At Watchdog, we have clients of all different shapes and sizes, in all different industries, building many different businesses. Some of our clients regularly use project management services, while others may be undergoing their first real estate project in 20 years, and not know that owner’s representative services even exist.
We have been asked, “what do you do?” many times before. In fact, we were recently asked exactly that by a prospective client. In order to clarify, we had one of our Senior Project Managers outline exactly what he did over three days of managing a major out-of-the-ground manufacturing facility. So, for anyone wondering what a day (or three days) in the life of a project manager looks like, feast your eyes!
Monday
- Review/respond to the end of previous week/weekend communications from client/contractors providing direction and distribution for new action items/concerns.
- Coordination of design questions/concerns/revisions
- Land development/approval process requirements
- Client updates
- Review previous week’s activities with Watchdog project team members.
- Weekly team meeting to review open items/assign tasks to team members
- Information sharing/updates from previous week activities
- Develop action items/focus for team members for the forthcoming week’s activities.
- Review progress of land development approvals.
- Follow up with appropriate parties for update and/or next steps.
- Coordinate information distribution and coordination with all parties – owner, design team and governmental agencies.
- Attend public meetings with local municipal agencies during approval process.
- Continue review and coordination with design teams.
- Sharing of owner’s intent/basis of design with design team.
- Coordinate technical requirements among all design disciplines.
- Attend coordination meetings between contractor and design team members as owner’s representative
- Contractor contract negotiations
- Provide input/guidance/recommendations during negotiations between GC and owner/owner’s legal team
- Review proposed changes to standard AIA contract terms and conditions
- Project Budget
- Develop project budget identifying all estimated owner’s costs
- Update project budget as changes occur
- Schedule
- Develop milestone schedule for all aspects of project: land development approvals; design; state/local agency approvals; contractor selection; construction pricing/costs; building construction duration(s); owner occupancy
- Revise/update schedule as needed to reflect updated project information
Tuesday
- Owner’s Meeting
- Attend/co-chair weekly owner’s update meeting with owner’s representative(s), contractor’s representatives and design team(s).
- Provide input/support regarding questions/concerns discussed during the course of the meeting.
- Lead discussions pertaining to: design; costs; subcontractor selection; scheduling; coordination of owner provided and installed equipment
Wednesday
- Design Team Coordination
- Participate in meeting/working session of joint design team members to coordinate different disciplines
- Evaluate proposed design criteria for feasibility, economics and impact to the project – constructability/final operational functions
- Encourage/establish criteria for information sharing between all disciplines to help minimize errors.
- Contractor Relationship
- Interact with members of GC team to develop open dialogue/communication
- Promote collaborative environment
- Encourage information sharing
- State Environmental Agencies
- Engage communication with agencies to coordinate exchange of information from owner to agency for review
- Communicate with agency contact(s) to facilitate owner required application process
- Collaborate with owner’s representatives to obtain necessary information for required applications
- Engage design team members where applicable to verify information for applications