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CLIENT QUESTIONS Howard G. Birnberg The relationship between designers and clients often begins on the wrong foot having endured either a convoluted selection process or a rugged fee negotiation. The fault often lies with your potential client and leaves engineers wishing for an alternative. But, you might not like what you find if clients really started asking the hard questions. A number of professional societies publish guidelines for owners to use in evaluating and selecting engineers and architects. For example, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) publishes "You And Your Architect", a question and answer discussion on getting the most out of the client-architect relationship. Most of these publications tend to be slanted toward traditional delivery methods, fail to ask crucial questions or attempt to encourage the potential client to hire the particular type of professional the publication was prepared by. Every project manager must be prepared to provide a potential or current client with a wide range of information. Failure to completely or honestly provide the requested information may cost you and your firm the contract. Some items a sophisticated client may ask you include: 1. Experience. Of particular importance is your firm's experience with similar projects. Do not dwell however, on what you did for others; focus on the problem and potential client at hand. Do not be a selling (on yourself and your needs) focused firm--be a marketing (focused on the needs of the marketplace) driven firm. 2. Pricing Justification. As a project manager, you should fully understand how your firm arrived at it's pricing scheme including overhead rates, profit targets, overall multipliers, etc. Be prepared to provide hourly rate information (typically pay rates), if requested. If senior management in your firm won't provide you with this information then you cannot adequately perform your job as a project manager. 3. Explanation of Your Project Delivery System. The most successful designer/owner relationships occur when both have similar or complementary systems. For example, you may have a single discipline departmentally organized firm and the client has a sophisticated project management system. Under this circumstance, it will likely be difficult to work together. 4. Specific Team Members. Some experienced clients contractually require that the project manager and key team members be named in the contract. The design firm is not allowed to change team members without the specific approval of the client. To do otherwise is considered a breach of the contract. (Some designers wish they could do the same to clients who often change their own project managers or staff). 5. Fee. Although most designers would like to use a Qualification Based Selection (QBS) process, fee is often a significant factor. During negotiations, it is vital that a project manager fully understand his firm's pricing scheme, proposed budget (and underlying assumptions), proposed scope of services, change order management process and any other significant items. 6. Project Management Manual. Experienced clients sometimes request a copy of a design firm's project management manual. This manual documents a firm's procedures and can help to reassure a potential client that you have well thought out processes, systems, forms, etc. This also gives them the opportunity to understand how your firm operates and how you will work together on the project. Unfortunately, most design firms do not have a written (partial or complete) project management manual. Often, something is simply thrown together when a Request for Proposal (RFP), requesting a copy is received from a potential client. If a firm is considering seeking ISO 9000 certification, this manual must be prepared. 7. Do you provide extended services such as Commissioning. While not generally a service provided by many designers, Commissioning is an example of the types of services more clients are requiring. Commissioning is a concept that has evolved from several sources. First, clients/owners have reduced their own design, construction, facilities and maintenance staffs necessitating greater outsourcing. Second, building systems have become more complex requiring increased expertise to maintain cost-effective operations. Third, clients have become more demanding of their outside design and construction consultants and contractors, expecting increased services. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has prepared a guideline (1-1996) that defines the concept of Commissioning. "Commissioning is the process of ensuring that systems are designed, installed, functionally tested, and capable of being operated and maintained to perform in conformity with the design intent. In this guideline, commissioning begins with planning and includes design, construction, start-up, acceptance and training and can be applied throughout the life of the building." In essence, it ranges from conception to demolition. Many design firms, particularly architects, view Commissioning as simply another threat to their traditional area of control and responsibility. The truth is, however, that many design firms do not provide this service to their clients. Clearly, if the need is there and if design firms fail to market a service to clients, then other specialists will. Already a group of consultants have appeared called the Commissioning Authority or Commissioning Agents. The Commissioning service is typically sold as an additional service at an additional fee. Project managers need to be aware of similar opportunities in their own disciplines. 8. Willingness to join in a Partnering process. This process is heavily used for civil engineering work, particularly by departments of transportation (DOT's). Few industries have the history of litigation and disputes found in the construction industry. Many of the contract documents produced by the various professional societies have been drafted specifically to pass risk to others or to spread risk among all parties to the project. Conflict is common; trust is not. Some in the industry have sought to change this and restore trust and a spirit of working together to achieve a common goal. In the past few years, this has become embodied in the Partnering concept. Tom Warne, current director of the Utah Department of Transportation prepared a manual on Partnering for the American Society of Civil Engineers called "Partnering for Success". In this manual, he wrote: "Partnering recognized that there are many stakeholders on any given construction project. . A stakeholder may be an owner, a prime contractor, a design engineer or architect, a subcontractor, a supplier, a local community or business group, a governmental agency or any one of a host of others." A key to the Partnering process is for all of the parties involved in a construction project to come together and examine their goals and objectives to determine common ground. Typically, these goals and objectives include a desire for quality, profitability, safety, on-time completion and other similar items. The Partnering team then determines how to work together to achieve these. This is done initially through a Partnering conference where all of the key players including their respective project managers meet for two or more days. Each organization represented presents their goals, objectives, concerns, methods of operation, etc. Common ground is identified and agreement is reached on dispute and issue resolution. This is embodied in a Partnering Charter that all sign and agree to follow. The initial Partnering conference is best led by an outside facilitator who is objective and can direct the process. It should never be led by the client. As part of this conference, the parties agree to establish a regular Partnering meeting process throughout the life of the project. In order to make Partnering a success, several additional items should be considered. - Partnering requires the strong backing of the client. If they believe in it and support it, then it will succeed. - The client has to be willing to pay for the Partnering process by hiring a facilitator, and by paying for the time of the team members for participating. - The design and construction team members must support Partnering from the top down. If senior management does not provide support, then the process becomes much more difficult. - Project managers must be regular participants in Partnering meetings. 9. Are you experienced in working with specialists hired by owners/clients? A wide range of specialists have appeared on the construction scene in recent years. Most are hired by the client to aid in cost control and/or provide management skill lacking in the owner's organization. How successful these specialists are is a subject of great debate. Project Management Consultants: These are firms that specialize in managing a particular project for a client who lacks the skill, staff, time or interest to do so. For example, a hospital adding an doctor's office building might turn to a project management consultant to help define the scope, determine funding needs and devices, hire architects and engineers, etc. Program Management Consultants: These are similar to project management consultants except they manage an entire building program. For example, a school district renovating many schools may hire a program management consultant. Design Builders: This growing approach is used by owners seeking "one-stop shopping" for both the design and construction. The believe is that communication and cost control is improved when both parts are in the same organization. A corporation requiring a new manufacturing facility may find this a very effective approach. Construction Managers: Construction managers typically justify their fee by cost savings they can identify during the design and construction process. This may occur based on a product substitution, alternative erection process, value engineering or other methods. CM's can be very effective on large, complex projects such as a significant public building, highway reconstruction or other similar jobs. Howard Birnberg is executive director of the Association for Project Managers. He may be reached at (312) 664-2300. Return to the List of Articles Return to the Association for Project Managers Main Page Email the Association for Project Managers
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