Prepare detailed work plans
Part of the output can be produced by software today.
An agent can propose the plan, chase the replies and keep the record current. To actually change anything it needs write access to a calendar or work system, and a person still owns the tradeoffs when two plans collide.
| How automatable | Partly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Scheduling, planning and resource control |
| Jobs that do it | 24 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Tools and auth, Builders |
| O*NET activity | Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work (4.A.2.b.6) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 24 occupations that perform it.
- Develop final construction plans that include aesthetic representations of the structure or details for its construction.
- Develop planting plans to help clients garden productively or to achieve particular aesthetic effects.
- Plan and direct construction of rural electric-power distribution systems, and irrigation, drainage, and flood control systems for soil and water conservation.
- Prepare project plans for equipment or facility improvements, including time lines, budgetary estimates, or capital spending requests.
- Plan alteration or modification of existing transportation structures to improve safety or function.
- Develop plans for new water resources or water efficiency programs.
- Develop, implement, or manage plans or programs related to conservation or management of natural resources.
- Develop plans for the prevention of destruction by fire, wind, and water.
- Develop validation master plans, process flow diagrams, test cases, or standard operating procedures.
- Prepare plans, estimates, design and construction schedules, and contract specifications, including any special provisions.
- Plan and evaluate new projects, consulting with other engineers and corporate executives, as necessary.
- Plan or implement fuel cell cost reduction or product improvement projects in collaboration with other engineers, suppliers, support personnel, or customers.
- Select locations and plan underground or surface mining operations, specifying processes, labor usage, and equipment that will result in safe, economical, and environmentally sound extraction of minerals and ores.
- Develop or contribute to the development of plans to remediate or restore environments affected by nuclear radiation, such as waste disposal sites.
- Develop plans for oil and gas field drilling, and for product recovery and treatment.
- Assist in the transition of photonic prototypes to production.
- Create plans for solar energy system development, monitoring, and evaluation activities.
- Determine the order of work and method of presentation, such as orthographic or isometric drawing.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for scheduling, planning and resource control, and what it costs.
Scheduling is a connector problem rather than an intelligence one, and $9 a month of Make covers both the calendar and the chasing. An agent platform priced per seat adds nothing you would notice here.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
24 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Agricultural Engineers
- Architects, Except Landscape and Naval
- Architectural and Civil Drafters
- Bioengineers and Biomedical Engineers
- Calibration Technologists and Technicians
- Civil Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Electrical and Electronics Drafters
- Environmental Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Environmental Engineers
- Fire-Prevention and Protection Engineers
- Fuel Cell Engineers
- Industrial Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Landscape Architects
- Marine Engineers and Naval Architects
- Materials Engineers
- Mining and Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers
- Nuclear Engineers
- Opticians, Dispensing
- Petroleum Engineers
- Photonics Engineers
- Solar Energy Systems Engineers
- Transportation Engineers
- Validation Engineers
- Water/Wastewater Engineers
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Plan work activities”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.