Introduction

Management literature is well developed and provides a comprehensive source of ideas and guidance on formal management systems. However, the principles and techniques applicable to industrial production or mass-consumer markets, based on standardisation, repetitive tasks and products, are inapplicable to the professional firm and may be 'dangerously wrong' (Maister 1993). The majority of professional firms that work in the building industry, such as architects and engineers, are small in size and are faced with managing large numbers of small, extremely complex, bespoke projects, many of which are running concurrently: thus literature about large organisations or large prestigious building projects does not transfer easily to the average professional firm. A further complication is in the very nature of design firms, which could be regarded as unique in the service they provide and one which deserves its own specialist field of knowledge, architectural management.