Design and construct is my preferred method of delivering projects, yet it can be the most frustrating. I like it because the project team can manage the process but I get frustrated when the team do not manage it well, and as a PM it is my responsibility to manage the team. Yes that sounds like a pile of crap because it is, the real reason is that it means the consultants are working for me NOT the client. I get to approve their invoices, comment on their drawings and generally get up them when they don’t perform.
An architect recently huffed and puffed that he “was not a subcontractor” and why? Because I insisted he signed a consultancy agreement. He being so apoplectic that his Dickie bow started spinning and carried him off to his 1992 Saab 900.
Now for hydraulic consultants aka a plumber with a tie. I have met very few of any real calibre, there are a few but not many. Structural engineers are absolute stars. They charge out a young kid straight from university at some exorbitant rate and when the check his calls just double the size of the steel member to allow for a “safety factor”.
But please don’t start me on acoustic engineers, green star rating advisers, interior designers, Colour coordinators, and the rest of the assorted bunch of “experts”.
But I am exaggerating a tad, I actually have a few friends in the consulting game and they give the construction survivor an equally hard time. There is a difference – I will never work for them. But will they keep working for me?
PREMDALE CONSULTING 