Fast track project management


Fast track project management

Benefits[ edit ] Shorter schedules are desirable for reasons that vary with building owners. A shorter schedule may reduce a manufacturer's time-to-market, a school district's need to reduce overcrowding or simply provide a new home for a family sooner.

Shorter schedules may also reduce the cost of construction financing and reduce overhead costs for the design and construction organizations. Shorter schedules may also reduce the impact of inflation during construction.

The fast-tracking of the project is therefore achieved through the integration of design and construction phases. But Fast-Track is more difficult to manage than the traditional design—bid—build process. It requires detailed knowledge of the process, effective planning, integrity and close coordination among the organizations executing the work.

Inherent risks[ edit ] The final cost of the project is uncertain when construction begins because design is not complete. On Fast-Track projects, the design, construction documents and specifications are incomplete, so setting the final cost presents problems.

To deal with this difficultly, owners typically use a cost-reimbursable contract with the builder a construction manager or a general contractor.

However, even with a GMP, there can be argument over the scope of work covered by the GMP since the design was incomplete when the contract was executed. There is also a risk that work built in an early phase of the project may not suit later design decisions. For instance, if the building shape changes after the foundations are built, there is increased cost and delay to modify the completed foundations.

Or an item of equipment that is selected late in the process may require drains or water and power connections that were not anticipated early in the project. Furthermore, the interpretation of the design brief from the contractor may differ from the owner which can result in a conflict of interest.

If time is not crucial, owners may take a prudent approach to finish design and get a fixed lump-sum price before starting construction the design—bid—build process. However, if there is a reason to speed project delivery, Fast-Track can be used with any project delivery strategy, such as CM at Risk and Agency CM see Construction managementdesign—buildbridging and integrated project delivery.

Even the traditional design—bid—build process can use Fast-Track concepts by bidding separate general construction contracts for phases of the work.


However, many owners choose experienced project teams and consider the rewards to be well worth the risks. One source states that Fast-Track is used on 40 percent of building projects. The political assumption was that the low lump sum bid demonstrated a prudent use of public money, and open competitive bidding demonstrated a fair selection of contractors.

Since competitive lump-sum bidding required complete construction drawings and specifications, Fast-Track as used in Industry was unavailable to public owners.

However, most public procurement regulations allowed procurement of architectural, engineering and other services based on the qualifications of the service provider. See the Brooks Act [6] for the approach used by the federal government. In the s, during the Vietnam War, students enrolled in higher education were deferred from the draft.

Consequently, colleges and universities exploded. The crowding problems were acute because the delivery of design and construction for academic buildings usually took 4 to 6 years. Meanwhile, the high rate of inflation was eroding construction budgets.

They could stay within their procurement regulations by selecting a company a CM for construction management services—who would provide no construction labor or materials—on the basis of qualifications.

The CM would do no actual construction work. The CM would have a professional responsibility to represent the owner's best interest as an agent, similar to that of an architect.

Fast track project management

The CM would advise the architect and owner on cost and construction technology during the design phase and would estimate the total cost.The all-inclusive guide to exceptional project management The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management is the comprehensive guide to real-world project management .

Examples from project management Example One: The accidental project manager: You’ve created your schedule, everybody is busy working on the tasks that you’ve assigned them to, and you assume everything is going as planned.. That’s your first mistake. No project goes as planned.


There are problems, and you should start looking for them now rather than later. Writing a detailed and accurate Project Initiation Document quickly is an art every Project Manager has to master.

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