Change orders. I mentioned, I said it earlier, change order and claim, dirty words in our industry, okay? One of the key components to a successfully managed projects, is how well you manage change order, okay? If you don't manage them properly, that means you're stopping something from not moving forward, okay? Once that happens, once a contract stops working or has to resequence, or worse, has to lay people off and get rid of them, and stuff like that. Let me tell you something, you're not gonna have a great relationship for the entire duration of a project. So managing a change order process quickly, effectively, will certainly eliminate any potential loss of credibility, any loss of relationships, and last but not least, of course, preventing kind of long-term claims and delays. The types of changes, I am sure you're all aware of what they are. You have design changes, you have schedule changes, sometimes because of internal issues. Sometimes because of external issues such as changes in your local department of buildings or external codes and so forth and so on. And of course, field conditions, which in a renovation, can potentially do quite a bit of damage in the progress of your project. What are some of the necessary tools for managing change orders? Okay, timing, timing is important, understand how much time do you have contractually. And again, I'm going back to and I think I've said it more than once, in fact, I know I've said it more than once, know your subcontract and know your responsibilities. Know what you're responsible, know what your sub is responsible for, and know what your owners are responsible for, okay? That's right up there as a key component to planning, okay? Being aware as to who's responsible for what at any given point of the project. So of course, change orders, they will come up, you have to deal with it, and some of the fee items you have to be content with. What's the timing for notification? Most contracts tell you you have a week or two weeks on the outset to file a claim. What is required for proper documentation? Let's face it, you can never over-document the change order. The more information that's available, the easier it will be for this change order to flow through. Make sure items such as labor rates, unit prices, and markups up front because these are the kind of things that have to be negotiated during the bidding process. Because if you think you're gonna negotiate labor rates once your contract is signed and the contract is onboard, and then it's just a function of him or her negotiating with you and trying to identify what is a fair labor rate, or a fair unit price, it's not gonna go over very easily. It's gonna take time, and it could very well interrupt any kind of change order process that would take place. So key labor rates, unit prices, and markups to be identified early, to be identified during the bidding phase of the project and to make sure that they're included into the contract. So coming down to the end of our discussion, and I saved one of the most important aspects of being a proper, not a proper proper, being a proper project manager. In terms of the qualities of a proper project manager is, of course, the ability to communicate and document. And as you can see, this is a survey that I copied off an article, and I apologize, I don't remember how old it is or when I read it, that communication is the most important aspect of a project manager. Of course, leadership and management are but if you look for both the principles of the firm, that goes to owners, your execs, and so forth and so on. Down to project managers and quite frankly, it shouldn't stop at that level, down to the folks of the assistants. The proper communication is most critical in the successful implementation of a project. And that's something that begins with you. If you can communicate, if you can lead by example of making sure that everybody's aware what are the issues, what are the pitfalls, what are the dangers of a project, what are the successes? Because let's face it, you need to discuss the successes as much as you need to discuss the dangers and pitfalls and failures of a project cuz they're both learning experiences, it's extremely critical, not just of your project but also the development of your team. So these are some of the sort of documents you have to come across, your meeting minutes, RFIs, memos, shop drawings, photographic log, daily manpower reports, delivery logs, very important, change order logs. And when I started out, all these were done by either Excel or worse, via paper logs. That we had file cabinets the size of a ten by ten room to actually store all these information. Nowadays, through the help of project management information systems, all this stuff is readily available, it's transparent, it's there for somebody to see in a minute's notice. Because let's face it, all these project management platforms, electronic platforms, I should say, they're web based. You have the ability to look something up at any given time, the ability to develop a dashboard that will tell you where you are at any given point of a project, where the documentation is. And most importantly the one thing I love about certain project management platforms is the fact they would give you notices, because everything has a time frame within a contractual obligation as to when they're supposed to be delivered, right? When you're reviewing an RFI, let's face it, it shouldn't take more than five to ten days. And that's clearly defined within a contract. Whether the designers, the CM, and of course, the owners, nobody should take three weeks to a month because that will affect the progress of the project. That being said, the project management platforms will send a friendly nudge or reminder to the person who has the RFI, who's responsible to responding to that RFI, in making sure that's processed in a timely fashion, so as to prevent any sort of delays. So just to summarize, and again, a lot of the topics that I covered here today, and it's impossible to cover everything, is what I personally consider through my years of experience considerations of an effective project manager. And if you don't mind, I'm gonna go back to the very first slide and just touch on that for a minute. Okay, leadership, proper communication, experience, and I should have added in there experience and planning and having the political knowledge and the political understanding of where are you working, who are you working with. And how to manage, not just down, but to manage up as well. And honestly, I think some of these basic skills are the building blocks to a great project manager, and with that, I thank you.
