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Module 3 · Schedule Development · Week 3 · Self-paced
The schedule you locked in Week 2 names the work and the dates. It does not name who is allowed to touch it. This week answers that question, and delivers the one rule that protects the firm before any subconsultant starts.
Module Content Overview · the complete walkthrough · companion to the interactive Subconsultant Readiness CheckVideo 3.1 · The team behind the schedule
This section begins with a deliberate review. Before anything new, state Week 1's critical path definition out loud, and identify where the Week 2 buffers were placed and what each one protected. This retrieval step is intentional. If either answer required effort, revisit the Schedule Builder before continuing.
A new question follows. Every task on the Schedule of Activities carries an owner, the discipline printed on each chip placed during the Week 2 exercise. Task ownership is not the same as accountability, and the Guidelines are specific about where accountability concentrates. The project manager is the center of all communications on a project, both internal with the project team and external with the client (Section 3.2). At the 60 percent milestone, the project manager is ultimately responsible for coordination of design across all disciplines and staff (Section 3.3.2). When a subconsultant is engaged for the project, the project manager develops the sub agreement, and the project Principal reviews and executes it (Section 3.5).
The approved course outline names a four role accountability hierarchy for a Weston & Sampson project team, consisting of the Principal in Charge (PIC), the Project Manager (PM), the Deputy Project Manager (Deputy PM), and TPC (defined in this course as the technical point of accountability). The 2022 Project Management Guidelines do not define these four roles or their reporting structure in one place, so the working definitions below were developed by AEC LEAD, drawn from what the Guidelines do establish. Weston & Sampson has been asked to confirm the firm's own definitions, and this section will be updated when that confirmation arrives. Treat this structure as a working model, not as settled Weston & Sampson doctrine.
The Principal in Charge carries the firm's ultimate accountability for the project, the client relationship at the leadership level, and the firm's risk. The Guidelines ground one duty directly. The project Principal reviews and executes every sub agreement.
The project manager serves as the center of all project communication, internal and external, and holds ultimate responsibility for coordinating design across all disciplines. The schedule, the budget, and the subconsultant relationships all route through this role. This is the most clearly grounded role of the four.
The Deputy Project Manager tracks day to day progress alongside the project manager, including subtask deadlines, action items, and meeting minutes, and assumes the project manager's communication responsibilities when the project manager is unavailable. This arrangement ensures that a person is available to coordinate communication every day of the project.
TPC is the outline's fourth named role, defined in this course as the technical point of accountability. This role owns technical quality and connects the project to the independent QA and QC review that the Guidelines require between the 90 percent and 100 percent completion milestones. Weston & Sampson's own definition of this role is the specific confirmation that Section 7 of the course outline requests.
Task owners identify who performs the work. The hierarchy answers a different question. It identifies who is accountable when the work crosses disciplines, crosses firms, or fails to meet requirements.
Video 3.2 · The decision behind every task
Either Weston & Sampson staff or a subconsultant performs every task on the Schedule of Activities. That is the make or buy decision, and on the Heron Pond Connector Path it is not a hypothetical exercise. Apply this decision to the soil borings, the laboratory analysis, and the photometric lighting study.
The Guidelines establish the tests for this decision (Section 3.5). Confirm that the subconsultant can complete the scope of work within the required schedule, evaluating capability and calendar together, not capability alone. Contact qualified subconsultants about availability before sending a price quote request, because a fully capable subconsultant with no availability until spring is not a viable candidate. This subconsultant represents a risk to the schedule. The lowest price is not automatically the right choice. A poor subcontractor creates extra work and frustration for Weston & Sampson and the client, and the subconsultants the firm selects directly represent Weston & Sampson to the client.
This is where this week's content connects to the schedule built in Week 2. The make or buy decision has a deadline that the schedule sets. Work backward from the task using the same reverse sequencing method taught in Week 1. The borings start in Window 2. Before they start, the sub agreement shall be fully executed. Before execution, the Principal reviews the agreement. Before that review, the parties negotiate terms, the subconsultant submits a quote, and the project manager confirms availability. That sequence takes weeks, which places the buy decision in Window 1, not the week the field crew is needed. A make or buy decision made late does not appear as an error immediately. It results in a schedule delay.
Video 3.3 · The rule with no exceptions
One sentence in Section 3.5 does more to protect Weston & Sampson than any other in this module, and the Guidelines mark it with their strongest word.
Fully executed means signed by both parties, with signature authority that follows the Certificate of Vote. Subconsultant and subcontractor agreements and contracts shall follow the Certificate of Vote for signature authority, as Section 3.5 requires. A verbal authorization is not execution. An email that says the paperwork is coming is not execution. A long-standing relationship between firms is not execution. On any day when a subconsultant mobilizes without an executed agreement, Weston & Sampson carries the subconsultant's risk while holding none of the subconsultant's obligations in writing, and the client carries that same exposure.
Once work begins, the Guidelines remain specific about managing the relationship. Set up a kickoff meeting with the client where applicable, to introduce the subconsultant and define what is expected of the subconsultant. Maintain constant communication during the work. Full time supervision in the field is the preferred practice if the budget allows it. If the budget does not allow it, field visits are required at least once per week at a minimum. The project belongs to Weston & Sampson. It is Weston & Sampson's responsibility to manage the subconsultant, not the client's responsibility, and the client shall not communicate directly with the subconsultant.
Carry into next week