Project Owners need to monitor their engineering consultant’s performance throughout the contract stages of design and construction supervision. In addition, they need to conduct formal performance evaluations at specific points in the contract’s life cycle. These formal evaluations are done after design and at the closeout of construction. The formal consultant performance evaluations are done using the Project Owner’s standard Consultant Performance Evaluation Forms.
The performance evaluation form will be completed by the Project Manager and other Project Owner’s staff members who are working with the consultant on the project. A consultant’s past performance is a major criterion when the Project owner is short-listing consultants for new projects as this helps capture the project owner’s own experience in working with each consultant.
Using Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) like PMWeb, Project Owners can formalize the process for evaluating and appraising consultants’ performance. Using PMWeb custom form builder, a form for Consultant Performance Evaluation will be created that will be specific for each stage of the contract. The form will include fields to capture the consultant’s name and comments made by the appraisal on the consultant’s performance. The form will also include a table that will include the categories that the consultant’s performance is assessed for as well as the specific items that the consultant’s appraisal is carried out. For the assessment item there will be a weight value assigned by the Project Owner and a field to capture the evaluation which will be based on a score of 10 where 10 is for superior performance, 8 for excellent performance, 6 for satisfactory performance, 4 for fair performance while 2 is for unacceptable performance.
The attachment tab for the Consultant Performance Evaluation form will be used to attach all documents that relate to the consultant’s appraisal. In addition, PMWeb records such as design reviews among others can be also linked to the appraisal.
The Consultant Performance Evaluation form will have a workflow to formalize the evaluation and appraisal review and approval process. The workflow will also serve the purpose of distributing and sharing the consultant’s performance evaluation with the Project Owner’s team who need to be made aware of this appraisal.
The output form for the Consultant Performance Evaluation will have the same design whether it was for the Design Stage appraisal or Construction Supervision Stage appraisal. Of course, the content and values of the assessment will differ depending on the contract stage. The form will also display the total weighted performance score for each stage and the breakdown of this score. The evaluation and appraisal for each consultant can be also consolidated in a report to show the scoring achieved on different projects, current and completed.
About the Author
Bassam Samman, PMP, PSP, EVP, GPM is a Senior Project Management Consultant with more than 35-year service record providing project management and controls services to over 100 projects with a total value of over the US $5 Billion. Those projects included Commercial, Residential, Education and Healthcare Buildings and Infrastructure, Entertainment and Shopping Malls, Oil and Gas Plants and Refineries, and Telecommunication and Information Technology projects. He is thoroughly experienced in complete project management including project management control systems, computerized project control software, claims analysis/prevention, risk analysis/management (contingency planning), design, supervision, training, and business development.
Bassam is a frequent speaker on topics relating to Project Management, Strategic Project Management, and Project Management Personal Skills. Over the past 35 years, he has lectured at more than 350 events and courses at different locations in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and South America. He has written more than 250 articles on project management and project management information systems that were featured in international and regional magazines and newspapers. He is a co-founder of the Project Management Institute- Arabian Gulf Chapter (PMI-AGC) and has served on its board of directors for more than 6 years. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI), a certified Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP), and Earned Value Professional (EVP) from the American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE) and Green Project Management (GPM).
Bassam holds a Masters in Engineering Administration (Construction Management) with Faculty Commendation, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA, Bachelor in Civil Engineering – Kuwait University, Kuwait and has attended many executive management programs at Harvard Business School, Boston, USA and London Business School, London, UK.