10 Criteria for Successful Project Management Services

Earlier this year, I successfully completed a project where I managed the design and construction for a start-up’s new headquarters in Silicon Valley. Here are ten lessons learned from that project that apply to most facility projects.

1. Manage both design and construction, never construction without design
This is such an important part of every project, that to be responsible for only design or only construction means that you cannot be responsible for the project. If you don’t have the ability to lead not just the design and construction by how the project team will decide on the design and construction resources than you essentially become an order taker, not a project leader.

For this project, the brokers and landlord were telling the client (and initially me too) to hire an architect and complete the design, then obtain bids from general contractors. Instead, I developed and RFP for design-build services…