SOW Builder

SOW Builder reads a Statement of Work — or any description of what you want to build — and turns it into a complete DocMgt configuration. Unlike a one-shot build, it works as an interview: it analyzes your SOW, asks clarifying questions, you answer, it re-analyzes, and the cycle repeats until you and SOW Builder agree on the plan. Then it builds, and you hand the result off to Config Manager for review and import.

Available when Allow Builder AI is on (Admin > Main Options > AI) and your site is licensed for AI.


The full process at a glance

  1. Start a session — provide your SOW and start the first analysis.
  2. Wait for the first round to finish; SOW Builder analyzes the SOW and produces an initial plan with questions.
  3. Review the plan and answer questions. SOW Builder shows four lists: what it will build, what it leaves for you to do by hand, what it needs clarified, and what it has assumed.
  4. Submit your answers — SOW Builder re-analyzes and may ask another round of questions. Repeat as many rounds as needed.
  5. Build — when there are no more questions (or when you choose to proceed on the current assumptions), the build runs in the background.
  6. Hand off to Config Manager — when the build completes, open the result in Config Manager to review and import.

The detailed steps follow.



Step 1 — Start a session

Go to SOW Builder in the admin navigation. The first screen lists your existing sessions. Click New Session at the top, or Start from a Statement of Work if the list is empty. A dialog titled New SOW Build Session opens.

Fill it in:

  • SOW File — required. Click the field to choose your SOW. Accepted formats: .pdf, .docx, .txt, .md, .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .webp.
  • Description — optional. Pre-filled from the file name; edit if you want a clearer label for this session in the list.
  • Build everything new — optional checkbox. When ON, the build always creates new objects and never tries to reuse what already exists in your site. When OFF, SOW Builder may edit existing objects where it makes sense.

Click Analyze SOW to start. (The button is disabled until you've picked a file.)



Step 2 — Wait for the first analysis

The screen switches to the session view and shows an in-flight panel — Analyzing the Statement of Work — with a status message and progress bar. This runs in the background, and you can leave the page; it will pick up where it left off when you come back.

Two optional things here:

  • Notify me when done — click to enter an email address; you'll get a message when the analysis (or, later, the build) finishes. This survives closing the tab.
  • Back to Sessions — leave the analysis running and view your other sessions.



Step 3 — Review the plan and answer questions

When the analysis finishes, four lists appear on screen.

We'll Build — the objects SOW Builder intends to create or change (type, name, operation). Read-only; this is what it plans to do.

By Hand — items that won't be auto-built. These are deliberately left for you with optional instructions on what to do. Read-only.

Open Questions — the interactive list. Each question is one of these:

  • Single choice — radio buttons. Click the option you want.
  • Multi choice — checkboxes. Tick all that apply.
  • Confirm a value — a text box pre-filled with SOW Builder's best read of a value. Either click the checkmark button to confirm what's there, edit the box, or click one of the suggestion badges.
  • Free text — a textarea. Type your answer.
  • Provide a file — for places where SOW Builder needs a document (such as a merge-template source). Either click Upload .docx to pick a Word file, or click Draft it for me to have one drafted.

You don't have to answer every question. The Review Answers button at the top of the Open Questions list shows how many you've answered (for example, "Submit 4"). It enables as soon as one question has an answer.

Assumptions — read-only by default, but each assumption has a Reconsider link. Click it to expand a small "What should it be instead?" textbox; type a correction and it will be sent along with your next submission. (Click Cancel on the same link to back out.)

When you're ready, click Submit in the Open Questions card.



Step 4 — Follow-up rounds

After you submit, the in-flight panel returns — Analyzing the Statement of Work again — and SOW Builder re-analyzes using your answers and corrections. When it finishes, the four lists re-appear, refreshed. There may be a new round of questions; if so, repeat Step 3.

This loop continues until either:

  • No questions remain. The header status changes to Build Ready and a Build button appears in the header action row.
  • You decide to proceed on the current assumptions. A Just Build It button is available in the header any time there are still open questions. Clicking it asks for confirmation — any unanswered questions are recorded in the assumptions ledger as "proceeded without an answer", and the build runs automatically.



Step 5 — Build

Click Build (or Just Build It) and confirm. The screen switches to the in-flight panel again, this time labeled Building the configuration. The build can take several minutes.

While it's running:

  • Notify me when done — opt in for an email when the build finishes (recommended for longer builds).
  • Cancel Build — request a cancel. The build stops after the current object; nothing is saved (the build only produces a configuration bundle on success), so you can simply rebuild later.
  • Back to Sessions — you can leave the page; the build continues server-side and resumes in the UI when you reopen the session.

If you are answering Open Questions and click this button, the answers you have added will be used for the final build. This can help you save a round of review to skip right to building with your final answers.


Step 6 — Hand off to Config Manager

When the build completes, the session shows a Built status and a success alert reading "The build has completed for this session. Open it in Config Manager to load the produced configuration, or see the Build Report for the per-object breakdown."

Two reports are available from the header:

  • Hand-off Report — a narrative summary of what was built and any human follow-ups.
  • Build Report — a per-object table with name, type, and weighted token cost; failed objects are flagged in red.

To finish, click Open in Config Manager. Config Manager opens with this build's job loaded, where you can:

  • Preview each object the build produced.
  • Compare against what exists in your site.
  • Import the objects you want into your live configuration.

Nothing is added to your live system until you import it in Config Manager — so you always get the final review.


After import — Solution Knowledge

When you import the build through Config Manager, DocMgt also generates a Solution Knowledge record for it in the background. This is plain-language documentation of the Record Types, workflows, E-forms, and Add-ins the build just created, so the DocMgt assistants — both the end-user Ask DoM assistant and the admin Help assistant — can answer questions about your solution and not just DocMgt in general.

The generated record arrives as a Draft you review, edit, and approve before it goes live. It is one of the main ways Solution Knowledge gets populated, but not the only one: you can also have AI document an application you built by hand, or write a record entirely from scratch. See Solution Knowledge for the full picture.


Other controls

  • Edit description — click the pencil next to the session description in the header to rename it, then Save (or Cancel).
  • All Sessions — return to the SOW Builder session list at any time.
  • A session does not need an explicit delete or cancel; you can simply leave it. In-flight rounds and builds will continue server-side until they finish.
  • Start Over — Deletes all objects from the system that were built with this SOW builder session. This includes any that were edited afterward. This is a nuclear option to remove the entire build so you can start a new one.



TIPS

  1. Answer the Open Questions when you can — they directly improve what gets built. Just Build It is best used when you're comfortable with the remaining assumptions as shown. This button will include any Open Questions you are currently answering into the build.
  2. Reconsider assumptions you don't agree with rather than letting them ride; one correction often removes several downstream questions in the next round.
  3. Turn on Notify me when done for large builds so you don't have to watch the screen.
  4. Treat the result in Config Manager as a strong draft. Review and adjust before importing — especially for workflows, where edge cases often need a human eye.
  5. After importing, visit Solution Knowledge to review the Draft record the build generated, and approve it so the assistants can answer questions about your new solution.

NOTE ON (AI): SOW Builder consumes tokens from the Builder pool — across both the interview rounds and the final build — and may incur extra fees. Check with your sales rep for more information. Please verify all results, as AI can make mistakes.