The Facility Manager’s Important Role During a Construction Project

Facilities should not first discover how a building will operate when the project team is preparing to turn it over.

Originally published October 2015. Updated September 2026 to reflect current owner-side project and operational-readiness practices.

The design team knows how the building is supposed to work.

The contractor knows how it is supposed to be built.

But someone still needs to ask:

“Can we actually operate and maintain this?”

That question belongs in the project long before turnover.

Facility managers understand what happens after the designers and contractors leave. They know the maintenance organization, service contracts, staffing capabilities, recurring operating problems and practical realities of keeping the facility running.

That knowledge should influence the project while decisions can still be changed.

Facilities at the Meeting Is Not Enough

Inviting the facility manager to design meetings is a good start.

It is not the objective.

The objective is to bring operational knowledge into project decisions.

A system may satisfy the design criteria and still create problems for operations. Equipment may be difficult to access. Replacement filters may require extraordinary effort. Controls may not integrate well with existing systems. A piece of equipment may be technically appropriate but unfamiliar to the maintenance organization.

None of those issues necessarily means the design is wrong.

They mean the project needs an operational perspective.

Start During Design

Facilities should be involved early enough to influence decisions involving:

• equipment and system selection;

• maintainability and service access;

• controls and building-system integration;

• equipment-room layouts;

• utility requirements;

• operating and energy costs;

• replacement parts and consumables;

• standardization with existing equipment;

• safety and access requirements;

• maintenance staffing and capabilities; and

• building standards developed from operating experience.

The FM organization can also bring something extremely valuable to the design team: history.

Which systems have caused recurring problems? Which equipment has performed well? Which products have been difficult to maintain? Where have previous projects created operational headaches?

That institutional knowledge matters beyond the individual project. When experienced facilities leadership leaves, capital decisions can lose the operating history behind them.

Stay Involved During Construction

Facilities involvement should not stop when the drawings are issued.

Construction creates another opportunity to understand what the organization will eventually inherit.

Site walks allow Facilities to see equipment placement, access conditions and installations before ceilings and walls conceal them. They can identify situations that may technically comply with the drawings but create unnecessary maintenance difficulties later.

This does not mean Facilities should direct the contractor or replace the architect, engineer, construction manager or owner’s representative.

The project still needs clear contractual communication and responsibility.

Facilities is there to provide the operational perspective.

Commissioning Is More Than Watching Equipment Turn On

Commissioning and testing are particularly important points of FM involvement.

The question is not simply whether equipment operates.

Facilities needs to understand how it operates, how it is controlled, what happens when it fails, what alarms are generated, what maintenance is required and how the system interacts with the rest of the building.

That means the people who will operate the facility should participate in appropriate testing and commissioning activities rather than receiving only a completed report at the end.

A system can pass a test and still leave the operating team unprepared to own it.

Turnover Should Be an Operational Transition

Project turnover often becomes a document exercise.

O&M manuals are delivered. Warranties are assembled. Training occurs. Keys and access credentials change hands.

Those things matter.

But successful turnover requires more than receiving information.

Facilities should understand:

• what equipment was installed;

• what remains under warranty;

• who handles warranty calls;

• what preventive maintenance is required;

• what deficiencies remain open;

• what service contracts are needed;

• what spare parts and consumables are required;

• how systems are controlled and monitored;

• what training has been completed; and

• what responsibilities move from the project team to operations.

If those questions are unresolved, substantial completion does not make them disappear.

They become operating problems.

Training Has to Work for the People Receiving It

Equipment training should include the people who will actually operate and maintain the systems.

Timing matters.

Training conducted months before occupancy—or before the maintenance staff is prepared to use the equipment—may satisfy a specification without producing much operational value.

Where appropriate, training should be documented so it can be used later for reference and staff turnover.

The objective is not simply to prove that training occurred.

It is to make sure the operating organization can use what was delivered.

Closeout Information Has to Become Operational Information

O&M manuals, warranties, equipment schedules, parts lists and supplier information are valuable only if the facility organization can retrieve and use them.

The project team should understand how Facilities manages asset information.

If the organization uses a CMMS, asset-management platform or another maintenance system, relevant project information may need to be transferred into it rather than remaining solely in project closeout folders.

The project record and the operating record should not become two separate versions of the same building.

Define Operational Acceptance Before Turnover

This is where I think the FM role becomes most important.

Do not wait until the project is almost finished to ask Facilities whether it is ready.

Define what operational acceptance requires while the project is still being planned.

That might include completed training, commissioning results, asset information, warranty contacts, spare parts, controls access, preventive-maintenance requirements, outstanding-deficiency procedures and other information the operating organization needs.

Then the project has something more meaningful to work toward than simply:

“Construction is complete.”

The better question is:

“Is the organization ready to operate what we built?”

Leadership takeaway: Facilities involvement should begin early enough to influence project decisions and continue through commissioning and turnover. The objective is not FM participation—it is operational readiness.