A client's request against the schedule: weighing it honestly before you answer
The client asks for a small adjustment and wants an answer before lunch. It sounds easy, so a quick yes would keep the conversation moving. The affected item is already ordered, and the crew sequence may depend on it.
Before promising a client request, check what it touches in scope, procurement, sequence and resources, then present the feasible options with their current cost and timing assumptions. Start the assessment promptly and explain when a reliable answer will be available. A request that looks small in a drawing can affect work already ordered or scheduled. Give the client an informed choice rather than a reflex yes or no.
Test the request before committing
- Clarify the actual outcome wanted. Record the area, item and reason for the request. Ask whether the client needs this exact change or whether another arrangement could meet the underlying need.
- Check the present commitment. Identify ordered materials, approved details, completed work and current release status. Ask the responsible people which commitments can still change and which need a formal instruction or commercial review.
- Trace the schedule interfaces. Review the affected activities with the superintendent and planner. Consider work that would be displaced or reopened, not only the time required to carry out the visible adjustment.
- Develop the feasible choices. Check whether the request can be made now, in a later defined window or through a different solution. Ask designers, suppliers and trades to confirm the assumptions relevant to each option.
- Present price and date status honestly. Distinguish a checked proposal from an early estimate and identify approvals still needed. Do not call an option free unless the authorized commercial review confirms what costs and consequences are included.
- Record the client’s decision through the change route. Confirm authority and any conditions, then update the people who buy and build. If the client defers, record the date after which an option may no longer remain available.
Common mistakes
- Promising no schedule effect before checking the work that will be displaced.
- Offering an alternative without confirming technical feasibility.
- Calling a request free because its visible task appears short.
Action list
A useful response gives the client
- The understood request and purpose.
- The current commitments it affects.
- Feasible options with checked assumptions.
- Price and date status with conditions.
- A decision route and needed-by date.
Check your understanding
The team can perform the adjustment quickly, but doing so moves another trade out of its work front. Is the request only a short task?
