When was the last time you mapped a project’s scope gap, 范围蔓延或范围重叠回到你如何与你的低压系统供应商合作? 如果你是商业和住宅集成技术的建筑师或咨询工程师, 我想提请你注意一个对你可能很重要的问题.
By way of background, I’ve spent much of my career as an engineer and consultant, advising teams of commercial architects, engineers and construction managers on low voltage integrations. I’m talking about systems such as integrated security, 视听, 电信, 无线接入, intercom paging and distributed antenna. 此时此刻, 我看到了市场的变化，并鼓励彩宝网平台的客户认识到这种变化，并立即将其纳入他们的建筑设计和工程工作中.
Who’s Looking at the Bigger Picture?
多年来, there has been a tendency among vendors, 承包商, 而设计和施工领域的分包商则只能各行其是，不考虑他们在一个项目上的工作如何与其他专业人士的工作相结合. There isn’t anyone looking at the big picture and connecting the dots.
当你的项目突然超出预算数十万美元时，或者当你的项目需要重新设计和改造到最初没有考虑到的规格时，这可能会给你带来灾难性的后果. 这相当于购买一堆家庭安全电子系统——比如监控摄像头, 自动照明, notification and access control systems - installing them, 然后发现他们彼此之间没有充分沟通，也没有以最大的能力工作.
Why has this lack of integration lingered for so long? 其中一个原因是架构师和工程师经常基于关系(例如客户关系)与供应商和其他专家打交道.e., 他们认识的人或以前一起工作过的人)或其他因素，如在各自领域的资历和专业知识(例如.e., specialists in the narrowest sense of the word).
Three Scope-Related Challenges
When your vendor workforce is siloed, three problems tend to cause cost overruns, poor efficiencies and serious design flaws.
- 范围的差距: Unaddressed requirements that are not a part of any vendor’s contract. This results in diminished quality of work.
- 范围蠕变最初设计计划中没有的附加特性或功能的缓慢积累. This results in costs that exceed the original budget.
- 范围重叠:当多个承包商或分包商似乎对项目的同一组成部分负责时. 这造成了对责任的混淆，并推高了成本，因为客户现在要支付多个承包商或分包商来做多余的工作.
Case in Point: A Hospital Project Goes South
Take the construction of a new hospital, for example. 医院的母公司与A公司签订合同，建立医院的电信, 包括电话, 互联网及资讯科技. But then the hospital’s parent organization contracts with Company B, a 电信 entity, to lay the physical lines. Complicating matters, 报警系统必须连接到需要安装和维护的电气和光纤中. So, 母公司与一家保安公司签订合同，安装火灾和安全报警器.
But who is responsible for what? This is a classic example of scope overlap. Is Company A or Company B hardwiring the alarm systems? No one is coordinating. 火警警报器需要铜来与紧急救援人员通信, and IT will need fiberoptics. Is there a standard that needs to be met? Again, no one is coordinating. Because everyone is siloed within their own areas of expertise, 没有人知道，直到为时已晚，以避免成本超支和施工延误.
现在是8a.m. 总承包商召开项目管理会议，准备按计划开始医院项目的调试. There is, however, one small problem. Due to the scope overlap, no one connected the hospital’s fiberoptic network to the outside lines, and the alarm systems aren’t connected to emergency responders. The hospital can’t operate. 现在医院母公司的高层打电话来，想知道到底是什么让他们浪费了时间和额外的钱.
How Could This Have Been Avoided?
一个通才项目经理或小型管理团队可以避免这种不幸. 项目经理的作用是管理主题专家，而不是成为主题专家. 他们在那里管理承包商和分包商之间的所有连锁部分, according to the well-defined scope of each piece of the project. 最终, 通过利用他们在建筑彩宝网多个领域的经验, they can work collaboratively with the engineer, 总承包商, 并且分包商在开工前要严格界定责任和范围.
Next time you choose a project manager, take these three steps:
- Ask about their methodology. Ensure that it is strategy-driven and oriented to end users. 虽然医院和监狱可能对光纤基础设施有类似的需求, 设计必须根据基础设施将如何使用以及由谁使用来确定.
- 确保项目经理认识到让每个分包商或供应商作为一个整体来理解项目的价值, including its objectives and constraints.
- 确保项目经理做好准备，确保每个分包商或供应商都愿意并能够与相邻领域的其他分包商合作，以防止失误和遗漏工作.
你会惊讶于有多少建筑和工程公司没有这样做. 有一件事我可以告诉你:彩宝网的客户正在享受住宅和商业项目低压系统设计的综合方法的好处. 了解更多 彩宝网的安全设计顾问如何在您的组织中支持安全系统的集成和安装.
