Assembling A Collaborative Team - Other - Page 76
Assembling a Collaborative Project Team
What is the purpose of a Design Responsibility Matrix?
Determining whether a traditional or contractor-led project team is more
appropriate and establishing the timing of the contractor’s involvement
influences the proposed procurement route and the form of Building Contract
to be used. These, in turn, dictate whether the contractor will be contractually
responsible for any design work. The options for responsibility comprise:
• no design work
• discrete aspects of the design, or
• all aspects of the design.
However, regardless of the procurement route and the contractual allocation of
design responsibility to the contractor, the actual design work will be undertaken
by either a member of the design team or a specialist subcontractor. Projects
where the design team is fully responsible for all aspects of the design are
increasingly rare (except perhaps smaller projects). It is therefore likely that
certain aspects of the design will be progressed by a member of the design team to
a predetermined level of detail and then completed by a specialist subcontractor
prior to fabrication and construction (curtain walling, for example) whereas other
aspects (such as brickwork) will be developed by a member of the design team
in sufficient detail to enable construction on site.
The Design Responsibility Matrix considers this crucial point and is used to
allocate design responsibility for each aspect of a project to a member of the
design team, as well as setting out which aspects will be developed by a specialist
subcontractor. The matrix assists by defining the design boundaries between
design team members as well as the items that will be developed by a specialist
subcontractor. The matrix can then be used to define the extent of design work
to be included in the Contractor’s Designed Portion of a JCT Building Contract,
which is a recognised method of allocating design responsibility for discrete
aspects of the design to a contractor on traditional contracts. A further complexity
is determining how the various elements will be specified. This may impact on
the specialist subcontractors selected by the contractor to tender for the works
and can have a fundamental effect on other aspects, such as the contractor’s
ability to employ innovative solutions or have greater control over the
specification of materials.
It is, of course, difficult to apportion precise aspects of the design before a
design exists; however, the Design Responsibility Matrix allows responsibility
to be defined generically at the start of the project, based on experience gained
from previous projects. The matrix can then be revisited as the design progresses
and adjusted to reflect any changes to design responsibility that may be necessary.
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