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Construction Change Management

No construction project has ever gone from the drawing board to completion with changes being made. Sometimes the changes made are small; others are substantial and cost a great deal of money. As a result, construction change management is a critical element of any project.

Construction change management, like project management as a whole, has changed over the years. It used to be that many necessary changes were not identified until construction was completed. A change order then had to be submitted and major work done to fix the problem, which could cause friction between the architect, contractor and the property owner.

New computer programs are making construction change management a simpler task. The invention of three-dimensional modeling has allowed for potential problems in the design to be identified before construction begins, and changes made. In these cases, the change orders can be for far less than they would be if construction was already underway or complete before the problem was found.

With the traditional building process, where the architect and contractor are hired separately, construction change management is the responsibility of the contractor once construction begins. Since the contractor has limited access to the design before starting work, the chances to make an early change are decreased.

With the design-build method, the architect and the contractor are working together. Since the two are teamed at the start, the contractor has greater access to the design and can assist with computer-aided modeling. This increases the possibility of recognizing a problem and initiating construction change management in the early stages--in most cases, when the project is still on the drawing board.

With the construction manager at-risk method, the contractor is also involved in the pre-construction process. Though they are hired separately from the architect, they have a greater role to play than they would have traditionally. This will help in the identification of problems and the initiation of construction change management before it becomes costly.

Of course, there are times when construction change management is unavoidable, no matter how good the design. If the client decides they want something changed, it's back to the drawing board, no matter how far along construction is.

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