Why Projects Lose Control During Preconstruction

Preconstruction is where a project is either de-risked or quietly set up to fail. The failure mode is almost always the same: design advances faster than pricing, and nobody reconciles the two until a bid comes back thirty percent high.

Scope drifts before it is priced

Each design iteration adds detail. Unless someone maintains a scope of record, the estimate is always pricing a building that no longer exists.

Allowances hide decisions

An allowance is a deferred decision with a number attached. Track them as open items, not as line items.

The decision log is the control

Most owners have a budget and a schedule. Fewer have a written record of what was decided, by whom, and on what date. That record is what prevents relitigating the same choice in month nine.

Reconcile at gates, not at bid

Set phase gates — concept, schematic, design development, construction documents — and require a reconciled estimate at each. A surprise at the fourth gate is manageable. A surprise at bid is a redesign.