by Robert P. Smith, AIA
President, CMMI

CMMI is a mid-sized design firm, focused on the hospitality industry. We believe the control of quality, schedule, and budget is a matter of process, attitude, and experience. From the day a project commences, we collaborate with our client to lead an active decision-making process. Since that process frequently involves tradeoffs among project scope, cost, or time, we prefer to engage the contractor and/or a cost consultant as early as possible. These members of the project team are brought in either under our direction or by direction of the client.

Our project team is always led by a highly experienced project architect, who is primarily responsible for meeting the client’s program requirements. Additionally, through the active project involvement of studio principals, each project architect can access very high-level design and construction expertise when the need arises. This high degree of senior coverage strengthens our firm’s ability to implement design and value analysis decisions that optimize the relationship among quality, time, and cost.


DESIGN AND DOCUMENT QUALITY MANAGEMENT
CMMI’s approach to design and document quality management relies heavily on appropriate team composition, staff continuity, regular coordination reviews and independent expert peer reviews. CMMI employs a project team model for project delivery. Project staff consists of seasoned, experienced professionals, supported by senior studio leadership who offer many years of strong and diverse hospitality design experience.

Key members of the project team remain with the project from start to finish. The experienced hotel planners, architects, and interior designers who establish the project concept are the same people who execute the construction documents and ultimately deliver construction administration services. CMMI’s project team model provides strong continuity throughout the design, documentation, and construction process, helping assure that our client’s objectives are well understood and implemented as the project’s various phases unfold.

To track progress and for general coordination purposes, the project architect leads periodic project meetings involving all key team members. These sessions generally take place monthly, but can occur on an 'as needed' basis if more frequent sessions are required by the project schedule. These meetings provide a regular forum at which all parties can properly discuss challenges, coordinate ongoing activities, and efficiently plan upcoming work. No later than three days after the coordination meeting, CMMI prepares and distributes meeting minutes containing specific action items assigned to individual project team members.

At regular, pre-planned intervals during the project, our project team implements formal, structured internal reviews of coordination and quality. The project architect is responsible for checking and coordinating related civil, structural, MEP work, and other disciplines. During these activities, the team employs structured checklists to assess:

• Compatibility with standard technical practices
• Exiting requirements; code compliance
• Material applications
• Drawing completeness and clarity
• System Coordination
• Public safety

At key project milestones, the project team also undertakes peer reviews conducted by either a very senior technical professional from within the firm or, as circumstances warrant, an out-of-house "Independent Quality Reviewer." These peer reviewers are never day-to-day members of the project team, thereby achieving a fresh perspective and unbiased review of the project documentation.

Following these reviews, the project architect meets with the peer reviewer and additional team members, as appropriate, to address the review comments. At this time the project architect, in collaboration with the studio principal, determines what changes are required to make the documents ready for issuance and how those changes will be accomplished.


BUDGET MANAGEMENT
Working closely with our client and, in many cases, either the contractor or a cost consultant, we undertake an early evaluation of the project requirements to establish a baseline budget as a practical target for the design team. Costs are managed, and mitigated if necessary, by frequent project team coordination sessions and problem solving activities that have minimal impact on the project schedule.

We use the following approaches to manage the project budget:

• Establish realistic contingencies at project inception
• Identify early the big ticket items to be reflected in initial pricing
• Careful attention to program requirements to maintain planning efficiencies (no scope creep)
• Careful planning to eliminate expensive components, such as the elimination of inefficient and redundant circulation; inefficient building systems for MEP, and other features that do not bring value to the project or generate revenue for the owner

We regularly monitor and update estimates, both monthly and at the end of each phase, as the project moves into the later stages of design and construction documentation.


SCHEDULE MANAGEMENT
After an initial analysis of the client’s program and project goals, CMMI develops a decision-making matrix, also known as a differentiation document, to allocate roles and responsibilities among project team members. We identify critical program, budget, schedule, and site considerations, as well as life safety regulations, governing authority regulations, and any other information or constraints provided by the client. CMMI accepts responsibility for defining which tasks are to be performed by which member of the project team and when those tasks are to be completed.

The CMMI project team develops the preliminary project schedule in a collaborative environment with the client, and – if available – the contractor. By working together, project team members establish a true sense of 'ownership' in the project which translates into 'accountability'. As the project unfolds, CMMI monitors design and construction schedules carefully and discusses schedule matters routinely with our clients, taking corrective action when required.