3.4 A common cause of complaint by the industry is that the client does not know its own mind. An inadequate brief is presented to the consultant and/or the contractor. The client subsequently requires detailed changes in the work, with serious implications for cost and programme. Formulation of a project strategy by the client is the first building block to a successful and cost effective scheme. The route that should be followed is set out in box 2 below.
| BOX 2 • The client perceives a need for new construction or refurbishment. • An internal assessment is made which considers benefits, risks and financial constraints. It lists options for carrying out the project. • Those options are put in order of benefits and feasibility. This may require external advice. The CUP (then the Public Competition and Purchasing Unit) suggested in Guidance Note 33 "Project Sponsorship" that a Professional Adviser be retained, whose work might largely finish with the appointment of a Project Manager. • At that point, the client takes a decision in principle as to whether the project is necessary or feasible at all. |
Box 2: Project Strategy
3.5 Some believe that this project strategy stage should involve likely participants in the project itself, and in particular the leader of the consultant team. For example, the DOE's manual of Guidance for Departments "Contracting for Works Services", volume III, "Responsibilities of Professional Consultants", begins its chapter on pre-design with "The Project Manager's contract with the client will have required the PM to install procedures to be followed by support consultants and control staff concerned with the project". It makes clear that a Project Manager is directly involved in the definition of need, while also stressing that the consultant may not necessarily become the PM for any further stages.
3.6 Many clients will undertake their own project strategy/need definition in-house. Those who are unable to do so are well advised to retain some external expert, but not initially in the title of Project Manager. Such a consultant is there to help the client decide if the project is necessary. If the "Professional Adviser" (as in CUP Guidance Note 33 terminology) has been retained in the expectation of becoming lead consultant for the project, it will place a substantial strain upon that individual to advise the client that the project is not needed at all or, if it is, that it could be a very small scheme which required no further consultant advice. Any client who wants external advice over project strategy and need definition should only retain an adviser on the express understanding that the role will terminate once the decision has been formulated on whether or not to proceed6.
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6 In its final report, the CIC draws attention to the consultancy service of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, which seeks to give clients practical and objective advice about their procurement strategies before any decisions have been made.