Professional and Career Topics

I tell engineering students that a key to a successful career is to "get 'er done"* -- deliver to the client a quality product on time, on budget, safely and ethically.

That may seem like an overly obvious statement, but mouse traps lurk within those words.  First consider: what is the product? What are your deliverables?  How do you determine what is required to be submitted?

It seems that along with the diversity of work that civils do, the actual product varies as well.  How much detail? Specifically, if you are the Engineer of Record, do you produce calculations, reports, drawings? 

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William McAnally Ph.D., P.E., BC.CE, BC.NE, F.ASCE
ENGINEER
Columbus MS
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I am an owner, not a consultant. Our contracts allow me to ask for everything the consulting engineer did while billing us: hand calculations, even modeling software input files. But only rarely do I ask for those. The engineer of record needs to justify his or her conclusions and I am fine with leaving it up to the engineer to do so. That is why we are paying them US$200+ an hour after all-not doing it ourselves in-house.

On the other hand, consider this. I often submit their report to one or more regulators. A year or more later the regulator will question the engineer's conclusions and ask questions. Hopefully their firm is still on contract or is willing to contract with us again to assist with answering those questions. So to reduce this possibility it's important the engineer provide their client a fair amount of detail, maybe more than might be thought necessary at first.

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Dudley McFadden P.E., BC.WRE, M.ASCE
Principal Civil Engineer
Roseville CA
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Dear Mr. McAnally:  As an EOR for over 3 decades, I mostly deliver drawings and reports under my seal.  The reports summarize approaches taken in analysis of data, alternatives considered, cost estimates, environmental implications, and my professional recommendations.  These reports may be oriented toward an non engineering audience.  While the reports may show the results of calculations, the calculations themselves are often not presented.

  In recent years, the use of a basis of design report has been beneficial for technically oriented clients and to document the EOR (and staff) thought process, with a basis of design being a documentation of technical alternatives including engineering concepts considered but may not work.

I would advise students that (at least in my niche of civil engineering) that they should be prepared to spend substantive time documenting the engineering they are providing.       

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Douglas MannP.E., BC.CE, M.ASCE
Lake WorthFL
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Dear Douglas

It is tempting to look what the owner/client is willing to pay for and not to do more... Most architects are only interested in the drawings (not reports) without realizing the analysis work behind it -- perhaps thinking that with today's computer tools the structures computes themselves during overnight by the push of a (BIM) button?

Insufficient (internal) documentation of analysis may easily fall on your own feed if (last-minute!) changes to the structure need to be done, or if (as Dudley stated) questions from authorities arise after years...

What to do then? Choose wisely which client you are working for! If architects select the structural engineer by the lowest reinforcement content promised -- hands off!

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Joerg-Martin Hohberg D.I.C., MSc, Ph.D., Aff.M.ASCE
Senior Consultant
Bremgarten B. Bern
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-05-2025 09:17 AM
From: Douglas Mann
Subject: What Are Your Engineering Deliverables?

Dear Mr. McAnally:  As an EOR for over 3 decades, I mostly deliver drawings and reports under my seal.  The reports summarize approaches taken in analysis of data, alternatives considered, cost estimates, environmental implications, and my professional recommendations.  These reports may be oriented toward an non engineering audience.  While the reports may show the results of calculations, the calculations themselves are often not presented.

  In recent years, the use of a basis of design report has been beneficial for technically oriented clients and to document the EOR (and staff) thought process, with a basis of design being a documentation of technical alternatives including engineering concepts considered but may not work.

I would advise students that (at least in my niche of civil engineering) that they should be prepared to spend substantive time documenting the engineering they are providing.       

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Douglas MannP.E., BC.CE, M.ASCE
Lake WorthFL
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In the site development civil engineering realm, our deliverables are often very clearly defined because of the typically very detailed permit submission requirements, and the architectural clients we work for also have certain deliverable standards that all of the consultants must follow (Civil, Structural, Landscape Architecture, MEP, Interiors, etc).

On a typical project, we have several types of signed deliverables. We produce a set of construction documents that includes general notes, demolition and erosion control plans, site plan, grading plan, stormwater management plans, utility plans and profiles, and details. We also typically have specifications that will be incorporated into the project manual. If we have stormwater detention/retention or floodplain, we'll have a separate report with that data and design. If we're disturbing over an acre of land, we have a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan. If we are designing public water or sanitary sewer lines, we typically have forms and reports for the governing department of environmental quality. 

Sometimes we also have additional plans for zoning review or fire department review in addition to the civil engineering site plan for the contractor.

In addition to the official deliverables, we often provide an export of our CAD file for contractor use at their request, but that comes with a legal disclaimer since it is not the signed deliverable. 

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Heidi C. Wallace, P.E., M.ASCE
Tulsa, OK
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As a corollary, I would offer "understand your role in helping the bottom line." I like how an outplacement counselor I worked with after retirement put it to me. Employers want one of four things from their employees. They want them to help 1) Grow their business. 2) Make them more money. 3) Reduce their costs or 4) Solve a key problem.

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Mitch Winkler P.E.(inactive), M.ASCE
Houston, TX
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