Vellum & Razor Blades

17/06/2026

Rework rarely starts on site. It starts long before, in the existing conditions a team assumed rather than verified.

A project opens, the timeline goes live, and design momentum builds fast. It feels productive. But underneath, the existing conditions are still half confirmed and under-specified. Surveys are pending; the site model is partial and lacks clear direction; and the constraints on the existing building are documented without experienced oversight.

So, the team pushes design forward on inputs that need verification; that need is forgotten or pushed aside. The work being done feels like good progress. Months later, often in construction, the real conditions must be respected, and the gap between what was assumed and what is true turns into difficult rework affecting most disciplines, at the point where it costs the most to absorb.

Avoiding this requires a team prepared to confirm what is verified and what is not, and to log both before design momentum builds. Not to create extra paperwork, but to safeguard the foundation everything downstream stands on.

Verified inputs are critical to confirm early, before the need is lost to momentum. They keep a design supported by real conditions, which always surface in the end.

Comment HEALTH and I'll send you the Project Delivery Health Check.

12/06/2026

Have you ever been left out of a meeting or email thread where your knowledge was critical to the decision being made?

That is often where rework begins, because the right knowledge was not involved at the right moment.

A design decision gets made before buildability is agreed.
A cost implication is missed until later.
An operational concern is raised after the drawings have moved on.
An email thread becomes the place where a decision quietly forms, while the people who needed to shape it are outside the conversation.

By the time the gap appears, the project has already moved forward around an incomplete assumption.

That is why visibility matters but we don't need more meetings and we don't need more noise.
We need better visibility of the conversations, decisions, and dependencies that affect the work of overlapping disciplines.

When the right knowledge is at the table early, decisions get stronger.

When the right knowledge is missing, rework should be expected.

Have you ever been left out of a decision, meeting, or email thread where your input could have prevented rework?

Let me know in the comments. I’d be interested to hear what happened, and what would have made the decision process better.

10/06/2026

The rework you fight late on was not created late. It was created at the very start.

When a project runs on hidden assumptions instead of a shared plan, the gaps stay quietly hidden while the work seems to move forward, then surface as rework once they are costly to fix.

The cheapest place to catch them is before anyone opens a model.

The Project Delivery Health Check takes two to three minutes and shows whether your next project is set up to start, and end, in control.

Take the Project Delivery Health Check using the link below.

09/06/2026

Rework rarely shows up when it is created. It shows up much later.

The gaps get built in at the start, when scope, the definition of done, and ownership are still loose. The work seems to move forward quickly, so no one feels the problem yet. Then weeks later it surfaces as rework, at the point where it costs the most to fix.

So the honest question is not how to handle rework faster. It is how to stop it from showing up late in the first place.

The answer is to start with clarity. When teams leave kickoff with the same picture of what done looks like, the assumptions that become rework never get a chance to hide.

Rework showing up late is not bad luck, it's an early gap arriving on a delay.

Take the Project Delivery Health Check using the link below.

For principals and delivery leads who need to know exactly where their projects are exposed. Architecture | Engineering | Construction | Operations Know where your delivery is exposed. Spot the gaps to close first. The Project Delivery Health Check is a free diagnostic that scores your delivery stra...

08/06/2026

Most projects don't start with a real plan. They just get started ASAP.

The kickoff feels productive and everyone leaves energized, but how often does the team actually leave aligned on how they will support one another to reach success?

Over decades I have recognised that the same gaps appear late, even though they were created early. They stay well hidden while the work 'moves smoothly,' then surface later as rework as the project has been running on hidden assumptions rather than a shared plan.

A clean start requires attention to detail, and that work can begin before the project is even conceived.

The Project Delivery Health Check takes three to four minutes and shows whether your next project is set up to start, and end, in control.

Take the Project Delivery Health Check using the link below and start your journey.

02/06/2026

Most projects don't start with a real plan. They just get started ASAP.

The kickoff feels productive and everyone leaves energized, but how often does the team actually leave aligned on how they will support one another to reach success?

Over decades I have recognised that the same gaps appear late, even though they were created early. They stay well hidden while the work 'moves smoothly,' then surface later as rework as the project has been running on hidden assumptions rather than a shared plan.

A clean start requires attention to detail, and that work can begin before the project is even conceived.

I am currently building the Project Delivery Health Check. It will take two to three minutes, and it is the first step toward guiding your next project to start, and end, in control.

Let us know in the comments if you would like to hear when the Health Check goes live.

20/05/2026

How does every deliverable handoff land clean?

By starting with clarity.

Every project is a chain of handoffs.

The surveyor's real world site confirmation becomes the design team's starting point. The architectural design models become the MEPF backgrounds. The specification becomes the contractor's instruction and the shop drawings become what they build.

Each handoff carries one person's progress and sets up the next person's work.

When the start clearly defines every handoff and the deliverable expectations we land on firmer ground downstream. Coordination is more reliable and the build reflects more closely to the intent. The project leads walk into meetings with fewer surprises and better answers.

A clean project is not about luck or hope. It is a series of defined handoffs that landed where they should because they were choreographed effectively.

Follow for more like this.

20/05/2026

19/05/2026

How does it feel to work on projects? There's a slight shift that changes the experience completely.

Most teams think about their deliverables as outputs. The drawings they produce, the model they hand over or the schedule they publish.

But every deliverable a project produces also becomes someone else's input. What the surveyor confirms becomes the design team's starting point. What the design team models becomes the cost consultant's basis for pricing and the fabricator's background for shop drawing coordination. The coordination in the specs and shop drawings is what the contractor builds from.

Once you see deliverables in this way, the project stops looking like a list of tasks and starts looking like a choreography of collaborations. Each handoff carries someone's progress and kickstarts another series of guided steps.

This is what scripting a project means, it's not setting a series of tasks, it's the choreography of who carries what to whom, by when and at what level of quality.

Teams that script their work well make the rest of the work easier for everyone downstream. They tend not to produce so much work that needs unwinding later because the connections are visible and coordinated.

The layers of a project run deep and they live in each of those handoffs. They are far easier to script before anyone opens a model than to try to repair after the fact.

The free Delivery Control Scorecard helps you see where your next project is starting in control and any areas that may be prone to causing friction.

Link in bio.