Project Phase and Resources %

which phase for the architecture services that you need the most man power if you can rank them in percentage. (SD 20%, DD 30%, CD 40%, BID 15%, CA ?%) when allocating resources, how do you make better judgement to balance the workflow

Hi @AJPeng ,

I’ll see if I can help.

Are you interested in learning and understand more about project phases and how you should approach staffing them? If you have a Black Spectacle’s subscriptions I recommend watching through the Project Management objective 1.1 videos.

We do have an older free video on our Youtube channel that addresses this topic.

See screenshot from the video below:

These percentages represent the expected amount of effort & time each project phase will take. These are also the typical percentages of the architectural fee you will bill the client for at each phase. For SD you maybe only have a project manger, lead designer, and one lower level staff on the project. You probably start introducing technical staff such as the project architect at DD. As you can see, the CD phase takes up the majority of the time/effort. You’re likely to have more staff working on the project at this point, including the project architect, project manager, and multiple lower level staff members. During Bidding you likely only have the project manager and project architect on the project, with the project manager logging minimum hours. Same thing during CA. Bidding (or procurement) and CA are a little bit different than other phases in that the architect is likely logging less hours per week than in the design phases, but over a longer period of time (the length of bidding & construction).

I recommend reading through chapter 10 of the Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice for more information. This is going to be your best and most thorough resource for understanding staffing and phases. This is also the resource the ARE is testing you on.

This website might also help:

Remember, these percentages are typical, but not set in stone. For instance, the AHPP discusses how the introduction of BIM might affect your fee distribution and staffing on page 649 within chapter 10. When utilizing BIM you can expect more effort/time will be needed on the front end of developing the construction drawings during DD as you populate your model. However, you likely will need less time during the CD phase as BIM allows for quicker revisions if you model effectively.

Hope this helps!
-Darion

Thanks Darion, this is helpful

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