Frustration...
is how some describe the construction process. "It takes twice as long, and costs three times as much" is a common refrain when getting the update on a project.
Our industry is a storied one, and customer relations like this have been going on for far too long. Part of the reason lies with scope creep, part lies with poor risk management, part lies with crappy construction.
It doesn't have to be this way. On-time, on-budget delivery is about defining scope, managing risk, obtaining quality, and making decisions. The goal is maintaining a pace and intensity to get to the end faster, better and smarter than your last project.
The critical path of any successful project starts with you and your dream. Breathing life into this dream involves four things:
- reducing the dream, and any perceived options, to a 101 for your architect, who is the person who will articulate this dream to the building team;
- finding the architect who has the voice to articulate your 101 and surface design constraints for resolution/acceptance;
- resolving the articulated 101 (schematic design) with the budget;
- recruiting a building team to can buy out the job within the budget without fatal cuts to the schematic design.
The design and the budget iterate until equilibrium is reached. Additional resolution and reducing the over/under on the budget is achieved by producing the permit set, and pricing version 2.0.0 of the finish schedule. My firm provides instant feasibility scope/budget checks that help to iterate faster and identify trades that need to be brought in early to resolve open items. Frustration is reduced, and the questions about scope become clearer.
The numbers to do this? Getting to a schematic design that provides enough information to get to a +/- 20% of your budget number should burn 15 to 20% of your architectural budget.
