Procurement - critical considerations

Independent assessment

The degree of protection of the client's interests, as opposed to the vested interests of the other parties to the contract, relies on the facility for independent assessment. This depends on many aspects including:

• Method of payment – are the fees for professional services separated from or influenced by the contractor's profitability?
• Design independence – is there a clear hierarchical relationship between the design team, the management organisation and the building organisation?
• During construction – is there a degree of independence permitted to the design team during the building process?
• Communication – are there clear lines of communication and does the architect have the capacity to deal directly with the client?
• Liability – is responsibility and liability clearly defined?

Experience and expertise of the management service offered

Organisations offering construction-management services must have a proven record, appropriate background and training, suitably experienced resources and a demonstrable capacity to balance the client's requirements with the project budget.

Management should not interfere with the design process or isolate the client from the process or the design team, but provide another level of advice and reassurance to the client. It should not assume roles (ie coordination) are better undertaken by other members of the team, but assist in the process. Finally, a good construction manager, on the right project, should be part of a team, not the director of it.

Value of a builder on the design team

One of the principal advantages of the contractor participating in the design and documentation process is to provide a continuing buildability assessment of the project and an early warning of design or construction problems. They can also assist in ensuring budgetary constraints are considered. The participation of an experienced builder on the design team, with an understanding of the design process and the contribution that can be made, can provide some clients with greater confidence in the outcome and final construction costs.

Risks of an early start

The most significant risks in an early start on site lie in unrealistically shortened design times, hasty design or documentation decisions and the potential for a lack of thorough coordination of the work of the design team before the implications of the total design have been discovered. This can result in the need for modification to the early works or unfortunate limitations on the later design. These risks are present, to varying degrees, in any fast-track method of delivery, but can be minimised through careful design team coordination and monitoring.

Effectiveness of time and cost control

This can be one of the most important advantages of the alternative methods, as it can allow a thorough analysis of the design and documentation as it progresses, in relation to time and cost. Independent management resources closely monitoring the design and construction program can:

• facilitate decision making by all parties including the client in a timely way
• relate the implication of decisions to time and cost
• encourage all parties to contribute to meeting the program.

The same controls can be applied to a fully documented and tendered project with value management.

Extent of documentation

While the nature of documentation under the alternative methods may vary considerably from traditional contract documentation, it is possible that the final extent of documentation will be greater, particularly with packaged projects. In other cases, shop drawings will be developed from design sketches and often coordination may be more difficult with fragmented/ unresolveddocumentation. It is important that the extent and nature of documentation is clear and that the methodology and responsibility for coordination is clearly defined.