Alternate Specifier Tasks

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Author Message David S. Proudfit, FCSI, CCS, AIA New member Username: dproudfitcolerussellcom Post Number: 1 Registered: 01-2008 Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 09:50 am:    I am the sole specifier for a large firm and have many times before specification work starts on a project when I am not billable. I do such things as updating office masters, updating the library etc., but I’m needing billable hours. I am thinking of such things as product research and material review, but I was wondering if anyone out there has a list of possible tasks (billable) for a specifier beyond actual spec writing. Dave Metzger Senior Member Username: davemetzger Post Number: 439 Registered: 07-2001 Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 09:55 am:    Constructability reviews Development of wall sections and details Tony Wolf, AIA, CCS, LEED-AP Senior Member Username: tony_wolf Post Number: 39 Registered: 11-2007 Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 10:29 am:    One firm in the area used to market their specifier's services to other firms. I don't know how successful that was, but it always seemed like a good idea. Our area has few independent specifiers. J. Peter Jordan Senior Member Username: jpjordan Post Number: 476 Registered: 05-2004 Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 10:35 am:    A constant battle. The first thing you have to get consensus on with the powers that be is what the target should be for your billable time. One firm that I know puts all of the spec writer time on overhead (non-billable) which makes it more attractive to let the spec writer do it than assign it to an intern. Generally, my experience is that spec writers are billable to the various projects that they work on so this means that you have to get a reasonable budget from the project manager (or whoever sets the budget). Of course, the popular ploy is to set this figure low and then prevent you from charging to the job. I had one instance where the project was over budget, and I was locked out of charging time to the job even though I had only used 10 percent of my budget. What many managing architects don't understand is that you will spend a reasonable amount of time working on their project and the stuff that is tangentially related will be charged to the job as overhead. Get consensus about what your firm wants you to do, how they want you to charge it, and what your chargeable time goals should be. Then get buy-in from everyone about how it is done. Of course there is the attorney approach. A lawer might be working on a number of cases at the same time with related issues. The 1-1/2 hourse of legal research done by one person for those cases may be charged to each case: 1-1/2 hours times billable rate. Did you ever wonder how attorneys got to 3500 billable hourse in a year? It wasn't necessarily by working 16 hours a day, seven days a week. Dave has some good suggestions. David S. Proudfit, FCSI, CCS, AIA Junior Member Username: dproudfitcolerussellcom Post Number: 2 Registered: 01-2008 Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 10:35 am:    Tony, Yes we are doing that as well, but with little success. My main goal here is to find billable hours in-house. Lisa Goodwin Robbins, RA, CCS, LEED ap Senior Member Username: lgoodrob Post Number: 197 Registered: 08-2004 Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 11:40 am:    Reviewing and redmarking details for quality control, consistent language, office standards. I find that many firms don't know how to coordinate their Drawings with Specifications. But since you're in-house, you probably already do that. Many firms are outsourcing the building envelope, mostly because they let go all the people who knew how to do it. But I'm sure you know how to detail the envelope and could enact some office standards. How about keynote development? Some education for your IDPs or continuing ed for RAs? Where is your office with BIM? Could you start helping to decide what information should go into the model? How about early phase work, like feasibility studies? Do you know how to run energy modeling or WUFI analyses? - David S. Proudfit, FCSI, CCS, AIA Member Username: dproudfitcolerussellcom Post Number: 3 Registered: 01-2008 Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 12:00 pm:    Lisa, Some good ideas. Thanks for the help! Robert W. Johnson Senior Member Username: robert_w_johnson Post Number: 206 Registered: 03-2009 Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 12:17 pm:    Evaluate where you firm could improve in terms of technical design, contract documents, and construction contract administration. Then evaluate your knowledge and experience in terms of those areas - where are you able to improve your firm's quality service. Hopefully some of these will be within billable areas. Go to firm's leadership with ideas of how you can contribute to the improvement of the firm's service in billable areas outside of specifications. Steven Bruneel, AIA, CSI-CDT, LEED-AP, EDAC Senior Member Username: redseca2 Post Number: 364 Registered: 12-2006 Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 12:30 pm:    David, I too am the sole specification writer for a large firm (now a large group of regional firms within a gigantic firm with a brazillion employees). Before I became the specification writer, I was an architect for the same firm wearing hats like Project Architect, Project Manager and Project Director. What I seem to be doing a lot of now is regressing back in time through my previous phases of my career. One day a week I am the Project Architect for a university lab remodel in bidding now and soon to be in CA. Although this is a $25 million dollar project, it is virtually entirely driven by MEP issues rather than architectural design and I am managing with one as-needed CAD support person here in my office and a project manager working on the financials out of an office closer to the project. Another day or two a week I review shop drawings and answer RFI's for a major new hospital project now in construction. It is large enough to support a full time architectural CA staff of 12. Project teams like that one can't get over how quickly a specification writer can review product data submittals when they also wrote the specifications. Wayne Yancey Senior Member Username: wayne_yancey Post Number: 534 Registered: 01-2008 Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 12:48 pm:    David, I was the sole specifier for an office of approximately 100. I also performed CA and contributed to the production of the drawings. There are some aspects of the drawings I wanted to take ownership of because they could easily be screwed up. Opening schedules (doors, windows, louvers, borrowed lites) and the room finish and color schedule. QA is another task I performed. As specifiers, we view the drawings with the same critical eye as the contractor. Anything to mitigate RFIs. Randall A Chapple, AIA, SE, CCS, LEED AP Senior Member Username: rachapple Post Number: 60 Registered: 12-2005 Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 01:05 pm:    David, I agree with Lisa. I do some QC reviews checking shop drawings as well as working on waterproofing consulting on projects that are on-going in the office. anon (Unregistered Guest) Unregistered guest Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 01:05 pm:    sometimes it pays to do things (that are billable) without asking permission. These things often end up expanding the role of the specifier and gain the specifier interaction with other project team members, other firm employees, and even project team members outside the firm like contractors and owner reps. Here are a few that I have recently taken on: investigate/propose/review the General Conditions of the Contract for Construction. investigate/review the Owner/Architect Agreement (for purpose of understanding contractual deliverables for specs) review consultant's specification sections against Conditions of the Contract and Div 01 sections (this alone can add several hours per project and no body will ever question the necessity of doing so once they see all the garbage you have found that needs to be corrected) buy eSpecs and/or BSD Speclink and USE THIS AS YOUR PRIMARY spec writing platform. Then link with the Revit model - establish keynotes and work closely with team to ensure that they use keynotes derived from the specifications, and not any other .txt file. Hours and hours of work here - mostly billable, and very well received by leadership when they know how much time you are saving the team overall and how much better the documents are at completion. work closely with consultants in coordinating specified content that commonly overlaps - soils and subbases, AESS, concrete finishes, etc. Work closely with consultants that are not contractually obligated to produce specifications (but commonly are allowed to - which is dumb, and dangerous) in preparing those specifications with their input. DO NOT use their sections as a starting point. You know WAY more than they do about how to write specifications, and part of the billability in this is educating them about writing specs as you prepare these sections. it is slow and painful at first, but pays huge dividends later when they show up on the next project. Leverage your expertise in those areas that you are good at - waterproofing, curtainwall, sustainability, etc. by engaging the team about these things early - initiate meetings, conduct meetings, educate the team, foster the development of the drawings, bill your time... There is SO much that specifiers CAN do, but my observation and experience having worked for large firms is that most specifiers are content to do as little as possible. And that results in layoffs - because if you are unable to trumpet your value to the firm, you are always a candidate for dismissal. Don't ask, just DO. You won't ever be told to stop doing, but you may never get anywhere by just asking. My 2 cents. Nathan Woods, CSI, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 470 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 01:16 pm:    Wayne's idea of mastering door and window schedules is huge! What Project Architect wouldn't want to pass that on to someone thorough and detail oriented enough to be a spec writer! Richard L Matteo, AIA, CSI, CCS Senior Member Username: rlmat Post Number: 529 Registered: 10-2003 Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 01:31 pm:    I did that for 25 years. Since moving to CA 10 years ago, I was too busy writing specifications to also do the door & hardware schedules, but worked with the consultants. I also reviewed curtain wall and storefront details as I was writing the specs for them. David S. Proudfit, FCSI, CCS, AIA Intermediate Member Username: dproudfitcolerussellcom Post Number: 4 Registered: 01-2008 Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 03:32 pm:    Thanks everyone! Some great ideas. Keep 'em coming. ken hercenberg Senior Member Username: khercenberg Post Number: 327 Registered: 12-2006 Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2012 - 04:24 pm:    Similar to some suggestions above...If your firm is transitioning to Revit work with the Revit users to generate a series of reference details for use on typical projects. Then help the Revit users modify those details for each project. Educate them that these are not 'Standard Details' but rather 'Reference Details' that need to be customized to suit the individual project needs. See if you can get your firm to train you using new spec software (e-SPECS/BSD) if you're not already trained and use these to populate the master reference details with keynotes and relevant technical information (links to standards, product data, etc.). Justification for this is that it should make you more efficient when business picks up and you need to generate rapid fire spec content. Make sure the powers understand that they still won't be able to push a button to get a spec; you will just be able to do your job better and more efficiently. For no extra money they will have better trained and educated Revit users and the means of communication between Revit user and specifier will be enhanced, resulting in better TQM. Essentially, this is the QA portion. Doing product research for projects, QC reviews, submittal reviews, RFI research, CA, etc. are all good, billable activities as well. Since you are already a professional writer, perhaps you can help marketing pursue new work. Rainmakers get paid well in our business. Good luck! John Regener, AIA, CCS, CCCA, CSI, SCIP Senior Member Username: john_regener Post Number: 570 Registered: 04-2002 Posted on Friday, August 17, 2012 - 01:26 am:    When working as an in-house specifications writer, I would be asked frequently by the marketing person (who put together slick proposals) what are the data for the firm's projects. Repeatedly I would be asked for the same information. That is, what was the square footage, who was the owner, what was the occupancy, what was the amount of the construction contract, when was the project completed, etc. etc. It was stuff that somehow was never incorporated into the marketing department's resources for preparing proposalss. There were many great images of award-winning projects, but mundane project data was missing. Recently, I was asked by an architect client what experience I had with public projects ... other than public K-12 schools and community college projects. I was surprised by the number of municipal public library, community center and park projects I had completed in the past dozen years. I have done similar lists for churdh, private school, commercial and retail projects. It has been gratifying occasionally to list projects by type for which I produced specifications. It gives substance to the "corporate memory" embodied in a firm's spek riter. Putting together information of the firm's (and your) experience is an investment in expediting production of proposals for the firm to get new commissions or, maybe, for a spec writer to apply for another position. J. Peter Jordan Senior Member Username: jpjordan Post Number: 478 Registered: 05-2004 Posted on Friday, August 17, 2012 - 10:26 am:    These are all great suggestions for contributions that inhouse specifiers can make to their firm's value. The critical issue is going to be how much of that activity will be chargeable. This is a "perception" issue with concerns about project budgets (to which the specifier might charge time) and overhead rates (which will, of course, be an indirect charge to the job). Of more immediate concern to specifiers is how the targets for their billable time will be set and how that percentage fits into a personnel evaluation process. Specifiers can actually be victimized by unrealistic individual billing time budgets while being given primary responsibility for critical non-billable tasks (like John's marketing data research). Then there are issues such as whether an effort to make the firm's first BIM project integrating specs and drawings should be charged only to that project (direct, billable time) or spread out as a company strategic activity (indirect, billable only as overhead to all projects). The specifier who has a goal of 75% billable time (on a standard 2040-hr year) can spend a lot of time on a very important, but non-billable activity to which he/she has been assigned and then be thrashed in a personnel review for posting only 40% billable time. Not fair; shouldn't happen... But it does. Important to set goals and budgets; agree on what activities are billable and which are not. Agree on what types of activities are a part of the specifier's portfolio and then look at what a reasonable split of billable and nonbillable time. Everyone may want the specifier to be doing general product research, general review of the company's detail library, inhouse education, and so on; but, if they also want the specifier to be 80 to 85% billable, the specifier will be working a lot of overtime (average of 10 to 15 hours a week) to meet this goal. If everyone buys into a set of reasonable goals (including tasks and billable time), then the specifier will be perceived as making an important contribution (provided the work he/she does has value). If not, the quality of the work will not matter, the specifier will be seen to have failed to contribute to the firm's bottom line simply because the rate of billable time is 5 to 10% less than the original budget. Ronald L. Geren, AIA, CSI, CCS, CCCA, SCIP Senior Member Username: specman Post Number: 1045 Registered: 03-2003 Posted on Friday, August 17, 2012 - 10:44 am:    David: Do what I did: become proficient in the building code and conduct your firm's internal code compliance analysis and reviews for projects. Ron Geren, AIA, CSI, CCS, CCCA, SCIP www.specsandcodes.com Wayne Yancey Senior Member Username: wayne_yancey Post Number: 535 Registered: 01-2008 Posted on Friday, August 17, 2012 - 10:44 am:    This is off the topic of this thread but speaking of BIM and specs integration. I provide specs the old fashion way for BIM projects. Integration happens in 4 basic ways. (1) Takeoff from the progress drawings, (2) Ask the important questions, (3) wait for a decision maker to make the decision and volunteer the desicion(s) made, and (4) pester the hell out of the decision maker with an e-mail audit trail, then ask again and again. We don't use e-specs or speclink. What we have isn't broken. We start every project from the master masters. If the project is a repeat but new site I can rely on most of the previous iteration for the master. Richard Howard, AIA CSI CCS LEED-AP Senior Member Username: rick_howard Post Number: 269 Registered: 07-2003 Posted on Friday, August 17, 2012 - 11:30 am:    Employers always start out wanting all kinds of great added (non-billable) things, recognizing that the spec writer's vast experience adds value. The problem is that they eventually find themselves in a downturn and want everyone to be 100 percent billable. (Understand that partners are probably going without compensation at this point and are trying to hold on to as many employees as they can afford to carry.) Doing somebody else's job doesn't alter the situation that there are more payable hours than billable hours of work. The effort that helps the most is contributing, directly or indirectly, to winning more work. J. Peter Jordan Senior Member Username: jpjordan Post Number: 479 Registered: 05-2004 Posted on Saturday, August 18, 2012 - 11:56 am:    Rick Howard's comment is excellent. The people who tend to get ahead in a firm are those who bring work into the firm. Those making and maintaining the outside contacts who have work(doing direct marketing) and those who do PR and put responses to RFPs together will get ahead faster (and stay employed longer) if they are successful. Although we know that the best way to get new work is to get it from existing clients who are happy with the work, the credit tends to go to people who are client contacts (not even those in direct leadership positions). This leads to an implicit understanding of architectural employees as interchangeable, even fungible, resources. So much for maintaining the corporate expertise. Bottom line is that if the cash isn't coming in, someone has to go. Even though the next big thing might come in next week, it isn't here now. There are many firms who go broke paying valuable employees while waiting for the next project that is just over the horizon. You can demonstrate your firm's commitment to "technical excellence" in architecture by writing and speaking to groups outside your firm. Good venues are AIA or CSI; much better venues are groups like BOMA or CEFPI. When a potential client asks, "Doesn't <your name here> work for your firm?" and your name is high on the next "hit list", I would suspect that your name goes down a few notches, if not taken off altogether. John Hunter Senior Member Username: johnhunter Post Number: 98 Registered: 12-2005 Posted on Monday, August 20, 2012 - 12:48 pm:    The most immediate tasks that come to mind are in-office CA tasks that are related to projects for which you wrote the specs: submittal and substitution review, review of cost-requests/ change order requests and RFI responses. These are tasks that are schedule sensitive and the assistance of an experienced professional can help the firm avoid costly delay claims. However, as Richard points out, "billable hours" only have value if there is available fee to bill.