best practices in risk management
Ch-Ch-Changes . . . Managing Risk in the Change Process
by James B. Atkins, FAIA, and Grant A. Simpson, FAIA

Summary: At the core of the creative process is refinement. There comes a point, however, when change brings with it complications such as added expense and delays, explain risk-management authors James Atkins, FAIA, and Grant Simpson, FAIA. They explore the intertwining interests of the owner, architect, and contractor as the design phases flow into construction and the parties variously choose to welcome, reject, or manage proposed changes.

Below is a synopsis of the article. For the full text, click on the PDF link located in the column on the right.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-changes
Don't want to be a richer man
—David Bowie

Changes give life to architecture. The ability to change as designs are developed allows our creative work to breathe. The design process tends to be evolutionary, and second thoughts often give way to improvements. But this life-giving force comes with a price. Changes are time consuming, expensive, and disruptive after construction has begun, and there can be risk involved. Your drawings can never be 100 percent complete or perfectly coordinated, yet you risk being scrutinized as if they should have been. If changes are extensive on a project, regardless of who caused the need for change, risk of blame becomes elevated.

Who can change things?: All parties involved in a design and construction project can request that changes be made, but only the owner is empowered to approve them. There are some prevailing misconceptions, nonetheless. Changes in the work can be made through a contract modification. But, contrary to popular opinion, responding to a request for information does not constitute a contract modification.

• Another popular myth is that an architect can authorize a change in the work through reviewing and marking up shop drawings and submittals. That is not the case unless the contractor specifically points out a change, and a modification has been executed.
• Owners request changes in the work for many reasons. And, in the end, the costs of changes may have exceeded their expectations.
• Contractors often request changes in response to the marketplace and to increase profits. Should the contractor propose a product change after the bidding/negotiation phase, however, it is appropriate to require the contractor to submit a substitution request.

The risk of contractor noncompliance: Substitutions carry risk for the architect and owner in that they may not be equal to or better than the originally specified product, and the architect may be blamed if the substitute system fails. The contractor might install work not in conformance with the contract documents despite the architect’s object, yet still obtain owner acceptance because the owner wishes to avoid a delay in project completion or the likelihood of additional costs.

Architects make changes, too: The architect can, and frequently does, recommend a change to the owner to improve the project’s functionality or design. The architect can cause a change by having errors or omissions in the documents that require correction. When this happens, owners may pursue recovery of the change costs. The law accepts that no professional is perfect, and the best recourse for the architect when dealing with an E&O issue is to own up to it and diligently pursue remediation.

Keep the owner informed: Problems may also arise if the owner approves a change that the architect recommends against. If the change violates a code requirement, a successful argument can usually be made for rejecting it. But if the change is one affecting performance or quality, the architect may not always prevail. In this case, if the architect determines the product may not perform in an acceptable manner, a reasonable recourse is to provide the owner with the supporting information and attempt to build a consensus for rejection. If the owner does not approve the architect’s refusal to change the drawings, there are approaches the architect can take to inform the owner of his or her rights and responsibilities within the context of the prevailing contract documents. There are also precautions the architect can take beforehand, such as a well-defined budget and change process and thorough documentation throughout.

For these details and more, download the full-text PDF article (a link is in the Reference column to the right).

And remember, be careful out there.