Project Management for Architects: A First Guide
What running a project really involves, stage by stage, for architects taking on their first project lead role.
Being good at design does not prepare anyone for running a project. This guide sets out the eight things a project architect manages, what changes at each RIBA stage, the weekly habits that keep a job on track and the mistakes most people make in their first year.
A project architect manages scope, programme, fee, team, client, consultants, risk and information, as well as the design.
What running a project actually means
Running an architecture project means keeping eight things under control at once: scope, programme, fee, team, client, consultants, risk and information. The design is the reason for the project, but these eight decide whether it is delivered well and profitably.
Most architects step into a project lead role because they are good at design and detailing. The new part of the job is management: knowing what was agreed, what is due next, how much fee is left, who is doing what and which decisions are still open. None of it is difficult on its own. The challenge is keeping all of it in view every week while still contributing to the design.
- Scope
- What the appointment says you will do, stage by stage, and what it excludes.
- Programme
- The dates for each stage, client sign-offs, consultant inputs and statutory submissions.
- Fee
- The fee for each stage, the hours it allows and how much has been used.
- Team
- Who works on the project, for how many hours, and what each person is doing this week.
- Client
- What the client has decided, what they still need to decide and when.
- Consultants
- What each consultant owes you, when, and what you owe them.
- Risk
- What could delay the project, add cost or cause a design or safety problem.
- Information
- Drawings, specifications, schedules and the record of decisions and changes.
Read the appointment first. Many early-career problems come from project architects who never saw the fee or the scope, and so could not tell when the client asked for something extra.
How the job changes through the RIBA stages
The eight areas stay the same, but the emphasis moves as the project progresses. Early stages are about agreeing scope and brief; later stages are about information, coordination and change.
- 1
Preparation and Briefing
Brief, surveys, appointments, programme and fee agreed.
- 2
Concept Design
Options, client decisions, cost check, limit the number of iterations.
- 3
Spatial Coordination
Consultant inputs, coordination, planning submission.
- 4
Technical Design
Information release, specification, tender package.
- 5
Manufacturing and Construction
RFIs, submittals, instructions, site visits, change control.
- 6
Handover
Defects, records, close-out and final account input.
Each stage has a different main risk. Knowing which one is coming lets the project architect plan for it.
Stages 1 and 2: agree what you are doing
The main risk early on is an unclear brief. Write down what the client has asked for, confirm it back to them and agree how many design options are included. Concept design is the stage most likely to overrun, because each new option feels like a small request. Count the options and record the client decisions.
Stages 3 and 4: coordinate and produce
The planning application is usually submitted during or at the end of Stage 3, and the work shifts to coordination with structural, services and other consultants. Stage 4 is the largest stage by hours in most projects. The project architect's job is to plan information release, keep the specification aligned with the drawings and protect the team from late changes that should be priced.
Stages 5 and 6: control change
On site, the project architect answers RFIs, reviews submittals, issues instructions and records every change and its reason. Under the Building Safety Act, the record of design decisions and changes matters as much as the drawings, so keep it complete as you go.
Weekly habits that keep a project on track
Most project control comes from a few small habits repeated every week. They take about an hour in total and prevent most of the surprises that cost fee and goodwill.
- Check fee used against progress.Compare the percentage of stage hours used with how complete the stage really is.
- Plan the next two weeks.Who is working on what, and is anyone over or under loaded.
- List open decisions.What the client and consultants need to decide, by when, and what it is holding up.
- Update the programme.Move dates honestly and tell the client early if a milestone is at risk.
- Log changes as they happen.Any request outside the agreed scope gets written down the same day, with a note on fee impact.
- Approve timesheets.A five-minute check catches time coded to the wrong stage before it reaches an invoice.
- Send a short client update.What was done, what is next and what you need from them.
A 30-minute weekly project review is the easiest way to make these habits stick. For the fee check in particular, the guide to tracking time against RIBA stages shows how to read fee burn.
Common early-career mistakes
Most first-time project leads make the same few mistakes. They are easy to avoid once you know what they look like.
Client asked for a third layout option on the call. Team started it the same afternoon.
- 01 No check against the agreed number of options.
- 02 No written record of the request.
- 03 No fee or programme impact raised with the client.
Request: Third layout option, Stage 2. Scope: Appointment includes two options. Impact: About 20 hours and one week. Next: Email client with fee and date before starting. Logged: Change register.
The second version protects the fee and the programme without saying no to the client. Example is illustrative.
Mistakes to watch for
- Not reading the appointment: You cannot spot extra work if you do not know what was agreed.
- Doing the work yourself: New leads often keep drawing and stop managing. Delegate and review instead.
- Saying yes on calls: Agree to look into a request, then confirm scope, fee and timing in writing.
- Hiding bad news: Tell the director and client about a slipping milestone or overrun as soon as you see it.
- Losing decisions: A decision made in a meeting and not recorded will be revisited later.
- Ignoring the hours: Fee is spent one timesheet at a time. Check it weekly, not at the end of the stage.
The records a project architect should keep
Good records make project management easier and protect the practice if something goes wrong. A project architect needs a small set of live records, kept current every week.
- The appointment, with scope and fee by stage, easy to find.
- A programme with milestones, client sign-offs and consultant inputs.
- A decisions log: what was decided, by whom, when and why.
- A change register for requests outside scope, with fee and programme impact.
- A risk register covering design, programme, cost and safety risks.
- An information release schedule for Stages 3 and 4.
- Stage fee and hours used, updated from timesheets each week.
If a decision is not written down, it has not been made. It has only been discussed.
Keeping these in one place matters more than which tool you use. When the programme, fee and decisions sit in separate files, they drift apart and nobody notices until a problem appears. The guide to building a project programme by RIBA stage covers the programme in detail.
Questions practices ask
Short answers to the questions new project architects and their directors ask most often.
What does a project architect do?
A project architect leads the day-to-day running of a project: managing scope, programme, fee, team, client and consultants, coordinating information and controlling change. In smaller UK practices the role usually combines design leadership with project management.
Is a project architect the same as a project manager?
Not usually. On many UK projects the client appoints a separate project manager who runs the overall project, while the project architect manages the architectural work, the design team coordination it is responsible for and the practice's own fee and resources.
How do RIBA stages help with project management?
The RIBA Plan of Work 2020 splits a project into stages 0 to 7, each with defined outputs. Agreeing fees, programme milestones and deliverables by stage gives the project architect clear checkpoints to measure progress, fee used and client sign-off.
What is the most common project management mistake architects make?
Starting extra work without checking it against the appointment. Unrecorded changes erode the fee and the programme, and they are hard to recover later. Record each request, check it against scope and agree fee and timing before starting.
How much time should a project architect spend on management?
It varies with project size and stage, but the weekly habits in this guide take about an hour a week on a typical project, plus time for client and consultant meetings. Larger projects and construction stages need more.
Where Avoice fits
Avoice keeps the eight things a project architect manages in the same project, so the weekly check is one screen rather than six files.
Each Avoice project carries its RIBA stages, fees and timesheets, so fee used against progress is visible without a spreadsheet. Programme and milestones, tasks and boards and staffing sit alongside. The Project Record holds documents and a decisions log, and the Email Agent captures project email into registers. On site, RFIs, submittals and instructions are managed in the same project, and the Avoice AI side panel can answer questions across all of it.
To see how a project runs from appointment to handover in Avoice, book a demo.