Project control and client representation: who does what

Professional practice distinguishes two functions: Projektleitung (project management) as a line function that decides, and Projektsteuerung (project control) as a staff function that performs the delegable functions of the Bauherr (the client). This is how a specialist handbook aligned with the AHO service profile describes it, for example, in its 7th edition. Certain tasks are treated there as non-delegable; according to that account, a client who handed them over would lose decisive influence over the project.

This distinction is an industry understanding, not a legal rule. No statute lays down which task is line and which is staff. It is nonetheless the best grid for drafting the contract, because it asks a simple question: is a decision being taken here, or prepared?

Feature	Project management	Project control
Function	line	staff
Core	taking decisions and answering for them	preparing decisions, coordinating processes, reporting
Budget	setting the budget, releasing the reserve, accepting additional costs	tracking costs, reporting deviations, assessing options
Typically who	the client in person or a person with decision-making authority	an appointed firm or an internal staff unit
Basis	the client's organisation, with a power of attorney where applicable	contract

Bauherrenvertretung (client representation) is the umbrella term in everyday use. It usually means that someone acts for the client towards designers and contractors. Whether that person only carries out staff tasks or may also take decisions binding the client does not follow from the term, but from the power of attorney granted.

The HOAI (Honorarordnung für Architekten und Ingenieure, the fee regulations for architects and engineers) contains no service profile for project control. No part or annex of the regulations deals with it. In its notice on the new edition of booklet 9, the AHO points out that the earlier HOAI, in its 1996 and 2002 versions, still listed examples of project control services in section 31; nothing of this remains in the current version.

It follows that the scope and remuneration of project control derive solely from the contract. There is no fee table against which an offer could be measured, and no basic service owed without an express agreement. Whatever the client does not write into the contract will be hard to claim later. Which matters the HOAI leaves open overall is summarised in the article on what the HOAI does not govern; the service profiles it actually contains alongside buildings and interiors are presented in the article on the other service profiles of the HOAI.

An industry reference framework is provided by booklet 9 of the AHO series, "Project management in the construction and real estate industry: standards for services and remuneration" (unofficial translation, as are all quotations in this article), new edition as at March 2020. It divides the services into five fields of action:

Field of action	Content
A	organisation, information, coordination and documentation
B	qualities and quantities
C	costs and financing
D	deadlines, capacities and logistics
E	contracts and insurance

Field C is the decisive one for the budget, but it is not the only one involved. Quantities and qualities (B) determine what drives costs; contracts (E) determine how variations and instalments arise; deadlines (D) determine when price escalation and standstill start to cost money. A contract that only commissions "costs" leaves the causes of costs out of the picture.

The booklet is a private publication by a specialist committee with no normative force. It binds only insofar as the contract refers to it. Anyone relying on it should name the edition and list the chosen services individually, rather than agreeing "services under the AHO" across the board. No edition after 2020 had been identified as at 21 October 2026.

Three budget decisions cannot be delegated without the client giving up control. They can be prepared, but not replaced:

1. Setting the budget. The amount, the scope in cost groups, the base date and whether it is a strict cap or a target are set by the client. The project controller can calculate alternatives and make a recommendation; the decision bears the client's signature.
2. Releasing the reserve. A risk reserve that the project controller may draw on unaided is no longer a reserve but a second budget. The federal government states the rule expressly: funds for risk costs with a very high probability of occurrence "are released by the client only when the risks occur" (RBBau C.8, the Richtlinien für die Durchführung von Bauaufgaben des Bundes, or federal building guidelines). The model transfers directly to private projects.
3. Deciding on variations and instructions. An instruction under s. 650b(2) BGB (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, the Civil Code) requires text form, and a variation agreement under the VOB/B "should be made before execution" (s. 2(5) VOB/B). A client who leaves these decisions to the project controller should do so with a power of attorney limited by amount and should have every decision reported.

Task	Project controller can	Client retains
Budget	calculate alternatives, make a recommendation	setting the amount, scope, base date and binding nature
Release of cost determinations	check plausibility, have deviations explained	release towards the designer
Risk reserve	keep the risk register, propose drawdowns	release when the risk occurs
Variations	check, negotiate, update the forecast	commissioning, except within a limited power of attorney
Interim invoices	have them checked, recommend payment	payment

The federal government separates the same functions organisationally. Under the RBBau, the client is responsible for the building project (A.3.2); the building administrations are the BBR and the authorities or bodies of the Länder entrusted under the Organleihe (institutional lending) arrangement (A.3.5). The building administration executes and steers; the client decides.

A separate level decides on the framework. "Only the steering level decides on changes that substantially alter the framework of the project" (RBBau E 3.3). If the approved framework cannot be held, a decision must be obtained from the body that approved the project or released the funds. If deviations from deadlines and cost targets emerge, the client must be informed immediately, with proposals for alternatives (RBBau D.4).

For a private client, this is a workable template. A reporting duty modelled on D.4 in the project control contract, a clear authority for changes to the framework modelled on E 3.3 and a reserve release modelled on C.8 cover the three points at which budgets typically tip over unnoticed. How the federal government sets its own budget is explained in the article on the project cost target.

Project control does not replace any basic service of the designer; it builds on it. In LPH 8, under Annex 10 HOAI, the architect owes "cost control by checking the invoicing of the contractors against the contract prices" and the "final cost statement, for example in accordance with DIN 276". What work phases 8 and 9 cover in detail is the subject of the article on work phases 8 and 9.

Commissioned twice means paid twice, but not twice as safe. If the architect and the project controller check the same invoice without any rule on who owes which depth of checking, each relies on the other. The contract with the project controller should therefore say whether the controller checks the plausibility of the designer's review or carries out a separate one, and on which documents.

An independent cost review is something else again. It provides a second determination on the same documents and records a difference, without taking over the designer's responsibility; the article on the independent third-party cost review describes when it is worthwhile.

A project control contract meant to protect the budget answers five questions in writing. If an answer is missing, nobody will fill it in for the client's benefit in a dispute.

Question	Minimum content
Which services?	individually listed services, with a reference to the fields of action and the edition of the industry standard where applicable
Which powers?	a power of attorney with subject matter and an amount limit, or expressly no power of attorney
Which reports?	frequency, content (contract sums, variations, forecast, reserve), duty to report deviations immediately
Which interfaces?	demarcation from the designer's basic services, depth of checking, documents
Which remuneration?	lump sum, time-based fee or a combination, adjustment if the construction period is extended

Remuneration is freely negotiable and should match the duration. Since the HOAI contains no rule on it, it is up to the client to make provision for extensions of the construction period. Otherwise project control itself becomes a variation in the budget, the very thing it was meant to prevent.