When to appoint a Project Manager

Avoid project failure by appointing your project manager at the right time

When talking to prospective clients about our services, the question of who to appoint and when, often crops up. For example, an architect is often one of the first appointments – after all, without a design, there’s nothing to build. But what about appointing your project manager?

This article considers when to appoint a project manager to ensure they are able to offer the best value for your project.

The benefits of choosing a specialist project manager

In this article we discussed the benefits of appointing a specialist project manager for your construction project. But to recap, a specialist project manager is just that. A trained and experienced professional with the sole focus of managing your project to deliver the best possible outcomes. They act on your behalf to ensure that your project objectives are at the core of all activities.

Whilst other construction professionals, including architects, can fulfil the role of project manager, if they also have other duties to deliver there is a risk of loss of impartiality. 

What does your project manager do?

In the context of construction, the RICS defines the role of a project manager as follows:

“The project manager occupies a lead role in the development process with the responsibility for driving successful completion of the project and occupying the space between the employer and the building contract, design team and other consultants employed on the project.”

Duties start well before the project commencement date on site, through to the end of the defects period. You can read more about their responsibilities here. 

When to appoint your project manager

A key responsibility of your project manager is to help develop the business case and initial strategic brief for your project. With this in mind, it is clear that the project manager should be appointed at the earliest opportunity in the project inception phase. 

The appointment should be made regardless of whether the project manager is an ‘in house’ resource or an external consultant. This then enables the appointed project manager to oversee the appointment of the consultant team. 

Should you appoint based on the individual or the company?

Another good question when it comes to appointing a project manager is, should you appoint based on the individual’s experience or the company’s reputation?

Naturally company reputation is immensely important – after all, a company with a good reputation can be expected to have robust performance management processes in place to ensure the competency of their project managers. 

However, it is also important to check the competence of the individual. After all, they are the person who you will be working closely with for the delivery of your project and who will be a key influencer in building a collaborative project team. With this in mind, always ask to see relevant project experience for the individuals who will be working on your project, and interview them during the appointment process.

A reliable and reassuring way to do this is by appointing a Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) or Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) regulated firm and checking the company CVs of their project managers. 

How Evolution5 can help you?

Evolution5 is both a Chartered Building Consultancy and RICS regulated firm with a more than qualified and experienced team of construction project managers. All our project managers have the expertise required to deliver even the most complex projects. 

Click here to view more details about some of our projects.

Evolution5 is a professional consultancy offering project management, principal designer, CDM advisor, quantity surveying, employer’s agent, and contract administration services for projects across London and the South East.

If you have a construction project and would like to explore how the team can help you, click the button below or call 023 8040 5073.