Assembling A Collaborative Team - Other - Page 62
Assembling a Collaborative Project Team
The timing of contractor involvement establishes the generic nature of the
project team. Once this has been determined, the specific roles required at each
stage can be considered, decisions regarding the party best placed to
undertake each role can be made and the Contractual Tree developed.
What differentiates the Project Roles Table and the
Contractual Tree?
While the consideration of the required project roles is straightforward it does
require a number of detailed decisions to be made and a number of strategic
points to be addressed. These are covered below. To simplify this decisionmaking process, the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 advocates the preparation of
two documents: the Project Roles Table and the Contractual Tree. The Project
Roles Table establishes which roles are required on a project at each stage.
The Contractual Tree sets out the contractual relationships between the parties
allocated to carry out each role.
By separating these aspects, a simple diagram can be used to represent the
Contractual Tree. Both documents can be developed either in succession or
simultaneously. The crucial point is that if the simple steps to determine WHO
is to be involved are not properly carried out, the next steps, which require more
time, will not be as effective. More importantly, the same Project Roles Table can
work with different Contractual Trees. By separating the two diagrams, the
complexity of the decision-making processes is simplified.
What project roles are required?
The first step in the preparation of the Project Roles Table is to consider the
roles that are required on a project. Unless the project is limited in its nature
and scope – for example, undertaking work up to the application for planning
consent only – all of the core project roles will be required (see Figure 6.1).
The need for additional roles will depend on the specific demands of each
project, as well as the skill sets of the core designers, and it may be necessary
to revisit the need for these roles as the project progresses. However, early
scoping of these roles can be important in ensuring that adequate fee
allowances are made by the client, as well as assisting in the preparation of
detailed Schedules of Services, allocating design responsibility and agreeing
Information Exchanges.
Once all of the necessary roles have been determined, the possibilities of
combining roles, consideration of who might undertake them at each stage
and the circumstances in which particular roles may not be required at certain
stages can be considered.
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