Practice and Project related Questions

You’ve gone through all the generic questions and you’re able to answer them adequately. Now it’s time to think about the practice that you work for (or have worked for in the past) and understand how all this is applied to your everyday work life.

The list below is non-exhaustive and gives you an idea of the things that you need to consider in order to fully understand how a practice operates and manages time, staff, revenue and anything that comes up on a daily basis.

  • Do you know how many standards there are in the Code of Conduct?
  • Can you phrase the Standards in your own words?
  • Would you work for a client that has a reputation of bad environmental ethics if they still paid well?
  • Do you know who the client is for the projects you’ve been involved in?
  • Has your practice ever worked with two clients bidding on the same project?
  • How do you formalise the relationship between a client and a landscape architect?
  • Would you take on any type of work regardless of the skills required to perform it?
  • Would you take on work during a very busy period that you can’t actually resource it?
  • Is your practice organising social events were existing or prospect clients are invited?
  • Have you carried on working on something that wasn’t aligned with your values but was paying well?
  • Has your practice turned down work for any reason?
  • Have you every worked on an oversees project? Where your obligations the same as in the UK?
  • How often does the practice you work for organise CPDs?
  • How do you record your CPDs?

  • What type of practice are you working for?
  • Was your practice always this type?
  • What kind of services is your practice offering?
  • Is your practice ISO 9001 accredited?
  • How does your practice manage Quality Assurance?
  • Why do you have Quality Assurance procedures at your place of work?
  • What project management tools/ systems does your practice use to control project finances?
  • How do you record accidents, what systems are in place at your practice?
  • Do you have a Health & Safety protocol in the office?
  • What type of insurances does your practice have and to what extent of cover?
  • How much PII cover does your company have?
  • How does your company manage large projects in terms of fees and how do you ensure that projects remain in budget and what would happen if over spent?
  • How do you engage with new or existing clients on new projects?
  • Where do your work stages for fee proposals come from?
  • Has your practice started working on a project without an agreement on fees?
  • Do you follow the work stages found in the LCA or RIBA’s?
  • How do you charge fees and get paid?
  • Are travel expenses included in your fees? What about travelling time?
  • How are additional fees to the original estimate handled and paid?
  • What type of fee charging is your practice using the most?
  • How is work carried out in your practice?
  • How many staff do you have?
  • Do you know the structure of the practice you work for?
  • What is the type of appointment document that your practice signs with trusted clients?
  • Does your practice have a Marketing/Promotions officer or someone who deals with the practice set up (licences / insurances)?
  • How does your office record the Employer’s responsibilities?
  • How does your company win their work?
  • How often does your practice issue invoices?

  • Do you know the type of planning application that will be submitted for every project you’ve been heavily involved in?
  • Was there a pre-app or public consultation for any of your projects?
  • What presentation material did you have to prepare for a public consultation?
  • Which policy documents did you have to consult with when putting together your proposals for a big project?
  • Was an LVIA prepared for the projects you’ve worked on? Why/why not?
  • Who were the stakeholders for each of your projects?
  • How were the stakeholders identified?
  • Who were the statutory consultees?
  • Were there any representations for the a planning application you’ve been involved in?
  • Were there any statutory designations on your sites?
  • Are you aware of the conditions attached to an outline planning application of a project? Name a few.
  • How did the existence of TPO trees influence/affect your design in a project?
  • Have you ever had any veteran trees on any of your sites?
  • How did the existence of bat roosts or other habitats influence/affect your design in a project?
  • Where there any mitigation measures for the relocation of the Great Crested Newts found on a site?
  • What were the time implications in progressing with the project when you protected species were found present on site?
  • Were there any Listed Building including in a project you’ve worked on?
  • What aspects of the current planning policies were affected by Brexit?

  • Has your practice ever been the Principal Designer for any contract? What did you have to do?
  • Has your practice ever been involved in a Collateral Warranty? How was this handled?
  • Was a project that you’ve worked on notifiable? What did you do?
  • Was someone from your practice the Contract Administrator for any of your projects?
  • Do you know which form of contract was used for each one of the big projects you’ve worked on?
  • How did you deal with a discrepancy between the specification and the construction detail that was picked up by the project manager?
  • You’ve specified a site visit for inspection of tree pits prior to planting but the contractor has already planted them. What would you do?
  • What is the process of sharing information with other disciplines in large projects?
  • What is your practice’s current BIM level?
  • Are you always working to certain BIM standards for all of your projects?
  • Have you ever put together a tender package? What was included?
  • How did you shortlist potential contractors before inviting to tender?
  • Have you ever been to a nursery to tag trees?
  • Do you consider plant availability and current stock in nurseries when specifying species in your planting plans?
  • How would you deal with a request for multiple tree species substitutions during construction due to lack of stock?
  • Do you need to report back to the planners any changes in the planting during construction?

Got some more questions that you think would be helpful to others? Just drop us a line then from the contact page.