As the Owner of the Boat, Home or Business you already have a fulltime job, and other commitments. Adding a significant project to your already busy schedule only increases the burden on your time and responsibilities. Employing a Project Manager (PM) / Owner’s Representative (OR) does not replace you the owner, but it frees you up by allowing the PM/OR to handle the day-to-day project responsibilities on your behalf.
The PM/OR will assist with the following items.
- Planning: Work with the owner to determine the work to be completed (Scope of Project); and assist in contacting vendors, contractors, shipyards or construction companies for bids/estimates and submit the to the owner for approval. The PM/OR will assist with negotiations; and continually review the scope, goals, procedures and specifications as needed.
- Budget: Generate the realistic master budget including hard and soft costs, track expenses to control cost and stay within budget, and account for “conditions found” situations, there are always items that cannot be anticipated or accounted for.
- Schedule: Work with team to build a realistic master schedule, account for delays and track it. Depending on scope/size of the project this may include details for critical path and deliverables. A key here is trying to account for delays that may be caused by outside forces or unexpected problems.
- Communication: Facilitate communication between the owner, the yard, the construction company, and all sub-contractors providing a single point of contact AND ensuring the owner is up to date and informed at all times.
- Changes: Change Management is about controlling the scope. No matter how good the initial planning is, things can, and will happen due to “conditions found”, weather, delivery delays, etc. Changes are inevitable, the key is to control it, not let it control you!
- Project Risks: It is inevitable, ALL projects come with risks. OR/PM’s work to identify the risks, seek solutions to reduce them, and monitor them, i.e., Tight schedules, inefficiencies, deliveries, etc.
Without an OR (Project Manager) an owner can, at times, be the reason for project delays. A good OR will drive the project FOR the owner, assist in the prevention of delays, ensure the delivery of quality work, and ensure strong communications are maintained between the owner(s) and the project team.
