What to Choose Before a Home Renovation Starts

Every selection in a renovation has a deadline, and you do not get to choose it. It is set by the trade that comes next. The tile deadline belongs to the tiler, the switch-position deadline belongs to the electrician, and the countertop deadline belongs to whoever installs the cabinets underneath it.

Most renovation delays are not caused by slow work. They are caused by a decision arriving after the trade that needed it. This guide sets out what to choose before a home renovation starts, what can genuinely wait, and what it costs when something is decided late — organised the way the site actually works rather than room by room.

If you are still at the stage of defining scope, budget and permits, start with how to plan a home renovation in Toronto. This guide picks up after that, at the point where the decisions become material.

The four deadlines that govern every selection

Almost every choice in a renovation is locked by one of four moments: before rough-in, before drywall, before tile, and before cabinetry is ordered. If you know which of the four applies to a given item, you know when you have to decide it.

Those four moments are useful because they are physical, not administrative. They are the points after which something is buried, covered, or built to a dimension that can no longer change without undoing work.

• Before rough-in — anything that determines where a pipe, wire or duct physically goes. Once it is in the wall and inspected, moving it means opening the wall again.
• Before drywall — anything that needs solid backing behind the board, and any last check of device positions while they are still visible.
• Before tile — the tile itself, its layout, and anything that has to be set into or behind it.
• Before cabinetry is ordered — every attribute of the cabinets themselves, because the order is a manufacturing instruction, not a shopping list.

A fifth category sits outside the sequence: items whose lead time is longer than the gap between now and the milestone that needs them. Those have to be ordered early even though they are installed late. Lead time is covered further down.

Before rough-in: the expensive deadline

This is the milestone where late decisions cost the most, because everything decided here ends up inside a wall, floor or ceiling. Rough-in is when plumbing, electrical and ventilation are run through open framing. After it is inspected and closed, changes mean cutting, re-inspecting and re-finishing.

Layout, which is a selection even though it does not feel like one

Layout is the parent decision. It determines where services run, and therefore what every later selection is allowed to be. Moving a sink, a toilet, a range or a wall changes drainage, venting and circuits, and in older houses it can run into a joist or a bearing element that was not visible when the layout was drawn.

Layout should be settled and drawn before any material is chosen. Selections made against a layout that later moves are selections made twice.

Appliances, by model number rather than by category

“A 30-inch range” is not a selection. The specific model is. Appliances have to be chosen before rough-in because each one carries a set of requirements that the framing, plumbing and electrical must be built around.

• Exact opening dimensions, including depth and any required clearances to adjacent surfaces
• Door and drawer swing, and what it collides with when open — an island, a return cabinet, a doorway
• Fuel type and the service it needs: a dedicated circuit, a particular receptacle configuration, a gas connection
• Water and drain requirements for refrigerators with ice or water, and for dishwashers
• Ventilation requirements for the cooking appliance, including duct size and route
• Whether the unit is panel-ready, which makes it a cabinetry decision as well as an appliance one

Manufacturers publish specification sheets for exactly this purpose, and the right time to hand them to the trades is before anything is roughed in. Panel-ready appliances deserve particular attention: the panel is made by the cabinet shop to the appliance manufacturer’s dimensions, so the appliance has to be confirmed before the cabinet order, not after.

Plumbing fixtures, because the valve is chosen with the faucet

Plumbing fixtures surprise people. The visible part — the spout, the handle, the showerhead — is installed near the end of the job. The part that makes it work is installed at rough-in and buried.

Valve bodies, rough-in kits and mounting hardware are specific to the trim they are designed for. A shower with a separate handheld, a body spray, or a thermostatic control is a different rough-in from a single-control shower. Changing the fixture after rough-in frequently means changing what is in the wall.

Decide, before rough-in, the sinks and their mounting method, the faucets and their hole configuration, the tub or shower base, the shower control type and how many outlets it feeds, and the toilet — because rough-in distance from the wall varies between models.

The lighting plan, not just the light fixtures

Lighting is the selection most often left too late, and one of the least forgiving. A lighting plan is not a list of fixtures. It is a decision about what each part of each room is for, and what light it needs to do that.

Before rough-in, settle the layers: ambient light for the room as a whole, task light where something is actually done — a counter, a desk, a mirror, a reading position — and accent light for anything you want seen. Each layer usually needs its own switching, and switching is wiring.

Then settle the positions. Ceiling fixture and recessed locations, pendant positions over an island or table, wall lights beside a mirror, and the switch locations themselves — at which door, at what height, and which group of lights each one controls. A three-way switch at both ends of a hall or stair is a wiring decision, not a hardware one.

Fixture selection matters at this stage for a practical reason: some fixtures dictate what has to be in the ceiling. Recessed housings differ, and shallow ceilings, insulated ceilings and fire-separated assemblies all narrow what can be used. A heavy pendant or fan needs a rated box and support. These are rough-in items, not finishing items.

Dimming, which depends on the fixture you chose

Dimming has to be decided with the fixtures, not after them. A light being LED does not make it dimmable. Integrated LED fixtures contain a driver built for a particular dimming method, and a dimmer has to be matched both to that method and to the load on the circuit. Mismatches show up as flicker, buzz, a limited dimming range, or lights that will not go low without dropping out entirely.

Fixture and dimmer manufacturers publish compatibility information for this reason, and it is worth checking before the order rather than after the first evening with the lights on. Where a room is intended to be controlled in scenes, or from a phone, the control system also needs deciding early, because some systems require a neutral at the switch or a particular wiring arrangement.

Power where furniture and cabinetry will be

This is the category people forget, because it only becomes obvious once the room is furnished and it is too late.

• Power inside cabinets and drawers — for a charging drawer, a coffee station, an appliance garage, a concealed microwave
• Supply for under-cabinet lighting, and where its driver or transformer will physically live
• Dedicated circuits for equipment that needs one
• Floor heating zones, their thermostat positions and their sensor routes
• Outlets behind a media wall, in an island, beside a bed, or at a desk position
• Data and low-voltage runs — network, speakers, a doorbell, cameras, blind motors

Several of these sit at the junction of cabinetry and electrical, which is exactly why they get missed: each trade assumes the other has it. The way to catch them is to walk the space with both the cabinet drawings and the furniture layout in hand, before rough-in.

For how electrical work is licensed, permitted and inspected in Ontario, and how to verify who you are hiring, see how to choose an electrician for your renovation in Ontario. This guide stays on what you choose and when.

Before drywall: the last easy chance

Once drywall is up, anything that needed solid backing behind it needs the wall opened again. Rough-in inspections are generally signed off before the walls are closed, and the period between inspection and board going on is the last point at which the inside of the wall is cheap to reach.

Blocking is the main item. Anything mounted to a wall with real weight or leverage on it wants wood behind the board rather than an anchor through it:

• Wall-mounted televisions and their brackets
• Floating vanities, floating shelves, benches and wall-hung storage
• Grab bars, and blocking for grab bars you may want later even if you do not fit them now
• Heavy mirrors, headboards, and anything wall-hung in a mudroom
• Barn-door track, curtain-wall hardware, and heavy upper cabinetry

Blocking is inexpensive while the framing is open and disproportionately expensive afterwards, which makes it worth adding in places you are only fairly sure about.

This is also the moment for a device walkthrough. Walk each room with the furniture layout and look at every outlet, switch and vent position while they are still visible. Outlets that will end up behind a sofa back, switches that will sit behind a swinging door, a vent that lands under where the bed goes — all of it is easy to shift now and awkward later.

Before tile: layout is a decision, not an outcome

Tile has to be selected and its layout agreed before tiling begins, because the tile dictates the substrate, the setting materials and the starting point of every course.

The selection itself is only half of it. The other half is the decisions that come with it:

• The layout and starting point — where full tiles land and where cuts fall, which is what separates a considered wall from an accidental one
• The pattern and orientation, including whether a pattern needs extra material
• Grout colour and joint width, which change the appearance of the same tile more than most people expect
• Edge and transition details, and how the tile meets adjacent surfaces
• Niche and shelf positions, sizes and finishes, which are framed and waterproofed before tiling
• Anything mounted through the tile — a shower control, a hook, a bar — because the position wants to be known before the hole is cut

In a bathroom, this milestone and the waterproofing sequence are closely tied. That sequence is covered in what a bathroom renovation contractor does.

Backsplash is the common exception to the rule that tile comes early. Where a backsplash sits on the countertop, it is usually installed after the countertop, which means it can be selected slightly later — but it still has to be selected before the tiler returns, and it is easier to choose alongside the countertop than in isolation.

Before the cabinet order: everything, at once

A cabinet order is a manufacturing instruction. Once it is released, every attribute in it is fixed, and changing one usually means changing the schedule. This is why cabinetry tends to be the single densest decision point in a renovation.

What has to be settled in one go:

• Construction and material — box material, and whether the job is stock, semi-custom or fully custom, which also determines how much of the rest is adjustable
• Door style and profile — slab, shaker, or a specific profile, and whether it is inset, full-overlay or partial-overlay, which changes reveals and therefore dimensions
• Finish — paint colour, stain, or a factory finish, plus sheen; and for wood, an acceptance that grain varies
• Interior fittings — drawer boxes, roll-outs, pull-out waste, cutlery and utensil dividers, tray dividers, corner mechanisms, spice storage, pantry fittings
• Hardware — hinges and drawer slides, soft-close or push-to-open, and any specialty mechanism, because these are bored and fitted in the shop
• Handles and knobs — the decorative hardware, which determines boring positions and hole spacing
• Appliance panels and integration — confirmed against the actual appliance specifications
• Integrated lighting provisions — under-cabinet, in-cabinet or toe-kick lighting, and the channels or recesses it needs
• Fillers, panels, trim and toe-kick detail — how the run meets walls, ceilings and appliances

Two of those deserve a note because they are routinely left until later and cannot be.

Handles and knobs are treated as a finishing touch, but the holes for them are drilled in the shop. Choosing handles after the doors are made means either drilling on site — which is done, but is not the same thing — or living with positions set for a handle you did not choose. Hole spacing on pulls varies, so a late substitution is not always a like-for-like swap.

Interior fittings are not accessories. A pull-out waste unit, a corner mechanism or a drawer-in-drawer changes the internal dimensions of the cabinet that houses it. Adding one later often means a new cabinet rather than a new insert.

For what actually differs between cabinet materials, how boxes are constructed, and how to specify hinges and drawer systems at different budgets, see the complete guide to custom cabinets and built-in storage. This guide deliberately does not repeat that material — its subject is the order in which the decisions have to land.

Countertops: the one selection that cannot be early

The countertop material is chosen early. The countertop itself cannot be made until the cabinets are installed and level. This is the one place in a renovation where a gap in the schedule is unavoidable rather than a symptom of poor planning.

Templating is a measurement of what has actually been built, taken on site once the base cabinets are in. Fabrication follows the template. The sequence cannot be compressed by deciding earlier, because the template depends on physical reality rather than on drawings.

What you can do is make sure the template day is not the day decisions get made. Before templating, settle the material and the specific slab where slabs are individually selected; the edge profile; the sink and its mounting method, since an undermount sink is usually cut and fitted by the fabricator and often has to be on site; the faucet and any additional tap holes; cooktop cutouts against the appliance specification; overhang dimensions and whether the overhang needs support; and seam positions, which are worth discussing rather than discovering.

Because the backsplash usually follows the countertop, and paint usually follows both, a delay at templating propagates through several trades. Planning around that gap — rather than being surprised by it — is most of what separates a smooth finishing stage from a stalled one.

Flooring: the selection with two separate deadlines

Flooring has a material deadline and an approval deadline, and in a condo the approval one comes first.

The material decision has to be made early because it determines build-up height, and build-up height determines how the floor meets everything else: door undercuts, thresholds between rooms, the height of the appliance opening, whether a dishwasher still fits under the counter, and how the floor meets stairs. It also affects whether flooring runs under the cabinetry or stops at it, which is a decision to make deliberately rather than by default.

The subfloor decides what is possible

What is under the finish matters as much as the finish. Subfloor condition, flatness and moisture can rule options in or out, and it is better to know before the material is ordered.

Flatness tolerance is not the same for every product — large-format tile is less forgiving of a wavy floor than a narrow plank, and rigid materials telegraph movement that flexible ones absorb. On a concrete slab, moisture matters and is worth establishing before committing to a material. Over a basement slab, or anywhere below grade, the moisture question is central rather than incidental; basement renovations in Toronto covers those conditions in more detail.

In older GTA housing stock, opening a floor reveals what is there — plank subfloors, previous layers, uneven joist bays, or a patch where something was once moved. This is an argument for a contingency and for choosing a material with some tolerance, rather than for assuming the worst.

Condo flooring approvals

In a condominium, replacing hard-surface flooring usually requires written approval from the corporation before the work starts, and the approval typically depends on the acoustic performance of the assembly rather than on the flooring alone.

Two ratings normally appear. Impact Insulation Class describes how well a floor assembly blocks impact sound — footsteps and dropped objects. Sound Transmission Class describes how well it blocks airborne sound. Minimums vary between buildings: many Toronto corporations set a floor in the range commonly seen across the city, while newer or more sound-sensitive buildings set theirs higher. There is no single number that applies everywhere, which is precisely why it has to be confirmed rather than assumed.

Two details are worth knowing. First, these ratings are properties of an assembly, not of an underlay on its own — the rating comes from the underlay together with the specific finished floor over a specific structure. Second, buildings generally want documentation, which means the product data and test reports should be obtained at selection time rather than requested afterwards.

The practical step is to ask the property manager in writing for the building’s requirement, early, and to treat the answer as a constraint on the flooring selection rather than as paperwork that follows it. Approvals, elevator bookings and delivery windows all sit ahead of the work in a condo; condo renovation covers how those pieces fit together.

Paint, trim, interior doors and hardware

Paint is genuinely late. Trim and doors are not. The two get grouped together as “finishes” and they behave very differently.

Trim profiles, baseboard height and casing style should be settled before trim is ordered and installed, and they interact with other decisions: baseboard height relates to floor build-up, and casing style relates to door style. Interior doors need deciding earlier than most people expect, because a change in door style, swing direction or size can affect framing, and because doors are frequently a longer-lead item than the trim around them.

Door hardware needs choosing with the doors. Handle set, finish, and the function of each opening — passage, privacy, locking — determine the boring pattern. A door prepared for one function is not trivially converted to another.

Paint colour, by contrast, can wait, and benefits from waiting. Colour behaves differently once the actual flooring, cabinetry, countertop and tile are in the room and the actual lighting is switched on. Choosing paint last is not procrastination — it is the one selection that gets more accurate the longer it is left, provided it is still made before the painters arrive.

Wall finishes that are not paint — panelling, millwork detail, wallcovering, a feature wall — are a different matter, and belong with trim rather than with paint, because they often need substrate preparation or blocking.

What can genuinely wait

A short list, because the honest answer is: less than people hope.

• Paint colour, as above
• Decorative light fixtures on a standard box, where the box, support and switching are already correct
• Mirrors that hang rather than mount into the wall, provided any blocking and the lighting either side are already set
• Towel bars, hooks and accessories, with the same caveat about blocking and about anything fixed through tile
• Window treatments, unless they are motorised or recessed into a pocket, which makes them an early electrical and framing decision
• Furniture and styling

The pattern is consistent: an item can wait when nothing structural, electrical or dimensional depends on it. As soon as something has to be built, bored, wired or reinforced for it, it moves forward in the sequence regardless of how decorative it looks.

Lead times, and ordering against the sequence

The only lead time that matters is the one your supplier gives you in writing for the specific item you are ordering. Published ranges for the same category vary widely between sources, and quoting one of them back to a schedule is how dates get missed.

What holds regardless of the numbers is the relative hierarchy. Stock items are quickest, semi-custom sits in the middle, and fully custom takes longest — and within any of those, a special finish, a non-standard size or an imported item extends the wait. Anything made to order after a measurement taken on site, countertops being the clearest example, cannot start until that measurement exists.

Three habits are worth more than any published range:

• Ask for the lead time in writing, per item, at the point of quoting — and ask whether it runs from order or from final approval of drawings, because those are often different dates
• Order against the sequence, not against the trade — the question is not “when does the cabinet installer come” but “what is the last date this can arrive without stopping the job”
• Confirm before you rely on it — check availability at the point of ordering rather than at the point of selection, since a discontinued line or a colour that has been changed is easier to absorb early

It is also worth asking where an item will be stored between delivery and installation. Long-lead items that arrive early still have to live somewhere dry, flat and out of the way of the work.

Allowances: the number in a quote that is not a price

An allowance is a placeholder for something you have not chosen yet. It is a budget line, not a price, and the difference matters when the selection is finally made.

Allowances exist because quoting cannot wait for every decision. If the tile is not chosen, a figure is carried so the rest of the quote can be assembled. When the real selection arrives, the difference is reconciled: a selection above the allowance creates an overage, normally handled as a change order; a selection below it should produce a credit.

The risk is straightforward. An allowance set low makes a quote look competitive and pushes the real cost into change orders later. Two quotes can differ substantially not because the work differs but because the allowances were set differently — which makes comparing quotes on the bottom line alone unreliable. How to compare renovation quotes covers that comparison in more detail.

What to establish before signing:

• What each allowance covers — whether it is material only, or material plus labour, and whether it includes delivery, waste and the trim pieces that go with it
• What it is based on — the quantity assumed, and the grade or type of product it reflects
• Whether it is realistic — the most useful test is to look at real products in that range before signing, rather than after
• How overages and credits are handled — in writing, including whether an underage is credited in full
• When each selection is due — selection deadlines belong in the contract alongside the allowances themselves

Substitutions follow the same logic. If something is unavailable and a substitute is proposed, the reasonable expectations are that it is presented before it is installed, that the cost difference is stated, and that a like-for-like substitution does not quietly become a downgrade.

Owner-supplied or contractor-supplied

Supplying your own materials can make sense, but it moves responsibility as well as cost.

Where the homeowner supplies an item, the homeowner generally owns the consequences if it arrives late, arrives damaged, arrives short, or turns out to be the wrong specification. If a tiler is on site and the tile is short by two boxes, the delay and the return visit sit with whoever supplied it. Warranty claims and replacement handling usually follow the same line.

It works best for items that are discrete, easy to verify and not on the critical path — decorative fixtures, hardware, accessories. It works least well for anything measured, fabricated or installed immediately on arrival.

Whichever way it goes, the useful step is to write down for each significant item who buys it, who receives and inspects it, where it is stored, and who is responsible if it is wrong. Doing that at the start removes most of the argument later.

Coordinating selections with the trades

A selection is not finished when you have chosen it. It is finished when the person who has to build around it has the information.

Most coordination failures are documentation failures: the decision was made, but the specification sheet never reached the trade, or it reached them after they had already built to an assumption. A few habits prevent nearly all of it.

• Keep one selections list, in one place, with model numbers and finishes rather than descriptions
• Record the date each item was confirmed, and treat confirmed items as closed
• Pass specification sheets to the trades who need them, rather than assuming the supplier has
• Hold a pre-rough-in walkthrough on site with the drawings, the appliance specifications and the furniture layout
• Confirm changes in writing, including who is absorbing any cost and schedule effect

Where work is regulated — electrical, plumbing, gas — the selection still belongs to the homeowner, but the installation belongs to the appropriate licensed trade, and their requirements can constrain what is possible. Finding that out at selection time is considerably easier than finding it out at installation.

Seasonal timing in Ontario

Two seasonal factors are worth planning around rather than reacting to.

Acclimatisation. Wood and some other flooring products are affected by the moisture content of the space they are installed in, and Ontario swings between dry heated winters and humid summers. Manufacturers set their own acclimatisation and site-condition requirements, and those requirements are part of the schedule rather than an optional step — which means the material often has to be delivered and sitting in the space before installation day.

Winter delivery and storage. Deliveries in a GTA winter need somewhere dry and heated to wait, and that space has to be planned in a house that is already a building site. Where scope extends outdoors, the workable season is shorter and the sequence is tighter, which pulls those selections forward in the calendar rather than back.

Local considerations across Toronto and the GTA

The sequence does not change from one municipality to another, but what it collides with does.

In Toronto, older housing stock is the dominant factor in selections. Floors are rarely flat, walls are rarely square, and what is behind a finish is not always what the drawings assume — all of which argues for confirming conditions before ordering rather than after. Access is the second factor: narrow lots, shared drives, laneway access and street parking restrictions affect how large items are delivered, and a slab or a run of cabinetry that cannot reach the room is a selection problem as much as a logistics one.

In North York, a lot of the stock is post-war bungalows and side-splits, where changes in level between rooms and between additions are common. Flooring build-up and transitions deserve attention early, because a floor that works in one room can create a threshold problem three steps away.

In Etobicoke, the mix of detached housing and a substantial condominium stock means the flooring approval question is often live. Where a project is in a condominium, the building’s requirements, elevator booking and delivery windows all sit ahead of the selections calendar rather than alongside it.

In Vaughan and Markham, newer housing means fewer structural surprises and squarer, flatter starting conditions. The consequence is that selections, rather than existing conditions, become the main driver of both cost and schedule — and larger open-plan spaces make the lighting plan and the cabinetry run the decisions that carry the most weight.

Across all of them the principle is the same: confirm the conditions that constrain a selection before the selection is ordered. You can see the areas covered under service areas, including Toronto, North York, Etobicoke, Vaughan and Markham.

A practical selection sequence

Put in order, the decisions fall into six stages.

1. Before anything is ordered — layout confirmed and drawn; scope fixed; allowances understood and selection deadlines agreed in writing; in a condo, the building’s requirements requested.
2. Before rough-in — appliances by model; plumbing fixtures including valve and control types; the full lighting plan with switch positions and dimming; in-cabinet and specialty power; heated floor zones; data and low-voltage; flooring material, because build-up affects heights.
3. Before drywall — all blocking identified and installed; a device walkthrough completed against the furniture layout.
4. Before the cabinet order — construction, door style, finish, interior fittings, hinges and slides, handles and knobs, appliance panels, integrated lighting, fillers and trim details.
5. Before tile — tile, layout and starting point, grout, niches, edge and transition details, anything fixed through the tile.
6. Before templating and finishing — countertop material, edge, sink and mounting, tap holes and cutouts; then backsplash; then trim, interior doors and door hardware; then paint.

Long-lead items sit across this list rather than inside it. Anything with a lead time longer than the gap to the milestone that needs it gets ordered as soon as it is decided, regardless of where it is installed.

For how the stages of a project fit together on site, see our process. For room-specific decisions, kitchen renovation and bathroom renovation cover what each one adds.

Where selections usually go wrong

• Choosing a category instead of a product. “A 36-inch range” is not enough for anyone to build to.
• Treating lighting as a fixture decision. The plan, the switching and the dimming are wiring, and wiring closes early.
• Leaving handles until the end. The holes are drilled in the shop.
• Selecting flooring without checking the subfloor — or, in a condo, without checking the building’s requirement first.
• Assuming the countertop can be ordered early. It cannot; plan the gap instead.
• Comparing quotes with different allowances. The bottom line is not comparable if the placeholders are not.
• Forgetting blocking. Cheap while the wall is open, disproportionately expensive afterwards.
• Changing one attribute of a cabinet order after release and expecting the schedule to hold.
• Choosing paint first. It is the one thing that genuinely benefits from being chosen last.
• Making the decision but not passing it on. A selection nobody has told the trade about has not been made.
• Supplying your own materials on the critical path without agreeing who carries a late or damaged delivery.
• Deciding in isolation. Samples behave differently together, at full size, under the actual lighting.

How ZaRRuS handles selections

Selections are managed against the construction sequence rather than collected as a wish list. Each item is tied to the milestone that forces it, so the deadline is known in advance rather than discovered when a trade is already on site.

Practically, that means confirming layout before material selection begins, obtaining appliance and fixture specifications before rough-in, walking the space before the walls close, and releasing the cabinet order only once every attribute in it is settled. Where an item has a long lead time, it is ordered against the date it is needed rather than the date its trade arrives.

Where specialised licensed work is required — electrical, plumbing and gas — it is completed by qualified independent licensed and insured trades, engaged and coordinated as part of the project. Their requirements are brought into the selection process early, because they frequently determine what a given selection allows. You can see the standard of finish across completed work under selected work and experience, and how a full scope comes together under home renovation.

Frequently asked questions

In short

Selections are not a shopping exercise with a deadline at the end. They are a sequence, and each item’s deadline is set by the trade that has to build around it: before rough-in for anything that determines where services run, before drywall for anything needing backing, before tile for anything set into it, and before the cabinet order for every attribute of the cabinetry itself.

Get the layout settled first, choose appliances and fixtures by model rather than by category, treat lighting as a wiring decision rather than a shopping one, understand what your allowances actually cover, and order long-lead items against the date they are needed rather than the date their trade arrives. Paint can wait. Almost nothing else that feels decorative actually can.

Planning a renovation in Toronto or the GTA? Request a consultation and we will walk through the scope and the selection sequence with you. Our renovation FAQ covers how projects are planned and run.