Chapter 3 recap

Money and time

The key takeaways from this chapter’s 3 lessons.

Project controls in plain words

Project controls compare progress against a baseline: programme (time) and budget (cost).
The critical path is the chain of activities that sets the finish date; delays on it delay the project.
Earned value compares the work planned, the work done and what it cost, to show both schedule and cost performance.
Model-based quantities, 4D links and progress data make controls faster and more trustworthy.

Estimators price designs; quantity surveyors (cost managers) manage cost through the project: cost plans, tender pricing, valuations and change.
They work to measurement rules (for example NRM in the UK) that may differ from how models are built.
Classification lets model elements map to cost items; without it, quantities can't be priced reliably.
Model comparison between revisions gives fast, objective change quantities.

Procurement routes (traditional, design and build, management contracting, collaborative forms) decide who designs, who builds and who carries risk.
In design and build, design responsibility often passes from the client's designers to the contractor (novation), and so do the models.
Contract documents, specifications and the information protocol decide what information each party must deliver.
Changes cost money because contracts price a defined scope; information changes count too.