Project Management

Helping to define the project brief

As project manager part of our role is challenging preconceptions and filling in the blanks, helping our clients realise their aspirations for a project. This forms a vital springboard for the rest of the scheme. Once the briefing process has been completed a master briefing document will be prepared and issued, ensuring clarity and providing structure for the project team.

Building the team

All projects involve the need for specialist input to one degree or another, be it contractors, designers, engineers or surveyors. Our project managers work together with clients to identify the roles needed on a project, define the relevant scopes of service and tender these services, thereby obtaining best value for our clients.

Within construction, under a ‘design and build’ contract an employer's agent is also appointed by the client to represent them and their interests pre and post contract. This role can be fulfilled by the architect, project manager or cost consultant.

Defining the timelines

We work with our clients to define the key dates for a project then convert these into a carefully considered, logic-linked master programme which identifies the critical path for the project. This remains a live document throughout, used to track progress or identify delay during regular status reporting sessions.

Agreeing the project governance

All projects require that authority is delegated from the client to the design team. Once delegation is established, the routes for communication, processes for sign off and control mechanisms are developed to suit the project and then adhered to throughout. At Carter Jonas, our project specific Project Execution Plan is used to preserve the project governance and communicate it to the entire team. In this way, we gain a commitment from the whole team, including our clients, avoiding conflict at a later date.

Progress reporting

As part of the briefing and project governance activities, our project managers inevitably identify clients’ priorities for their projects and distil these into a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the project. This allows us to create a bespoke, pre-agreed status report format for the project which, issued at regular intervals, informs the client of the things they want to know.

Cost control

Our project managers not only focus on the construction element but, with our master budget and expenditure schedule, we own as much of the financial reporting as our client chooses to delegate to us. This includes advising on relocation costs, furniture and equipment, fees and on-costs, revenue costs such as rents, rates and service charge impacts during the project and dilapidations liabilities. In addition, we report on anticipated cash flow and project expenditure on a regular basis.

Risk management

The identification and management of risk sits at the heart of our approach to project management. We believe in confronting challenges early on, thereby giving us the best chance of resolving them. Whether related to time, cost, scope, resources or legislation, we systematically document the project risks in our dynamic risk register, linking them with a risk profile, owner, date for resolution and agreed mitigation strategy.

Contract practice

As experts in construction and not simply process, our project managers are ideally placed to advise on the full range of contractual matters which need to be considered throughout the life of a project, including principal contracts, sub-contracts, bonds, warranties and insurance matters.

Ensuring quality

By making sure of a carefully crafted brief and defining a rigorous and systematic programme of quality inspections and reports throughout the construction phase, our approach to project management removes the conflict which often affects in to the build phase when standards slip and changes in the brief occur.