Standards of Professional Practice for Design Management

This article is the result of continued research at the University of Alabama’s Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering relating to management issues in engineering failures. The research shows that many failures occur due to well-known technical issues overlooked by management during the design process. Such failures are often termed errors and omissions. This research further indicates that systematic design quality control and quality assurance, careful communication, and post-design inspection are management techniques that could prevent a large number of engineering failures. In an effort to decrease the incidence of management issues, the authors propose to structure a prototypical standard of professional practice for design management. In developing that structure, the authors (1) explored the nature of standards and the similarities that exist in definitions by various professional organizations and (2) reviewed the standard of care and considered why it may not be the engineering profession’s best resource for evaluating duties and practices.