Project Management: Delivery, Schedule, and Contract Administration
Delivery and contract structure
Design-bid-build separates design from construction with a competitive bid; design-build gives one entity responsibility for both; CM at risk and IPD shift risk and collaboration earlier. AIA A201 General Conditions defines the contractor's and architect's roles in design-bid-build, and A101 is the owner-contractor agreement. Know who owns the schedule (the contractor) and who administers the contract (the architect).
Scheduling
Gantt charts show sequence visually; CPM shows dependencies and calculates the critical path - the longest path through the network, with zero total float. Float is slack, is not owned by any single party, and disappears as the schedule erodes. Fast-tracking overlaps design and construction.
Cost and change control
Budgets are set at schematic design and refined each phase; contingency shrinks as risk retires. Changes arise from owner directives, design clarifications, differing site conditions, and delays. A constructive change is one not formally directed but with the same cost effect.
Traps
The critical path is the longest duration path, not the shortest. Total float differs from free float. Under design-bid-build the architect does not direct the contractor's workforce or means and methods, and cannot unilaterally change the contract sum.
Worked example
Activities: A design 10 days → B permit 15 → C bid 10 gives a 35-day path. D (shop drawings, 8 days) runs parallel from A to C, giving a 28-day path. The critical path is A-B-C at 35 days; D has 7 days of total float. If permitting slips 5 days, completion moves 5 days because B carries no float.