Practical project management lessons from environmental, demolition, remediation, and industrial work. For project engineers, developing PMs, and field professionals. Delivered every Friday.
Friday Field Notes #07: Change Orders Start Before the COR
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FRIDAY FIELD NOTES #07 Change Orders Start Before the COR Good morning team, This week’s topic: change orders. 1. From the Field By the time a change order request is formally written, much of the important work has already happened. Someone identified that the requested work may be outside the original scope, the team discussed how to proceed, labor or equipment may have been committed, and the project started collecting information to support the cost. I’ve seen change requests become difficult to recover because the team treated the COR as the beginning of the process. In reality, the process begins as soon as someone recognizes that the work may be different from what was originally planned or priced. The earlier the project team identifies the potential change, the easier it is to track the labor, equipment, materials, schedule effects, and supporting communication while the information is still fresh. 2. Leadership Perspective Good project leaders make it safe for the team to raise scope questions early. A PE should not feel like every potential change has to be fully proven before mentioning it. Early notice gives the PM time to review the contract, ask questions, and decide how the work should be handled. 3. Field Observation Scope changes are not always announced as formal changes. They often begin with a drawing clarification, an access restriction, additional handling, a different disposal requirement, or a request that sounds minor during a field conversation. The important skill is learning to pause and compare the request against the contract, estimate, drawings, and existing assumptions. Not every difference becomes a change order, but every meaningful difference should be recognized and evaluated before the cost is buried in normal project activity. 4. Spreadsheet Tip This week’s formula: SUMIFS Use this formula to total change-related costs for a specific change item. =SUMIFS($F:$F,$B:$B,A2,$C:$C,”Change”) In this example: Column F contains the cost. Column B contains the change item number. Cell A2 contains the change item you want to total. Column C identifies whether the cost is change-related. Excel will total the costs in Column F that match both conditions. This can be useful when labor, equipment, trucking, materials, or subcontractor costs are being tracked across several potential change items. 5. Question for the Week What work on your current project should be reviewed now before it becomes difficult to separate from the original scope? Have a great weekend, Dan |
Friday Field Notes
Practical project management lessons from environmental, demolition, remediation, and industrial work. For project engineers, developing PMs, and field professionals. Delivered every Friday.
Good morning team, This week’s topic: small tools and consumables. 1. From the Field Nobody calls an emergency meeting because the project bought another box of cutting wheels. Small purchases rarely look concerning one at a time. Over several months, though, the job may go through far more blades, filters, hoses, batteries, PPE, and other consumables than the estimate allowed. Some small tools will also disappear into gang boxes, service trucks, and whatever mysterious place tape measures go...
Good morning team, This week’s topic: equipment cost exposure. 1. From the Field Equipment costs don’t wait for someone to notice them. A rented excavator can be fueled, inspected, parked in exactly the right spot, and accomplish absolutely nothing while the rental clock keeps running. Sometimes the delay can’t be avoided. An approval may still be pending, the work area might not be ready, or the sequence may have changed. The trouble starts when “we’ll probably need it later” becomes the...
Good morning team, This week’s topic: labor hours. 1. From the Field Knowing that a project used 500 labor hours does not tell you much by itself. You need to know what those hours accomplished. That is where labor tracking becomes more useful. If 500 hours produced 1,000 units one week and the same 500 hours produced 650 the next, something changed. The reason could be completely legitimate, but the project team should understand it. I’ve found that labor discussions become much more useful...