NCARB Competency Standard 13 Organize and coordinate an interdisciplinary project team

NCARB Competency Standard 13 Organize and coordinate an interdisciplinary project team

At the point of initial licensure, architects with this competency can …

• Identify qualified consultants and team members for a project based on project requirements.

• Facilitate communication and collaboration of consultants, clients, and relevant stakeholders throughout a project.

• Implement processes to assess the quality of work throughout a project.

What does that mean to organize and coordinate a team? That's what project managers do. They put together teams based on qualifications.

Depending on what the project is, you're looking for consultants and team members, meaning even people in your own firm who are going to work with you, who have the capabilities and the strengths to meet the project requirements.

I often get a lot of different consultants. Some are qualified for the hospital work I do, and some are not. Even though the ones who are not qualified for hospital work are still really capable engineers, so I use them on commercial work.

Look for the qualifications based on the project, and then for the people on your team in your own office. Look at their strengths. Look for the things that they do best and when they excel at that's what you want.

The best way to facilitate communication and collaboration of consultants, clients and relevant stakeholders throughout a project is with systems;

Systems of communication.

Systems of collaboration.

Systems are the best way to keep things rolling, keep things organized, and everybody is on the same page about what's happening when.

Finally, what does NCARB mean by implement processes to assess the quality of work throughout a project? It's not a one-off looking at the quality of each thing, but actually have a system for evaluating the quality of work, a quality assurance or quality control system. Your firm that you work for probably has such a system. If not, you can create it.

So what can you do to organize and coordinate an interdisciplinary team if you're not already in charge of a team? Study. Learn about the qualifications of the consultants your firm often uses. Learn the strengths of your cohorts. Someday, you'll be their team leader, so you'll need to know them better.