6.12 The Interim Report found "widespread acceptance amongst consultants that a lead manager should always be appointed for the design process, to head an integrated design team". This in the past was the traditional role of the architect or engineer. Because of the complexity of modern construction techniques, it has become increasingly difficult for designers to be responsible for all aspects of design of a large project, and also act as contract administrators. Clients have looked for a single person/firm to pull the whole process together for them. They have tended to go through a number of stages. The first is to seek one leader of the consultants' team, who may not be the principal designer. The second is to ask the leader to be responsible for advising upon the appointment of the other consultants. The next stage is for the leader to become the channel between the client and the contractor. From there it is only a small step to becoming a single Project Manager who is responsible, as the representative of the client, for dealing with the contractor and the other consultants. Some forms of contract such as the New Engineering Contract and the BPF System recognise the Project Manager (or client's representative) as the specific representative of the employer.
6.13 Every project has to be managed. But that does not necessarily require a separate or external Project Manager (PM). Many well-instructed clients have their own in house Project Management. Conversely, some Government Departments, and especially the Ministry of Defence Works Services, retain external PMs by advertisement and competitive fees for most of their work, and then transfer to the PM the responsibility for delivery of the project. There are mixed views within the industry about the effectiveness of Project Managers. In some cases this may reflect disappointing performance by individual PMs. But it may also be because the PM has been retained after the contract has run into difficulties, or work has already begun and various procurement route options have thereby been blocked off33. APM who is brought in late for "fire fighting" has to assert influence over a contract which may already have gone wrong, and where trust has broken down.
6.14 There is increasing (if sometimes reluctant) acceptance that Project Management, and a separate discipline of Project Managers, are permanent and growing features of the construction scene. But it is probably most satisfactory if the discipline can be provided "in house". The PM will then clearly have the authority of the client to make decisions. If it is necessary to retain an external consultant as PM, the client should first decide whether such an additional level of fees will be justified by the value of the project, or whether a lead designer3 can also act in that capacity. Where external expertise is required (and justified), one very effective approach might be for an individual to be identified with the necessary skills and seconded into the client's organisation. This should ensure that the PM not only has the requisite expertise but also has authority to act on the client's behalf and has undivided loyalties. Where a design and construct route is chosen, the client's representative/employer's agent should not be there to manage the project - which is the job of the contractor, to whom that risk has been allocated - but to represent the interest of the client if problems arise. "Project Manager" is an inappropriate and confusing term for the client's representative in design and construct procurement.
6.15 There is also a feeling that Project Management requires more training and a clearer status in the industry. The Association of Project Managers (APM) is growing, and gave helpful evidence to the Review. The Chartered Institute of Building published in 1992 a Code of Practice for Project Management for construction and development, which sets out a job specification for a PM, and guidance on the PM's role within the process. Considerable work is in progress to formulate a Level 5 National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) for Project Management, as a post graduate qualification. A single, generally agreed list of responsibilities and duties for Project Managers would be desirable. Discussions between the APM, the DOE and the CIC should be held to achieve this.
6.16 Clients, including Government Departments, should not automatically go down the route of appointing an external Project Manager in a separate role. For some projects they might do better to transfer risk to the contractor under the design and construct route or to use a lead manager responsible for the co-ordination of other consultants, who also undertakes design or supervision. Nor is there any clear benefit from Government Departments having their own procurement systems or requiring external Project Managers to devise their own prequalification arrangements. But whatever the procurement route chosen, there should always be provision for separate adjudication.
6.17 Some criticism was expressed to the Review, particularly in Scotland, about the experience and training of some Departmental project sponsors. While it is important that they should be able to call upon expert advice at pre-contract strategy stage from an independent professional, and later from a client's representative, lead or Project Manager, training courses for sponsors within the Civil Service should be fully discussed with construction experts, including clients.
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33 See, e.g., NAO report "Relocation of the Patent Office", February 1994, paragraph 3.14. "By the time the consultant Project Director was appointed in November 1988, the fast track contract strategy had been agreed, the final sketch design, which formed the basis for tendering on the contract, had been approved and tendering action had begun." See also the description by Mr David Pearce, Construction Project Manager of the year 1992 in "Project" - The Bulletin of the Association of Project Managers - July 1993. He describes how, when he took over a particular site as Project Manager in April 1990, "Bulk Excavation ... was 90% complete, with the concrete frame approximately 20% complete".
34 Who may not necessarily be an architect, as the RIBA themselves accept (evidence, P.9).
35 This approach has been strongly advocated by Mr Peter Rogers of Stanhope.