Choosing a project management consultant to act on your behalf is at least as important as choosing the contractor. The consultant will be your eyes and ears; your decisions on budget, time and quality will rest on the information they bring you. The criteria and questions below make the choice easier.
1. Experience on similar projects
The consultant should have worked on buildings like yours, at a similar scale and under similar conditions. A villa, a social housing project and a technical facility each call for different knowledge and priorities.
Ask: On which similar projects have you worked, and in what role? What problems did you meet on them and how did you solve them?
2. Site knowledge
A good project manager does not only know plans and spreadsheets; they know how the work is done on site and which detail is likely to cause trouble where. Execution experience is the basis for judging whether a bid or a variation request is realistic.
Ask: Who on your team has hands-on site experience?
3. Independence
The consultant should not hold another role on the project. A firm that is both a contractor and the owner’s representative on the same project ends up checking its own work. We cover this in project management vs. general contracting.
Ask: Are you working for another party, or as a contractor, on this project?
4. Cost and quantity expertise
Cost control is done with item-by-item quantities and unit rates. The consultant should be able to prepare a bill of quantities, compare bids on the same scope and check interim payments by measurement.
Ask: How do you build the budget and track it during the work? Can you show an example BOQ or cost report?
5. Reporting
Reporting is the main channel between you and the consultant. Its frequency, content and format should be agreed at the start.
Ask: What do your reports contain? When there is a delay or a budget deviation, how and when do you tell me?
6. Communication and language
If you are an investor living abroad, or the project involves parties from different countries, the consultant must be able to work comfortably in your language and the project’s language.
7. Scope and fee structure
The scope of the consultancy, whether only a pre-investment assessment or project management from start to finish, and how the fee is set should be in writing. A consultancy contract with a vague scope leads to mismatched expectations.
Checklist
- Experience and references on similar projects
- Hands-on site knowledge
- Independence from other parties on the project
- Quantity, cost and payment expertise
- Reporting format and frequency
- Language and communication
- Written scope and fee structure
DEMAFT’s approach
DEMAFT offers project management and consultancy as a service area alongside its contracting work. It rests on site experience from housing, villa, stadium, public building and shooting range projects in Türkiye, Kyrgyzstan, Algeria, Cameroon and the United States, and on our habit of item-by-item quantities and reporting. We define clearly at the start of the contract which role we hold on a project. We work in Turkish and English.
For details, see our construction consultancy and construction project management pages.
