ABSTRACT
This chapter moves into closer detail and focuses upon the design decisions that affect the economics of the project. It is essential that the cost planner appreciates that the cost-planning function does not concentrate solely upon the capital costs, but is also carried out within a project management framework that also embraces time and quality. The chapter aims to develop and encourage a greater awareness in the cost planner of the consequences of making a particular decision and following a specific course of action. The factors that influence the implementation of a design decision should be continually surveyed, reviewed and appreciated by the design team. The financial considerations of a project, which are partially controlled by cost-planning procedures, form part of a range of factors to be evaluated and balanced by the project manager on behalf of the client group. These primary project factors are defined in the brief and are categorised as: functional; technical; aesthetic; financial; and environmental.
