Commissioning is integral to your project’s quality process. Commissioning is more than just testing the equipment once construction is complete – commissioning spans the entire duration of the project and ensures the owner receives a system properly commissioned, that can be operated and maintained for many years to come.
In this article, we’ll discuss the following:
- How is the commissioning process an integral part of the project’s quality process and its impact on your quality assurance and quality management process
- Where does commissioning exist within the project management framework
The Goal
You may be aware of the three-legged stool of project management - scope, schedule, budget - also known as the triple constraints. The goal of every project is to meet these 3 constraints:
- Scope – the work to be completed and the quality levels to be achieved
- Schedule – the time that the work must be completed by
- Budget – the money available to complete the work
Of course, safety is also an important requirement of the project.
The Problem
Let me describe your weekly site progress review meeting:
- The meeting starts off with a discussion on safety and environment – have there been any safety incidents in the past week or any accidental spills requiring clean-up?
- The Project Manager or owner asks if things are generally on track – is the work being completed per schedule?
- The contractor requests the status of the RFI responses and submittal reviews that they are waiting for. Despite the consultant having a review time specified in the contract, the contractor claims these responses are delaying the work and asks for an expedited review.
- The Project Manager or owner asks how much the project is costing, and the contractor asks if last month's progress payment request has been approved.
But where is the discussion on quality? The other two legs of the project management stool are discussed, but the third leg gets completely ignored.
The scope and quality discussion is often completely omitted from the weekly progress meetings. Yes, there may be a brief mention of an inspection report submitted during the past week, but where is the discussion about the quality issues identified in that report? And more importantly, how are those issues being addressed?
How can it be that quality — one of the critical components of project success — is left out of the conversation, especially when it directly affects building performance and long-term operational decisions?
If the important topics are to be discussed weekly at progress meetings involving the contractor, consultant, and owner, how can one of the three legs of the project management stool — cost, schedule, and quality — be ignored?
Is the work meeting the quality standards that the owner has specified in the contract?
Will the owner be able to properly operate and maintain the new facilities for many years to come?
The project management stool won't stand for long if only two legs — cost and schedule — are regularly addressed.
The project's structure already makes it challenging to identify and resolve issues, even under the best conditions. When problems arise, it becomes almost impossible. People are naturally reluctant to deliver bad news up the chain of command.
In the current quality control process, the field technician reports to the field supervisor, the field supervisor reports to the site superintendent, and the site superintendent reports to the construction manager — all overseen by the quality manager. With so many layers, important quality issues risk getting diluted or delayed.
For quality assurance – the consultant’s field inspector reports to their supervisor, who reports to the QA manager, who reports to the project manager. There is a long chain of command for quality issues in the field to make their way to the top. When quality issues are identified in the field, the message gets diluted before it reaches senior leadership that can address the issues.
The Commissioning Process Misconception
Some might argue that it's the commissioning team's job to identify issues during testing, get everything fixed, and make the project work in the end. On the surface, it sounds reasonable to wait and test everything at the end — that's when problems will be found and corrected, right? So why wouldn’t you take this approach?
The reality is different. By optimizing your quality management and quality assurance processes early, you can mitigate costly risks long before the project is completed.
If you wait too long, you may discover halfway through the project that the required quality levels aren't being achieved. At that point, project leaders might decide to bring in a third-party commissioning team to "fix everything." But by then, it's often too late. The damage is done, progress has moved too far forward, and quality issues have been left to fester unchecked.
When the third-party commissioning team finally arrives onsite, defensiveness takes over. Communication between all groups often breaks down out of fear of legal consequences. The commissioning team's role then shifts from facilitating a smooth transition to simply identifying deficiencies in the design and installation. Finger-pointing begins.
If the right quality systems and controls had been implemented during the design and construction phases, customer satisfaction and first-time quality could have been achieved.
There is also a common misconception that the contractor is responsible for all aspects of commissioning. Yes, the contractor is responsible for commissioning much of their own scope of work. However, true commissioning — especially when integrating new facilities with existing systems — requires far more planning, coordination, and oversight. These broader activities are led by the commissioning team and are not the contractor’s sole responsibility.
Commissioning is not just testing equipment at the end of construction. That view undermines commissioning’s critical role as a key quality management process that benefits both the project and the owner.
If quality issues are ignored throughout the project and left for the commissioning team to solve at the end, that team is being set up for failure. Success in commissioning — and in the project overall — depends on addressing quality at every stage, not just during final testing.
The Solution
The commissioning team must be engaged early in the project and aligned with the owner's project requirements. They should act as the quality champion from start to finish, ensuring that quality is built into every phase of the project and setting the stage for successful commissioning at the end.
To be effective, the commissioning team must operate independently, able to work across all project groups. This independence allows them to surface issues early, propose solutions, and provide real-time reporting to project leadership on the level of quality being achieved — highlighting both successes and areas for improvement. Their role is essential for positioning the project for ultimate success.
Empowering the commissioning team is critical. As the group responsible for making the systems work at project completion, they are best placed to forecast potential problems and suggest corrective actions well before these problems become major obstacles.
When operating independently — and outside the traditional reporting hierarchy — the commissioning team can help foster the teamwork necessary to solve problems collaboratively. They can bridge gaps between all groups, keeping the project's best interests at the forefront and driving "best-for-project" decisions. While each group naturally protects its own commercial interests, the commissioning team serves to protect the overall success of the project — a win for everyone.
There needs to be a shift in mindset: commissioning should not be seen as an end-of-project activity, but as a continuous quality process that spans the entire project lifecycle. Commissioning thinking must be embedded in the design, installation, and testing phases to ensure quality standards are achieved consistently, and to keep the end goal of a successful, fully functional project in sight.
When the commissioning team is only brought in at the end, it’s simply too late to get ahead of issues that have been building for months. Problems are harder — and more expensive — to fix at that point.
This is not to say that commissioning is a silver bullet that can miraculously solve every project problem. Every team still must fulfill its role. However, the commissioning team can act as a facilitator, helping all groups come together, coordinating efforts, and providing guidance to ensure that all systems and teams are aligned toward successful project delivery.
Think of the project team like a plant process: just as all the equipment must work together for a plant to operate properly, all project team members must work together with a shared focus on quality. The commissioning team ensures that all of these moving parts come together correctly at the end.
Experience plays a crucial role in effective commissioning. Foresight is essential to plan activities and anticipate risks. Commissioning team members with prior experience in similar projects can spot potential issues early and plan mitigation strategies before problems grow.
This doesn't mean every commissioning team member must have decades of experience. But strong, experienced commissioning leadership is vital. Senior team members can mentor junior staff, helping to develop the next generation of commissioning professionals while maintaining high-quality standards.
By engaging the commissioning team early, the project benefits from a mindset focused on the end goal right from the beginning. Forecasting potential problems and addressing them early ensures that, at project completion, the owner receives a facility that meets quality expectations — setting the foundation for long-term operational success.
Learn More About Commissioning
To learn more about commissioning, sign up for our 3-Day Mini-Course on Building Commissioning and Start-up. The course is free and flexible to take online at any time and gives you the fundamentals to get started with planning your commissioning project.
Even if you are a commissioning expert, it is a good refresher to see how others are approaching maintain facility performance for construction projects, the quality focused process from pre commissioning and right through to the final commissioning report.
Get started with the mini course at www.CommissioningAndStartup.com/FTQ360
