Assembling a Collaborative Project Team has been developed in conjunction with the RIBA Plan of Work 2013, the Overview publication (both available to download at www.ribaplanofwork.com) and the Guide to Using the RIBA Plan of Work 2013. It aligns with and supports these two landmark documents, providing more detailed guidance, specific activities and the focused tools that are essential for those responsible for and involved in assembling a project team. In particular, it considers how to create a truly collaborative project team and how achieving this during Stage 1 will make a project easier to run during the design, construction and operational stages. The guidance and tools can be referenced by any party involved at any stage of a project, but they are of greatest interest to the project lead and the lead designer. The RIBA Plan of Work 2013 can be used in isolation and the steps and tools outlined in this publication are not obligatory. However, even on simpler projects, the processes that are set out in the Plan can provide an invaluable resource for explaining to a client the proposed structure of the project team and a means of properly engaging each party in the project team. In the long run, their use will lead to clearer, more successful methods of working.

On paper, assembling a collaborative project team should be straightforward. In reality it is complicated due to:

• the number of parties that have to be appointed
• the various options for appointing each party
• variations in the timing of contractor involvement
• the different ways in which roles can be combined
• apportioning contractor and subcontractor design
• cultural issues associated with working together for the first time
• the parties’ varying levels of experience gained on previous projects
• the lack of standard Schedules of Services for members of the project team, and
• the absence of common protocols and standards.

The steps and tools detailed in this publication reconcile these complexities by setting out a process that incrementally builds the collaborative project team, concluding with a number of documents that can work independently or as appendices to professional services contracts and the Building Contract.

It is essential for any collaborative project team to be constructed during Stage 0 (Strategic Definition) and Stage 1 (Preparation and Brief). The reasoning behind this requirement and the importance of these initial stages is considered in Chapter 1. By properly establishing the project team early in the project:

• design work can be undertaken without any ambiguities regarding responsibility
• clients can be certain that they have made sufficient allowances for fees and the design team members can be confident that their fees relate to detailed Schedules of Services
• clients can proceed, confident that the means of engaging the design team and the contractor have been fully considered, and
• every party is clear about their responsibilities and the information that they will deliver at each stage.

The RIBA Plan of Work 2013 considers the tasks undertaken by the project team rather than just those that are the responsibility of the design team. To fully understand the implications of this shift it is essential to consider the generic types of project team and to also understand how the different entities within project teams (the client, the design team and the contractor) have changed over the years. Chapter 2 considers the implications of these changes and looks at the evolution of the project team, likely changes in the future and how these impact on assembling a project team.

‘Kick-starting’ a project has its own complexities and unique considerations and these are set out in Chapter 3.

Having considered the importance of the early stages, the impact of the project team, rather than the design team, and how to begin the process, Chapter 4 examines how to strategically assemble a collaborative project team and the benefits that this brings. Where a project team regularly works together, the processes set out have additional benefits. They can be utilised to generate a clear and robust set of documents that can be used and continually improved from one project bid to the next, demonstrating stringent design management techniques.

Before looking at specific tools for assembling the project team, Chapter 5 considers the importance of the project brief and how it influences the process of assembling a project team.

Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9 set out the detailed tools required to assemble the collaborative project team. The processes set out in these chapters:

• have been developed for use on projects where the client may be undertaking their first, and only, building project or for use by clients who regularly carry out projects
• consider the stage at which the contractor becomes involved in the process, ensuring that the project team is constructed accordingly
• work for both large and small projects
• ensure that the supporting documents required as appendices for professional services contracts or Building Contracts are properly conceived, and
• facilitate the preparation of the processes and protocols required by a collaborative project team using BIM.

Chapter 10 looks at the most frequently used forms of professional services contracts and Building Contracts required to bind the project team together and to provide the legal mechanisms to deal with any issues that may arise.

Finally, the appendix presents Multidisciplinary Schedules of Services, derived from the tasks set out in the RIBA Plan of Work 2013. Each task has been allocated to particular project roles but can be adjusted if necessary. The multidisciplinary format reduces the possibility of gaps or overlaps in the services provided and ensures that every member of the project team is aware of the tasks to be undertaken by each party.

You can access all of the practical tools for assembling a project team described in this book online at www.ribaplanofwork.com/toolbox.

In this book, the stages of the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 are set in bold (e.g. Stage 0 Strategic Definition) and terms which are defined in the RIBA Plan of Work 2013 Glossary are set with initial capitals (e.g. Building Contract).