Engineering contracts - Appendix 2: Technical provisions (part 2)

One of the main characteristics of a project management contract is its long-term nature. It must therefore be described in terms of the organization and scheduling of Services. With this in mind, it is essential that all parties involved are aware of the difference between certain basic concepts:

• activity: a major unit of work to be carried out in order to achieve set objectives. An activity has a precise start and end date, comprises a set of tasks, consumes resources and produces one or more deliverables;

• phasing: logical, pre-established division of an agreement into successive phases delimited by milestones;

• phase ("phase"): period of an agreement, between two milestones, during which a coherent and orderly set of tasks is carried out to achieve a predetermined objective. An agreement usually comprises several milestones. Their number and content depend on the contractual negotiation and the characteristics of the Project;

• milestone: a scheduled stage in the progress of a contractual program. The purpose of a milestone is to ensure that a task, document, product or supply corresponds to what has been previously defined;

• task: smallest unit of work that can be managed. A task is a well-defined piece of work assigned to people. A task can include one or more actions;

• action ("action"): step performed by a person in charge of a task. A step cannot be broken down.

This is nothing more than the implementation of the phase start and end management process. The aim of the phase start and end management process is to secure the Contract by managing the launch of the first Phase, the transition from one Phase to another, and the final Phase. The key practices of this process are as follows:

• the first transition occurs after the Contract has been signed. Starting the first phase consists of fulfilling all the conditions for the Contract to come into force (see clause D of the Contract, § 3 of ) before authorizing any substantial work, commitment of resources or expenditure;

• decision points between phases and sub-phases (i.e. lifecycle milestones) provide an opportunity to validate the activities carried out during the previous phase, before transitioning to the next phase. Finalizing a phase consists of :

  • to evaluate the achievements of the previous phase and the forecasts for the next,

  • learn from experience to ensure continuous improvement,

  • require the authorization...