Preparing a certification status update should take thirty minutes. In my experience in most design office it takes half a day — and the result is still not something you'd stake your reputation on. 🙃 You pull from the compliance matrix. You check the open actions list. You ask two engineers for updates that weren't captured anywhere. You reconcile three different versions of the same document. You make a judgement call about three items you're not quite sure how to categorise.
What you end up with is a status report that reflects the programme as of yesterday, approximately, with several "provided that" and "only if" conditions. This is not a failure of process. It is what happens when data is distributed across a collection of documents, spreadsheets, shared folders and email threads that were never designed to give you an integrated picture. Because they are not requirements centric.
The Project Manager needs clarity to act. The Head of DOA needs clarity to ensure compliance. Both need accurate, current certification visibility. In most organisations, getting it is a manual assembly job every single time.
For the DOA managers out there: how much time does your team actually spend producing status visibility versus doing certification work?