Let me ask a follow-up question.  In my experience it seems to me that it
is the unknowns of a project that cause the most fear, arguments, angry
slams of the phone, and so on: no one knew that the window was going to
have to be entirely dismantled in order to get at the top sash, and now
everyone's sitting around at the project meeting staring at each other.
Have any of the estimators out there requested probes before bidding?
Or demanded that grey areas be clarified before a bid is given? (I've
already heard stories of backing away from (deliberately?) vague
scopes of work.)  And for the designers out there-- has anyone required
that prospective bidders carry out/inspect probes? How do you avoid
getting the low bid that you know is missing something major?

It seems to me that if everyone involved in a project has an understanding
of the work required before the contract is signed, the project runs much
more smoothly.  I'm just wondering if anyone has a systematic approach to
this problem that works well.

Kevin Daly
BCA-New York City
yes, I know what an RFI is.

On Wed, 1 Jul 1998, Ken Follett wrote:

...

> The most important major factor in a
> project is price, therefore you need an estimate, and it needs to be accurate
> so that you reduce your level of fear... fear being a very difficult feeling
> to control. Uncertainty, not knowing your level of exposure to risk,
> encourages fear. Next is people and relationships. Fear interferes with
> relationships, so again, a reliance on an estimate that feels good.
>
> ][<en
>