They will need to know the overall scope of their service while also knowing their overall design responsibilities as compared to their peers. In addition, their contracts will be a directly correlated to the contract and specifications of the client involved. This is important as it aligns the motivations of the work team with that of the client. By aligning motivations and incentives, the design team has their personal interests affiliated with those of the client. This will ultimately help reduce unethical practices and mistakes within the overall process. According to the British design management standards, the design team will want to establish effective means of communication while also electing a qualified leader. More important the team must establish an overall brief. The brief, according to British Standards, should outline the purpose of the construction, unusual features, financial policy and time policy (O'reilly, 2012. Finally, during the preparation phase the team and the client must establish a programme procurement strategy and a soft landing strategy. These aspects are also important as they provide an overall framework for which the team can operate in. This phase also provides elements in essential operations of the process. Questions regarding equipment, secretary support, computers, and other intangibles should all be answered. By establishing boundaries, the team is less likely to deviate into areas that are not core to the needs of the client involved. Next, the company must engage in an overall concept design. The concept design builds upon the work of the preparation by providing more specifics about the overall project. The concept design is also important as it allows more specific details to be included or excluded from the general project. Aspects such as structural design, site landscape, costs, and services will be discussed in this phase of the plan. This phase is also characterized by a general overview of the earlier procurement strategy and design reasonability. This review is essential in determining that all parties involved are aligned as to the precise specifications and needs of the project. The completion of the design brief is also critical in this stage. The design brief, as mentioned earlier provides the overall framework in which the entire project operates within (Briefing the Team, 1998). As such, it must be completed before any additional work is completed. According to the RIBA, this process should incorporate many of the following details and user requirements schedules of accommodation, site information, design and material quality, facilities management, environmental services, sustainable development policy, whole life costing, timetable of critical events, target cost/cash flow constraints, procedures, time and cost controls,

After the concept design, the process then proceeds with the developed design, technical design, and specialist design. Each design process has its own unique attributes relative to the other. For instance, the developed design looks to develop structural and landscape specifications of the facility. The technical design builds on this work by including architectural and mechanical services. In addition, the technical design is more cross functional as it incorporates subcontractors into the entire review process of the lead designer. The technical design is heavily influenced no only by the cross functional component, but also by the procurement strategy considered in the preparation phase. Finally, through the use of cross functional teams, building regulations are then submitted. These regulations directly correlate to the next step, which is the specialist design. In this phase, even more cross functional collaboration is needed. All designers, subcontractors, and specialist must now work in a coordinated manner. The performance specified work must now be reviewed and signed off on by each respective member of the cross functional team. In addition, the team must adequately review the entire construction strategy to ensure timely completion for the client. Finally, the team must then take any necessary action from the procurement strategy (The CIC Scope of Services Handbook, 2007).

After the very through and detailed design phase, the project can finally begin construction. This phase is arguable the most critical as it involves the actual execution of many of the more detailed plans. A construction programme is used to maintain both consistency and overall maintenance of the construction progress. Aspects such as quality objectives are actively reviewed and corrected. In addition, management and leaders must ensure the implementation of the soft landing strategy is adhered to. This will include information regarding commissioning, training, monitoring and maintenance of the construction site during and after a predetermined period. The final step of the process is the use...

In this step designers and clients review the overall performance of the project and take corrective measures to ensure mistakes are not repeated. Designers also review key metrics that can be used for future projects. Finally, a post occupancy evaluation form is utilised to provide honest and objective feedback regarding the overall project.
In addition to the overall RIBA process, there are also more subtle needs within the overall process. The BS ISP 7000 provides insights into these subtle processes. For instance, designers and managers may occasionally have multiple roles and responsibilities within the same project. As the British Standards indicate, many stakeholders groups are involved throughout the entire process. As such, managers, designers and other key personnel must have multiple roles to accommodate these stakeholders (Architect's Job Book Eighth Edition, 2008). For example, in section 4 of the British Standards the designer leader's role are established. However, when looking at section 4, many of the roles overlap and become conflicting during various stages of the process. As such leaders utilizing the RIBA process must be skilled in multitasking and handling various roles at once (The British Standards Institution, 1996). Teamwork and collaboration are also integral to the overall success of the project. For instance, there are many processes in procedures incorporated throughout the entire design process. In section 4 of the British Standards, the design leader must engage in a pre-commission review. This review incorporates various aspects such as financial viability of the project, and technical support. The design leader may not know all aspects of this pre-commission review. He or she must therefore rely on others in a teamwork and collaborative fashion. These instances are scattered throughout the overall design process and require massive amounts of collaboration with cross functional teams. Without this shared information, the project will fail to meet expectations.

Chapter 3 - The challenges a design project faces and how these are resolved

A client's initial brief will rarely provide sufficient information for design development. An initial brief may range from a broad statement of intent to a comprehensive technical statement of a client's requirements. This lack of clarity provides a challenge for the overall direction of the project. The initial brief should be analyzed and resolved into a clear statement. From this more detailed approach a more specific project brief is developed. The challenge is aligning all parties involved in a detailed manner. Considerable resources may need to be expended by a project team in investigating a client's requirements. Making sure that the client and all stakeholder groups involved are aligned is critical to the overall success of the project. Research and development may be necessary to supplement initial information. In addition, preparing a satisfactory brief usually requires considerable effort by both the client and the design team. It may also involve other parties, such as planning authorities and local utilities. Getting all parties on one accord can be a difficult problem facing the overall project. For one, time constraints may limit of even hinder the overall completion of the project. Disconnects and disagreements between various parties can also hinder project performance. Therefore the working relationship between each party can be a significant challenge facing a project design. For example, detailed planning and programmeming will require input from design units. However, errors often occur which may lead to revisions of the initial estimates of design cost and time targets. All parties should be considered when a detailed brief and planning process is initiated. As such, their may be disagreements on the nature of the estimate error, and subsequently, what aspects are to be cut or revised.

Even with many of the aspects discussed earlier, problems do occasionally arise within the construction process. The discussion has focused, so far, on the RIBA process of work, British Standards, and the overall product lifecycle (The British Standards Institution, 1996). However, little discussion was on the overall people and labor component. This is undoubtedly where the more complicated problems occur in the design management process. Errors in expectation, communication, deadlines, processes, and financial projections all have roots within the human component. In many instances these problems can be rectified through proactive behavior rather than reactive behavior.

For one, the design management process must first incentivize appropriate behavior. Through the use of incentives, the labor component is aligned with the overall needs of the client. For instance, according to BS 7000, the design team must be…