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Project management

Five questions to answer at the start of every construction project

By Review.LivePublished 3 min readHow we write

On a Thursday afternoon the estimator hands over the job: a signed contract, a spreadsheet and a folder of quotes. Mobilization is ten days away. Three weeks later the superintendent learns that the price assumed the owner would supply the kitchen appliances, and the owner assumed the opposite.

Hands hold a printed document open at a meeting table while other papers and participants blur in the background.
Photo: Anastassia Anufrieva on Unsplash

A project is usually priced by one group of people and built by another. Everything the estimator assumed — exclusions, allowances, crew sizes, sequence, which supplier quoted what — is knowledge the site team needs and rarely receives in writing. A short internal kickoff built on five questions, held before the pre-construction meeting with the owner, moves those assumptions out of one person's memory and into the plan.

The five questions

  1. Scope: what exactly are we building, and what did we leave out? List the inclusions, exclusions, allowances and alternates, and flag anything the owner might think is yours.
  2. Contract: what does it make us do that we would not do anyway? Notices, schedule submissions, payment requirements and warranty terms go on a one-page summary — see reading the contract.
  3. Schedule: which dates are fixed, and what drives them? The completion date, milestones, long-lead items and any limits on access or working hours.
  4. Budget: where is the money tight? Ask which items were priced low to win, which quotes were incomplete, and what the contingency is meant to cover.
  5. People: who does what, and who decides for the owner? Name the superintendent, the foremen, the key subcontractors and the person on the owner's side who can approve a change.
  6. Write every answer on one page, and turn each "we'll find out" into an open item with an owner and a date.

Common mistakes

  • Holding the kickoff after mobilization, when the first surprise has already cost money.
  • Inviting the estimator but not the superintendent who will build the job.
  • Leaving the answers in meeting notes nobody opens again.
  • Accepting "we'll find out" without an owner and a date.

Checklist

Bring to the kickoff

  • The signed contract and every document it lists
  • The estimate, with exclusions, allowances and alternates
  • Every quote used in the price
  • The owner's required dates and milestones
  • A draft team list, including the owner's decision-makers
  • One page for answers, owners and dates

Check your understanding

Why should the superintendent attend a kickoff that is mostly about the estimate and the contract?

Show the answer
Because the superintendent turns the estimate's assumptions into daily decisions: crew sizes, sequences, what to accept from a trade. Hearing those assumptions from the estimator, with a chance to question them, costs an hour; finding them on site costs money. It also puts the site team's concerns into the plan before the first commitments are made.

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