Owner's Construction Manager key terms

A delivery arrangement where the owner hires a construction manager to advise and coordinate on the owner's behalf, while the owner holds all trade contracts directly and the CM bears no construction risk.

A delivery method in which the CM commits to a guaranteed maximum price and holds the trade contracts, providing preconstruction services and then acting as constructor with responsibility for cost overruns above the GMP.

A delivery method where a single entity holds one contract to furnish both design and construction, giving the owner a single point of responsibility and often overlapping design and building phases.

A design-build variant in which the owner selects the design-builder largely on qualifications and then develops scope, schedule, and price collaboratively before a firm fixed price is set.

An indefinite-delivery arrangement under which an owner pre-qualifies several contractors and later awards specific task orders through a defined secondary competition rather than a new full procurement.

Owner-prepared design criteria, typically developed to a partial design level, that establish performance and aesthetic requirements a design-builder must meet in its proposal and final design.

A procurement document stating program, performance, technical, and site requirements in enough detail for design-build proposers to prepare responsive offers without a completed design.

A contractual ceiling on the cost the owner will pay for construction, above which the constructor absorbs overruns, usually paired with a shared savings provision and defined contingency.

A contract provision splitting any final cost below the guaranteed maximum price between owner and contractor according to a stated formula, creating incentive to control cost.

Funds the owner reserves outside the contract price for unknown conditions, scope changes, and claims, released only by owner authorization and tracked separately from contractor contingency.

The planned, tracked consumption of reserved funds as risks materialize or are retired, reported against a baseline so the owner can see remaining exposure at any point.

The pre-design process of documenting the owner's needs, space requirements, adjacencies, and performance goals in a written program that becomes the basis for design.

A document recording the assumptions, codes, standards, and performance criteria on which design decisions rest, used to check that deliverables match what the owner expected.

An economic method comparing alternatives by totaling initial cost plus operating, maintenance, and replacement costs over a defined study period, usually discounted to present value.

A structured team exercise that examines functions of a design or system to find alternatives delivering the same performance at lower cost or better value, without reducing required quality.

A systematic examination of design documents by builders and operators to identify details that are difficult, unsafe, or costly to build, maintain, or sequence before work is bid.

A scheduled, documented check of design deliverables at defined completion stages against the program, basis of design, budget, and schedule, producing written comments and resolution records.

A procurement approach that evaluates proposals on weighted criteria such as qualifications, technical approach, schedule, and price rather than awarding to the lowest bid alone.

A solicitation seeking statements of a firm's experience, personnel, and capacity, used to shortlist candidates before a more detailed technical and price request is issued.

A solicitation inviting shortlisted or open competitors to submit technical and price proposals against stated evaluation criteria, contract terms, and owner requirements.

A formal challenge by a competitor to the award or conduct of a procurement, alleging improper evaluation, unequal treatment, or defective solicitation terms, which can delay contract execution.

Normalizing competing bids by adjusting for omissions, exclusions, alternates, and differing assumptions so the owner compares offers on a consistent scope basis.

Concentrating owner effort on feasibility, programming, and early design before construction commitments, since decisions made earliest have the greatest influence on final cost and schedule.

A governance checkpoint at which a project must demonstrate defined readiness criteria and receive formal owner approval before advancing to the next phase or funding increment.

The owner-side or combined control document defining scope, organization, schedule, budget, quality, risk, communication, and change procedures for executing and monitoring the project.

A hierarchical decomposition of project scope into manageable deliverable-oriented packages used as the common structure for scheduling, estimating, cost reporting, and progress measurement.

A line-item allocation of the contract sum to work packages, used as the basis for progress payments and for measuring the percentage of work actually completed.

A performance measurement technique comparing budgeted value of work performed against planned value and actual cost to forecast cost and schedule outcomes objectively.

A scheduling technique that models activity durations and dependencies to identify the longest path through the network, which determines the minimum project duration and float distribution.

The amount of time an activity can slip without delaying the project completion date, calculated as the difference between its late and early finish dates.

A forensic method allocating lost time among parties by comparing as-planned and as-built schedules and testing which events actually affected the critical path.

A contractor request for additional contract time caused by owner-caused or excusable delay, which if granted relieves liquidated damages without necessarily adding compensation.

A pre-agreed per-day sum the contractor pays the owner for late completion, intended as a reasonable forecast of owner losses rather than a penalty.

The stage at which the work is sufficiently complete for the owner's intended use, triggering owner occupancy, warranty start, and release of most retainage.

A documented inventory of incomplete or deficient items identified at substantial completion that the contractor must correct within an agreed period before final acceptance.

A quality-focused process of verifying and documenting that building systems and assemblies perform interactively according to the owner's project requirements and basis of design.

A percentage of each progress payment withheld by the owner until defined milestones, protecting the owner against incomplete work, liens, and defective performance.

A written, signed modification to the contract adjusting scope, price, or time, issued after the change is priced and authorized through the project's change control procedure.

A living log of identified risks with owners, likelihood, impact, response strategy, and status, reviewed at intervals so mitigation is assigned and tracked rather than assumed.

The individual delegated authority to act for the owner day to day, issuing directions within defined limits, reviewing submittals, and serving as the single point of contact.

A situation where a person's private interest or outside relationship could improperly influence project decisions, requiring disclosure, recusal, or removal from the affected decision.