BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement)

Benchmarks:

Benefits Management:

The identification, definition, planning, tracking and realisation of business benefits (APM BoK 6th Edition).

Business Case

The Business Case provides justification for undertaking a project, in terms of evaluating the benefits, cost and risk of alternative options and the rationale for the preferred solution.  Its purpose is to obtain management commitment and approval for investment in the project.

It is updated as the project proceeds, and is reviewed at each Gateway to see if the justification for the project (the anticipated benefits still outweigh the costs and risks) still stands, and the scheme still out-competes other possible projects that GHA could undertake.

Typical contents:

• reason for the project (from Concept)
• anticipated benefits of doing the project
• project objectives and success criteria
• high-level description of the project scope
• evaluation of the options, including the "do nothing" option
• high-level risks of doing the project
• predicted costs
• target schedule (milestones and completion date)
• investment appraisal
• assumptions on which the BC is based
• known constraints
• known dependencies
• impact on doing the project on business-as-usual.

Business Case Approval:

• shows management commitment that the project should be pursued to the next Gateway;
• authorises the expenditure of in-house resources and money to pay external consultant/contractors to work the project up to the next Gateway, which will typically be the decision whether or not to buy land and/or whether or not to enter into a building contract.

Defects:

A problem caused by the Contractors failure to comply with the requirements of the Contract Documents, in terms of standards of design, workmanship or materials, systems or components to be used. Problems caused by wear and tear, resident mis-use, components etc coming to the end of their expected useful life etc are not defects. The definition of what is a defect is simple and clear. The difficulty is often diagnosing whether the identified problem stems from non-compliance with the requirements of the Contract Documents, or from some other cause, and thus knowing whether the problem is the legitimate responsibility of the Contractor or not.

 Defect Rectification Period: 

The period of time after Practical Completion in a JCT Contract that the Employer can hold onto the Contractor's retention money. Oddly, it is not the period of time for which the contractor is obliged to rectify defects, which will be 12 years (assuming the contract was entered into as a Deed). The Defect Rectification Period is usually 12 months after which the Employer has to hand over the Contractors retention. After this time the Contractor is still liable to rectify defects, but will be less motivated to fulfil that obligation, as the Employer no longer has their money.

Delegation: 

The practice of giving a person or group the authority to perform the responsibilities of, or act on behalf of, another (APM BoK 6th Edition).

Design Principles

These are fundamental design decisions that will have a significant effect on the layouts, scale and amount of housing that the site can accommodate. It is therefore very important that they are thought-through before the architect begins to consider different sketch options.retention or removal of existing features. Examples of design principles are:

• what existing features (trees, walls, buildings, watercourses, paths, open space etc) to retain
• whether to integrate (face out) into surrounding area or create an internally-facing scheme (e.g. for older persons)
• what views (if any) to preserve and utilise
• how to connect into the surrounding area
  • many / few connections (streets or culs de sac)
  • the vehicular entry/exit points to the site;
  • the pedestrian entry/exit points to the site;
• (for larger schemes) the number, nature and hierarchy of spaces on the site ;
• the orientation of the layout;
• the amount of car parking;
• the location of car parking spaces;
• the approach to landscaping design (bearing in mind likely landscape maintenance budgets).

Development Land:

Feasibility Study:

Formal British Standard 6079 definition: an analysis to determine if a course of action is possible within the terms of reference of the project.  Work carried out on a proposed project or alternatives to provide a basis for deciding whether or not to proceed.

For property (re)development projects, this typically involves researching the policy, economic, resource and physical constraints and opportunities associated with the proposed scheme.  Different high-level options may be identified.  Option-identification is a creative process.

For the identified options, predictions are made about capital costs, realisable income, time to completion, effect on business as usual.  The research should identify the major constraints and opportunities so that these predictions are reasonably reliable.  Making predictions about time cost and quality is not a creative process, and needs to be structured and as thorough as the organisation considers appropriate for this stage.

Typically, pre-Feasibility Study predictions are very uncertain and may be out by 30%.  Post-Feasibility Study predictions will have a significantly narrower range of uncertainty (10% - 20% for more risky schemes such as estate renewal).

The output from a Feasibility Study is the Business Case.

Final products

The things that have been produced at the end of the project such as dwellings, infrastructure, planning conditions sign-offs, building control approval certificates, as-built drawings, Operations Manuals, certificates of completed training etc.

Financial and Cost Management:

The process of estimating and justifying costs in order to secure funds, controlling expenditure and evaluating the outcomes (APM BoK 6th Edition).

 Freehold:

Heads of Terms:

Health & Safety File:

Housebuilder:

Leadership: 

The ability to establish vision and direction, to influence and align others towards a common purpose, and to empower and inspire people to achieve success.

Leasehold: 

Life cycles:

Consist of a number of distinct phases. All projects follow a life cycle and life cycles will differ across industries and business sectors. A life cycle allows the project to be considered as a sequence of phases which provides the structure and approach for progressively delivering the required outputs.

Limited Commission:

Liquidated Damages (LDs):

A figure inserted into the building contract   that is payable by the Contractor to the Employer  per week  (or per day)  if the Contractor is unjustifiably late in completing  the Works.  the amount is calculated by the Employer and forms part of the tender documents.  the amount should be a genuine pre-estimate of the actual likely loss at the Employer will face in the event that the  Works are delayed.  typically this will include  loss of rent,  internal costs of re-scheduling  lettings , the cost of temporary accommodation  for residents moving in (on occasions) etc.

Negotiation:

Negotiation is a discussion between two or more parties aimed at reaching agreement (APM BoK 6th Edition).

PamWin:

Payment Certificate:

Planning Charges:

Planning Permission:

Portfolio Management:  

The selection and management of all of an organisation’s projects, programmes and related business-as-usual activities taking into account resource constraints. A portfolio is a group of projects and programmes carried out under the sponsorship of an organisation. Portfolios can be managed at an organisational, programme or functional level (APM BoK 5th Edition).

Practical Completion:

Preliminary Investigations Report:

 This Report is prepared before the design team start thinking about layout, scale amounts etc, Prior to starting design work it is important that we have an appropriate level of knowledge of:

 Relevant local planning policies.

• The immediate neighbourhood surrounding the site (it's context).
• The condition of the ground (sloping, underground streams, gas pipes, contamination, rights of way etc).

 This allows the architect to provisionally determine the site capacity (subject to the results of intrusive site investigations undertaken later).

 This Report also informs the decision about what intrusive site investigations (SIs) to undertake.

Combining the results of the intrusive site investigations with the Preliminary Investigations Report produces the Scheme Investigations Report.

Procurement:

Procurement is the process by which the resources (goods and services) required by a project are acquired. It includes development of the procurement strategy, preparation of contracts, selection and acquisition of suppliers, and management of the contracts (APM BoK 5th Edition).

Programme: 

A group of related projects that together achieve a beneficial change of a strategic nature for an organisation.

An example of an estate renewal programme is shown below.  Individual projects are managed by Project Managers, and these are managed in a co-ordinated manner by Programme Managers, one for the group of inter-dependent projects geared to physical renewal, and one for the projects seeking community renewal.  Both programmes are overseen by the Programme Director.

Such programmes normally have many influential stakeholders, complex interrelationships between projects and are very long term, meaning that they are subject to much more change, often of a very significant nature.  Programme management requires higher skills in stakeholder management, negotiation, change and risk management as well as flexibility and creativity than is usual in project management .

Programme Management:

Programme management is the co-ordinated management of related projects, which may include related business-as-usual activities that together achieve a beneficial change of a strategic nature for an organisation. What constitutes a programme will vary across industries and business sectors but there are core programme management processes (APM BoK 5th Edition).

Project Context:

Project context refers to the environment within which a project is undertaken. Projects do not exist in a vacuum and an appreciation of the context within which the project is being performed will assist those involved in project management to deliver a project (APM BoK 5th Edition).

Project Design Brief

The Project Design Brief provides scheme-specific requirements to the designer, to complement GHA's standard requirements set out in the Design Vision. Together they tell the designer what we want. The Preparatory Investigations Report identifies major constraints and opportunities that the designer faces. This information allows the designer to begin to identify different design solutions that will give us what we want.

The Project Design Brief may be fluid in the early days but should be signed-off / fixed as part when the PMP is approved. It can then be refined, but shouldn't be changed without approval through the Change Control process.

Project Management: 

The process by which projects are defined, planned, monitored, controlled and delivered such that the agreed benefits are realised. Projects are unique, transient endeavours undertaken to achieve a desired outcome. Projects bring about change and project management is recognised as the most efficient way of managing such change (APM BoK 5th Edition).

Project Management Plan:

Brings together all the plans for a project. The purpose of the project management plan (PMP) is to document the outcomes of the planning process and to provide the reference document for managing the project. The project management plan is owned by the project manager (APM BoK 5th Edition).

Project Manager:

Project Sponsorship:

An active senior management role, responsible for identifying the business need, problem or opportunity. The sponsor ensures the project remains a viable proposition and that benefits are realised, resolving any issues outside the control of the project manager (APM BoK 5th Edition).

P3 Assurance:

The process of providing confidence to stakeholders that projects, programmes and portfolios will achieve their scope, time, cost and quality objectives, and realise their benefits (APM BoK 6th Edition).

Requirements:

These are the "what" that the project has to deliver. They could be physical products such as dwellings or documents and / or processes (ways of doing things). Whatever has to be produced, it is important that the Requirements are clearly defined with clearly-stated acceptance criteria so that we will know whether to accept what is offered to us by our various suppliers who are making them for us. It is also important that they are prioritised, in case the prject cannot deliver all the Requirements. In our housing schemes we set out our general design Requirements in the Design Brief. We set out our general Requirements regarding materials, components etc in out Technical Requirements. We set out acceptable contractual terms in our Contract Requirements. We set out Requirements for reports from consultants such as solicitors, valuers, etc in our appointment letters.   

Residual Value Method:

Resource Management:

Resource management identifies and assigns resources to activities so that the project is undertaken using appropriate levels of resources and within an acceptable duration. Resource allocation, smoothing, levelling and scheduling are techniques used to determine and manage appropriate levels of resources (APM BoK 5th Edition).

Resource Scheduling:

Resource scheduling is a collection of techniques used to calculate the resources required to deliver the work and when they will be required (APM BoK 6th Edition).

Retention:

RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects):

RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors):

Risk:

Risk Context:

Describes the institutional and individual environment, attitudes and behaviours that affect the way risk arises and the way it should be managed (AMP BoK 6th Edition).

Risk Management:

A process that allows individual risk events and overall risk to be understood and managed proactively, optimising success by minimising threats and maximising opportunities (APM BoK 6th Edition).

Teamwork:

A group of people working in collaboration or by cooperation towards a common goal (APM BoK 6th Edition).

Technical Requirements:

The "Technical Requirements" are the part of the Employer's Requirements that sit alongside the Technical Designs. They are  requirements for systems, components and materials that we want the contractor to meet. They may be stated as performance standards or (sometimes) as specifications.

The Technical Requirements are part of the larger document, the Employer's Requirements. Other parts of the Employer's Requirements may include (depending upon the house style of different Employer's Agent practices) :

• Contractual requirements
• Requirements regarding quality of workmanship
• Preliminaries - management requirements about site setup, welfare facilities, latent defect insurance requirements, site access for the employer's staff, maintaining good relationships with neighbours and (if applicable) residents,  information & reporting and other responsibilities we wish the contractor to undertake
• The planning permission that the scheme has to comply with.

Tender:

Tender Book:

Tender Price Index for Social Housing (TPISH):

Valuation:

Valuer: