Commercial management and project controls
NOVSTA PM delivers project management, commercial management and value management on major building and infrastructure projects in Australia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. We work embedded in the delivery process rather than reporting on it from a distance, and we build the minimum control apparatus that produces a defensible commercial position — the lean commercial and control process the practice is named for.
What we do differently
Three decisions about staffing and method separate NOVSTA PM from conventional commercial consultancy.
3 Differentiators
A
Commercial Control Inside Delivery
On many projects the site team and the commercial team operate at arm's length, and variations and budget leakage originate in the space between them. We work inside the delivery process, so a technical decision and its commercial consequence are handled together, at the time the decision is made.
B
Chartered Engineering Practitioners
Our senior staff hold individual MRICS, MCIOB, CPEng, PMP and CCP credentials and have run commercial and controls functions on multi-billion-dollar infrastructure programmes. Because our commercial leadership also holds chartered engineering registration, delay, valuation and variation questions are assessed with an understanding of how the work is actually built.
C
Lean By Design
Every control costs time and attention. We build the minimum apparatus that produces a defensible position — baseline, change process, record regime, reporting cadence — and we remove process that has stopped informing a decision.
How we help
How commercial positions weaken
Commercial problems on site usually begin as technical events. An issue emerges in the field and is resolved technically, because the programme cannot wait. It surfaces commercially weeks later — as an instruction that was not priced, a delay that was not recorded at the time, or a claim whose entitlement is arguable because the record was assembled afterwards rather than as events occurred. By that point the position is materially weaker than it was on the day the issue arose, and recovering it costs more.
Where we sit
NOVSTA PM works at the point where technical decisions are made, so the commercial consequence is captured while it is inexpensive to manage and fully evidenced. Notice regimes, contemporaneous records and forecast updates are built into the delivery routine rather than assembled in response to a dispute. Where our sister practice NOVSTA ES is engaged on the same project, questions of buildability, sequence and design change are assessed by qualified engineers on the same team, so the technical and commercial positions are prepared together.
Who do we help?
We work on both sides of the delivery relationship. The scope differs; the discipline does not.
Contractors & EPCs
Owners, Developers & PMOs
For contractors and EPCs carrying delivery risk. NOVSTA prevents cost and programme risk before it reaches site — by staffing engineers rather than drafting technicians, and by embedding commercial control within technical coordination.
A contractor's recovery on a disputed change depends largely on the record: what happened, when it became knowable, and what it cost. A record reconstructed after the event is weaker, more expensive to assemble and easier to challenge than one made at the time. We are engaged during delivery, while that record is being created, rather than afterwards to work with whatever exists.
Many disputes on major projects turn on a technical question — whether a sequence was achievable, whether a design was constructible as issued, whether a delay was concurrent or causative.
Our commercial leadership holds chartered engineering registration alongside RICS and CIOB membership, and through NOVSTA ES we can put qualified structural and MEP engineers onto the underlying design question, so the commercial and engineering positions are built together.
For owners, developers, PMOs and government-linked entities. NOVSTA integrates engineering assurance and commercial governance into a single delivery function, giving you a defensible cost and design baseline from concept through operation.
Owner-side cost reporting often describes a position determined elsewhere: costs are reported after they are incurred, variations are assessed after they are instructed, and the forecast is reconciled to reality rather than governing expenditure. The question a board, an investment committee or a ministry eventually asks is whether the reported number can be defended — whether the baseline was properly established, whether change was controlled against it, and whether the answer would survive independent examination.
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Where NOVSTA PM acts on the owner's side, we carry no construction scope and no design liability on the works being assessed.
CONTRACTOR SERVICES
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Entitlement protection from day one — notice regimes, contemporaneous records and substantiation built into the delivery routine
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Variation and change management, valued and submitted while the facts are fresh
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Cost control and a forecast to completion that reflects the job as it is being built
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Integrated schedule and cost control, with earned value applied where it is decision-useful
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Subcontract and supply chain commercial management
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Delay and disruption analysis prepared with engineering input
OWNER SERVICES
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Scope, time and cost baselines established and independently validated at the outset
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Independent assessment of contractor valuations, variation submissions and claims
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A governed change process, with variations assessed against the baseline rather than absorbed into a moving one
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Value management at gateway, with engineering substance behind each option
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Risk quantified and carried into cost and schedule contingency
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Board-grade performance reporting built around decisions and exceptions
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Early identification and structured resolution of contested positions
How we work
The strapline — lean commercial and control process — describes a method: the minimum apparatus that produces a defensible position, embedded where decisions are actually made.
Position Assessment
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Where the project actually stands commercially — baseline integrity, open change, evidential strength and forecast credibility.
Control Architecture
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Establish only the apparatus the project needs: cost breakdown, change process, record regime and reporting cadence.
Embedded Operation
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Run the function inside delivery, capturing the commercial consequence of decisions as they are made.
Exception Management
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Deviation surfaced early, with cause attributed and a decision proposed, rather than described after the period closes.
Settlement & Handover
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Final account, dispute avoidance, and transition of the record into operation or the next stage.
Our commercial and controls experience spans major infrastructure through to complex building programmes, in Australia, the Gulf, Europe and North Africa.
Infrastructure & Transport
Rail, bridges and heavy civil — long-duration, high-value programmes where delay analysis and change control determine the commercial outcome.
Industrial, Energy & Resources
Power generation, industrial decarbonisation, mining and process facilities, where interface risk between disciplines and contractors is the dominant commercial exposure.
Government & Public Sector
Government-linked and publicly funded programmes requiring auditable cost positions, transparent change control, and reporting that withstands external examination.
Healthcare & Education
Hospitals, schools, universities and academies — institutional clients with committee governance and stringent approval requirements.
Hospitality & Mixed-use Development
Hotels, resorts, compounds and mixed-use developments for private developers, where speed to completion and cost certainty are jointly critical.