The Trouble with Troubleshooting During New Construction Commissioning

Miles Ryan, P.E., writes a monthly column in Engineered Systems Magazine on Building Commissioning. Read May’s column below:

Troubleshooting complex issues in the field is one of my favorite parts of the job. I enjoy the “ah-ha moment” when it all comes together, and the solution becomes obvious. I suspect many other commissioning providers feel the same way. If you are working existing building commissioning, troubleshooting is almost always part of the scope and is budgeted for. When it comes to new construction commissioning, that may not be the case, and that natural pull to participate in troubleshooting can get you in trouble.

The Pros

There are many benefits that come from commissioning providers participating in troubleshooting during a new construction commissioning process. They include, but may not be limited to the following:

1. It’s fun! I have always said if I could do it all over again, I probably would have been a detective. In many ways, working as a commissioning provider allows me to live that fantasy, and troubleshooting is detective work at its core.
2. It makes you grow in your craft. Being part of the team troubleshooting an issue will force you to truly learn the root cause of an issue and what the proper solution entails, and that knowledge is bound to come back to serve you well on future projects.
3. Your involvement provides continuity to the building owner. If you are actively part of the troubleshooting process, the knowledge you gain from that process can benefit the building owner. If the issue has the chance of rearing its head again after occupancy, then you should ensure discussion of it is included in the agenda for owner’s training. Depending on the project, when the dust settles and the owner takes occupancy, you may be the only one left from the original project team who has the background of why certain things landed where they did (e.g. as-built sequences of operation which differ from the design documents). This is especially true if you are retained as part of an ongoing commissioning process after the owner takes occupancy.
4. It builds trust with the construction team. I am a firm believer that the commissioning process can bring great benefit to the whole project team, not just the owner. If you are the commissioning provider who only comes in at functional testing stage, yells at them that everything is wrong, and then disappears, you are not exactly casting a great light on the rest of us in the profession. Partaking in troubleshooting and being part of the team that works towards a solution will convince the team you are committed to improving the project team’s effectiveness in delivering a well operating building to the owner. Not all aspects of troubleshooting (e.g. ensuring proper wiring, review of programming code for errors, etc.) may be in your skillset, but any commissioning provider who has a deep understanding of the Owner’s Project Requirements, and how the design sought to meet those requirements, can bring great value to the troubleshooting process. For one, you can ensure the correct solution is implemented, in lieu of a band aide that masks the true issue or a solution that solves the issue at hand, but compromises project goals elsewhere. Being part of the troubleshooting process will also help identify when the contractor is chasing their tail on a portion of the design that is intrinsically flawed. Stopping a contractor to explain the issue at hand is inherently a design issue, and that direction needs to come from the engineer of record, will be a breath of fresh air for them, especially if they have been pulling their hair out the past week trying to figure out what they were doing wrong. Then, working with the contractor to clearly articulate the issue and the correct recommendation to the design engineer will be a welcomed breath of fresh air for the design engineer as well.
5. Demonstrates your value to the client. If your client actively sees you participating in the troubleshooting process and contributing to the correct solution, this will elevate the status of commissioning process for this client, as well as for the industry as a whole. By no means does this imply taking credit for all the successful troubleshooting that takes place. If you are present, providing expertise when you have it, and are facilitating communication between the various parties to collectively find solutions to issues, your value will be noticed without you having to employ any self-serving attributes. Actions speak louder than words.

The Cons

There can be drawbacks to commissioning providers participating in troubleshooting on new construction commissioning processes. They include, but may not be limited to the following:

1. It’s time consuming. Most commissioning providers, if they want to be competitive in their fees, would not be budgeting for endless hours of participating in troubleshooting with the contractors. There is no quicker way to bust a budget for a project than getting sucked down a bunch of troubleshooting rabbit holes.
2. You become a crutch. If you solve all the problems for them during the first system you functionally test, some less ambitious contractors will put even less effort into ensuring the next system in line for testing is truly “test ready.” They may instead just hope you will again hold their hand through every failed step in the test procedure. If you get too involved in troubleshooting, some contractors may feel alleviated of their responsibility to deliver a properly functioning system.
3. It becomes a mental burden. If the project team starts holding back and letting you catch every mistake and provide every solution, their lack of ownership for the systems’ operation can place inappropriate burden on you. This can quickly lead to burnout when you are the only one who seems to be trying. I recently saw someone who used to work in commissioning refer to themselves online as a ‘recovery commissioning agent’ and I wondered how many people would truly understand the gravity of what he was saying. I certainly do.
4. Lines of authority get blurred. If the design engineer sees you have a handle on all the field issues and they are lacking confidence in their own understanding of the issues, they may start to defer all direction to resolving the issues to you. This inappropriately shifts the burden to you and can get very awkward, especially when corrections include potential change orders which add additional costs to your client.

Striking a Balance

One needs to strike the appropriate balance on their level of participation in troubleshooting in new construction commissioning. And the correct balance will be different for every project, depending on the project complexity and the makeup of the project team members. Admittedly, I struggle with this, hence the reason this topic is on my mind. I love troubleshooting. Finding the correct solution to nuanced issues is rewarding and it gives me more material for all these Engineered Systems Magazine articles! But I recently have had a disproportionate number of projects that required too much of my involvement in troubleshooting.

I also had a recent project that played out the way it should always be. The construction team was very competent, but appreciated my involvement in troubleshooting when appropriate. My participation never alleviated them of their responsibility to own the issues to the finish line. The design engineer appreciated my input as well and always answered my calls on time-sensitive issues, but never bulked from his responsibility for providing clear direction to the team when direction was needed.

Not every project team is that easy, however. To achieve the right balance of participation in troubleshooting for a given project, I have the following recommendations:

1. Don’t show your hand too early. If the solution to a problem they are facing is obvious and you believe they can find the solution, empower them to find that solution by asking leading questions. Point them in the correct direction, don’t carry them there.
2. Ask for explanations. Ask the construction team for back briefs on how certain issues got resolved. This will force them to think about it at a deeper level, as most people have a fear of misspeaking in public. It will also allow you a chance to voice concern if their solution seems to be missing the mark.
3. Don’t work in a silo. When the project team needs more involvement from you in troubleshooting, proceed with caution, and do not work in a silo. Explain your process, your recommendation and do not unilaterally take the lead on carrying those issues to the finish line.
4. Keep the owner aware. Keeping the owner abreast of ongoing issues that are being troubleshot has multiple benefits. For one, it improves their knowledge of the systems prior to taking ownership of them. Additionally, it is an opportunity for you to showcase the value you bring to the process. Lastly, it makes it a lot easier to come to the owner for an additional fee if they have been approving your involvement in unbudgeted troubleshooting throughout. Blindsiding them with an additional services proposal because you ran out of fee by letting yourself go down a troubleshooting rabbit hole you were not approved to go down, will probably not go over well with an owner who was unaware of the issues.

Conclusion

Treading lightly with your involvement in troubleshooting in new construction commissioning is necessary to avoid busting your budget or having others shift their responsibility to you. But do not hold back in sharing vital information which will help in the troubleshooting process. Be an active member in the process where appropriate, but not take on the responsibility of solving every problem. Walking that tightrope is at times easier said than done, and I wish you the best of luck in striking that correct balance in your future projects!