1. Construction Management or
Contract Management?
October 21th, 2010
“Construction software built by the industry, for the industry.”
www.digitaltimecapture.com
3. Industry Best Practices
1. Project Alignment & Integration
2. Scope Management
3. Safety Management
4. Quality Management
5. Cost Management
6. Schedule Management
7. Human Capital Plan
8. Communication Plan
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9. Risk Management
10.Procurement Plan
11.Dispute Resolution
12.Performance Management
a. Know the contract
b. Speak your customers language
c. When you don’t know seek clarification
d. Report/Communicate all work
4. Project Alignment & Integration
• Internal Project Execution Plan & Checklist
– Scope, Estimate & Schedule Review
– Budget & Cost Control Set-up
• Project Readiness Assessment
• Client Kick-off Meeting
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Construction Industry Institute Research
– Alignment & Integration = 20% decrease in cost &
30% improvement to schedule
– Scope = 4% improvement in Change Management &
2% improvement in Pre-assembly
5. Kick-off Meeting
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Kick-off Meeting
Understand your customers expectations
Understand their interpretation of the contract
Kick-off is the start of communication not the end
Involve the right people (Project Admin)
Ask Questions
Set the tone for an open dialog
Kick-off Checklist
9. Manage Changes in Scope
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• Project Scope & Objectives are understood
• Project WBS is clear and logical
• Timely & accurate information
• Make sure everyone has the same information
• Change logs, Separate Cost Codes, identify RFI,
SI, NCR, etc.
• No Ambiguity – “Owner would like”, “Engineer
Requested”
• Identify impact on schedule as well as budget
• Confirm payment provisions
11. Reporting Everything
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Express Contract Provisions – A
provision that is plainly written in the
text of the contract.
Implied Contract Provisions –
Provisions that come from long-standing
or commonly held understanding that
come both from the customs and
practices of the construction industry
and from past decisions of the court.
14. Construction Management or Contract Management?
“Construction software built by the industry, for the industry.”
www.digitaltimecapture.com
Where does DTC fit?
23. Contact Me
Scott Cuthbert
Chief Executive Officer
scott.cuthbert@digitaltimecapture.com
Digital Time Capture Inc.
Suite 201, 9644 – 54 Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta T6E 5V1
Direct: 1.780.454.3301 ext 223
Mobile: 1.780.221.6737
www.digitaltimecapture.com
24. Thank you for attending
www.digitaltimecapture.com
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Notes de l'éditeur
Thanks you for taking the time to join us today we truly appreciate your participate and look forward to your feedback.
In today’s market it goes without saying that construction companies need to be expert builders.
But the need to be expert administrators is often over looked.
Scott – PCL & KPMG Consulting, Co-Founder of DTC
Nick – Altair Contracting, Constructive Strategies, beginning
Thanks Michelle Klopstra our marketing specialist for organizing the webinar.
Today’s webinar will be made available on our website.
Also watch for some of the best practices checklists I will be referring to throughout the presentation as we will also be posting them on our website.
Project Review Checklist
Project Readiness Assessment
Project Kick-off Agenda & Checklist
Volumes upon volumes of Best Practices
Everyone had their own Flavour
Today’s focus will be on a few key learning's around Project Alignment & Integration and Scope Management.
From the Contract Management perspective.
Success of a project is directly linked to meeting stakeholders expectations, and failure is linked to communication breakdown. – Francis T. Hartman (DPBO) Good constructors fail because inability to communicate.
It is easy to be aligned but much more difficult to be integrated. The contract defines the details of how the relationship between the owner and the contractor will work. Therefore the contract is key to project integration. Are your people and systems organized and able to integrate?
Bring admin into the processes as early as possible. It is important to understand the internal stakeholders expectations as well as the customers expectations. Understand the contract and assumptions from your companies perspective first is the best starting point.
Sending the PM won’t set you up for success.
Seldom if ever are all aspects of the project accounted for day one in the contract. It’s important to set the tone for open communication and establish who your key contacts are for operations, contract admin and finance.
#1 – Ensure there is a kick-off meeting
#2 – Ensure the project admin are in attendance as well as the operations. (typically we invited once there is an issue)
Fundamentally Business is based on relationships the better (more clear more open) the relationship the easier it is to transact with each other.
The project plan/schedule is the baseline for managing and measuring progress and performance.
Don’t expect the owner to take the time to understand your internal coding.
It won’t matter if you are performing the work according to the plan if you can’t clearly substantiate actual performance.
Speak your customers language and rise above the competition. Owner - Wanted level 4 detail but learned to live with level 2.
During the project lack the discipline to accurately manage the schedule or measure progress.
In hind sight – the number one “Do Over” is develop and regularly use a tracking & appraisal system.
If you are able to provide accurate, timely information analysis can be performed and corrective actions can be made.
If the information isn’t meaningful it will be ignored and you’ll look back and wish you had done a better job.
Alignment – you are all working towards the same objectives.
Integration – if you understand the commercial terms, the intent of the contract and you know who to talk to regarding your questions.
You are in a very good position to effectively resolve issues and challenges as they inevitably arise.
Why do some relationships work and others do not.
If you are known as a contractor who proactively works with the owner to resolve issues – you will typically get the assistance you need.
If you are known as the contractor who throws information over the fence you will be waiting a very long time before you hear back.
Know your role regarding Contract Management – restaurant.
No matter how well the project has been planned there will be changes to the scope.
The best approach – don’t perform the work until the proper authorization has been granted.
The reality – the work is completed before it is approved.
#1 - Report all work – approved or pending and even rejected (come back to this)
#2 – Document, document and document
Unreported hours - Significantly distort schedule/performance if not reported
Not always understood is there is the scope of work being performed and there is the scope or terms of the contract. New equ, or class – if it’s not in the contract it’s a change to the scope.
Operations may be directing and signing off on the work performed
But it is contract admin that ensures the work conforms to the terms of the contract as they are responsible for controlling change management process.
You can’t just perform the work you also need to adhere to the contract and follow the change management process.
Why report everything
Reporting the work - Arguably provides contractual notice (if you file it in folder under pending approval it’s no help to anyone)
Field level approval – provides acceptance of the work performed
Contract perspective there are potentially still many details to address – authorizations, classification, rate, UoM, Quantity, Coded properly.
Realize that not disputing the work was performed but rather questioning - was it performed in accordance with the contract and the change management process?
If the work was completed before it was approved it’s probably the first time contract admin is hearing about it.
Thanks you for taking the time to join us today we truly appreciate your participate and look forward to your feedback.
In today’s market it goes without saying that construction companies need to be expert builders.
But the need to be expert administrators is often over looked.
We can import or mirror the WBS of the schedule and track actual labour, equipment and materials against the plan.
We are able to update the schedule with actuals.
We are also able to map to contractors internal systems and export labour, equipment and material information back to your job costing or payroll system.
In addition to mirroring the WBS
DTC also allows the terms of the contract to be set-up and automated.
When using a rules based system to capture timesheet data you can begin to manage and measure your information.
Summary of overall labour, equipment and materials.
Organized by original scope or extra work.
And grouped by pending, approved, submitted or rejected – these statuses are configurable to meet the specific workflow of each project.
Statuses are configurable.
Timesheets or even lines within the timesheet will follow along the required approval route.
Just and example of DTC’s ability to break out the approval process by each individual line.
One timesheet was submitted but two lines where “rejected”.
Better to get 90% of the work approved and paid than have 100% of rejected and on hold.
WBS that represents a change prior to formal approval.
Can identify the relevant documents.
Define the nature of the scope change (field instructions, contractor initiated, engineer requested, etc.) Project Type is configurable
Can even manage the status of the folder to ensure it isn’t invoices or reported as approved work.
WBS that represents a change prior to formal approval.
Can identify the relevant documents.
Define the nature of the scope change (field instructions, contractor initiated, engineer requested, etc.) Project Type is configurable
Can even manage the status of the folder to ensure it isn’t invoices or reported as approved work.
Our observation has been
If you communicate in terms of the WBS clearly and openly
Manage the complexities of the approval process
As closely as possible follow the terms of the contract and change management process
Report accurately and in a timely fashion
You will be paid on time
We know this is not always and easy task but we know from first hand experience there are contractor who are paid on time.