Problems often arise in a construction project when the contracting team is not included until the brief and design are actually ready to be built. The Design Build method involves everyone a little earlier, but it's still not soon enough.

Arguably, it is best to involve everyone from the start -- which means engaging in integrated, clustered project management, as detailed in a recent bog post by Martin Brown.

Forming an Integrated Project Team depends on the overlapping of various clusters, such as design and services clusters, so that all teams are communicating from the beginning. This will mean sharing offices and staff, which has the potential to get complicated. However, being able to consider everyone’s input from the start will save you time, resources and money, not to mention improve the quality of your work, Brown noted.

For example, say you wait until a building’s plumbing needs to be installed to actually include a plumber. He might find that there is a costly problem with the design that you have to go back and fix. Had you included the plumber from day one, he could have caught the mistake and helped you avoid any extra work.

Of course, for this to really be effective, you’ll need to make sure these teams, or ready-to-go clusters, are chosen carefully. Integrated project management is much more effective if you choose people you’ve worked with previously and trust. It is tempting to let lower costs outweigh trust. However, integrated project management centers on teamwork, so, ideally, you’ll save more money with an effective team than with a cheaper one.

On that note, the economy very much seems to be the driving force behind the rise in integrated project management's popularity. The idea is to move away from any habits that have brought the industry down. If distrust and a lack of communication are the problem, then the obvious answer is to start communicating and building trust, Brown concluded.