Suggested code of Professional conduct suggested by author for Architects, Interior Designers, and MEP Engineers



  1. Engaging professionally qualified designers (whether inhouse or outsourced) for performing design services   
  2. Designers first capture customer requirements and incorporate these into design and development work 
  3. Benchmarking of competitor’s projects and design processes for evolving best practices to be an integral part of the role of lead designers    
  4. Ensuring that all designs incorporate all applicable National and International quality standards vis a vis proposed bill of materials, workmanship, installation, and commissioning   processes of the projects 
  5. Reviewing each design & specification from health & safety perspectives (of end-users & public) and environmental effects before granting internal approvals
  6. Review and approval of designs by skilled, competent, experienced designers and licensed engineers (wherever mandated) and professionals 
  7. Designers transparently sharing of design calculations documentation with approving authorities. 
  8. Approving designs only when these conform to the statutory requirements, applicable National building codes and meet needs of local development authorities and only then and submitting applications to statutory sanctioning authorities  
  9. Applying good design practices for all types of design works, such as but not limited to structure, architecture, façade, wind engineering, hardscape and landscape, traffic control, external development design works, Golf course, rendering, electrical external and internal, lighting, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, signage, mechanical, plumbing, fire prevention & firefighting, audio, video, communication, computer, building automation and IT infrastructure.
  10. Designers recommending those bills of materials that enable sustainability and energy savings 
  11. Designers own up any design deficiency instead of suppressing these and working towards preventing such deficiency in future 
  12. Designers maintain the confidentiality of designs, facts, data, information, and sharing only when required by law through restricted access control systems
  13. Encouraging use of licensed design software (e.g., Auto cad, ETAB, STADD, Revit, Microsoft Project, etc.)
  14. Strictly prohibiting the acceptance of financial or other valuable considerations as unethical and making it punishable 
  15. Likewise prohibiting the offering of bribes by designers to statutory authorities /Government agencies for seeking mandatory approvals and making it punishable 
  16. Ensuring that all designers follow safe distribution, storage, and retrieval methods for design and drawings and associated documents (whether hard copies or soft copies  
  1. Making robust agreements, comprehensively covering scope, specifications, fees, payment stages, and stages wise deliverables to avoid misinterpretation of design acceptance criteria and payment releases   
  2. Ensuring that the Segregation of duty (S-O-D) concept is pursued to create, edit, and approve all types of designs. 
  3. Evolving comprehensive authorization profiles for designers and assigning access rights based on skill, competence, and business need basis    
  4. Assigning authorization rights to designers diligently vis a vis various design processes and activity, design inputs, design & drawings, reports, configuration tables, master data tables 
  5. Evolving and assigning financial authorization limits carefully amongst designers rather than empowering only a few designers  
  6.  Developing comprehensive SOP for design and development/new project development processes and ensuring that designers follow these  
  7. Ensuring designers participate actively in carrying out risk assessment processes in an objective manner 
  8. Encouraging self-audit by designers of the design & development work, besides initiating internal audit by an independent team 
  9. Peer review of designs before granting final approval, objectively and truthfully, particularly for aspects that may have a conflict of interests and could influence the quality of design 
  10. Performing audit trails by independent auditors and initiating countermeasures to prevent activities that may affect the business adversely. 
  11. Instituting system for thorough vetting of deliverables of outsourced consultants, designers, service providers vis a vis approved an agreement with them before recommending payment release against their due bills  
  12. Approving realistic budgets vis-a-vis design organization structure, design hardware, and software, and design rollout targets to avoid inaccurate reporting and compromise on design efficacy.
  13. Designers evolving key performance indicators -KPI which are realistic and aligned to organization objectives of new projects launch, market share, profitability, costs. 
  14. Deciding annual salary increases, recognition awards, and promotions based on the accomplishment of KPI rather than an unsupported individual performance review.