Bridges Interface Management (Bridges) reduces risk and cost through identification, tracking and minimisation of causes of delay. Bridges Consulting focuses on “hands-on” assistance in delivering four strategic objectives, when and as needed:
- Eliminating ambiguity in all “instruments of service”;
- Identifying all “essential” actions, by all parties, that will optimise value, minimise risk, and maintain quality for end users and the public;
- Monitoring the performance of essential actions that are included in the agreements and contracts to ensure they are being performed; and
- Performing those essential actions not included in the agreements and contracts between parties: “filling in the gaps”.
PSMJ’s primary Bridges objective is training Project Managers and Project Directors, whether they work for Clients, Designers or Contractors, in Interface Management skills. PSMJ also offers consulting services in this new discipline, particularly where:
- Major projects require on-site, hands-on training, and/or
- Major projects have unusual risk, time or cost constraints, and the importance of these constraints warrants a dedicated senior Interface Management presence.
Bridges consulting includes Risk Management, Controlling Construction Cost & Schedule Growth, Constructability Analysis, and other diagnostic methods. For an overview of the topics that comprise Bridges, see the Program Brochure.
For more information on Bridges consulting, contact Bill Parker.
You Asked...
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Isn't this part of what an independent Project Manager is supposed to do?
You’d think so. But experience shows it happens rarely. There are two reasons why:
- Most independent PMs focus on schedule and budget, and Bridges is almost always about the details of scope. Most PMs leave scope up to the design professionals, where budget and schedule pressures create gaps where these essential scope interfaces should connect, but don’t.
- Understanding the intricate structure of Bridges interfaces requires a comprehensive background in one of the core design disciplines: architecture, structural engineering or MEP engineering. Most independent PMs do not come from those disciplines.
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How much does it cost to add Bridges Consulting to the design team?
The cost will vary depending on a number of factors:
- Complexity of the project
- Number of different design disciplines involved
- Whether or not all design disciplines share the same experiential culture (including whether some of the documentation is produced ‘off-shore’)
- How ‘tight’ the schedule is (interface gaps are more critical in tightly scheduled and fast-tracked projects)
- The depth and maturity of experience in main design and construction team participants (greater experience lowers interface gap risk)
The best way to determine the cost is to implement a Bridges analysis at project start, that will assess the above factors, and can then convert to a fixed fee for service provision. Bridges services cannot be estimated on the basis of a % of construction cost.
A better way to assess the cost of Bridges is to think about the high risk of no Bridges; what the cost in time and money would be if a failure to implement Bridges resulted in just one major ‘screw-up’, requiring massive rework. Then consider that a robust Bridges program would prevent hundreds of potential screw-ups.