Avdotia
On most jobs, people treat the change order as bad luck, a surprise the site sprung on everyone. It almost never is. A change order is a planning decision arriving late, with a premium attached. The surprise did not happen in the field. The plan built it in, and it simply took a while to show up.
Where changes are really born
Trace any expensive change order back, and you usually find the same origins: a detail left vague to keep the peace, a scope that kept moving after the number was fixed, or an assumption nobody tested against the actual site. The field did not create the problem. It just discovered it, at the worst possible time and the highest possible cost.
The economics of catching it early
- On paper, a change costs a conversation and an eraser.
- In procurement, it costs a re-order and a delay.
- In the field, it costs demolition, rework, a stalled crew, and a markup on top.
The same change gets an order of magnitude more expensive at each stage. Every decision you force early, while it is still cheap, keeps money in the budget.
Designing changes out
The fix is not to forbid changes. It is to move them upstream, where they stay cheap. Freeze scope before pricing it, or price the fact that it is still moving. Resolve vague details on the drawing, not the deck. Test assumptions against the real site early. Do that, and change orders stop being surprises. They become what they always were: decisions you either made on time, or paid extra to make late.