This is the title of a 2009 Australian book by Amanda Falconer which has lots of advice on how to manage renovations which would also be true for new homes as well. A bit from the introduction should give you an idea:
On my path to disaster, I sometimes thought I must be the dumbest person in Sydney; that was before I started chatting to my building consultant about his other clients! Two things became clear: I was not the only person who'd endured a renovation nightmare, and because we were novices, our inexperience, coupled at times with incompetent designers and sh..dy, even unscrupulous builders, could all add up to cause poor quality, as well as time and cost blow-outs.
Well worth a read.