How to Build a Design Programme by RIBA Stage
Plan Stages 1 to 4 around the dates that matter, then link the programme to the people and the fee.
A design programme is the plan for how the design team gets from brief to tender. This guide covers the milestones and sign-offs for each RIBA stage, consultant inputs, planning periods, the information release schedule and how to link the programme to resourcing and fees.
A design programme sets out each stage, its sign-off, the consultant inputs it needs and the statutory periods it must allow for.
What a design programme is for
A design programme sets out when each RIBA stage starts and ends, when the client signs it off, when consultants provide their inputs and how long statutory approvals take. It is the shared timetable for the client, the design team and the practice's own staffing and fee.
Many practices produce a programme for the fee proposal and then stop updating it. That is a missed opportunity. A live programme tells the client when decisions are needed, tells consultants when their information is due and tells the practice how many people the project needs and when.
On projects with a client-appointed project manager, the overall project programme usually belongs to them. The architect still needs a design programme for its own work, aligned with the master programme and detailed enough to plan staff and fee.
Start from the end date and the fixed dates
Work backwards from the dates that cannot move: a target start on site, a funding deadline, a planning committee cycle or a lease event. Then add the periods the practice does not control, such as client review time, consultant inputs and statutory determination periods. What is left is the time available for design.
Milestones and sign-offs for Stages 1 to 4
Each stage should end with a defined output and a client sign-off. The sign-off is the most important milestone on the programme, because it closes the stage for fee and design purposes.
- 1
Preparation and Briefing
Surveys commissioned, project brief agreed, appointments in place. Sign-off: brief.
- 2
Concept Design
Options presented, preferred option chosen, cost plan updated. Sign-off: concept.
- 3
Spatial Coordination
Coordinated design, cost check, planning application submitted. Sign-off: Stage 3 report.
- 4
Technical Design
Information released in packages, specification complete, tender issued. Sign-off: tender package.
Without a signed-off stage, later changes are hard to price as additional services.
Allow time for client review
Every sign-off needs review time on the programme. Clients with boards, funders or committees often need several weeks to approve a stage report. Ask how decisions are made and put that period on the programme as a separate bar, so the team does not plan to start the next stage on the day the report is issued.
Concept design needs a limit
Concept design is the stage most likely to slip. Programme a set number of option reviews, as agreed in the appointment, and show the date by which the preferred option must be chosen.
Consultant inputs and planning periods
Consultant inputs and statutory periods are the parts of the programme the architect controls least, so they need to be shown explicitly with realistic durations.
For each stage, list what the architect needs from each consultant and when: survey results, structural scheme, services strategy, fire strategy, cost plan, planning consultant advice and any specialist reports needed for the planning application, such as ecology, heritage, transport or daylight. Confirm the dates with each consultant, not only with the client.
Planning determination periods
In England, government planning practice guidance on GOV.UK sets statutory time limits for deciding planning applications: 13 weeks for major development, 8 weeks for other development, and 16 weeks where an application is subject to Environmental Impact Assessment. The periods run from receipt of a valid application, so allow time before that for validation.
The same guidance says longer periods can be agreed in writing, through a planning performance agreement before submission or an extension of time during determination, and many applications are decided under such agreements. Programme the statutory period as the minimum, ask the local planning authority about its current performance and committee dates, and allow for pre-application advice before submission. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own systems, so check local rules there.
Higher-risk buildings
For higher-risk buildings in England, building control approval comes from the Building Safety Regulator under the gateway regime. The Building Safety Regulator’s GOV.UK guidance gives a decision period of up to 12 weeks for a new higher-risk building and 8 weeks for an existing higher-risk building, subject to extensions and the applicable process. Check the current guidance before programming the work. Construction cannot start until approval is given, so this period belongs on the programme between Stage 4 and site start.
- Pre-application
- Allow time for advice and a meeting with the authority, based on its current service.
- Validation
- Allow time between submission and the authority confirming the application is valid.
- Determination
- 13 weeks major, 8 weeks other, 16 weeks with EIA, from a valid application (England).
- Conditions
- Allow for discharging pre-commencement conditions before site start.
The information release schedule
At Stage 4 the programme needs more detail. An information release schedule lists each package of drawings, specification and schedules, who needs it and when it will be issued.
Base the schedule on what the contractor or tenderers need first. In a two-stage tender or design and build route, early packages such as substructure, frame and envelope may be needed well before interiors and finishes. Agree the order with the client, project manager and cost consultant, then plan backwards from each release date.
What each package on the schedule records
- Package: A name and scope, such as "Envelope: walls, windows, roof".
- Contents: Drawings, specification sections and schedules included.
- Inputs: Consultant information needed first, and the date it is due.
- Release date: When the package is issued, and to whom.
- Status: Not started, in progress, checked, issued.
- Owner: The person responsible for producing and checking it.
Envelope drawings · March
- 01 No defined contents, so nobody knows what is included.
- 02 No consultant inputs or dates, so dependencies are hidden.
- 03 No owner or status, so progress cannot be tracked.
Package: Envelope: walls, windows, roof. Contents: GAs, wall sections, window schedule, cladding and roofing specification. Inputs: Structural frame and fire strategy due 2 March. Release: 20 March to tenderers. Owner: Project architect. Status: In progress.
The second entry tells consultants what they owe and when, and tells the team what to produce. Example is illustrative.
Build QA time into each package. Checking drawings against the specification before release is far cheaper than answering RFIs about inconsistencies on site.
Linking the programme to resourcing and fees
A programme becomes a management tool when each stage is linked to the hours its fee allows and the people who will do the work. Then a moved date shows its effect on staffing and on margin.
Divide each stage fee by a blended hourly rate to get the hours budget, then divide by the number of weeks on the programme to get the average weekly hours the stage needs. Compare that with the people available.
- Stage fee
- Stage 3 fee of £36,000 at a blended £75 per hour gives 480 hours.
- Duration
- The programme allows 12 weeks for Stage 3.
- Weekly need
- 480 divided by 12 is 40 hours a week, roughly one full-time person.
- If compressed
- If the client brings the planning submission forward and Stage 3 shrinks to 8 weeks, the need rises to 60 hours a week, about one and a half people.
- If extended
- If client decisions stretch it to 16 weeks with the same team, fixed costs such as meetings and coordination keep running and the fee is likely to be used before the work is done.
The figures are illustrative. The same arithmetic, applied to every live project, gives the practice its staffing plan. See the guide to resource planning for architecture practices for the practice-wide view.
When the programme slips
Delays caused by the client or by others are a common reason for additional fees. Record the original programme, each revision and the reason for every change. A programme that is updated and issued regularly is the best evidence the practice has when it asks for more fee. The guide to additional services and variations covers how to price that work.
Questions practices ask
Short answers to the questions practices ask most often about design programmes.
What should an architect's design programme include?
Start and end dates for each RIBA stage, client review and sign-off periods, consultant inputs, pre-application advice, the planning submission and determination period, an information release schedule for Stage 4 and the tender period. Each stage should also show its fee and hours budget.
How long does planning permission take in England?
Government guidance sets statutory limits of 13 weeks for major development, 8 weeks for other development and 16 weeks for applications subject to Environmental Impact Assessment, from a valid application. Longer periods can be agreed in writing, so allow for validation and check the authority's current performance.
At which RIBA stage is the planning application submitted?
Under the RIBA Plan of Work 2020, the planning application is usually submitted during or at the end of Stage 3, Spatial Coordination. Some projects submit earlier, at the end of Stage 2, which raises the risk of design changes after consent.
What is an information release schedule?
A list of Stage 4 information packages, showing what each contains, the consultant inputs it depends on, who it is issued to and when. It lets the contractor or tenderers plan, and lets the practice plan its own staffing.
How do you link a programme to the fee?
Turn each stage fee into an hours budget using a blended hourly rate, then divide by the number of weeks the programme allows. The result is the average weekly hours the stage needs, which can be compared with the people available.
Where Avoice fits
Avoice keeps the programme, the stage fees and the staffing on the same project, so a change to one is visible in the others.
Each Avoice project has Programme and Milestones alongside its RIBA stages and fees. People and staffing shows allocation and capacity across live projects, and timesheets roll up against each stage, so the practice can see whether the programme and the fee still agree. When a deal is won in Clients and CRM, its stages, fees and hours budget pre-fill the project. The planning conditions register in Avoice compliance tracks conditions to discharge, and the Project Record holds programme revisions and the decisions behind them.
To see your own programme linked to staffing and fees, book a demo.