As is the case in the project's construction phase, it is important for the government party to adequately resource the design development activity of a State-initiated modification process (if applicable), because this process is often the final opportunity to fine tune requirements relating to the modification. It is particularly important that the contract director is confident the private party's proposed design solution will meet the State's changed service delivery requirements.
Depending on the scale of the State-initiated modification, the contract management team should be assisted by technical specialists (such as architects, engineers and quantity surveyors) along with user groups and stakeholders, to review the detailed designs. The contract director has an important role to play by ensuring that experts, users, and stakeholders are providing useful and constructive comments about the design, without intervening in the private party's innovation and design role. Such interference may result in the government party assuming performance risk and potentially some occupational health and safety risk. This re-allocation of risk may undermine the project's value for money.