Over the years, I’ve often been brought in to help fix projects that have gone off track – over budget, late delivery, strained relationships. While every project is different, the root causes are often the same.
Here are my Top 10 tips for how to set your project up for success, based on what I’ve seen work.
1. Start with a Clear Vision and Brief
Every successful project starts with clarity – on objectives, budget, and success criteria. What problem are you solving? What’s most important – time, cost, quality, flexibility? Without alignment from day one, you risk a moving target and competing priorities.
Tip: Agree your project vision and non-negotiables early. Document them. Revisit them as the project evolves. A Project Charter is a great way to capture this.
2. Establish Robust Governance
Weak governance is one of the biggest killers of projects. Every project needs a Project Execution Plan (PEP). This is your playbook for how decisions are made, risks managed, and progress tracked.
Without it, you’ll see slow decisions, unclear accountability, and scope drift. This almost always results in programme drift.
Tip: Define roles, reporting lines, and gateways in your PEP. Treat it as a living document that evolves as the project does.
3. Build a Realistic Cost Plan (Not Just a Budget)
A budget is the size of the cake. A cost plan is how you slice it – aligning spend to what matters most.
A good cost plan is built from the ground up, using a standard method of measurement (like RICS NRM1), market-tested rates, and risk-based contingencies.
It’s a live forecast – not a static number.
Tip: Track trade package inflation and benchmark regularly. Contingency shouldn’t just be a percentage – it should be priced against known risks.
4. Integrate Programme and Cost
Often, the cost plan, design programme, and procurement schedule aren’t joined up. That’s when you miss buying windows, overrun design release dates, or get hit by inflation.
Tip: Link your procurement plan to design deliverables and lead times. Reconcile cash flow against actual spend every month.
5. Design with Cost in Mind
Value engineering at the end rarely works – it’s disruptive, demotivating, and often compromises the design.
Good cost management means being in the room early – providing live cost advice in design meetings, pricing options, and helping shape the brief to match the budget.
Tip: Focus on value, not just cost. Run technical studies on key systems to identify the best-value options, not the cheapest.
6. Control Change and Risk
Scope creep is one of the easiest ways to derail a project. A robust change control process ensures every decision is visible, costed, and approved.
Tip: Keep a live risk register and reconcile it with contingency. Forecast the final cost monthly, including unpriced change.
7. Use Stage Gates for Assurance
Formal checkpoints at each RIBA stage keep projects on track. They allow you to align design, cost and programme before moving forward, and give a baseline to measure against.
Tip: Stage Gates = opportunity to course-correct early. No Stage Gate? You risk abortive design work and programme delay.
8. Select the Right Procurement Route
Your procurement route should reflect your priorities – speed, cost certainty, quality, control. Single-stage, two-stage, D&B, or management contract – each has pros and cons and different risk allocation.
Tip: Work with your QS and PM to define the right route. Don’t let procurement be a default -make it a strategic decision.
9. Get Contracts Signed, Early
Running a project under a Letter of Intent creates risk. It’s often well-intentioned (“we need to get started”) but it leads to unclear scope, risk allocation, and commercial tension.
Tip: Aim for a signed contract before main works start. Align it with your cost plan and risk register. No signature = no clarity = no control.
10. Lead with Transparency
Successful projects have one thing in common: trust. That means clear reporting, honest forecasting, and early visibility of problems. It also means working hard to build relationships so when things do go off track (which they will at some point), then everyone pulls in the same direction rather than retreats into their corner.
Tip: Use dashboards that combine cost, risk, and programme. Make data your ally – not a defence mechanism.
The Bottom Line
Most problem projects don’t fail because people don’t care. They fail because the foundations weren’t strong enough.
Get the basics right, and the rest follows.
Disclaimer
This article is provided for general information purposes only and should not be relied upon as professional advice. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information, EthosEQ accepts no responsibility for any errors or omissions. Each project is unique, and readers should seek tailored advice from a qualified professional before making decisions. EthosEQ shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising from reliance on this publication.
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