Top Ten Challenges--No. 7. Maintain Pace and Intensity by Quickly Resolving Design Intent
The pace and intensity of a job tells you a lot about the team producing it
It can tell you a lot about how good the schedule is, and whether people actually do what they say they will.
Jobs lose pace and intensity through cascading change orders, encountering unforeseen obstacles, or lack of buildable information.
Quickly clarifying design intent to maintain pace and intensity is a critical responsibility of the entire team.
This is how to get the information out to the team to build and maintain the pace and intensity on our projects
Acceptances are the way to build schedules.
Track accomplishments, not start dates.
Maintain current project information—plans, specs, and schedules--in an accessible online website so everyone can get current copies whenever required. Have everything in .pdf format
Track issues via Hot Lists to track conflicts, omissions, or errors in articulating design intent. Make sure someone has both action and the tools necessary to find a solution.
Use RFI’s correctly. Requests for Information are not a substitute for reading and understanding the plans and specifications, nor for adding scope or initiating changes to the project.
There should be enough information available so that the RFI process is confirming design intent, not developing it.
Make sure submittals are correct. Do they comply with the specifications?
Will it fit? Will it get here in time? What is missing? Build it on paper first.
Generate options for errors and omissions discovered for the Owner to review and accept.
Define what the error or omission is clearly, and list a range of solutions with money and time effects. Contingency accounts are useful here in that everyone becomes focused on the optimal solution is, rather than trying to duck blame.
Describe any changes needed completely and build them on paper first. Is the cost, in both time and money, understood and agreed to by all parties? Avoid making changes on a time and materials basis unless you are exploring an unforeseen condition.
Wander around. Understand how the different crafts work with and around each other. Learn what they need to get their job done. Ensure the superintendent understands. Appreciate what is happening.
Get it done. Now. The more time and delay on making a decision, the more it will effect downstream work
Understand how you got here. Is this a chronic weakness or a one-time deal. Repair appropriately.
A happy job is one that is clean, safe, and trucking along on schedule.
