DESIGN QUALITY CONTROL

How does the PM control the quality of the design works? I already mentioned that the quality management plan is a part of the PMP. But what does really quality management plan mean?

The quality management plan should answer the questions of who is responsible and when in time actions should occur. Since the primary product of the design phase is construction contract documents for construction contractors, decisions about quality requirements for construction and manufacturing need to be planned and included in the contract documents. The processes used for controlling quality of design are described hereinafter.

For a design/bid/build project, the project manager coordinates and oversees reviews at the design criteria, conceptual, preliminary engineering, 30 percent, 60 percent, 90 percent, 100 percent, and bid documents stages. The percent refers to the approximate ratio of design budget spent over total budget. Reviews at these points in design are key control points to the design management process.

Another process which the Clients are encouraged to apply is VE (value engineering). The objective of VE is to satisfy the required functions of the project at the lowest initial total cost and cost over the life of the project.

Peer review technique should be an early step in the design process that can add an external perspective to enhance the functionality of design, construction, and operation. Used in addition to a VE study, that is usually later in the design process, peer review is based on the question "can we do this better?" and can be used to provide an independent critique of the design phase.

Later in the design process, the design team will need to perform constructability reviews as part of the design process. Participants for constructability reviews can come from within Client team, the design team, or assistance can be obtained from, code officials, independent consultants, or contractors. The constructability reviews should be prior to completion of 90 percent and preferably shortly after 60 percent of the design.

The design manager is responsible for overseeing the design QA system. The design team can accomplish this by setting up an in-house QA system for the project and having the design manager perform the QA by overseeing the design consultant's QC efforts. As the project manager you will need to maintain an oversight role to acquire confidence that the quality management system for design is achieving the project quality objectives.

And last the method of documentation of comments and coordination responses should be described in the quality management plan. All comments made by phase reviewers shall be recorded either by copy of memos, e-mail, letters and/or marked plans received from the reviewers. In the event that comments are received through meetings with reviewers, there shall be minutes prepared that summarize the comments received. All comments shall be addressed to the designer responsible for the discipline that prepared the document being reviewed. The response shall be in writing and shall be formatted in a manner that identifies the document review date, reviewer’s comments and responses to the comments. The designer will be responsible for submittal of comment responses to the reviewing entity. Where it is necessary and prudent to discuss the comments with the reviewer(s) prior to making a response, the designer shall arrange for the meeting. Copies of all comments and responses shall be kept in the project files.

TIME MANAGEMENT

Do we manage time in construction? How do we cope with delay? How do we use technology?

I strongly recommend viewing following presentation if you want to develop your time management skills:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsU7EftWVx0&feature=relmfu

HOW TO RUN MEETINGS

The press of business has reduced my recent posting activity. I have been involved in a series of progress meetings and have been surprised by the lack of results due to incompetence of the resident engineers responsible for conducting these meetings. That's why I recommend the following link where you can find a good information on how to run the meetings:

http://www.projectmanager.com/how-to-run-team-meetings.php

SUPPORTING MANAGEMENT PLANS

Supporting management plans are added to a project as appropriate depending on the project's size and complexity. Larger and more complex projects may require adding one of the following supporting plans to the project management plan at project initiation:

• Quality management plan;
• Risk management plan;
• Contract management plan.

The quality management plan describes how the project will comply with the client's quality policy in terms of project procedures for quality assurance (QA), quality control (QC), and continuous process improvement. QA is the planned processes the project will follow to make certain that the quality policy is met through. QA audits to examine if the project activities are in compliance with project procedures, and process analysis to examine the effectiveness of project activities, learn from experience and problems encountered and thereby improve the process. QC is monitoring of the specific project results to determine whether they meet with predetermined quality standards and metrics. Continuous process improvement is the iterative application of  process  analysis over the length of the project and from project to project. Each consultant and construction contractor performing work on the project must have a QA plan that is acceptable to the client, so that the client can assess that the contractor's quality standards meet the client's quality management plan.

The risk management plan describes how the project is organized and the procedures used to manage the project risks, addressing in the plan:

• roles and responsibilities of project staff in risk management;
• identification of project risks;
• categorization of risks in terms of probability of occurrence and impact on project scope, cost, schedule, quality;
• risk handling, should the risk event occur, through either: 

Assumption-accepting the consequences of the risk;

Avoidance-changing the project deliverable design or work methods that lead to the risk;

Control-developing measures to reduce the risk's probability of occurrence, continually re-evaluating the risk, and having in place contingency plans to adopt that mitigate the impacts of the risk;

Transfer-sharing or transferring the consequences of the risk with others, for example, through insurance or warranty provisions.

The contract management plan defines what goods and services are to be acquired for the project and how they will be purchased or contracted, how project purchase orders and contracts will be administered, and what type of contracts will be used.