CONSTRUCTION-DEVELOPMENT RELATED CONSULTANCY SERVICES
Introduction
The success of major or complex projects depends, more than anything else, on two key factors - the knowledge and experience that goes into their conception, planning and delivery.
Australasia is extremely well resourced with competent consultants across the range of construction and development related disciplines. Often, however, projects require something more. At important stages throughout their delivery, they often require the input of a senior adviser/analyst with a combination of academic knowledge and practical experience that is recognised as extraordinary.
The purpose of this document is to outline a range of services that can provide these key factors to major and complex projects.
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd now offers the extensive experience and knowledge of its principal and a select and limited number of similarly knowledgeable and experienced individuals and entities, via alliance arrangements, to provide high level, peer review, trouble shooting and dispute resolution advice to project owners intent on maximising the success potential of their projects.
Range of
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd does not offer a complete project management or project direction service (albeit we are prepared to assist in the selection and appointment of an appropriately skilled and qualified person or entity to these roles). Rather we offer a high value-add service by purposefully maintaining a distinct separation and independence from appointed/potential dedicated project team members. We deal with top level project owners/stakeholders and their senior representatives, consulting particularly in the following areas:
Pre Contract
- Consultant selection guidance
- Project structuring advice
- Delivery system/procurement advice
- Contract document review/contract review workshops
- Project systems and procedures advice/review
- Risk management workshops
- Partnering workshops
- Tender presentation advice for consultants and contractors
- Tender selection panel membership
- Project Control Group representation
Post Contract
- Peer review reports
- Trouble shooting
- Adjustment management
- Earned value analysis and reporting
- Schedule analysis and reporting
- Claims negotiation advice
- Claims reports
- Conflict resolution conciliation management/facilitation
- Lessons learned analysis and reporting
Services description
We stress we have no interest in assuming or taking over the role of the project manager or project director, but rather to provide to boards and senior level management of project owners and major contracting organisations a range of services much of the value of which derives from their being provided independently of the project team and devoid of/unaffected by project related politics.
A clear goal of Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd (and a notable point of difference from other service providers) in any appointment is to concisely define the scope of service required and to proceed to achieve the objective and make ourselves redundant as expeditiously and professionally as possible.
Following is a brief description of our services.
Pre Contract Services
Consultant Selection Guidance
The thrust of this service is advice regarding the key consultants required for a project and the appropriate and most effective sequence of their appointment, cognisant of the type of project, its likely delivery system etc. Clearly this service is likely to be of more interest to clients with less experience in major projects ownership and/or delivery. The service is tailored to the needs of specific clients in specific project situations, and can range from simply assisting in appointment of the key initial project consultant (such as an experienced project director) to full team appointment advice and guidance.
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd can bring to your project a level of professionalism and independence in the consultant appointment process which is second to none.
Project Structuring Advice
Even very experienced project owners experience avoidable project stress resulting from minor errors in the structuring of project teams and the manner in which general and instructional communication channels are established. Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd can assist you to establish contractual, instructional and general information exchange protocols and lines of communication that will maximise the likelihood of your project being delivered without potentially costly communication breakdown problems, especially at the all important time of integration of pre-opening and operational personnel with project management operatives.
Delivery System/Procurement Advice
There are many different delivery systems available. Inexperienced project owners might benefit from advice on selection of a system which will maximise their chances of project success. Experienced clients tend to continue using systems that they have proven to meet their needs. However, adjustment of a proven system to include some aspects of another proven system (but one to which a particular client may not have been exposed) might offer the potential for enhanced project benefits.
Prudent project owners will consider the project delivery system even prior to appointment of design consultants, to ensure the form of agreement reached with the consultants does not preclude adoption of any particular contract delivery system. For example, if a client was considering novating a design team to a contractor after a tender process aimed at arriving at a document and construct type delivery arrangement, it would be necessary to include a clause in consultants’ agreements affording the client the right to effect such a novation. Clearly, many project owners might benefit from independent advice concerning delivery possibilities even prior to appointment of the project team.
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd and its alliance partners can offer project owners the benefits of extensive experience in a broad range of contractual delivery systems for complex and major projects.
Contract Document Review/Contract review Workshop
At the outset we stress this is not a service in any way designed to usurp or minimise the role of competent legal counsel in the contract preparation role. However, it is our experience that even the most experienced lawyer will welcome the input of an experienced and independent project director or manager during the latter stages of the contract preparation in particular. Contract planning and preparation time should be regarded as an investment, and one that might significantly contribute to minimisation of claims and disputes over the duration of the contract performance period.
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd has extensive experience in the negotiation of several billion dollars worth of construction and consultancy contractual arrangements using a broad range of delivery approaches. Through an alliance arrangement, we can also offer contractors the services of a former director of one of
Contract Review Workshops are a rarity except in the arena of the most experienced and professional project owners working with the most experienced and professional contractors. The need for such workshops derives from the fact that the team of people (from both sides of a contractual arrangement) who negotiate and write the contract document is often different from the exact team (from both sides of the contractual arrangement) who will have the responsibility to deliver the project. A Contract Review Workshop is an exercise run by person with proven facilitation skills and contract administration and project delivery experience and involving the delivery personnel. Its purpose is to work through the contract document seeking concurrence of understanding of the terms of that document. Where a difference of opinion arises concerning the meaning of a particular term, this is recorded for later review with the contract preparation team. It might be possible to resolve any disagreement among members of the delivery teams who were also members of the contract preparation teams. However, if this cannot be quickly achieved, the matter is set aside to be addressed later and the workshop continues.
When all points of disagreement have been noted, the members of the contract preparation team, including legal advisers, are invited to join the workshop to give their advice on the meaning of the terms on which the delivery teams could not reach a common understanding. Where there is agreement between the contract preparation teams of the parties that meaning is accepted by the delivery teams. Where there is disagreement regarding meaning of terms among the contract preparation teams, the matter must be negotiated to agreement between those teams and a contract addendum might be required.
The Contract Review Workshop may seem superfluous to less experienced owners and project management practitioners. However, it takes only a relatively short time, can be the ideal pre-cursor to an effective Partnering Workshop (see later herein) and is indisputably one of the most effective means of minimising claims and disputes on major projects.
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd has been a pioneer in Contract Review Workshops. And we can bring to workshops the benefits of an unsurpassed mix of recognised academic knowledge and practical experience in both on time within budget contract delivery together with extensive international experience in workshop facilitation.
Project Systems and Procedures Advice/Review
Central to all effective project management are systems and procedures that work effectively. Often project procedures are established hastily amid the stress and pressure of the project commencement. A simple and usually quick independent review of procedures can prevent expensive errors and ensure smooth project management in everyday and trouble shooting situations during project delivery.
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd can bring a wealth of academic knowledge and practical experience to a realistic review of your project systems and procedures.
Risk Management Workshops
Risk Management is one aspect of major and complex project management that is often seen as the domain of bankers and builders only. The use of such techniques as Delphi, Nominal Group, and Crawford Slip is virtually unknown in risk identification conducted by many owners’ project managers on major projects, yet these techniques are at the cutting edge of risk identification.
Usually, the owner’s project manager’s approach to risk management is to nominate an arbitrary (even if industry accepted) contingency amount and to attempt to manage the project to completion within the budget plus contingency allowance total. For owners progressing several projects contemporaneously, this approach can unnecessarily tie up significant sums in contingency budgets. Project financiers typically assess risk exposure using IT based
Alan Patching and Associates Pty. Ltd. recommends an approach involving detailed risk identification, and quantification of the expected value (or risk score) of at least the major (identified) risk elements after assessing likelihood of occurrence and potential impact. We also recommend the preparation of a detailed risk management plan using the four key strategies of acceptance, mitigation, transfer, or avoidance of identified risk events, and pursuing the selected strategy with clearly devised and focused risk management tactics.
Alan Patching and Associates Pty. Ltd. has conducted project related risk management training and has facilitated risk management workshops around the world. Our principal regularly conducts project risk management training around the world on behalf of two
Partnering Workshops
Partnering remains a popular technique for creating an environment for minimising disputes on projects.
In 1992, Alan Patching wrote the world’s first book on the subject, entitled, Partnering and Personal Skills for Project Management Mastery.
Alan Patching and Associates Pty. Ltd.’s partnering workshop facilitation follows the approach defined in that book.
Tender Presentation advice for Consultants and Contractors
Project owners routinely require consultants and/or contractors they have short-listed for selection to assist in project delivery to attend evaluation panel sessions. At these sessions proponents are required to verbally present their proposals and to introduce the personnel they intend to dedicate to the project if appointed
Many projects roles have been lost because of poor performance in such a presentation.
Alan Patching and Associates Pty. Ltd. Has conducted numerous presentation skills workshops around the globe. We have advised others on their presentations. We know about presentation. In 1996 our principal was selected to represent
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd offers presentation team preparation advice, either through direct coaching, or via analysis and written comment on presentation material (scripts and/or slides).
Tender Selection Panel Membership
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd offers project owners the services of its principal as a member of tender review and selection panels for major and/or complex projects. We can also arrange for an alliance partner with extensive experience in the contracting arena to assist on tender selection panels.
Project Control Group Representation
On certain high profile and complex projects, project owners may benefit from the opinion of an independent expert concerning reports and other documents generated by project consultants and contractors, and/or regarding specific technical discussion.
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd can provide this service in a number of ways ranging from comment on written reports prepared by project consultants and contractors, undertaking our own evaluations or project situations for comparison with those of full time project consultants and/or contractors, through to attending Project Control Group meetings (and others as the client deems necessary or requests).
Post Contract Services
Peer Review
As with some of our pre-contract services, Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd can provide this service in a number of ways ranging from comment on written reports prepared by project consultants and contractors, undertaking our own evaluations of project situations for comparison with those of full time project consultants and /or contractors, through to attending Project Control Group meetings (and others as the client deems necessary or requests).
Trouble Shooting
Projects simply do not always go according to plan. When they don’t, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the reason lies in the structure, membership or some other aspect of the project team, or the type of contract utilised and the manner of its formalisation. In fact, any number of reasons can lead to major problems on major and/or complex projects.
When serious problems do arise, the assistance of an independent, senior, and experienced project director/advisor can be invaluable to the expeditious resolution process. It is essential that such an advisor has a clear goal of achieving speedy redundancy. There should be no hint or suggestion of replacing incumbent project team members, rather defining and driving the rectification solution identification and the early stages of its application, and then withdrawing to allow the incumbent project manager or director to continue with his or her work.
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd has provided trouble shooting services on projects worth in excel of three billion dollars and, in our own right or in concert with our alliance partners, remain confident of providing a project trouble shooting service that is unsurpassed in the Australasian market place.
Adjustment Management
Plan-Implement-Control-Adjust is the catch cry of effective project management. Almost invariably, after any significant trouble shooting exercise, there will be some major adjustment to some aspect of project management operations. It might be some contractual renegotiation, perhaps structural change, even project management procedure adjustment. If such adjustments are not executed well, any trouble shooting effort might well prove wasted.
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd includes adjustment management as part of its trouble shooting service, and can also take on the role of adjustment manager (including peer review of recommended courses of action) following trouble shooting by project team members.
Earned Value Analysis and Reporting
Earned Value Analysis, seldom used in the Australasian major project environment, is a common technique for checking project health in the
Project managers of major and/or complex projects commonly face problems getting contractors to provide realistic schedules of the work they intend to perform. Even contractors who do provide worthwhile programs at project commencement are often reticent to regularly update them completely in line with project progress. This lack of regularly and accurately updated schedule records often makes any claims made by the contractor difficult, and sometimes impossible, for an owner to reasonably evaluate. Furthermore, assessing project schedule ‘health’ can be an impossible task in the absence of worthwhile project schedule information.
Earned Value techniques go a long way to overcoming these problems. They use cost information, specifically, original and adjusted contract information, actual cost, and to the extent it’s available, schedule information, to calculate cost and schedule variances from planned at any point in time. From this information, a Cost Performance Index and Schedule Performance Index can be calculated. Regularly plotting these indices on a graph with acceptable tolerances indicated gives an extremely useful trend analysis of project cost and schedule performance against original budgets and programs.
Earned Value Analysis is not only interested in comparison of actual costs of work completed against planned or budgeted (contracted) costs of work completed at a particular point in project progress, but also in budgeted cost of the work scheduled to be completed at that time. The technology allows prediction of completion cost based on current trend analysis as well as a range of other useful project health ‘health check’ information.
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd through its principal has delivered numerous formal courses in Earned Value Analysis in various locations around the world for two
Schedule Analysis and Reporting
In addition to Earned Value Analysis, we provide a traditional independent schedule analysis for project owners and contractors, sometimes working with alliance partners who are skilled in specific cutting edge IT technology appropriate to the purpose.
Claims Negotiation Advice
Often, involvement of project team members in major claims negotiation can actually lead to escalation of a potential dispute situation due to the natural inclination to protect positions rather than deal with the core principles which gave rise to the claim or dispute.
The involvement of an independent experienced project management practitioner and negotiator can be a crucial factor in resolution of major claims, potential disputes – even advanced disputes.
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd has extensive experience, and our principal has a thorough academic knowledge, of both contractual claims and of the process of negotiation. He lectures for two
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd can offer parties involved in contractual disputes a range of services from advising on a strategy for the negotiation to conducting the actual negotiation on their behalf.
Claims reports
When claims eventuate on projects, particularly in circumstances where escalation to dispute is expected, it is important for the parties to a contract to understand both the strong and weak points of their position. It can sometimes be useful to seek an overview independent opinion prior to pursuing a course of action proposed by consultants who might have been intimately involved with a project for some time. The purpose of such advice would not be so much to create an outright challenge to dedicated consultants’ advice as to ensure such advice was not too heavily filtered by the normal frustrations and stresses of long term project involvement.
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd has both the academic knowledge and practical experience to provide such independent evaluation and advice to a broad range of project types. We are also able to offer the more usual type of claims report, that being either in preparation of a claim for contractors, or in analysis of and comment on contractors’ claims for owners.
Conflict resolution, conciliation management/facilitation
Many disputes are settled on the steps to the courthouse. The problem with this approach is the great cost involved to get there. A more practical and less expensive approach can often be to try informal dispute resolution prior to proceeding along formal lines. A typical informal approach, with which we have previously been asked to assist, is to have an independent and experienced person evaluate the dispute circumstances and points of claims etc, and to prepare a report for delivery to one or both parties. In circumstances where both parties agree to the report preparation, it is usual for the report content to be delivered verbally to representatives of both parties at the time the written document is delivered. Where points of law are involved, we are prepared to work in alliance with suitably qualified and experienced independent legal professionals in preparing a report. We have even worked in circumstances wherein one party commissioned the report but the other party was prepared to attend a meeting for its verbal delivery because they accepted we had prepared it from an independent point of view.
Lessons learned analysis
It is becoming more usual to finish projects with an analysis of lessons learned from the completed project experience. For two compelling reasons, such an exercise is usually best completed by an independent person. Firstly, project team members are often jaded at the conclusion of a project and unmotivated to get really involved in what is often incorrectly regarded as a cosmetic and unnecessary exercise. Secondly, no lessons learned exercise can be of optimum value without an open and honest evaluation of project performance. The role of the independent consultant is firstly to motivate team members to become involved in the exercise, secondly to ensure the exercise is about detecting areas where improvement on future projects might be attained - and in no way a witch hunt, and finally to prepare a report addressing the main areas wherein value could be gained by a change of approach or process for future projects.
Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd offers a workshop and facilitation based lessons learned analysis and reporting service. This approach is generally regarded as effective from both cost and results perspectives.