Chick-fil-A & BVNA Centralize 3,000+ Construction Projects With Quickbase

The Solutions

Quickbase Became the Centralized Construction Portfolio Management Platform

Quandary Consulting Group designed and developed a custom Quickbase application to coordinate construction project management across Chick-fil-A's nationwide restaurant improvement program.

Rather than replacing every construction process with a rigid, standardized workflow, the application was designed to accommodate location-specific requirements while maintaining consistent project governance.

Quickbase served as the central operational environment for managing construction phases, project milestones, dependencies, approvals, and site-level information.

The solution connected previously fragmented activities into a more coordinated construction management process.

The core workflow became: Construction Project Intake → Site Planning → Milestone Definition → Task Assignment → Approval Management → Construction Execution → Issue Escalation → Project Completion

By centralizing these activities, Quandary established a consistent framework for managing projects across the portfolio.

Project teams gained a clearer view of required actions, while leadership gained more reliable information about construction progress and operational risks.

Automated Milestone Forecasting Connected Project Dependencies

One of the most important components of the Quickbase implementation was the development of dynamic construction milestone forecasting.

Traditional project tracking often depends on manually updating estimated completion dates; however, when construction tasks are interdependent, changing one milestone can affect several downstream activities.

Quandary configured the application to recalculate projected milestone dates based on actual task completion and established dependencies.

When a task was completed or delayed, the system could use the updated information to inform subsequent milestone forecasts.

The forecasting workflow became:

Task Status Updated → Dependency Evaluated → Milestone Forecast Recalculated → Project Timeline Updated → Potential Delay Identified

This approach gave construction teams a more reliable understanding of how project conditions affected schedules.

Instead of relying entirely on manual reviews, project managers could use the application to identify activities that threatened downstream construction milestones.

For Chick-fil-A and BVNA, this created a stronger foundation for proactive construction scheduling and portfolio-level risk management.

Nationwide Project Batching Streamlined Executive Approvals

Coordinating approvals for thousands of restaurant construction projects created another operational challenge.

Quandary introduced a structured project batching process that grouped participating restaurant locations for coordinated executive review and approval.

This allowed stakeholders to evaluate related projects within an organized approval framework rather than managing every request through disconnected communications.

The approval workflow became:

Identify Participating Locations → Create Project Batch → Consolidate Project Information → Submit for Executive Review → Record Approval → Advance Construction Activities

Project batching helped establish a more consistent process for managing construction initiatives across multiple locations and also supported better alignment between portfolio planning, executive decisions, and downstream project execution.

Automated Task Creation Reduced Manual Project Coordination

Successful construction projects require teams to complete activities in the correct sequence; i.e., when one phase is completed, the next task may need to be assigned, an approval requested, or another stakeholder notified.

Quandary configured Quickbase workflows to automate these transitions based on project activity and predefined business rules.

For example, when a project record was updated, the application could initiate the next required action without waiting for a project manager to manually coordinate the process.

These workflows supported:

• Automated task generation.
• Assignment of responsibilities.
• Milestone deadline management.
• Approval notifications.
• Project status updates.
• Escalation of overdue activities.

The workflow became:

Project Activity Updated → Business Rule Evaluated → Next Task Created → Responsible Stakeholder Assigned → Deadline Tracked → Completion Recorded

By embedding construction process logic directly into the application, Quandary reduced reliance on manual follow-up and created more consistent execution across the portfolio.

Proactive Issue Escalation Improved Construction Risk Management

Construction delays often begin as relatively small operational issues; i.e., a missing permit, unresolved architectural question, or overdue approval can eventually affect contractors, site readiness, and planned completion dates.

Quandary developed automated escalation capabilities to identify project conditions requiring additional attention.

The application could now flag risks such as permitting delays, architectural conflicts, stalled dependencies, and overdue activities.

Which meant that now, instead of requiring teams to discover every issue through manual project reviews, the system provided a more structured method for surfacing potential problems.

The escalation workflow became:

Project Condition Detected → Risk Identified → Escalation Rule Applied → Responsible Team Notified → Corrective Action Tracked → Project Status Updated

This allowed project managers to prioritize exceptions rather than spending equal amounts of time reviewing every active project.

For a nationwide construction portfolio, the ability to distinguish routine project activity from issues requiring intervention was particularly important for the bottom line.

Construction Data Migration Established a More Reliable Source of Truth

Workflow automation is only as reliable as the data supporting it.

During implementation, Quandary identified inconsistencies in legacy construction records, including missing task relationships and incomplete predecessor information.

These issues would have completely undermined the new application's ability to calculate project schedules and enforce workflow dependencies.

Quandary worked with project stakeholders to review existing records, correct inconsistencies, and establish more reliable data relationships.

Custom scripts supported the restructuring, cleaning, and migration of historical project information, including permits, contracts, and construction records.

The data modernization process included:

• Assess existing construction data and identify inconsistencies.
• Review project milestones and predecessor relationships.
• Clean and standardize legacy records.
• Restructure data to support the new Quickbase application.
• Import historical construction information.
• Validate migrated records and workflow dependencies.

This work created a more dependable information foundation for automated milestone forecasting, project reporting, and operational decision-making.

Centralized Project Visibility Improved Cross-Functional Collaboration

Construction programs of this scale involve stakeholders with different responsibilities and information requirements.

• Field teams need visibility into immediate tasks and site-level issues.
• Project managers need to understand milestones, dependencies, and contractor activity.
• Program leadership needs a broader view of schedules, delays, and portfolio performance.

Quandary's Quickbase solution brought these operational perspectives together through centralized project records and standardized status information. Rather than relying on disconnected spreadsheets and manual reporting, stakeholders could work from a common project management environment.

This improved the ability to coordinate activities across construction teams while giving leadership greater insight into project conditions across the nationwide portfolio.

User Testing and Workflow Validation Supported Enterprise Deployment

Developing a scalable construction management application required more than configuring technical features, the system needed to reflect how construction teams actually worked.

Quandary followed a structured six-month implementation process, beginning with approximately two months of discovery.

During discovery, the team collaborated with project stakeholders to document construction phases, approval requirements, task dependencies, and escalation processes.

Process diagrams and user flows helped translate these requirements into application logic; and, following development, stakeholders tested the application using real-world construction scenarios.

This allowed Quandary to identify usability issues, refine automation logic, and validate workflows before deployment.

The resulting application combined low-code flexibility with business processes designed specifically for a large-scale construction portfolio.