Project Manager Can Drive Process: Inception to Completion

Contracting a project manager early in the planning phase focuses the project scope of work to capture the greatest cost savings and efficiencies. This timing allows the PM to effectively guide key decisions on milestones made during budget planning, design and procurement.

The following are examples of how a PM can drive the process from the initial phases of planning:

• Budget development: PMs can expand budget development to include soft costs, not just construction/hard costs, providing an all-encompassing financial picture. For example, for a Colorado health care project, the PM developed the budget during the planning phase to provide early cost certainty to the board to request funding for a new building. PMs can also guide the design at key milestones with feasibility studies on site selection and incremental budget checks at each phase of the project to avoid costly value engineering discussions later in the project.
• Design: PMs are at an ideal vantage point as oversight so that the original programming goals are captured in the design documents. Acting as a second set of eyes on the documents during constructability reviews, they call out early risks the proposed design poses to the budget, as well as advice on finding solutions in order to keep the project moving forward. The Colorado health care PM used this method to provide the optimum amount of physical square footage throughout all campuses; this allowed the owner to avoid vacant, unused space sitting idle and overcrowding at other facilities.
• Procurement: A regionally based PM’s familiarity with design firms’ capabilities/portfolios, as well as those of contractors and consultants, can streamline the selection process for the owner, as PMs can effectively screen qualified candidates. Referencing the same health care project above, the Colorado-based PM, in teaming with the owner team, assisted with design firm interviews and recommend experienced contractors for bid consideration. Additionally, due to the early budget development exercise above, the PM was involved in negotiating the guaranteed maximum price for the project. A PM’s knowledge of multiple forms of contract agreements and contract negotiating skills can work to an owner’s advantage.
  During the procurement phase, the PM also can create a short list of project-specific suitable procurement options to further maximize cost savings. Assets can be optimized by conducting comparative construction budgets for various program configurations. When developing the requests for quotes and requests for proposals, the PM can offer insight into whether a project might benefit from a two-stage procurement approach.
• Construction: If construction is the point of contact for a PM, then he is relegated to playing only an oversight role. The potential benefits to the team remain unrealized and become nothing more than a missed opportunity. However, the PM continues to play a key role in continuous inter-action with owners, designers and contractors to serve as the point person in communications. Essentially, she ensures consistent, accurate information is delivered through the entire execution.
• Summary: Project hard costs are approximately 70% of the budget, and by the time a project reaches construction, this severely limits the project decision-making/course corrections with such a large percentage of the budget committed. On the other hand, engaging a PM as the first executed contract, he can actively manage 70% of the risk. PMs act as a representative of the owner and drive entire process, from project inception to completion.