Implementation

University of East London,
Library & Learning Centre

Other Sections

Anticipation

Imagination

Evaluation

Resource Collection
inc. case studies, flickr photo library, virtual campus and further resources

Professional Advisers

'You don't know what questions to ask if you haven't done this before.'

Philip Badman⁵⁰

In a major build you will find yourself working with a range of advisers in professions you may never have come across before. In leading the build at City Lit the Vice-Principal, Philip Badman, found himself working with 158 individuals from 37 firms. This included 47 lawyers from 4 different firms, all specialising in different aspects of the law, and specialists such as a party wall surveyor, a rights of light surveyor and archaeologists. Not surprisingly he formed a view on what makes a good adviser:

A good adviser ALWAYS

thinks of the problems ahead for the client
identifies, analyses, explains the options
alerts the client to risks, and mitigation
confirms scope of services and what is out of scope
avoids saying 'but you didn't ask that question'
adheres to strict reporting/instruction regime
translates for the academics
sets a realistic project process and timeline
is patient!

Ensuring that there are good working relationships between you, the client, and all of the professionals involved in the project is crucial to making it really successful. You should make sure that the expectations, roles, responsibilities, and authorities of all the parties involved are clarified at the outset. As well as a matter of detail this is also fundamentally a matter of the 'tone' - good working relationships are essential to the project, as is good communication between everyone involved. Formal communications will be established as part of the governance structure of the project (see the Governance section) but it is also essential to have good informal communications and working relationships to make a project really go well.

'A building project can be a complex process requiring constant monitoring of cost, quality and time. A successful project can only be achieved through communication and co-ordination between the architect, client and builder'

'You and your architect'⁵¹

Each of the professionals involved in the project brings their own expertise and perspective. You will need to understand the contribution that they can make in order to get the best from them but a key role for your architect is to play a lead role with the professionals involved.

Understanding all of the information provided by a range of specialists can be very difficult but be heartened by a story told by Richard P. Feynman the Nobel prize winning physicist in his book 'The Pleasure of Finding Things Out'.⁵²