You are an owner-facing CM for renovation; the lead designer proposed 30% contingency; the owner asks for your recommendation. Your FIRST action is to:

You are an owner-facing CM for renovation; the lead designer proposed 30% contingency; the owner asks for your recommendation. Your FIRST action is to:

• A. Conduct an analogous estimate.
• B. Review the design team's work.
• C. Consult a standard cost index.
• D. Hire an outside cost estimator.

Answer: (B)

When a designer proposes a contingency, the first action is to review the design team’s work to understand exactly what risks and unknowns the contingency is intended to cover and what has already been resolved in the design. By inspecting the design documents, you can see where scope is still developing, where assumptions were made, and what uncertainties remain. This grounding helps you judge whether 30% is justified, where it may be too high or too low, and what can be clarified or changed to reduce risk. It also positions you to provide an informed recommendation to the owner rather than relying on generic past-project data or external input that may not reflect this renovation’s specifics. An analogous estimate would be less reliable here because it compares to other projects with different scopes and conditions. A standard cost index offers market trends but doesn’t address project-specific design maturity or risk. Hiring an outside cost estimator could be useful later, if more detailed justification is needed, but it isn’t the immediate best step.

When a designer proposes a contingency, the first action is to review the design team’s work to understand exactly what risks and unknowns the contingency is intended to cover and what has already been resolved in the design. By inspecting the design documents, you can see where scope is still developing, where assumptions were made, and what uncertainties remain. This grounding helps you judge whether 30% is justified, where it may be too high or too low, and what can be clarified or changed to reduce risk. It also positions you to provide an informed recommendation to the owner rather than relying on generic past-project data or external input that may not reflect this renovation’s specifics. An analogous estimate would be less reliable here because it compares to other projects with different scopes and conditions. A standard cost index offers market trends but doesn’t address project-specific design maturity or risk. Hiring an outside cost estimator could be useful later, if more detailed justification is needed, but it isn’t the immediate best step.