Lots of clients are very keen to see progress on site as soon as possible. This is understandable impatience; something done means that there is that much less still to do. An item on the list has been ticked off.
However, it may not be all that wise. What really matters is not when you start, as when you finish. Therefore, as project managers, we must decide what will put us in the best position to finish on time, or even early.
A key feature of any such plan will be to avoid changes of mind, scope creep, forced changes because of discoveries in the ground, ongoing design or the rework that goes with any or all of these things.
Traditionally, we avoid these possibilities by making sure that the planning is complete before the work is done. In some ways, though, we have a problem, because it is so much a feature of construction procurement these days that design and procurement is interleaved, both within design & build and construction management routes. High-pressure working, which so often goes with this, greatly increases the risk of clashes and incompatibilities.
Highly developed design management is the key to keeping a forward-looking perspective in the ongoing design process. We are talking here about a management process which is enabled to spot clashes, incompatibilities and gaps between design packages in good time. Many will say, “that’s BIM!” but only be partly right, because BIM tells you these things retrospectively. What is needed is a particular use of BIM, or even of a sketchpad. It is arrived at by a form of leadership in which an experienced design manager draws out from the team what is required in their next phase of work to
- Meet the client’s needs (a revisitation of the Brief).
- Be truly susceptible to an efficient construction process.
- Embody the aspirations of all concerned.
