Professional Practice, Ethics, and Project Management
This domain tests business, ethical, and management judgment: standard of care, conflicts, licensure, scope, fees, risk, and team leadership.
Core rules
- Standard of care is what a reasonable architect would do under similar circumstances; it is not a guarantee of perfection.
- Ethics require competence, conflict disclosure, truthful representation, and no sealing of others' work without responsible control.
- Contracts define scope, fee, schedule, liability, and insurance.
- Project management includes work planning, staffing, budget tracking, schedule control, and QA/QC.
Worked example
A client asks the architect to seal drawings prepared by an unlicensed designer. The architect must refuse: sealing implies responsible control. The correct response is to either take responsible control, verify the work, and seal only work the architect prepared or directly supervised, or decline. Doing otherwise violates licensure law and ethics, regardless of client pressure.
Traps
Confusing ethics with legality; accepting scope without fee; ignoring conflict of interest; promising a guarantee.