Preliminary Design & Budgetary Costing
Preliminary design and budgetary costing is the early-stage process of creating rough plans and cost estimates to determine a project’s feasibility and set financial expectations. It involves developing a preliminary design with basic plans and a cost plan based on the initial scope, which helps identify potential constraints and facilitates project validation with stakeholders before significant resources are committed. This process is crucial for making informed decisions and creating a baseline budget that can be refined as the design becomes more detailed.
- Purpose: To provide a clear vision of the project's main concepts and ensure initial alignment between the client and project team.
- Outputs: Rough plans, sketches, and a scope of work that outline the project's basic features.
- Key activities: Visualizing the project, getting feedback, and identifying potential technical and regulatory constraints early on.
- Purpose: To estimate the project's initial cost to determine feasibility and secure funding.
- Outputs: A preliminary cost plan or estimate that breaks down costs by project element (e.g., substructure, finishes, mechanical).
- Key activities: Calculating costs based on the preliminary design and scope, often using broad figures per square foot or other high-level metrics. This estimate includes contingency funds to account for uncertainties.
