Projects are Won at the Beginning

Producing large, complex projects requires many different professionals with specialized expertise. Owners of such buildings will have few if any of these professionals on their staff. Therefore the first order of business will be to assemble the core project team.  It is the most important set of decisions an Owner will make.  Projects are often won or lost by these Owner's decisions.  Getting these early decisions right will greatly enhance a successful project outcome.  Getting them wrong will result in a long frustrating struggle.

By the time a major project is complete an owner will have assembled perhaps a dozen or more companies with specialize expertise such as architect, engineers, surveyor, commissioning agent, material testing agent, traffic consultant, cost estimator, construction manager, etc.  Some of these companies will have subcontracts to even more specialized companies in order to deliver their services to the project. Depending on how the project is organized and procured a few may have many subcontracts in order to complete their portion of the design or construction. Selecting and integrating these many different companies is vital to successfully producing a new building

Where to begin? To deliver an integrated project, one the combines design seamlessly with procurement and construction, there are three critical roles that need to be fulfilled on any project; the project management team, the design team, and the construction team.

•  The project management team, often referred to as the program manager (PM) is responsible for the overall budget, schedule and scope of the project. The PM organizes the interactions of the various future users of the project with all the members of the extended project team to insure the user needs are well defined and properly met. This team may be members of the owner’s staff, partially or fully outsourced to a program management firm or assigned to construction or design team.
• The design team (A/E) is the architect, planners, structural engineer, civil engineer, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, lighting consultant, landscape architect and any other consulting specialty needed for the project. This is the team that takes the user inputs and produces a building design to meet the specified requirements.
• The construction team (CM) is the general contractor or construction manager and all of the many subcontractors, manufacturers and suppliers on the project. This is the team that procures and constructs the project defined by the design team.
• Collectively these three teams comprise the core team for the project. Selecting and organizing them sets the tone for the rest of the project delivery. While getting the right core team is important in any project, it is critical for integrated project delivery. Getting the right team is the most consequential act in the delivery of a project; process is important but people are crucial.