Assembling A Collaborative Team - Other - Page 29
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Operation and maintenance – clients who are also end users are becoming
more focused on the benefits of properly considering operational and
maintenance issues during the early stages of the design and consider that
contractors are best placed to ensure that such reviews are properly undertaken.
What are the downsides of a contractor-led solution?
The principal drawback of contractor-led project teams is the possibility that the
level of design quality required or expected is not achieved. While most contractors
involved in bidding for contractor-led forms of procurement understand that good
design is required to win a tender, the client is one step removed from the design
team and the design process. Ultimately, the client is selecting only the contractor
and not the architect or the design team.
To overcome this perception, contractors will typically employ practices with
design experience relevant to the particular sector or building type for which they
are bidding and who are therefore most likely to deliver an innovative, and winning,
concept. They will also utilise in-house design managers with a design background.
However, in some circumstances the possibility exists that, following the award
of a Building Contract, design decisions will be influenced or made by those with
inappropriate design knowledge or training and clients must consider how this
aspect will be dealt with under the terms of the Building Contract.
As with all forms of procurement, the client needs to consider how important
design quality is and ensure that it is properly briefed as part of the Project
Objectives, weighing this aspect against the importance of other elements,
such as cost and programme certainty.
Collaborative working within project teams
In setting out the two generic project teams, no mention has yet been made
of collaborative working or the collaborative contracts that are frequently cited
as improving the efficiencies of the project team.
Assembling a Collaborative Project Team proposes that collaborative working
methods primarily rely on ‘soft’ skills inherent in the individuals working in the
project team. On the basis that the process for selecting the right parties and
individuals focuses on this point, this book proposes that the best method of
melding these individuals, and their practices and companies, into an effective
project team is by ensuring that they are each fully aware of what they need
to do and when they need to do it and by agreeing how they will work together.
The project team will still, however, need to use their soft skills to deliver the
project effectively. These skills can be reinforced at the start of the project by
undertaking team-building exercises or events as part of the workshop process
for determining and agreeing the documents required, as detailed in this publication.
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