Construction Phase Management
Running the site from the owner's side
The CM represents the owner during construction: administering the contract, controlling changes, monitoring quality and safety, and managing information and closeout. The candidate must distinguish the CM's authority from the designer's and the contractor's.
Key instruments: submittals, requests for information (RFIs), change orders, progress meetings, daily reports, and the schedule of values. The CM reviews submittals for compliance with the contract documents but does not redesign; design interpretation belongs to the architect-engineer of record. The trap is the CM directing a contractor in the field to change means and methods, which creates owner liability and undermines the contractor's control over construction means and methods.
Change management discipline
Every change should trace to a cause: owner-directed scope, design error or omission, differing site condition, or contractor means and methods. Pricing should be timely, with time impact analyzed separately from cost. Constructive changes (verbal direction, excessive RFI delays, or rejecting compliant work) can be compensable even without a written order.
Quality, safety, and closeout
- Quality: mock-ups, first-work inspections, third-party testing, punch lists.
- Safety: contractor owns site safety; owner and CM monitor and require a site-specific safety plan.
- Closeout: as-builts, O&M manuals, warranties, training, final punch, and release of retainage.
Worked rule of thumb
If a change affects the critical path, price time and money together; approving cost without time entitlement often produces a later delay claim anyway. Track RFI and submittal turnaround weekly; a trend of growing turnaround is an early warning of a delay claim. Rule: no verbal direction, ever; confirm within 24 hours in writing.