Substantial Completion refers to a stage of a construction or building project or a designated portion of the project that is sufficiently complete, by the construction contract documents, so that the owner may use or occupy the building project or designated portion thereof for the intended purpose. The project owner needs to be sure that all perquisites for issuing the substantial completion letters are Fulfilled.
Using Project Management Information System (PMIS) like PMWeb helps project owners better manage the substantial completion process. This will be achieved by creating a Substantial Completion form using the PMWeb form builder where the form will include a predefined checklist to verify that all conditions for issuing the substantial completion letter had been fulfilled and a letter template that will generate the substantial completion letter.
The form header will include details of the project and company that the substantial letter will be issued to along with the agreed substantial completion date, the cost estimate of work that is incomplete or defective, and the number of days for the contractor to complete incomplete works from substantial completion date. The form header will also include details on the review and approval workflow status.
In addition, the form will include a table of all items that need to be fulfilled before issuing the substantial completion letter. For each item in the form, there will be a description of the item and action status. This substantial completion checklist is the most important part of this form as this captures the organization’s knowledge in delivering and closing projects.
The form will also include a table to include details of the project or portions of the project designated for partial occupancy or use. In addition, there will be an able table that will list warranties that will not commence on the substantial completion date and instead give the commencement date of those warranties. Finally, there will be able to list work to be completed or corrected within the period stated for the contractor to complete this work.
The attachment tab will be used to attach and link all documents and records listed in the substantial completion checklist. Those documents will be stored in the PMWeb document management repository while links to PMWeb records will be linked to the actual records created in PMWeb.
The workflow tab will be used to capture the details of the workflow steps assigned to review and complete the checklist so that a substantial completion letter can be issued. The workflow can be designed by the approval authorities set by the Project Owner.
PMWeb Word module allows the creation of all letter templates needed during the project life cycle stages including the Substantial Completion Letter. The project owner’s authorized representative assigned to issue the Substantial Completion Letter will automatically have the letter generated when selecting the letter template name.
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 control 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.