GRACE · Module 5 · Part A Reference

Questions 1 to 3

From scope to budget

Planning answers five questions in order. This module is the first three, turning scope into work, roles, and a price. The last two, When and Who, are Part B. These three questions are how you Establish Clarity about the work and what it costs, and they are Steps 1 through 4 of the seven step plan.

Question 1

What is the work?

Decompose scope into a WBS: phase → deliverable → work package → task.

Tool · WBS hierarchy

Question 2

Which roles?

Soft-resource each task to the lowest level that can do it right.

Tool · Soft-resource guide

Question 3

How much?

Assign hours, price by role, roll up against the fee.

Tool · The budget builder

Question 4

When?

Sequence the work: Logic-Based Planning, critical path, float.

→ Part B

Question 5

Who?

Hard-schedule the role demand onto real people.

→ Part B

Planning Studio · Where this guide gets used

This guide is the reference. Planning Studio 1 is the practice. Everything below runs live on Oakhaven’s Design Development phase: the hierarchy, the builder logic, and the rates. There, draw the scope boundary, build the 9-deliverable WBS, then staff $224,000 of labor across the eight-role roster and commit it. Keep this page open while working the Studio. Open Planning Studio 1 →

Decompose the scope

The WBS hierarchy

A Work Breakdown Structure decomposes the project in four levels, each more concrete than the last. Decompose down to tasks small enough to assign and price.

Major Project Phase

A billing phase. SD · Design Development · CD

Project Deliverable

A physical output. Floor Plans · Elevations · RCPs · Outline Specs

Work Package

A major component of a deliverable. Partition layout · Egress overlay · MEP coordination

Task

Assigned to one role. Draft partition types · Run egress calc · Tag wall ratings

Decomposing real DD scope language, the quick version of the Module Overview walkthrough:

Contractual scope clause	Deliverables → sample tasks
“…prepare Design Development Documents to fix and describe the architectural character: plans, elevations, sections.”	Floor Plans → draft partition types, run egress calc, dimension to grid. Elevations → material & opening layout. Sections → cut key building sections.
“…coordinate the structural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems within the documents.”	Structural set → reconcile arch grid with framing. MEP set → locate mech rooms & chases, coordinate dispatch power & clearances.
“…together with outline specifications and material selections.”	Outline Specs → draft CSI section outline. Materials → select assemblies & finishes, assemble DD board.

Planning Studio · The live version

The Oakhaven DD WBS inside the Studio is this hierarchy made real: phase 3.0 → 9 deliverables → 14 work packages → 40 assignable tasks, verbatim from the project’s filed WBS. Step 1 makes you earn it. Five packages from other phases are shuffled into the deck, and each one let in spends fee the phase does not have.

A worked example

Rates and a worked budget

One real Oakhaven Design Development package: six tasks, staffed and priced against a $100,000 phase fee, from the 2026 Grace Hourly Rate Schedule. Read it the same way you will read your own. This is Questions 1 to 3, made tangible.

Task (WBS)	Role (soft-resource)	Hours	Cost	Flag
Dispatch-floor plans & RCP	Architect · $155	120	$18,600	✓
Exterior elevations & sections	Architect · $155	70	$10,850	✓
Structural coordination	Senior Architect · $170	90	$15,300	●
MEP integration & redlines	Project Manager · $150	110	$16,500	✓
Code & egress review	Senior Architect · $170	30	$5,100	●
QA review & DD issue	Principal · $310	40	$12,400	▲

Flag the rate as you read it: ▲ $310+ is the top of the rate card, reserved for judgment work. ● $170–$309 is senior, so confirm the task needs it. ✓ under $170 is the efficient floor for production work.

Total hours

460

Planned cost

$78,750

Fee

$100,000

Profit / margin

$21,250 · 21.3%

Planned cost as a share of fee79%

Healthy plan at 21.3% margin. Built bottom-up from tasks, roles, and hours. This is a budget you can defend and measure execution against.

Rates are the 2026 Grace Hourly Rate Schedule (effective 01/01/2026). Profit shown is fee minus planned labor cost, before consultants and reimbursables. Build your own plan, role by role, in Planning Studio 1.

Planning Studio · The builder with a spine

Step 4 of the Studio is this budget builder wired to consequences: live margin against the $280,000 fee, a hard 15% commit floor, and flags for the classic failures. Those flags catch QC unbudgeted, PM effort too thin to control the phase, and Principal hours crowding the rate mix. Committed numbers carry into Part B and, at the end of Studio 2, onto the BST screens exactly as they would be loaded on a real project. Build the budget →

Match the role to the work

Soft-resource guide

“Lowest competent level” is the rule. Match the nature of the work to the floor at which it is still done responsibly. That floor is neither the cheapest body nor a Principal doing production work.

Nature of the work	Typical floor role	Do not use a…	Why
Production drafting, plans, RCPs, schedules	Architect / Design Professional	Principal in Charge	Repeatable technical output. A senior rate buys judgment the task does not need, and it erodes margin without improving the drawing.
Discipline & consultant coordination	Senior Architect / Project Manager	Design Professional	Resolving conflicts across disciplines and holding consultants to the schedule takes standing a Design Professional does not carry.
Schedule, fee, scope & client decisions	Project Manager	Design Professional	Contractual and financial exposure. These are PM-of-record decisions; delegating them below the PM breaks the chain of accountability for the fee.
Code, egress & life-safety judgment	Senior Architect	Design Professional	Life-safety interpretation calls for licensed judgment and experience with AHJ review, not production-level execution.
QA / QC review & sealing the set	QC Peer Reviewer / Principal in Charge	Architect (unsealed)	Sealing requires the license, and the review requires independence: the reviewer cannot be the person who produced the work.
BIM standards, model setup & auditing	BIM Manager	Design Professional	A specialized technical skill. Model integrity problems surface late and expensively if a specialist does not own the standards from the start.
Document formatting, proofing, assembly	Administrative, not on this roster	Project Manager	No technical judgment required. Routing it to a design or PM role spends billable technical capacity on non-technical work.

The Oakhaven roster is eight roles: Principal in Charge, Project Manager, Senior Architect, Architect, Design Professional 1, Design Professional 2, BIM Manager, QC Peer Reviewer. Any role outside that list is priced from the firm rate card and has to be added to the plan deliberately.