INSIGHTS
UPFRONT For a project to have the best opportunity to achieve a high degree of success in terms of time, cost and quality, it is important to involve built environment cost professionals in conceptual discussions as well as throughout the entire project. AIQS asked leading professionals to provide us with their insights as to why their input is so valuable from day one.
JANE NORTHEY MAIQS, CQS Technical Director, ANZ Cost Management Practice Director, AECOM
Every project decision has a cost impact. Those cost impacts can take effect at any stage of the project life span, from inception and construction, throughout operations and during decommissioning. The earlier a decision is considered and planned the better the outcome for project time, cost and quality. Cost professionals benefit from experience in all project phases across all project disciplines to bring lessons learned and add value day one. They provide advice to ensure decisions can be made in a timely manner to have the biggest impact and ensure project success. Cost professionals are one of the few consultants to consider the complete project including design, procurement, construction, operations and maintenance, land remediation and/ or acquisition, financial and funding
implications, stakeholder involvement, and more. With a complete project scope in mind and a drive to enable project success a cost professional can track and mitigate risks by providing experiencebased advice to enable their clients to make decisions that have the greatest positive outcome. A cost professional's approach to cost management and risk assessment requires constant communication with all project stakeholders to ensure a complete understanding of the scope, operational impacts and end user requirements. As projects increasingly respond to human centred design and the standards and expectations improve, a cost professional can assist in planning to allow these requirements to be met without additional cost, time or impact on quality.
BUILT ENVIRONMENT ECONOMIST - MARCH 2020 - 03
