Practice Management Member Conversations

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"?

Thank you for bringing up this topic.

I am a solo practitioner who started doing CA work at my first office as a very young professional (late 1980s/early 1990s). I would like to see more on this topic for small firms and small projects as our world's climate is assumedly vastly different from superstructures. It is just as important, but our world has clients and contractors who don't understand its importance, are less patient with meetings, we often don't have suitable places to meet (plywood on top of saw horses), and the formality of submittals, RFIs, ASIs, and documentation can frustrate those who are not familiar with it. 

I'm currently guiding a GC on properly preparing a submittal (no kidding). Any resources for those of us at this level would be greatly appreciated. Even after 33 years, I am still learning - reading people, reading the room, and being disciplined to document everything.

Original Message:
Sent: 10-29-2024 06:33 PM
From: Donald Koppy
Subject: Staff Training for CA Skills

Dale,

You bring up a valid point of little to no school training in construction CONTRACT administration.  Division 00 and 01 of the Project Manual are often left to the Project Manager or Principal of most firms to handle, so how does a more junior person learn it?  

I was thrown into that deep end of that pool 2 years after graduating college, when both of them left the firm, and since I did the drafting on the two office buildings, was selected to perform CA on both!.

Fortunately, I had taken the CSI Certification classes and at least learnt the roles and responsibilities of the entities involved in our construction industry.

Recommend these folks attend the training, even if not taking the Construction Document Technology exam from CSI.  If they like it, then have them study for the Certified Construction Contract Administrator Exam.

Don

 

Donald A. Koppy, CSI, CCS, CDT, AIA, NCARB Master Construction Specifier / Architect | Architecture & Building Engineering Direct: 813-222-8691 | Cell: 314-568-3363 | Don.Koppy@meadhunt.com" style="text-decoration: none">Transfer Files

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I do not specialize in Contract Administration, but I wholeheartedly agree we all need to learn it better! For a few decades I stayed in medium size offices that did not have that strength. It was not until I joined more complex federal design that I had to get better at it. And I came from developer/engineering childhood background that helped me a lot. That is why now our staff is assigned a rotation of tasks, that include CA and specs. It is a lot to learn when one is starting, but being able to see and experience the whole picture with specs and design results and collaborative problem solving during construction, I believe is key for training a much more well rounded profesional. Of course, a charrette opportunity here and there keeps it interesting. It is to their advantage to build that experience and knowledge power. But I can tell you that many of us can struggle at first... patience, bite size task and good guidance can go a long way...

Once upon a time I had a small architectural practice. The vast majority of our projects were complicated research labs for demanding institutional and corporate clients. I would often hire staff a few years, or directly out of architectural school. I wasn't the type to control every aspect of the office and expected my staff to take initiative no matter the phase of the job. I also made sure everyone would work from the beginning to the end of the project including taking a lead role during construction with my oversight. I would, of course, encourage staff to ask me questions if something came up during construction and I wasn't there to directly address and they didn't know the right response. My first answer to most construction related questions was "Did you look at the drawings and project Manual?". Eventually they would get tired of me saying that and would look first - probably 80% of the time the answer was already spelled out.

Eventually I moved to a large firm and brought staff and projects with me. New staff assigned to me had the same issues you describe (all the staff I had previously trained were reassigned to other teams because they were particularly competent). The new firm also handled CA separately with specialized staff.

I advocated for the firm to establish a small projects group who would act as a small firm within the large one and there would be several seasoned staff but intern architects would rotate through for fixed periods so they could get all the necessary experience architects are expected to be competent in. I never did get them to implement the idea before taking my current position in government.

Dale, you work for a very big firm and I imagine a formal firm sponsored mentoring studio may be a possible solution to train your junior staff in the art of construction administration - good luck

CA is one of the best parts of an architectural practice and should not be missed.  There is great satisfaction in seeing how what is dreamt and drawn can be constructed and in having the opportunity to meet the people that do the work. The process of construction is truly a unique achievement. Often it is people that have never met each other that come together with a common goal to achieve the final product. Amazingly, it works 99 percent of the time.

Thank you for your efforts, vital and crucial subject.  

I frame it to junior staff as the most valuable learning experience they can get -- which is seeing their work in the real world and how it does or does not get built effectively and aesthetically.  Most of them actually do not object, and even request, to make more trips to the field, so that part hasn't been an issue for me.  But overall I concur, junior staff are challenged in doing CA, especially submittals and shop drawings.  Its too big a problem to tackle at once.  I think we should take it on in our offices in small pieces.  Which precise task do you see them struggling at the most?

Related -- I like to insist all members of the design team (in my case, we typically have architecture and interiors) edit specs related to parts of the design they are focused on.  I have assigned as little as one spec section to junior staff to edit.  It did require that I do mini training sessions on the spec editor and explain where to find resources to help them understand the info in the spec.  My hope in doing this is to build some experience so that if they're in position to do CA, the spec is not so intimidating.  I'm not able to do this with Div 0 and 1 -- that just seems way too hard to teach.

Andrew, I like your idea about getting junior staff to assist on spec writing. The learning has to start somewhere and is an important piece of the work! Although challenging, Div 0 and 1 are critical divisions along with the General Conditions that set the stage of the roles and responsibilities. We are not always involved in writing Div 0 (like for clients that already have set procurement specs) but we should get the opportunity to review them, so it is important for staff to know what is involved. For Div 1, we do write many of these spec sections for projects and going through them is helpful in understanding how they support the project and administering of the construction contract. In our office, I helped put together a guideline on these divisions. It is a lot to encompass but we have tried to break down the key elements and things to watch out for. One suggestion is doing a series of learning sessions, reviewing 1-3 sections per session. We have been doing something similar with our Construction Specialists in reviewing the A201 (every section). It has taken a long time in going through it as we try to meet monthly about it, but the discussions have been worth it, and we can use that knowledge to mentor and teach other staff.