It sounds easy, doesn’t it? You know the services that you plan to provide on a Project and everyone else does too. Well, they might until there is a dispute and everyone is pointing fingers about who had responsibility for some minor item on a Project. Defining the scope of all of the project participants up front will save you a lot of money and stress down the road. Simply filling in “architectural, civil, structural, and MEP services for a 1000 square foot building located at 100 main street” on the front page of an AIA contract will get you into trouble. The scope of services needs to be significantly more detailed.
The Lead Design Professional – The lead design professional on a project has the most difficult job defining scope; not only must he define his own scope (and there are always items outside of his scope), but he must also define the scope of each consultant and assure that there are no gaps in scope. Here are some questions the lead designer should ask about his own scope:
- Has the owner hired other consultants who are providing services like geotechnical investigation, surveying, acoustical design, process flow design, cafeteria design, interior design, landscape design? The lead design professional must expressly exclude the specific items excluded from his scope of work and being provided by others.
- Is the owner providing any services directly? For example, an owner with appropriate staff may provide construction administration or other services. You do not want to face a claim that you should have reviewed a proposed change order or contractor’s payment application if that is not in your scope. It must be excluded specifically.
- Is the owner providing its own equipment, processes, fixtures, furniture? Again these items must be excluded from the scope of work.
- Is this a renovation or modification? It is very important to define what systems and portions of the building are not within the scope of this work.
- Is this a phase of a master plan? The limits of the scope of this project need to be very clearly defined.
The lead design professional needs to carefully review every aspect of the design that is not in his scope of services and specifically exclude it by having a section in the scope of work listing excluded services.
Consultants – It is extremely important that the scope of each consultant on a project be equally well defined. An area of potential risk for the lead design professional is failing to identify a gap in scope among the consultants. If there is no consultant retained to do the work, it remains in the lead design professional’s scope of work, even if it is not qualified to perform the task. Here are 4 steps a lead design professional can use to help avoid scope gaps and improve project coordination:
- Prepare a table or matrix and include the design items needed for the project. Each item must be assigned to some person or entity.
- Have a meeting of the design team before consulting agreements are signed and review the scope of each consultant at the meeting. Such a roundtable discussion will potentially identify areas of concern.
- Revise the matrix following the meeting to add any missing items or reassign a scope item.
- Attach the matrix to the contracts with each consultant as part of the contract documents.
While spending time working on scope of services may be tedious and unpaid, it is well worth the time and effort expended. Working with attorneys later when a dispute arises will be far more time consuming and stressful.
If you have any questions about risk management or other design and construction topics, we would be glad to help you. The attorneys of Gibbes Burton are passionate about helping professionals and businesses to minimize risk and build success.