All species of alternative project delivery have radically changed the working environment of architects. Just name one variety: design-build (DB), engineer-procure-construct (EPC), integrated project delivery (IPD), alliance contracting, or public-private partnership (P3) projects. Plus hybrids of each. By some counts there are 30 varieties of design-build, alone. Any of these contracting methodologies will most likely subscribe to additional process improvement techniques, whether lean design and construction principles (Lean) derived from the Toyota automobile manufacturing business or Six Sigma™ principles adopted from Motorola’s manufacturing business, or some combination of all the above.
In my daily work existence, the trafficking of alternative project delivery information is nonstop. Terms sheets. Teaming agreements. Design subcontracts. Commercial and legal terms and conditions. Scope plus schedule should equal fee. And when considering new business opportunities, I always ask my colleagues: “Who is the design manager?” Hard lessons learned have taught me that any alternative project delivery project that does not have a designated, competent design manager is far more apt to fail. Perhaps predestined to fail. Why? Let me explain.
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Design managers are a critically important function in alternative project delivery world.
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Design managers are highly sought after individuals that can effectively, capably communicate in both languages – professional services providers, i.e. architects/engineers, and construction contractor and trade contractors. They’re bilingual translators, you might say.
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Design managers may be employed by the architect/engineer or construction contractor but are most often employed by the construction contractor.
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Design managers respect and understand the iterative nature of the design process and manage the successful outcome of the design process while being fully aware of the economic, performance, contracting, and other ancillary constraints of the project. Good design managers are good business people.
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Design managers are often licensed architects/engineers or well experienced pre-construction professionals that are adept at the creative problem-solving of design while being able to instantly marshal the construction forces to convert the design solution to a quantifiable conceptual cost estimate, a business-savvy procurement strategy, a reasonable performance schedule, and a constructability review.
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Design managers understand the real psychological and personality differences often evident between architects/engineers and their construction peers, bridging the gap with collegial, collaborative cooperation that gets past real differences to real one plus one equals three outcomes.
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Design managers are often the most important (and under-recognized) person on the alternative project delivery team, making the difference between dysfunctional business as usual and high-performance project delivery success. The absence of a design manager is indicative of problems ahead.
An excellent guide to design managers' roles and responsibilities and design management as a topic is the revised and updated Professional’s Guide to the Managing the Design Phase published by the Charles Pankow Foundation, http://www.pankowfoundation.org/, to which I (and other authors) contributed sections on the topic of design management. Also, as a general primer one might consider the best practices publication from Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), see http://www.dbia.org/resource-center/Pages/Best-Practices.aspx, for informative, universally-applicable good ideas.