Projects

There is an unquestionable overlap between our building surveying and projects teams and indeed the disciplines often merge on single projects. Generally, however, our approach is for projects to pick up where the building surveying teams remit ends.

A loose rule of thumb is that our building surveying team will generally administer more simplistic works projects where minor to intermediate forms of contract are most applicable.

Normally those works deriving from asset management/portfolio reviews including, but not limited to, dilapidation reinstatement works, domestic extensions and refurbishments and general smaller works packages.

Our projects team will usually drive the larger and more bespoke projects from feasibility/inception through and
co-ordination of the design team (this can be internal and external designers) according to clients’ preference and onto tendering and delivering of the works packages.

Science and Technology forms a specific and diverse area of expertise of our projects team. We are retained under framework by a Defence client and have in-house know how to co-ordinate design and proven track record for successful delivery under budget and on time of part or full clean room facilities from feasibility through to completion.

Project Management

Project management is the discipline of planning, organising, motivating and controlling resources to achieve specific goals.

The key to successful project management is a clear understanding of the specific project brief and then leading the project through its execution stages to achievement of its prime goals and objectives.

As project managers, we strive to lead the project team, encouraging them to work collaboratively.

A project is a temporary endeavour designed to produce a unique product, service or result with a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or deliverables), undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value.

The temporary nature of projects stands in contrast with business as usual (or operations), which are repetitive, permanent, or semi-permanent functional activities to produce products or services. In practice, the management of these two systems is often quite different and, as such, requires the development of distinct technical skills and management strategies.

The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while honouring the preconceived constraints. The primary constraints are scope, time, quality and budget.

The secondary, and more ambitious challenge, is to optimise the allocation of necessary inputs and integrate them to meet pre-defined objectives.

Taking on board these goals and objectives, it is then important to fully understand both the primary and secondary constraints.

Our long standing experience working with clients of the defence and commercial sector, where unforeseen and unmanaged delays and unpredictable cost and scope creep are simply unacceptable, ensures we are continually reviewing and challenging the project execution plan through its development and beyond, ensuring the whole project team (including our own staff) are accountable for their actions.

At Primmer Olds B.A.S we embrace the S.M.A.R.T management philosophy, creating goals around the critical tasks and measuring them accordingly. We encourage the whole project team, including the client, to analyse the critical tasks against the S.M.A.R.T philosophy.

The illustration below sets out the S.M.A.R.T approach.

The benefits of employing us as Project Managers on your project are:-

• Increase in project team efficiency and working relationships
• Effective stakeholder management
• Where appropriate we are not afraid to challenge the whole project team including the client.
• Improve delivery in terms of time, cost, quality and safety
• Early identification of Risk awareness allows early mitigation strategy.
• Enhanced quality both through and at completion of the works.
• Improved customer satisfaction.

At Primmer Olds B.A.S, we collectively have over 70 years experience and a first class reputation of managing a wide variety of minor to complex projects across numerous sectors, for delivering on time, under budget and to a high class quality in many sectors. These include, but are not limited to, Defence, Space, Retail, Financial, Commercial and Residential.

CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION

An essential skill of our project management team is advising our clients on the selection and management of a suitable building contract. Time, cost, quality and risk all impact on how a project is to be procured and we consider these same factors each and every time we advise on a suitable building contract. The complexity, nature and size of a project all influence which contract suite and which contract form should be used.

At Primmer Olds B.A.S our project management team are fully conversant and have a wealth of experience of all principal building contracts including NEC, JCT and GC Works. We would be more than happy to discuss your specific project and advise on the most appropriate means of procuring your building contract.

Involving us early in your project requirement ensures we can establish your brief and any potential constraints, thereafter enabling us to work with you in establishing and structuring the full project team requirements as well as the level of design responsibility and control that you wish to retain.

Whilst the term ‘project manager’ is generally used and considered as an all-encompassing coordination role, our true title will vary depending on the form of contract to be employed. This can, for example, vary to Contract Administrator for certain JCT Minor and Intermediate Contracts to Employers Agent for JCT Design and Build, Project Manager for NEC Contract and Project Co-Ordinator for GC Works. The complexity and involvement of this role similarly varies with each.

In selecting the appropriate contract there are a number of key deliverables to be considered:

• Level of design to be completed by the employer.
• The risk the employer is willing to retain
• Anticipated budget for the works
• The probability of design change post contract
• Complexity of the works
• The depth of the clients design team
• Client experience at similar projects

Once we have worked with the client to establish the main deliverables of the contract, the employer, with the assistance of his consultants, will wish to consider the procurement route to be followed. The main options are:

Turn Key – The Contractor takes total responsibility for the engineering, procurement and construction and provides the employer with a completed facility.

Design and Construct – The Contractor prepares the design in accordance with the Employers Requirement document and constructs to that agreed design.

Construct Only – A ‘traditional’ procurement route whereby the contractor constructs in accordance with the design prepared by the employer’s design team. Under a JCT with Contractors Design Portion, the employer and his team may prepare only part of the design and whereby the remainder of the design is completed by the contractor.

Project Management – The employer engages a project manager to act as his/her agent with control over the whole project which may be divided into parts.

Construction Management – The employer engages a Construction Manager to programme and co-ordinate the design and construction; activities are divided and managed in separate trade packages.

The above table sets provides a guide as to how risk is roughly apportioned between the employer and contractor through the various main Procurement Routes.

The main responsibilities of the Client Representative include:

• Gathering information pertaining to develop the project brief
• Facilitating the design development of the client brief
• Assembling the team and managing clients consultants in the delivery of the project
• Liaison with the client team ensuring all aspects of project constraints are evaluated
• Organising and managing of Core Group meetings and Partnering Team meetings
• Organising and managing Value Management, Value Engineering and Risk Management
• Contract Administration
• Management of Time, Cost and Quality
• Project Closedown, Handover and Defect Remedy

FEASIBILITY AND VIABILITY STUDIES

We encourage clients to approach this as early on in their project concept as possible.

This is an approach we welcome with open arms. We find that much of our repeat business comes from our honesty at the early stage of the project whereby the client will often understand their end goal or find they have an upfront allocation of limited funding. They may wish to explore the potential of the land or real estate but not necessarily understand the journey they need to take to realise their investment’s potential.

We do not charge to prepare a fee quote and will usually offer an initial hour or so consultation free of charge in order to simply listen to our client’s requirements.

It is this initial understanding which not only prevents misunderstanding further down the line but then ensures we can maximise our scope and what the client receives for what is often a very limited budget.

Quite often the feasibility reports we prepare will be taken forward by the client for full funding, or even before that, to obtain stakeholder approval to develop a very basic concept.

The feasibility stage of a project is arguably the most important. The contents of the feasibility report must be concise and purposeful and ensure that its output ideally achieves all its objectives and, where it doesn’t, how it can.

Generally anything is achievable given more money, time or by changing a components quality and then once these are realised, establishing if the preferred execution can be done safely.

All feasibility reports will consider four common deliverables:

• Time
• Cost
• Quality
• Safety and Risk

Through the feasibility report, each of these key components should be appropriately detailed and evaluated. In parallel, the effect of changing one of these components should be considered against its impact on any of the others.

RISK

All projects have risks.

Risk management should establish a robust system for control around which the risks, opportunities and uncertainties facing the project can be better understood, quantified and managed by the project team.

Using risk management to achieve the key objectives of the project requires the implementation of an effective risk management regime, which in turn requires a three-phased approach to the management of risk as follows:

• The identification of risks, opportunities and uncertainties at project/business level
• Risk quantification and analysis for decision support
• Ongoing risk management services

When we are conceiving and managing a project it is imperative that we identify from the feasibility stage and understand:

• The top project risks
• The consequences of the risks should they occur
• How much in time and money will it cost to reduce or eliminate each risk?
• What are the options?
• Is mitigation cost effective?

We employ a robust and highly detailed risk and log matrix which we consider to be a live document through the duration of the project. We consider it is our competence and thoroughness in recognition and management of risk that has resulted in us presently being employed by several clients to manage only the risk element of their project.