Toolkit Committee

Currently Available Tools for the RMP 10 Foundations of Risk Management

The Ten Foundations of Risk Management

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• Tool 1-1: Create a Culture for Managing Risks and Preventing Claims — This tool includes a story board and role playing guide to involve your staff in the risk management discussion. Also includes sample commitment statements for your firm to buy into the process.

• Tool 2-1: A Risk Evaluation Checklist — Don’t overlook anything! A sample itemized list of things you should look for when evaluating a prospective project.

• Tool 2-2: Interview Guide and Template — Getting "the right people on the bus" is one of the most important things we can do to mitigate risk management and yet we never learn about interviewing skills in school. It is the second tool related to the Second Foundation of Risk Management, Prevention and Proactivity. The tool will help your firm conduct higher quality interviews and standardize the process among all your staff.

• Tool 3-1: A Risk Management Program Planning Structure — This tool is designed to help a Firm Principal design a Risk Management Program for his or her firm. The tool consists of a grid template that will help focus one's thoughts on where risk may arise in various aspects of their engineering practice and how to mitigate those risks. Once the risk factor is identified, then a policy and procedure for how to respond to that risk is developed. This tool contains 10 sample risk factors with accompanying policies and procedures to illustrate how one might get started. The tool is designed to insert custom risks and policies to tailor it to individual firms.

• Tool 3-3: Website Resource Tool — This tool lists website links that contain information that could be useful for a Structural Engineer. A brief description of the website is also included. For example, there is information about doing business across state lines, information regarding the responsibility of the Engineer of Record for each state, links to each State’s Licensing Board, etc.

• Tool 4-1: Status Report Template — An organized plan for keeping your clients informed and happy. This project status report is intended to be sent to your Client, the Owner and any other stakeholder whom you would like to keep informed about the project status. The template is designed in Word format so it can be edited according to the requirements of each individual company.

• Tool 4-2: Project Kick-Off Meeting Agenda — Effective communication is one of the keys to successful risk management. Often times we place a significant amount of effort and care into communication with our clients, owners and external stakeholders. With all that effort, it’s easy to take for granted communication with our internal stakeholders –– the structural design team. If a project is not started correctly, there is a good chance that the project will not be executed correctly either. Tool No. 4-2 is designed to help the Structural Engineer communicate the information that is vital to the success of the structural design team and start the project off correctly.

• Tool 4-3: Sample Correspondence Guidelines — The intent of CASE Tool 4-3, Sample Correspondence Guidelines, is to make it faster and easier to access correspondence with appropriate verbiage addressing some commonly encountered situations that can increase your risk. The sample correspondence contained within this tool is intended to be sent to the Client, Owner, Sub-consultant, Building Official, Employee, etc., in order to keep them informed about a certain facet of a project or their employment.

• Tool 4-4: Phone Conversation Log — Poor communication is frequently listed among the top reasons for lawsuits and claims. It is the intent of this tool to make it faster and easier to record and document phone conversations.

• Tool 5-1: A Guide to the Practice of Structural Engineering — Intended to teach structural engineers the business of being a consulting structural engineer and things they may not have learned in college. While the target audience for this tool is the young engineer with 0-3 years of experience, it also serves as a useful reminder for engineers of any age or experience. The Guide also contains a test at the end of the document to measure how much was learned and retained. Other sections deal with getting and starting projects, schematic design, design development, construction documents, third party review, contractor selection/project pricing/delivery methods, construction administration, project accounting and billing, and professional ethics.

• Tool 5-2: Milestone Checklist for Young Engineers — The tool will help your engineers understand what engineering and leadership skills are required to become a competent engineer. It will also provide managers a tool to evaluate engineering staff.

• Tool 6-1: CASE Contract Scope Exhibit Checklist — The tool will allow the user to input specific project and client information, select typical items included in a structural scope of work by project phase, and customize specific requirements to end with a scope of work document that can be attached to a project proposal and contract. Project information and scope of work is stored in a database for future reference.

• Tool 7-1: Client Evaluation — Do you know who your best clients are? Do you know where you should be focusing your marketing and sales efforts to maximize financial performance of your firm? You may be surprised. This tool will help you answer those questions by analyzing the amount of work and profit for each client.

• Tool 8-1: Contract Review — Do you (or your legal counsel) review every contract to find onerous clauses? Do you know what they are? Do you always find them? This tool will help you find these clauses or words throughout the document.

• Tool 9-1: A Guideline Addressing Coordination and Completeness of Structural Construction Documents — Welcome to the Tool No. 9-1, CASE RMP Tool Kit Committee's A Guideline Addressing Coordination and Completeness of Structural Construction Documents. The Tool Kit Committee has repackaged a previously released CASE document with upgrades and additions! A summary test and answer key have been added to the Appendix of the original document. It is recommended that engineers read this Guideline and take the test at the end of the document. More experienced engineers should then sit down with the engineers to go over the various subjects and answer any questions. The CASE Drawing Review Checklist will be a valuable tool to take away from this experience and implement into normal office use.

• Tool 10-1: Site Visit Cards — This tool provides sample cards for the people in your firm who make construction site visits. These cards provide a brief list of tasks to perform as a part of making a site visit, What to do before the site visit; What to take to the construction site; What to observe while at the site; What to do after completing the site visit. The sample cards include several types of structural construction, plus a general guide for all site visits.

• Tool 10-2: Construction Administration Log — Construction administration is a time when good record keeping and prompt response is essential to the success of the project and to limiting the risk of the structural engineer. For this reason and many others, a well organized and maintained construction administration log is essential.

For more information about CASE Toolkits, please contact Heather Talbert, (202) 682-4377 or htalbert@acec.org.