stage 0
1 Strategic Definition
1.1 Purpose
By the end of this stage 0, you will have identified and made the business case V1 for purchasing a property and established the objectives and risks for rehabing works. Begin writing down your MVV and budget and configuring the Property Selector tool ready to log the start-up data for a list of candidate properties.
The Strategic Definition stage 0 is about finding the property opportunity, identifying high-level rehab requirements, the resources required to achieve the project objectives, the project risks and the project costs and timescale. These are V1 estimates that you will return to in further iterations in subsequent stages.
It needs strategic thinking ie forming a long-term vision and mapping whatever resources you can get hold of to take you from the as-is property as it is when you buy it, to the to-be rehab ready for handover and use. ‘Use’ may be sale, rental or owner-occupation.
1.2 Steps
Here are the steps in this phase.
1. The starting point is an understanding of your Mission Vision Values.
‘Mission’ is what you can do (property: buy, improve, use)
‘Vision’ is where you want to be (own architecture practise / regular property upgrades).
‘Values’ are your ethical guides or the standards that govern your motivation, thinking and actions. Values come from how you were brought up and what have learnt in life.
2. You need an idea of what you are looking for, your Search criteria. These will be about the property and its environs, your spend envelope and the value you expect to achieve.
3. A quick Condition survey or rough schedule of dilapidations will let you estimate the cost of the works and will start the property rehab Requirements definition for the chosen property. These V1 requirements will later feed into detailed drawings and spec.s and quantity surveying, before being ready for putting out to tender.
4. How long do you expect the project to last? This will support the initial Project Plan. And how much do you have to spend? This is your Budget.
The condition survey, will get broken out by phase and trade and will help with eg establishing your maximum auction bid, the borrowing you might need and for how long, affordable procurement, staged payments you make to contractors as the work proceeds…
5. You need to appreciate what you personally can do, as a function of your skills & competencies and your availability; and what competencies you will need to call in.
What sort of abilities does stage 0 require? Stage 0 requires strategic thinking, some management consulting expertise (how organisations and project work), whole life-cycle analysis (purchase, rehab, maintenance, disposal), sustainability guidance (“meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”: energy source, flexibility and durability, waste management, water management, material selection and pollution), whole life-cycle analysis, sustainability guidance, financial modelling, design thinking
You will be making the property function your way (electrics, plumbing, roof and external walls…), but there are also non-functional requirements such as health and safety and many planning and building regulations (constraints) to adhere to.
You will assemble a Project Team, including perhaps a named resource at the local authority (planning, building reg.s). The roles and responsibilities vary through the phases and one person may wear several hats. Be clear by naming these positions, creating a profile, identifying who makes the decisions, how they can be changed (change control), who does the actions, and in what format instructions will be issued.
You will need a Communication Plan and a meeting room, likely digital, to exchange and store information.
6. You will benefit at all times from Feedback from your studies (skills) and experience (competencies), and from competent people whom you can freely consult with on other projects (experts, maybe from work).
7. There should be a go/no-go Milestone Review. A thumbs-up and you can move to the next stage - a building project has been set up and different skills will then be needed.
1.3 Deliverables
• Requirements – used for project execution: quality, change control
• Light Business Case – used for managing the project: cost, timescale.
1.4 Supporting Tools
• Property Selector
• Templates
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