Design management plan

A design management plan can be used to co-ordinate design activities. It should at least cover:

Design responsibility matrix.
Schedules of drawings to be produced by each discipline/specialist.
Design programme, including key dates for reviews and information exchanges.
Schedules of information required/release dates.
The size and format of drawing types.
Procedures for CAD / BIM (see BIM execution plan).
Estimates of staff hours to be spent by designers on each element or drawing.
Monitoring of design resources expended compared to planned estimates.
Initiating procedures for design changes.
Requirements for collateral warranties.
Incorporation within the design schedule of key dates for review of design performance to check:

Compliance with brief.
Cost acceptance.
Value engineering analysis.
Health and safety issues.
Completeness for tender.

The project manager, may use the agreed design management plan as a basis for monitoring and controlling the design process. However, integration of the work of consultant and specialists lies with the lead designer. For certain elements of the project, different leads may be nominated, however, these roles will always come under the direction of the lead designer for co-ordination.

The text in this article is based on an extract from PROJECT MANAGEMENT, by Eric Stokes and Saleem Akram. The original manual was published in 2008. It was developed within the scope of the LdV program, project number: 2009-1-PL1-LEO05-05016 entitled “Common Learning Outcomes for European Managers in Construction”. It is reproduced here in a slightly modified form with the kind permission of the Chartered Institute of Building.

--CIOB