DesignDesign: Month two…
Should be quick
The client's asset manager emails Sam, the firm's information manager: "Could you add the valve serial numbers and maintenance intervals? Should be quick."
Stage 5 · Build it · Stop 6 of 13
Changes and instructions
The back alley's bill so far: 114 weeks · See the bill
The information · A request for more
When the client wants more of me, that's a change. It needs an instruction from someone allowed to give one, and a price before the work.
The wrong way
Helpful
Nobody checks whether it's in what was agreed. It isn't. The team says yes, because it's nice to be helpful.
Evenings
Rex, the new assistant engineer, spends his evenings typing serial numbers off nameplates. More emails arrive: warranty dates, spare parts, a photo of every valve. Each one "should be quick".
BuildBuild: Month six…
The cost report
Kofi, the commercial manager, reads the cost report: four months of information work nobody priced.
Can we bill it?
Kofi asks the client to pay. Marcus, the client's project manager, has read the emails too.
Marcus: You never said it was extra. You just did it.
The calculator
Kofi looks at the contract. Kofi looks at his calculator. The calculator agrees with the client.
Every request was quick. Four months of quick, and nobody paid for any of it.
+4 weeks on the back alley's bill: Extra information work done because it was asked nicely: four months of evenings, no instruction, no payment.