Identifying Your Project Priorities

If you are considering extending, refurbishing, or even building a new home, you are about to embark on a journey where you will be asked to make decisions at every step of the way. Decisions on your brief, budget, which design options you prefer, right through to what sort of taps you want in your bathroom. Working out your priorities at the outset and sticking to them will put you on a path to a successful project. 

There is a concept known as the project management triangle, which states that there are three key factors in the outcome of a project. Time / Cost / Quality.

These three elements are interrelated, and changing one will inevitably have a knock-on impact on another. Our simplified view is that you can have two of these for your project, but one of them has got to give. 

It is helpful to reframe these elements to make them a bit less abstract.

Time – How quickly your project will be completed (and how much of your time will be required).

Cost – How much it will cost, not only in terms of construction but also consultant time.

Quality – How simple and straightforward, or complex and bespoke is the build.

Expanding these as examples can start to shed some light on how personal circumstances might impact decisions in a project.

Example 1 – Time and Quality

You have limited time to spend on your project and want to see it completed as quickly as possible, and you want the highest quality outcome, your compromise will undoubtedly be the cost of the project. You will need a lot of input and support from your architect and design team and you will want to use a quality contractor to manage and deliver the build.

Example 2 – Time and Cost

You have limited time to spend on the project, but your budget is tight, or you are trying to make it go a long way. In this instance, the compromise will be quality or perhaps better thought of as the complexity of the build. You will want a simple build which uses well-known construction methods and materials which most builders will be capable of delivering.

Example 3 – Cost and Quality

You want a high-quality, bespoke build, and you want to achieve it at the lowest possible price. Of course, this sounds like the best outcome however, the impact on the duration of the project and time required is often seriously underestimated. The best illustration of this is when a client decides to project manage the build themselves to save money, this can be successful but is a very steep learning curve and to be done well needs to be done slowly. You will be spending time sourcing and ordering materials and managing individual contractors. The job will take a lot longer and you will invest a lot of your own time delivering it.

Understanding what your priorities are from the outset of the project will inform the design process and will act as a useful point of reference when it comes to making individual decisions throughout the build.