IPT Workbook 5

Integrated Project Team: implementation of agreed solution (part 2 of 2)

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Integrated Project Team

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At a glance

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2

5.1 Induction/training/continuous improvement

5.7 No blame and risk

5.2 Working together

5.8 Programme

5.3 Managing expectations/client care

5.9 Quality management

5.4 Safety

5.10 Payments

5.5 Communications

5.11 Managing change

5.6 Delegation and empowerment

5.12 Managing the budget

Workbook

Step

Process

Culture and activities

Tools and techniques

5.7

No blame and risk

Mistakes

Implementation can only work properly if everyone involved remains focused on the key objectives. When a mistake happens, or something doesn't work properly, it is important that the issue is raised immediately, because it can't be resolved until it is known about. Owning up to a mistake, failure or lapse of memory isn't always easy, but it is nevertheless a principle. Mistakes are often evidence that a process is not working properly and needs to be re-evaluated.

In dealing with people who may have made a mistake, it should be realised that it is very difficult to 'own up' in a peer situation and to fully understand the consequences of hiding mistakes from each other. Those helping to draw this learning out should understand that people become reactive when they feel exposed and therefore it is essential they are supported by an effective no-blame culture within the team environment.

Common risk matrix

This includes any contingency or risk elements, which should be clearly identified for all to see.

Risk register

Refer to the Building Down Barriers Toolkit– Tool A6, Applying Risk Management in Practice.

5.8

Programme

Programme

The project programme must reflect the constraints that apply to all participants, be collectively agreed and be realistic, while ensuring that opportunities to reduce the length of the project are fully explored. An IPT project involves enthusiastic individuals and a timescale that is unnecessarily long will diminish this enthusiasm just as much as one that is too short.

All aspects of the project must be discussed with the various disciplines within the team, in order to avoid operational pitfalls. For example, having a lead time that is shorter than the time in which supplies can be procured will lead to dissatisfaction, recriminations and, possibly, a missed project date. Being realistic will ensure that the various disciplines can work within the timescales, budgets and standards being set.

Programme

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5.9

Quality management

Quality assurance measurement

It is important to begin the implementation process by deciding how quality is going to be measured and how it will be reported. These decisions will change the way in which aspects of the project are undertaken, monitored and recorded.

Quality systems

The purpose of quality systems is to ensure that the finished product functions correctly, complies with user expectations, provides a valuable asset and a fault-free facility for ongoing operations.

Operating during the construction, hand-over and after-care phases, quality systems should be geared to improving quality standards throughout the project. Their success can be measured in a number of ways, including:

• the percentage of works completed correctly first time

• the number of issues outstanding at the time of hand-over.

Key decision points identified at the outset should be maintained throughout the project, and, once passed, decisions should not be re-visited.

Quality plan, commissioning and testing plan, and quality manual.

As-built drawings, and O&M manuals

A key objective of this process is to cut down on superfluous paperwork, but this must not impede the provision of high- quality documentation at project completion. It should be delivered in a format allowing regular revision or updating, and conform to agreed standards. Since team members are paid for their contribution and issues are resolved when they arise, there is no need to record discussion or debate, but only the agreed decision once it has been made and communicated.

In particular there is no place for:

• social and contractual demarcations

• protectionism

• man marking

• enforcement by one side against the other.

5.10

Payments

Ensure that transparent payment processes are employed, ideally operated by a single payment team, where possible operating a single Project bank account on behalf of the IPT.

In all cases the arrangements should be such as to give no unfair advantage to the client or any other partner.

Payments, covering:

• basis of payments

• bank account

• transparency and timeliness.

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5.11

Managing change

New ideas – from the entire workforce

New ideas should be sought throughout the entire project, by emphasising the empowerment and encouraging the creativity of the entire workforce.

Traditional construction industry methods give little opportunity for the generation or suggestion of ideas. People should be encouraged to offer ideas, whether they have been nurturing them for a long time, or thought of them five minutes earlier.

However, change does not just happen. It needs to be consciously and competently managed, supported and rewarded.

The Collaborative Working Centre training module on Managing the Change to Collaborative Working is relevant here.

Change control procedure

	The CBP has produced a Director's Briefing on Managing Change. This briefing outlines: how to identify key areas of change preparing for change implementing change, creating a culture of change.
	Rethinking Construction's Respect for People toolkit provides ideas on how to encourage and empower the workforce to contribute.

Being open to change

To suggest that there is too much change in industry and that, perhaps, 80% of a requirement should be fixed before implementation begins, is to miss the point.

Not every client organisation will know exactly what it needs at the start of a project. The business of such companies may change almost daily and it is impossible for them to identify an absolute requirement at the beginning of, for example, a two-year project. Flexibility and adaptability are the keys, because the client's need to be able to refine their needs as they go along.

What this requires is a process that allows those involved to understand differing needs, so that appropriate changes can be made in what is being implemented.

This does not mean change for its own sake. What is different should still be challenged and questioned. What is it about the needs of the business today that suddenly requires change from what was happening in the project yesterday?

Any suggested change also needs to be put in the context of the stage the project has reached. Does the change make a difference? Can it be implemented? Will it cause a delay or even prevent some objectives being met?

Change therefore needs to be welcomed, but also challenged and questioned, to ensure that it is appropriate, beneficial and capable of delivering something of more value.

Implications for goals and objectives

Changes will have an impact on the goals and objectives of the project. It is essential to identify where the impact will be made and to ensure that all team members understand the implications of the proposed change, before it is implemented. This should include referral to the value criteria.

As common goals and objectives exist, all parties are able to determine what changes can and cannot be incorporated towards the end of the project. Collective decisions can therefore be made about whether further change should be made, or be held until after the project has been finished. By involving end users throughout the process, changes that frequently occur at the end, because individuals are surprised by the outcomes, are virtually eliminated.

5.12

Managing the budget

One of the key principles of working collaboratively in the IPT is the transparent way in which costs are managed. There is only one budget created for the entire IPT. The budget includes all costs, fees and charges to be incurred by any party, including the client group, and has a single contingency sum to cover uncertainty and risks. The budget is prepared by a single team appointed by the IPT and comprises individuals drawn from one or more of the IPT partner organisations. The budget is available to all IPT members at all levels. In an ideal situation it would represent the sum deposited in a project bank account at commencement and drawn down by the budget team on behalf of the IPT.

The budget itself would normally be constructed in an elemental cost form; that is, elements of the project would be identified, either as unit rates and expected quantities, or as fixed allowances. These rates or allowances would be approximate at the start and develop as the detail became known. For example, a unit rate may start for an exterior wall and later develop into structure, doors, windows, rendering and interior coverings, etc. The IPT would determine how detailed the costs needed to become to enable team members to manage their elements of the project and for the costs to remain accurate.

As the project evolves, starting with strategic solutions and moving right through to delivery, the team will be designing and developing and installing the project requirements. The budget team will be tracking this evolution and maintaining the elemental cost plan in parallel. Because the budget is both dynamic and available to all, at any given time all parties are able to see the consequences of design and implementation decisions, including scope and specification changes. This means that everyone is able to make value decisions on whether their element can afford the development/changes required and whether or not reductions are required in their element or elsewhere to accommodate them. The IPT board, which has client representation as an integral member, acts to arbitrate if necessary and to agree how and when to allocate the project contingency and/or to reject proposed changes.

This dynamic visibility of the budget means that it is extremely difficult for the project to overspend unless there are serious costs due to unforeseen circumstances, e.g. a major disaster. It also means that it is possible to define an investment limit for the project and effectively work towards a maximum price. Of course it is still possible to overspend if the budgeting is incompetently handled, for example, is inconsistent with the scope from day one, but the open nature of the budgeting means there are many experienced heads which would also have to under-perform for this to happen and so the risk is very low if the IPT is working in a fully integrated, collaborative fashion.