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Staff Training for CA Skills

  • 1.  Staff Training for CA Skills

    Posted 12 days ago

    All of you who specialize in the construction phase of our professional services will recognize the staff-training problem I am facing: how to get junior staff to want to learn and actually become proficient in Construction CONTRACT Administration?  None of us were ever taught in college how to administer, let alone write, front-end specifications or construction contracts and general conditons, or deal with contractors or clients, or how to perform the full range of potential CA phase services. How do we train staff to overcome their aversion to reading and complaining that "CA has so many words to keep track of"?



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    Dale Munhall, AIA
    Director of Construction Phase Services
    LEO A DALY
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  • 2.  RE: Staff Training for CA Skills

    Posted 11 days ago

    Dale,

    Interesting question. I have found that different folks have different skills sets. Some are designers and some are good with details. Some work best one task at a time, and some are excellent multi-taskers, but are not necessarily as thorough. Some are great at everything or many things. Some are not good at most things. Bottom line is identifying the right person for the right career track. Also in my experience, with very few exceptions, it requires a seasoned architect to write specs and become fluent with contracts. It's a career of learning.

     

    In my opinion, a firm should require that each architect manage their projects through construction, review submittals, respond to RFIs, observe how contractors understand their drawings, and learn which details are constructible and which aren't, and why. It will make them much better designers, and some may then decide they really enjoy being involved through the construction process and spending time in the field with mud on their jeans. I think it is a disservice to the Owner, the Project, and the design Architect when there is a disconnect between the design team and the construction administration team.

     

    Sorry – can't help you with the aversion to reading part and so many "words." I'd show those folks the door.

     

    Regards,

    Mark

     

    Mark I. Baum, Architect, AIA

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  • 3.  RE: Staff Training for CA Skills

    Posted 11 days ago

    The CA experience is a requirement for the AXP credits to take the ARE licensure exams.

    If you have the opportunity to hire college interns, that's the best way to start their professional journey, and gain the CA experience to take the licensing exams. Start with shop drawings and teach them  the lifecycle of the types of project deliveries from planning to construction closeout.

    Start with the timeline and the fact that when you walk through CA and experience/learn about baseline schedules, shop drawing logs/reviews, spec section parts 1/2/3, CSI codes for divisions 1-50, which component of the facility is mobilized first, from infrastructure, superstructure through to building automation and substantial, each step is crucial to be an efficient and proficient architect/designer.  

    Evaluating the construction phase is a direct validation that what you designed was constructable with minimal errors/omissions - achieving the target parameters of the clients budget.  Not only will this improve your QC during CD coordination with your subs, it informs you at the start of planning, what risks you need to monitor to mitigate during construction.  Improve the lifecycle and shuffle the team into each phase of the lifecyle with a mentor, or designate a team for CA who can share lessons learned to train the firm.

    Hope that helps.



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    Mi Zhang AIA
    AIA Brooklyn Director of the BKEP Committee
    NYCSCA, Director of Lifecycle Cost Management
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  • 4.  RE: Staff Training for CA Skills

    Posted 11 days ago

    Great topic, Dale, and responses by others. I am one of those that have specialized in the construction phase as that is where I feel my skillset works better and because I enjoy that part of the process, headaches and all. 

     It is important for junior staff (and all staff for that matter) to realize the importance of this phase and the opportunities it affords for learning, leadership, building relationships and well-rounded architects among other things. It is true there are so many words to keep track and language to watch out for (thanks to lawyers!). I try to break things down and explain the "why" of anything. I think it helps put things in perspective. It is important that those who worked on the project during design be a part of taking the project through construction, but they can and should be supported through that process whether by people in their firm who have chosen to specialize in the construction phase or other seasoned staff.

    An aversion to CCA is real, but many times is either rooted in fear of the unknown, aversion to what they think will be confrontation, or a singular experience that left a bad taste.  Seasoned architects certainly have horror stories, but it is important to couch the horror part with learning opportunities. Some junior staff may hear the off handed comments about CCA being a nightmare or pain in the backside and miss the part of why CCA is important. 



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    Sharon Day AIA
    GWWO Architects
    Baltimore MD
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  • 5.  RE: Staff Training for CA Skills

    Posted 11 days ago

    Great question and thoughts from everyone! The messiness and "Realness" of CCA is frightening. We've found two things that have helped slowly bridge the gap with staff who are not as well versed in this aspect of the process. 

    1. Semi-Dual staffing on larger projects, where the green member does the RFIs/Submittals/ASI with a first or second pass with a senior member looking through as a QC and explaining the unknowns. Also having both staff members on-site, for a hands-on learning opportunity at first and then having check-ins (to converse on what was seen, how is it compliant or not, and if it is not how to enforce, etc) between the two as the staff member becomes more familiar with CCA and conducts SVs on their own.
    2. Having a staff member who is not well versed in CCA in the meetings/emails/etc where change orders for items that were not covered etc. In essence, learn by fire and experience why the contract and specifications, etc are important. (With this, we do have a senior member on the project as well, so the person is not completely, "thrown to the wolves". 

    Looking forward to seeing what others recommend. 

    s



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    Shaili Patel AIA
    Colby Company Engineering
    Palmer AK
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  • 6.  RE: Staff Training for CA Skills

    Posted 10 days ago

    Dale,

    I had the same dilemma when I started working for a firm and was thrown into CCA work.  I felt that I did not get the support or training necessary to run a project successfully so looked around to see how I could improve. By far, the best resource and training that I have found is through the Construction Specifications Institute and their certifications.  They have two that I would highly recommend. 

    The first one is their Construction Documents Technology (CDT) certificate.  It is CSIs 'stepping stone' to their other (3) certifications. (BTW, the three tracks are geared towards (1) Spec Writing, (2) Product Representatives., and (3) Construction Contract Administration).  

    The second is their Certified Construction Contract Administrator (CCCA) certificate.  This one is more in-depth training specifically for CCA work.

    With just the CDT training, one would be well versed at understanding our roles and responsibilities on a project during CCA.  With the CCCA training it only gets better.  Unless you are a product representative, I would not look into that certification.  The last one for Spec Writing is great if you are going to be a spec writer specifically but would not worry about this one as the CDT and CCCA will get you the knowledge you need to understand specs very well.

    I'd love to hear if others have taken these certifications.  Personally, I have felt that they have been the best training.

    Hope this helps.



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    Reynaldo Royo
    AIA, CDT, NCARB, DBIA
    San Francisco, CA
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  • 7.  RE: Staff Training for CA Skills

    Posted 9 days ago

    All,

    I enthusiastically second what Reynaldo said.  During my time at CannonDesign, we asked everybody working in CA to take the CDT (for which we provided training), including the admin people who processed all the CA documents, and we noticed a clear improvement on their CA knowledge.

    The CCCA exam is a fantastic opportunity to deepen your credentials in Construction Administration.



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    Gustavo Lima AIA, MRAIC, CCCA, DBIA, LEED AP
    Gustavo A. Lima Architecture, PC
    Buffalo, NY
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  • 8.  RE: Staff Training for CA Skills

    Posted 9 days ago
    Edited by Melody Alisa Fontenot AIA 9 days ago

    Hello! 

    I am a specifier, and I have CSI's CDT, CCCA, and CCS certifications. These have been extremely valuable in my career and I wish every person in the AEC industry had their CDT certification. I took CDT study sessions with a local architect who became a mentor. The information covered about contractual roles and responsibilities and project delivery was eye-opening. I had just passed all my AREs, but CDT is what really made things click and offered a greater level of confidence in doing my daily job.

    CSI is one of the few organizations for everyone in AEC to join, and our varied perspectives offer great value! I would love to see more support and education from AIA around specifications as half of the contract documents, and proper construction administration procedures- too many Architects let things slide because they don't fully understand the rules and when/where to push back. We need to change this; we need to require better for our Owners and future building occupants!

    Many local CSI chapters offer CDT training; Portland Oregon chapter offers it virtually each spring and fall- it is a game changer!

    If you have questions about CSI or the certifications, feel free to drop me a line at mfontenot@conspectusinc.com - I am always happy to chat specs!



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    Melody Alisa Fontenot AIA
    Conspectus, Inc
    Portland OR
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  • 9.  RE: Staff Training for CA Skills

    Posted 10 days ago

    Great discussion and responses. And great question. 

    The best learning I had in practice was doing CA work- it informed nearly everything in the design and construction document phase, separating out the fantasy from reality. 

    I believe that you have to insist that staff work all phases of a project, at least for a while, probably down to the draftsman level. Others have stated this includes submittals, RFI's, change orders (the best place to learn what you did wrong!), etc.  It also means a commitment from the firm that during these training opportunities, the firm is committed to absorbing some additional cost for effectively double staffing portions of the CA phase- we need to have experienced, senior staff guiding and working along the newer staff on each of the CA activities- do not turn a newbie loose in the field without some oversight and assistance! We used to take our entire project team out to our projects for field trips- everyone learned from the discussion, learned from everyone else, and saw that project success is a group effort, not just one person or one activity.

    Internal lunch and learns by senior CA and risk management staff also provides training for junior staff, using lots of photos, videos, images of submittals, working through an RFI response, reviewing the contracts, etc.



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    Arlen Solochek, FAIA
    Owner/Principal/Founder
    Arlen Solochek FAIA, Consulting Architect
    Phoenix, AZ
    ArlenSolochek@gmail.com
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  • 10.  RE: Staff Training for CA Skills

    Posted 10 days ago

    I'm a strong believer that robust mentoring is the best solution to these types of problems. In my experience, younger staff are gun shy about CCA, but not because of an aversion to reading; rather it's out of fear of making a serious mistake when there are real dollars at stake. They're probably overworked to begin with, and looking for a needle in the spec book or contract haystack is understandably not the best use of resources. 

    We like to introduce unfamiliar staff to CCA with fairly boiler plate activities: reviewing product data submittals which require minimal familiarity with a project, as an example. Even then, it's best to schedule a 15 minute sit down to review how the Work is divided into sections, parts, etc; and what they should-and should NOT- be looking for. 

    As others have mentioned, a seasoned staff member needs to review the work before sending out, but it's also critical to close the feedback loop. Without letting the younger staff know how their initial pass measured up, how can they be expected to know, learn, and grow?

     I'm sure some here will lament how this hands on approach has changed from "back in their day" and is a drain on their own time. But if we don't make the commitment to growing all levels of the firm and profession, how can we expect any commitment from them?



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    Thomas Stablein AIA
    The Collaborative Inc.
    Toledo OH
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  • 11.  RE: Staff Training for CA Skills

    Posted 8 days ago

    Here are a two truths about CCA I've discovered in 36 years of engaging in it, among other professional experience:

    #1: Some firms (most, among the firms with which I've worked) don't invest enough resources (manpower) in CCA, preferring to invest time and manpower in activities like marketing, design, documentation, and firm leadership instead. Consequently, those professionals who do it most experience more work hours, more work travel, more stress, higher turnover, lower job satisfaction, lower quality of life, lower loyalty to the firm and its values, lower willingness to mentor, less contact with other staff members to mentor, and less available time to spend mentoring. This is how the lessons learned in CCA fail to influence the firm's other activities. It also decreases the quality of relationships with contractors and clients, increasing professional liability exposure and decreasing chances for winning future work with existing clients. (And when I say "invest resources in CCA", I'm including the process of investing in the phases preceding CCA in a way that is calculated to result in successful CCA.)

    #2: Some professionals become pigeonholed as "good at CCA" by default simply because they can do math well enough to review a Pay Application, can use spellcheck well enough to prepare a not-heinous Site Observation Report, can show up to a meeting on time, are older white males, or don't have expensive haircuts. In other words: they don't meet the stereotype of a hot designer with the personality to impress a client instantly, so they get stuck doing a job no one else wants to do. And after doing CCA on one or two projects without a disaster, they get stuck in a rut they'll never get out of, unless they lie on a resume and fake a portfolio. Or leave the profession. And if they do, some other poor soul will become an unwilling CCA recruit. (The same thing occurs with production staff and project managers/project architects/job captains, too--even more often than CCA staff.)

    I think a far better option--which I have yet to see deployed first-hand--is to engage designers, production crews, and project managers completely in CCA on the projects they touch, without a dedicated CCA professional to prop them up. If I had my way, there would be no silos in a firm. Firms of all sizes would run every project with a right-sized team like a two-man firm fully engaged in all phases of each project. The only specialists would be IT people and firm leaders. Each boutique team would do everything from marketing through close-out, follow-up, client management, and documenting lessons learned--even writing their own contracts and specs. And each team would have all the support it needs at each phase without any individual bearing the entire load.



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    Sean Catherall AIA
    Murray UT
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