A client-side project manager works for you, the project owner.
Their role is to coordinate the people, decisions, costs, risks and programme involved in delivering the project, while making sure the project remains aligned with your organisation's objectives.
What is client-side project management?
Client-side project management means managing a construction or property project from the owner's perspective.
A typical project involves architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, contractors, consultants, councils, suppliers, funders and other stakeholders. Each has a specific role and, quite reasonably, their own responsibilities and interests.
The client needs someone looking across the entire project.
That is the role of the client-side project manager.
A good project manager helps the client make informed decisions about:
- Scope
- Budget
- Programme
- Procurement
- Design
- Risk
- Consenting
- Construction
- Contracts
- Quality
- Stakeholder management
- Project governance
- Handover and completion
When should you appoint a project manager?
Quite early, as soon as the idea starts developing. And well before the project becomes complicated.
A common mistake is to bring a project manager in once construction has already started. By that point, important decisions may already have been made about the site, design, budget, procurement strategy and consultant team.
Early project management can help identify problems before they become expensive.
This is particularly important when an organisation is:
- Developing property for the first time
- Building a new facility
- Undertaking a major refurbishment
- Delivering a community or social housing project
- Developing a school or education facility
- Managing a commercial development
- Working with a limited internal property team
- Managing a project that is larger or more complex than its usual work
What does a client-side project manager actually do?
The role changes depending on the project stage.
1. Feasibility and planning
Before significant money is committed, the project manager can help establish:
- What is being proposed?
- Is the project feasible?
- What will it cost?
- How long could it take?
- What approvals are required?
- What are the major risks?
- What consultants are required?
- How should the project be procured?
2. Design management
The project manager coordinates the design team and helps ensure that the design remains aligned with the client's brief, budget and programme.
This is where buildability and value engineering can be particularly important.
A design can look excellent on paper but still create significant cost, programme or construction problems.
3. Procurement
The project manager can establish the procurement strategy, prepare the tender process, coordinate tender queries, evaluate submissions and help the client select the appropriate contractor.
The cheapest tender is not necessarily the cheapest project.
The right procurement decision considers price alongside programme, capability, risk, methodology, exclusions and commercial terms.
4. Construction
During construction, the project manager monitors the project against the agreed scope, cost and programme.
That can include:
- Programme monitoring
- Cost reporting
- Variation assessment
- Claims
- Contract administration
- Consultant coordination
- Risk management
- Quality oversight
- Stakeholder reporting
- Governance reporting
The project manager does not replace the contractor. The contractor is responsible for building the project.
The project manager represents the client's interests and manages the overall delivery process.
5. Completion and handover
The project is not finished simply because the contractor has left site.
A proper close-out process includes:
- Defects
- Documentation
- Compliance
- Practical completion
- Asset information
- Warranties
- Final accounts
- Handover
- Lessons learned
Why use an external project management team?
Not every organisation needs a permanent property team.
For many organisations, an external project delivery team provides access to experienced property and construction capability without the cost of maintaining that capability internally between projects.
This can be particularly useful for organisations undertaking occasional capital projects.
The key question is not:
“Can we manage this ourselves?”
It is:
“Do we have the experience, capacity and independence required to manage this project properly?”
What should you look for in a project management firm?
Look beyond the title. Ask:
- Have they actually delivered projects like ours?
- Do they understand construction, not just administration?
- Can they manage consultants as well as contractors?
- Can they understand and challenge costs?
- Do they understand procurement and construction contracts?
- Can they report effectively to senior management or a board?
- Are they genuinely independent?
- Can they stay involved from early planning through to completion?
When you engage us, our approach is based on client-side project management backed by more than 25 years of property, engineering, construction and project delivery experience.
We don't simply advise clients on what should happen. We manage the process and help get the project delivered.