Communication with the Design and Contracting Teams
Communication with the Design and Contracting Teams tests whether you can move information between owner, design professional, contractor, and suppliers without losing decisions, creating unauthorized direction, or breaking the contractual chain. Questions focus on roles and lines of communication, the standard instruments (RFIs, transmittals, minutes, field reports), and how a conflict becomes a documented outcome.
Roles and lines of communication
- The contractor directs communications to the owner or the design professional as the contract requires; subcontractors and suppliers communicate through the contractor.
- Design intent, interpretation, and design-related clarification belong to the design professional. Means and methods, safety, sequencing, and schedule belong to the contractor. Confusing the two is the most common error in this domain.
- An informal suggestion from a design professional is not a directive. Only written, contractually issued direction changes scope, cost, or time.
Instruments and their jobs
- RFI: states the question, cites drawing and section references, proposes a solution, and requests a response date. Logged and tracked to closure.
- Transmittal: the record of what was sent, to whom, when, and for what action.
- Meeting minutes: capture decisions, action items, responsible parties, and due dates; issue promptly and correct errors at the next meeting.
- Field report or daily log: weather, manpower, deliveries, work observed, and any verbal instruction - the contemporaneous record that settles disputes.
Worked example
At a progress meeting the superintendent notes that a structural beam occupies the same zone as a main duct route. Reasoning: this is a coordination conflict, not a field decision. The contractor issues an RFI identifying both drawing sheets and asking for direction. The design professional responds with a supplemental instruction. Because the fix adds cost and time, the contractor submits a pricing proposal; if the owner directs work to proceed before agreement on price, a construction change directive is the correct instrument, with the change order to follow.
Traps that cost marks
Relying on memory of a verbal conversation instead of confirming it in writing the same day; treating silence as approval; distributing minutes nobody reviewed; sending an RFI directly to a subcontractor's source; and letting a design professional issue instructions straight to trade forces.