What's in the Works: Building the Tool I Wanted on Site
A short update on the Legionella risk assessment tool taking shape at L8pro - why it is being built, the principles behind it, and what happens next. No screenshots yet.
In the last update I mentioned, almost in passing, that I was building a tool alongside the assessment work. A few people asked about it. This is a little more on where it is going - without showing it yet, because it is not ready to be shown, and I would rather it arrived finished than half-explained.
Why build one at all
Anyone who carries out Legionella risk assessments knows the gap between the survey and the report. You stand in a plant room with a thermometer and a notepad, and then spend the evening re-typing it, wrestling a template, and trimming recommendations that were written for a different kind of site.
The tools on the market are good at parts of the job. What I kept wanting on site was something that treated the survey and the report as one piece of work, built around how an assessor actually moves through a building rather than how a back office would like it filed.
What it is being built around
Not a feature list - those can wait. These are the principles every decision so far has been held to.
It works where the work is. Plant rooms, basements and tank rooms rarely have signal. The survey has to carry on regardless and catch up when it can, without the assessor thinking about it - and nothing captured on site can be lost on the way.
It is grounded in the guidance, not in habit. ACoP L8, HSG274 Parts 1 to 3 and BS 8580-1 are the reference, and every finding points back to where its reasoning comes from. If a recommendation cannot say why, it should not be in the report.
The report is written for the person who has to act on it. A duty holder needs to know what to do, by when, and why it matters - not a page of repeated boilerplate. Findings that are really one conversation should read as one.
The assessor stays in charge. The tool can suggest, grade and draft, but the judgement is the assessor's, and the report says so. That is the difference between a risk assessment and a checklist.
Client information is handled like it matters. Site details, photographs and findings belong to the client. The tool has been through a thorough security and durability review before anyone other than me has used it, and it will keep being held to that.
Held to a higher bar
The part I am most glad I did early: the question library has been put in front of an experienced independent practitioner, who went through it line by line and did not hold back. A good number of their points have already been worked in, and the rest are on the list. Building in a vacuum is how tools end up confidently wrong; having someone whose job is to disagree with you is the cure.
What happens next
For now it is being used on my own assessments, which is the right place for it to earn its keep. When it is ready, the plan is a small number of pilots with water hygiene and treatment companies who want to try a different way of working and are willing to tell me honestly what does not work.
The same rule applies as last time: L8pro is a consultancy first. The assessments come first, and the tool exists to make them better.
If you would like to hear when pilots open - or you have a strong opinion about what your current software gets wrong - get in touch. I read every reply.
Written by Rafal Wrona, independent Legionella risk consultant at L8pro. For senior HSG274 / ACoP L8 risk assessments and sampling delivered under your brand, get in touch.