Professional Practice

The construction manager as a professional, ethics and the CMAA Code of Professional Conduct, forms of CM (agency and at-risk), fiduciary duty and the standard of care, procurement and compensation of CM services, standard agreements and legal obligations.

5 minutes 5 Questions

Professional Practice is one of the core domains of the Certified Construction Manager (CCM) body of knowledge, defined by the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) and tested on the CCM examination. It addresses how a construction manager (CM) establishes, organizes, and conducts t…

Concepts covered
Employment and Labor Law on ProjectsStandard Forms of CM AgreementThe CM as Professional and LeaderCM Fee Structures and General ConditionsCM Professional and Third-Party LiabilityEthics and the Code of Professional ConductFiduciary Duty and Conflicts of InterestQualifications-Based Selection of the CMAgency CM Versus CM At-RiskExtended and Dual Services CM ResponsibilitiesEnvironmental Regulations Affecting ProjectsThe CM Standard of Care
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CMAA CCM - Professional Practice Example Questions

Test your knowledge of Professional Practice

Question 1

A school district plans to buy a former industrial parcel as the site for a new public school. The agency construction manager learns that closing is set for three weeks out and that no environmental investigation of the parcel has been done. The district asks how it can best preserve a defense against future federal cleanup liability under CERCLA if contamination is found after it takes title. What should the construction manager recommend?

Correct Answer: Commission a Phase I site assessment by a qualified firm before closing

A Phase I environmental site assessment completed before closing satisfies CERCLA's "all appropriate inquiries" requirement under ASTM E1527. That inquiry is a prerequisite for the bona fide prospective purchaser and innocent landowner defenses against federal cleanup liability.
Seller indemnification is only a private contract remedy. It does not create a statutory defense and is only as good as the seller's solvency.
Deferring the investigation until after closing fails because the inquiry must be made before acquisition.
Soil testing by the contractor during excavation comes too late and is not a qualified environmental professional's assessment.
Key concept: CERCLA all appropriate inquiries through a pre-acquisition Phase I ESA.

Question 2

An owner is delivering a wastewater pump station using CM at-risk. Before the GMP is set, the CM at-risk proposes to self-perform the concrete wet well and carry that price in the GMP. The owner has used agency CM with multiple primes on past work. It is concerned that this price will lack the open market check that separate prime bidding provided. Which safeguard best addresses the owner's concern?

Correct Answer: Require the CM to bid the wet well against trade bids opened with the owner present

Requiring the CM at-risk to compete its self-perform wet well price against trade bids, with the bids opened in the owner's presence, restores the open market check the owner valued under multiple primes. It also keeps the work inside the GMP and preserves the CM's single point of responsibility.
An engineer's estimate is only an opinion of cost, not a market test. Splitting out a separate prime contract abandons the CM at-risk structure and breaks GMP responsibility. A certification from the CM's own estimator is self-serving and gives no independent verification.
Key concept: competitive, transparent bidding of CM at-risk self-performed work to protect GMP pricing integrity.

Question 3

An agency construction manager on a fire station prepared the scope descriptions for a multi-prime bid. After award, the CM finds that its own staff left the apparatus bay exhaust system out of every prime contract. A prime contractor will seek a change order to add the work. The CM agreement makes the CM liable for its own negligent errors. Which response best meets the CM's duty to the owner?

Correct Answer: Disclose the CM's own error to the owner and advise on the fix

As the owner's agent, the CM owes a fiduciary duty of loyalty and candor, so it must promptly disclose its own scope-packaging error and advise the owner on the best way to add the exhaust work, even though the CM may bear the cost.
Calling the gap a design omission shifts blame to the architect when the CM's own staff wrote the scope descriptions. Folding the work into a pending change hides the error to protect the CM at the owner's expense. Notifying the insurer first and delaying the owner notice puts the CM's interests ahead of the owner's.
Key concept: the agency CM's fiduciary duty of full disclosure and loyalty to the owner.

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