THE PROJECT CONTROL WORKBOOK

A system of record for taking a product from design to manufacturing

A pre-wired workbook of nine connected tabs — a README plus eight data tabs — that gives a hardware team one place to answer the five questions every project runs on: what's current, what changed, what's approved, what's ready for release or handoff, and what's missing or at risk.

The workbook is built so the tabs talk to each other — a change in one is visible in the next.

One workflow, six steps

A project moves through these stages in order. Each step writes to — and reads from — the same part numbers, revisions, and release IDs as the step before it.

  1. 01

    Set up the project.

    Name the program, owners, target milestones, and operating assumptions.

  2. 02

    Define the current part and BOM state.

    Record the canonical part list, approved alternates, assemblies, and their revisions.

  3. 03

    Log changes and revision decisions.

    Track what changed, why, who approved it, and which release it affects.

  4. 04

    Review release readiness.

    Confirm revisions, blockers, evidence, and approvals before a release goes out.

  5. 05

    Prepare the manufacturing handoff.

    Track drawings, BOM version, approved suppliers, test procedures, and outstanding gaps.

  6. 06

    Confirm compliance and surface risks.

    Link obligations to evidence, and record the decisions and risks that affect part, revision, release, or handoff state.

The nine tabs

  • README00-README

    Explains the workflow, the order of use, and how the tabs connect.

  • Project Setup01-Project-Setup

    Project name, owners, target milestones, operating assumptions.

  • Part Master02-Part-Master

    Canonical parts, status, approved alternates, sourcing notes.

  • BOM Revision Tracker03-BOM-Revision-Tracker

    Assemblies, BOM revisions, status, links back to the Part Master.

  • Change Log04-Change-Log

    What changed, why, who approved it, which release it affects.

  • Release Readiness05-Release-Readiness

    Revision checks, blockers, evidence, approval state.

  • Manufacturing Handoff06-Manufacturing-Handoff

    Drawings, BOM version, approved suppliers, procedures, outstanding gaps.

  • Compliance Evidence Map07-Compliance-Evidence-Map

    Obligations linked to evidence, owner, status, and release.

  • Risks & Decisions08-Risks-Decisions

    Decisions and risks that affect part, revision, release, or handoff state.

A filled-in example

The workbook ships with one prefilled sample project — a small hardware program with a part revision change, a logged change, a release review, and a handoff gap. Here's its Release Readiness tab.

release_idassembly_idpart_numberpart_revisionbom_revisionstatusblockerownerevidence_link
REL-2026.04ASM-0001PCB-MAIN-01C3approvedK. Adeyemievidence/PCB-MAIN-01-revC.pdf
REL-2026.04ASM-0001ENC-TOP-02B3in_reviewAwaiting supplier drawingJ. Chenevidence/ENC-TOP-02-revB.dxf
REL-2026.04ASM-0001CABLE-USB-01A (Part Master: B)3blockedBOM references superseded revR. Patel
REL-2026.04ASM-0002BRKT-MNT-03A1approvedK. Adeyemievidence/BRKT-MNT-03-revA.pdf
REL-2026.04ASM-0002FSTN-M3-05A1in_reviewAwaiting approved supplierJ. Chenevidence/FSTN-M3-supplier.xlsx
REL-2026.05ASM-0003SENS-TEMP-01D2approvedR. Patelevidence/SENS-TEMP-01-revD.pdf
REL-2026.05ASM-0003BATT-LIPO-01B2blockedMissing UN38.3 certificateK. Adeyemi
REL-2026.05ASM-0003LBL-REG-01A2in_reviewRegulatory text sign-offJ. Chenevidence/LBL-REG-01-draft.pdf

Every row pulls its part, revision, and release IDs from earlier tabs. That's the whole point.

Get the workbook

We'll email you the download, occasional build updates until the beta opens, and the beta announcement itself. That's it.

Where this runs out

Spreadsheets are strong for one person, one project, one point in time. They weaken whenever any of those grows — more people, more projects, or a long enough timeline that "who changed what when?" starts to matter.

The workbook will carry a small team further than most template packs. It won't carry a growing team forever.

Collet is being built for the moment the workbook starts to strain — a shared source of truth when the manual layer runs out. It's not open yet; we'll tell you when it is.

If any of that sounded familiar.

Get the workbook

Nine connected tabs, one sample project, free.