back in separate threads. By Friday the only person who knows which row is current is still the quality manager.

Set up the board with a few lists that show the stage of the work, and open every task as a card. A sample board starts with five lists: To do, In progress, Awaiting check, Done, and a separate Scope extension list for the scope extension work. Awaiting check holds cards whose work is finished but still needs a second person's look; the quality manager clears it once a week.

Separate the kind of work with labels: Document, Instrument, Staff, Scope, Assessment finding, Urgent. Filter on one label and, for example, only the instrument cards remain.

Split a large card with a checklist. On the reauthorisation card each analyst can be an item with their own owner and date, and an item that grows can become a card of its own.

For the calculation behind the uncertainty card: How to calculate measurement uncertainty

The board coordinates the work; results, approvals, CAPAs and documents are recorded on their own screens, and linking a record to a card leaves the record as it is. For example, the "Closing internal audit findings" card links to three CAPAs. Root cause analysis, actions and the effectiveness check happen on the CAPA screen and are signed there. Moving the card to Done and closing the CAPA are two separate steps; the assessor looks at the CAPA itself as evidence.

This line protects two things:

• Record rules: Approval, e-signature and the audit trail run on the record's own screen; the board shows the way to that screen.
• Permissions: A link on a card opens with the person's own permissions; records such as personnel files or complaints stay visible to authorised people only.

Three roles are enough on a board: the admin manages the board and its members, members open, move and update cards, and observers read and comment. Visibility comes in two kinds: a private board is visible to its members only, while everyone in the laboratory can see a laboratory board and join it.

Open a laboratory board for work that concerns everyone, such as accreditation preparation, and a private board for sensitive work such as a staff appraisal or a complaint investigation.

Plan the weeks before a surveillance visit backwards from its date: put the cards that must close into each week, and end each week by clearing the Awaiting check list. The plan below is a six-week example; adjust it to your scope.

Every Monday, open the board in calendar view and look at the cards due that week. For a card past its due date, either close it or give it a new date with a reason; the change stays in the card's history.

The Projects module of PureField LIMS coordinates laboratory work with boards, lists and cards, and cards link to the laboratory's records.

A private board and its cards are visible to its members only; people who may view the audit trail (laboratory manager, quality manager, system administrator) can read the history of private boards there as well.