Our Project Management Services

A project manager leads and manages the performance of the whole project team. The architect, the engineers, the quantity surveyor and the contractor are each appointed to do one part of the work; none of them is appointed to hold the others to the programme. That is the project manager’s job. In practice the role involves:

• Establishing and maintaining the project brief, the master programme and the reporting structure from the outset.
• Leading and coordinating the professional team, agreeing information release dates and chasing the design information the contractor needs to build.
• Undertaking technical analysis of the construction to confirm it complies with the design, the specification and statutory requirements.
• Monitoring and tracking progress against the master schedule framework, and reporting slippage as it appears rather than at the end.
• Providing periodic forecasts of the project disbursements, cost to completion and the time schedule.
• Reviewing and recommending approval of the consultants’ interim valuations and payment certificates before the client pays.
• Managing project risk through cost control measures, and developing and implementing recovery plans for projects running off programme.
• Analysing project life-cycle status and reporting it to the client, and liaising with the relevant authorities and institutions where changes have to be recorded.
• Managing quality control and assurance, safety management and compliance, and stakeholder communication.
• Managing documentation, records and the final handover and commissioning.

Clients often ask which consultant they actually need, and the honest answer is that the roles are different and complementary. Appointing one does not cover the work of the others.

On smaller projects the same firm often provides the cost and the project management functions — which is how CostEdge Consulting is usually appointed — but the two sets of responsibilities remain distinct and are reported separately.

A programme that is only reviewed when something goes wrong is not a control. We treat the master programme as a working document and test it continuously against what is actually happening on site.

• Before construction starts we agree the master programme with the contractor and the design team, including the dates by which design information, samples, approvals and long-lead materials must be available.
• During construction we track actual progress against the master schedule, recording the start and finish of each activity rather than judging the project by impression.
• We monitor procurement and approval lead times, because in practice statutory approvals and imported materials decide more programmes than site productivity does.
• We issue periodic forecasts of disbursements, cost to completion and time remaining, so the client can see the position before it becomes a problem.
• Where the works fall behind, we prepare a recovery plan — the sequence and resources needed to get back to the contractual dates — and implement it with the contractor.
• Where the programme has genuinely been delayed by an event the contract provides for, we handle the notices. Extension of time, the supporting programme records and the associated cost are dealt with through our contract administration service.

Cost control on site is not the same as cost estimating. Once the contract sum is fixed, the job is to make sure the client pays for what has been built, at the rates agreed, and that changes are valued and recorded before they are executed rather than reconstructed afterwards.

• Every application for payment is measured and valued against the Bill of Quantities or the contract rates, not accepted as submitted.
• Variations are instructed in writing, valued when instructed, and reported in the next cost report — so the anticipated final cost moves as the changes are made, not at the end of the project.
• Provisional sums and contingency are tracked separately and reduced only when the work is actually committed.
• Materials on site, off-site materials, retention and any advance payment are monitored against the contract terms.
• Cash flow is projected month by month against the actual programme, so the client knows what will fall due and when.

Delays on Kenyan projects are rarely caused by the trades on site being slow. The recurring causes are administrative and financial, and most of them are manageable if they are tracked from the outset:

• Late or incomplete design information — drawings that arrive after the contractor needs them.
• Slow statutory approvals and change of user or compliance processes.
• Procurement and import lead times on materials and equipment.
• Funding gaps or delayed drawdown, which stop the works regardless of progress.
• Design changes instructed after the relevant work has started.
• Contractor performance: inadequate labour, plant or working capital.
• Interface failures between trade packages — the mechanical, electrical and finishing trades waiting on one another.
• Adverse ground conditions or weather that was not allowed for.

Each of these needs a different response, and the contractual position on each is different. Our job is to identify which of them is actually driving the programme on your project, put the notices in place where the contract requires them, and recover the programme where it can still be recovered.

Quality and safety are managed through procedure rather than inspection at the end. We agree the quality control and assurance programme with the contractor before the works start, and then hold the work to it.

• Approval of materials and samples before they are incorporated into the works.
• Inspection and testing regimes for the elements where defects cannot be seen later — foundations, waterproofing, concealed services and the structural frame.
• Safety management and compliance monitoring on site.
• Stakeholder communication and coordination, so decisions are made once and recorded.
• Project documentation and record keeping, including as-built information, test certificates and warranties.
• Final project handover and commissioning, including testing, operator training and the defect liability period.

A project report should let you answer three questions without calling anyone: where is the project against programme, where is it against cost, and what is going to happen next. We issue periodic reports covering:

• Progress against the master schedule, including slippage and the recovery actions being taken.
• Forecast cost to completion, certified to date, and the movement against the original budget.
• Cash flow for the coming period.
• Quality and safety observations and how they are being closed out.
• Project risks, their status and the actions being taken on each.
• Decisions required from the client, with the date they are needed by.

Reporting frequency is agreed at appointment — monthly is typical, moving to more frequent reporting during critical stages such as substructure, the frame and commissioning.

Send us the project brief, whatever design information exists, the intended programme and the budget position if one has been set. We will confirm how we would structure the management team, what we would report and how often.

• The project brief, the site and the intended use.
• Any drawings and the specification issued so far.
• The stage you have reached — inception, design, tender or on site.
• The form of contract, if one has been chosen.
• The stage of statutory approvals.
• Any programme or budget already fixed with a funder, contractor or institution.

We manage projects across Kenya from our Nairobi base and provide site-based teams where the size and location of the works require them.