PROJECT MANAGEMENT GURU
prepared by Francina Price, PMP, MBA
Guru: An influential teacher or popular expert.
THESE ARTICLES WILL BE USED TO SHARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT TIPS AND INSIGHT OBTAINED THROUGH FIELD EXPERIENCE.
Starting with the end in mind, we continue the focus of our first tip…Lessons Learned. This process is critical and insightful. It deserves a fresh look with eyes of sincere appreciation. Here in lies the secret to my success.
DESIGN PROCESS GONE WILD A critical area to evaluate on each project is the Design Process. How well did the team translate the requirements of the client? Did the client sabotage the design process? Did you have to “expedite” the schedule?
Lessons learned for managing design projects:
- Skipping the actual process of design (schematic design/design development) – when this has occurred the client rushes through decisions and ends up not thinking about the what has been presented and may or may not like the end results. Ending up living with a space that they do not like or mistakes have been made. The other result is a mismatch of color coordination and material coordination. Make sure there is always time in the schedule to work through these details and present them to the client for decision making.
- Coordination between vendors – this occurs often in the design process and sometimes too late. Coordination and implementation of furniture, art and audio visual vendors needs to occur during the design development process not during the time of completing construction documents. Too often these decisions are made while the project is in for permit or worst yet while under construction. If that happens lighting, electrical and other construction items are not captured in the documents and added costs or delays will occur on the job. Make sure there is an early kick off meeting with ALL vendors during design development so these coordination items can occur.
Tips for other PMP’s:
- Coordination meeting held 25% through the design development process.
- Understand the process of design so that schedule and coordination are appropriately thought through.
- Space planning/test fits.
- Schematic design (initial aesthetics of the space and concepts).
- Design development (refinement of the design and working through details for areas in addition to coordination).
- Construction Documents (creation and full coordination with the vendors under the designers/architects contract. TIP – make sure the designer/architect is under contract with the client to coordinate all vendors – i.e. audio/visual, furniture, art/signage, etc).
- Construction Administration.
Reflective Thought?
Do you see steps that you’ve sacrificed or missed due to schedule compression? How can you incorporate “collapsed check points” to ensure that quality and requirements are not missed?
We would like to hear from you, what other tips would you incorporate?
Thank you Julie McCullough for sharing tips and insight on the design process.