Here's how you can conduct virtual design reviews in structural engineering with best practices.

I have excellent experience in virtual design review and I know this point to be true. Early preparation ensures a successful virtual design review. Below are important things to do during preparation stage. 1. Make sure all up-to-date documents to be reviewed are ready. Engage your document control unit, check & collate documents and information needed for review. 2. Reach out to respective discipline representatives to partake the design review. 3. Share pre-read documents (all deliverables to be reviewed) with relevant stakeholders. 4. Select a reliable virtual meeting platform for the meeting, test the technology, set up a meeting and share invite with stakeholders. 5. Create design review agenda with action takers assigned.

It is important to set objectives and communicate these objectives with all stakeholders. Also, make sure the design stage is clearly understood by all participants in advance. For instance, clearly defining the stage if design would make reviewers know what to look out for and what not to hammer on. The level of detail expected at conceptual design stage is not the same with that at detailed engineering design stage. Communicating stage of design with stakeholders would help you save time and remain focused all thru the review session. During the review meeting, set ground rules, be at alert to discussions or points that are tangential to your objectives and be quick stop such points before it derails the meeting. Be in charge.

A highly interactive meeting would bring out the best of ideas - robust ideas formulated by diverse views. You need to be strategic in ensuring full engagement of most of the participants. From experience, virtual meetings could encourage docility in attendees. Set ground rules for participation to ensure excellent meeting coordination, be intentional with asking for instant feedback on topic being discussed from random participants - this keeps most participants at alert because they know they could be called upon any time. From the early preparation stage, each item on the agenda should be assigned to various participants and this must be communicated in advance with all action owners. This makes more people come prepared.

It could be helpful to set meeting on automatic record (there's a button for this on Microsoft Teams). This ensures that all discussions are not missed out on as recorded sessions could be revisited for important information by attendees and non-present invitees. However, it is ethical to inform all attendees during the meeting that the meeting is being recorded, indicate what purpose the recording would serve and ask if there are objections. Also, take or assign someone to take notes of important actions and action owners during the meeting. The notes should be forwarded to all attendees not to late after the meeting ended so that they can make inputs & corrections. Firm up this note with the returned comments then share for sign off.