Some walls\buildings need to be treated with great care. if the block work is quite old and pointing is failing, these areas will need to be raked out before any rendering can be done any timber,lintels,steel beams ect must cover with expanded lathing before hand and left about a week . stay away from rendering in weather under -5c, as the materials will expand as water start freezes in the render, causing it to crack. also depending on how high your building\buildings are this will need a plasterer on each level of scaffolding level ie "lifts" the reason is as the day wears on the sun will move and the overall tem in the air will change -\+ one plasterer could be fine at say 8am but by 2pm afternoon he is now fighting to rub up the bottom wall as its still wet\almost dry.
water logged sand is also a big factor in mixing sand should be checked daily if rendering in humid weather before use as if too wet will cause the render to slide at bottom of lift making a real mess
Don’t be afraid if buying in materials, to turn away bad quality materials from builders machinates. “Any good tradesperson will check the materials before he starts always”
Slurry (spatter dash) to start. Then only well graded plastering sand and clean dry cement with a water proofer must ever be used and " never ever" render over lime render or wattle and dorb with cement based plasterers as the lime render needs to breath and move with the building