Writing a Communications Plan

1. How does your business establish site communication processes (include the methods you use)?
2. Outline the procedures you have established for: Placing orders for materials and equipment
3. Outline the procedures you have established for: Managing equipment hire and maintenance
4. Outline the WHS regulations applied to builds in your region
5. What is the typical breakdown for progress claims? What would the claim amounts be for a $750,000.00 medium rise build?
6. List some of the day-to-day on-site operations that you may be involved with and describe how you manage these tasks to ensure that the contract schedules are met:
7. How do you manage workers (subcontractors and contractors) on site?
8. Identify some materials and equipment that may need to be delivered to a construction site you manage
9. What considerations for WHS, welfare and risk management need to be taken into account on site?

Write a communications Plan

Your plan for establishing communications must include the following information:

1. A written process for determining the communication requirements of site operations, including how to establish and manage site communications
2. Meeting schedule with dates and times outlining titles/roles of personnel to be included in which meeting and how they will be notified
3. A standing agenda/format for meetings and communicating issues

Write an Expenditure plan:

1. Definition of a progress claim and when they are expected in the schedule/process
2. Process flow for who is notified when a claim has been collected or not collected and responsible for reconciliation
3. The process for unpaid progress payments
4. The process for approval of project costs/expenditure
5. What happens when the work is delayed, and the budget is not being met?

Write a Procurement plan:

1. Material and supply order, delivery, storage, and documentation process (this may include a checklist or register for site deliveries)
2. Plan for the order, hire and maintenance of equipment
3. Subcontractor processes (including recruitment, required licenses, induction, training, contracting and performance management)
4. Processes to manage industrial relations in accordance with company policy and regulatory guidelines
5. Develop and include a process of negotiation to enable effective handling of IR issues
6. Templates or samples of communication to suppliers and subcontractors
7. Process for how to liaise local or regulatory authorities on matters relating to site conditions or approvals
8. How to maintain a safe and cost-effective work environment in accordance with appropriate schedules and the contract

You have delegated the task of completing a costing estimate for a project to one of your team members. They are clearly struggling and need you to help them get back on track. You have decided to create a quick guide for them to use to help with the classification and identification of project costs. You may use whatever methods you like, including but not limited to checklists, process diagrams, step by step instructions or a combination of formats.

Use the space below to jot down some dot points to help you put together the guide (this activity may be completed with a partner). You want this guide to be one that can be used for any project, so it is to be generic and not tailored to a specific job:

1. A how to guide for identifying costs
2. A guide for determining the correct cost centre
3. Instructions for how to conduct a risk assessment and how to interpret the outcome
4. Business rules, legislative requirements, standards, and codes that you expect your employees to adhere to

1. What are the steps you take in your business when performing a risk assessment on project costs?
2. What is your process for monitoring and supervising staff who work on costing for medium rise projects to ensure they are making accurate cost estimates from project schedules?
3. Explain the builder’s licensing arrangements for your region
4. Identify and list some advanced estimating, expenditure and costing systems used in the building and construction industry that are used in your business:
5. How does your business prepare and produce expenditure schedules?
6. List some building and construction costs that may need to be calculated by your staff and where they should gather data for calculations. You must identify at least six (6)
7. Give some examples of the critical or key financial phases from a recent project you have been supervised or been involved in:
8. How is cash flow projected in your business? What factors create cash flow for your business?
9. List three relevant standards, codes of practice and legislation for medium rise construction projects
10. What cost variations (other than rise and fall) need to be investigated and controlled to retain compliance with a contract?

1. Supervise the preparation of costing data by your team members/delegate and convert costs to a cost centre and attach these costings and the planned project cost network to this assessment
2. Upload a copy of your business’ processes and procedures or minimum standards for producing financial data. Your assessor will check that your work for this project is consistent with your business’ requirements.
3. Conduct a risk analysis on this project and attach notes from the analysis to this assessment (this may include brainstorming notes, team communications such as minutes or memos and calculations)
4. Create a draft schedule of project expenditure and attach to this assessment. Identify any key/critical points.
5. Develop a final expenditure schedule using technology in your office (spreadsheet, document, using project software) and attach a hard copy to this assessment and identify any critical financial phases.

Apply projection techniques to the project

1. Calculate the projected rise and fall amounts relevant to this project (if this project is valued at less than $500,000, please calculate as a hypothetical figure).
2. Prepare a projected S Curve for this project
3. Identify the following for this project: Time and cost risk
4. Identify the following for this project: The optimistic and pessimistic outcomes for cash flow
5. Calculate your pessimistic overdraft requirements

Monitor and evaluate expenditure

1. What trends have you identified when conducting daily monitoring of cash flow and creditor payments?
2. Detail the comparison from budget to actual costs from tender calculations, this may be through attaching and describing a tracking spreadsheet, outlining in dot point form what patterns and variations you have identified etc.
3. What variations have you identified and what process have you followed when variations have been noted?
4. What remedial actions were required to maintain financial compliance with the contract? How have you recorded these?
5. Prepare and attach a final cost report detailing:

• Actual vs estimated costs
• How effective the estimating process was in this case
• Steps taken to improve efficiency and match contract performance requirements
• Recommendations for future actions
• Recommendations for adjusting business rates