Practical skills for coordinating people, information and decisions
Design management connects the client’s brief, consultant team, statutory requirements, procurement strategy and construction programme.
Celona Consulting provides practical design management training for design managers, project managers, technical coordinators, contractors and consultants.
Our training explains the processes needed to plan, coordinate, review and control design information throughout a project.
Understanding the design management role
A design manager needs to understand what information is required, who is responsible for producing it and when it must be available.
We explain how to establish these requirements and create a structured process for monitoring delivery. Participants learn how the activities of different consultants and specialist subcontractors affect each other and the wider project.
The training focuses on practical tools that can be applied directly to live design and construction projects.
Training topics can include:
- Design scopes, deliverables and appointment reviews
- Responsibility matrices and design interfaces
- Pre-construction design and procurement programmes
- Design reviews, actions and approval procedures
- Design risk, change and decision management
- BIM, document control and information exchanges
- Consultant and specialist subcontractor coordination
- CDM and Building Regulations dutyholder awareness
Defining responsibilities and interfaces
Many design issues arise where the responsibility for a detail, calculation or piece of information has not been clearly assigned.
Participants learn how to develop design scopes and responsibility matrices that define individual packages and the interfaces between them. We also examine how exclusions, assumptions and contractor-designed elements should be recorded and reviewed.
This provides a clearer basis for consultant appointments, subcontract enquiries and project coordination.
Managing information against the programme
Design information must be available early enough to support approvals, procurement and construction.
We demonstrate how to develop a pre-construction design programme, identify dependencies and establish realistic periods for design development, coordination and review.
Participants also learn how to monitor progress, identify delays and assess the effect of late information or design changes on connected activities.
Reviews, actions and decision management
Effective design meetings should lead to clear decisions and accountable actions.
Our training covers how to plan and chair design reviews, record decisions, assign actions and track responses. It also considers how technical queries, design changes and outstanding approvals should be managed without losing sight of the project’s priorities.
Design risk and dutyholder awareness
Design managers need an awareness of how health and safety, compliance and dutyholder requirements influence the design process.
Training can be tailored to include the interaction between design management, CDM 2015 and the Building Regulations dutyholder regime in England. This includes the importance of cooperation, coordination and providing sufficient information to other members of the project team.
The training supports professional development but does not, by itself, appoint or certify a participant as a statutory dutyholder.
Tailored to your team
Sessions can be adapted to suit trainees, developing design managers or experienced professionals moving into a new sector or role.
Training can be delivered as a focused workshop, a structured development programme or alongside a live project. We can also use your existing templates and procedures to make the sessions directly relevant to your organisation.
Why choose Celona?
We combine design management training with practical experience in architectural design, technical coordination, BIM and construction delivery.
This allows us to explain both the management process and the design information being managed.
Develop confident design managers
Whether you are building an internal design team, supporting a new employee or strengthening established project procedures, we can tailor the training to your organisation.