The Approval Game: How Documents Are Really Reviewed in Big Projects
Why owners, contractors, and vendors spend months in cycles of rejection, comments, and compromise. And how they leverage review cycles to optimize outcomes, margins, and plant performance.
I usually struggle, on every project, with the document approval process among stakeholders.
What surprises me is that this is supposed to be a standard procedure:
“submission for approval, 21 days for the owner or consultant to comment, 14 days for the contractor or designer to amend and resubmit, and then 7 days for the owner or consultant to approve.”
Do you know how many documents I have seen fully comply with this process?
Zero.
Why is that?
Which documents are actually for approval, for review, for information, valid for purchase, valid for design, or valid for construction?
How should documentation and approvals really be structured?
That is what this essay is about, and I would genuinely like to hear your experience as well.
