We have all heard the adage, “Plan your work, work your plan” but how often does this get implemented?  In the fast-paced world of construction, sometimes it seems you barely have a moment to catch your breath.  And instead of taking a step back and planning an attack strategy, we tend to have the urge to throw bodies at a problem and hit the ground running.  This is not always the best solution.  With cost being a driving factor behind some projects, the design team has increased pressure to find ways to reduce the overall project cost.  This leads to the design team using creative ways such as cutting down on coordination between disciplines or eliminating crucial detail drawings.  If the contractor does not pick up on these items in the bid phase, this can cause future problems.  If you find a problem during the middle project cycle, this will have substantial cost impacts.  However, if you find it at the end of the project cycle, the cost impact can be severe.  The faster a problem can be identified, the greater the chance of lessening the cost impact.  Pre-planning the work, can help identify these issues before they become major problems and dramatically impact the project budget.  Problems will happen throughout the construction project cycle.  This is unavoidable but how you pre-plan can soften the cost impact.  So, plan your work and work your plan.