Project Management for the Built Environment - Study Notes

Question: Describe about the Project Management for Construction the Built Environment. Answer: Project management practices in the construction and built environment sector Project Manager role and responsibility A project manager may not direct affect any activities of a project but he or she works to maintain the progress by ensuring coordination among team members and assuring completion of activities as required. To do this, the responsibilities that the Project manager in a construction project assumes include: Develop a preliminary business case and project initiation document Advise the management on selection and appointment of construction consultants Identify and organization roles and responsibilities of all team members Develop an execution plan and identify required contract obligations to include Create and execute risk management plan Establish and manage change control procedures(Hills, Fox, Skitmore, K.H., Fong, 2008) Benefit of employing a project manager When a project manager is employed on a construction and build environment project, there can be several benefits for the project including: As the project manager would be continuously keeping the focus on client requirements and would keep communicating progress with clients, the customer satisfaction would improve. As project manager would be using cost control measures while maintaining progress of the project, there would be less expenses and profitability would improve with the use of more cost efficient processes. Project manager would strive to eliminate any redundant and non-value adding practices thereby reducing wastage in time and thus, project would be fast in achievement of its objectives. Through effective governance and human resource activities practiced by project manager, coordination would be improved as well as staff would remain more motivated which would improve their productivity (Delnavaz, 2012) Project management Function Key project management functions in a construction and built environment project include time management, cost management, integration management, scope management, risk management, quality management, communications management, human resource management, and procurement management. All these functions are planned in advance by the project manager and he has to ensure that they are taken care of as per planed as well as controlled as required on the project . The project manager has to ensure that there are least variations from planned appraoch and in case there exist any, the conflicts or causes are resolved as fast as possible so that the deliverables of the project are not affected in any major way. Both integration between these different project management functions as well as control of each of them is the responsibility of thee project manager. Role of project managers in the construction and built environment sector Project stakeholders team Major stakeholders in a construction project include Project Manager, Top Management, Investors, Suppliers, Contractors and Site workers. The project manager manages stakeholders of the construction project by keeping them informed about the progress of the project, providing consultancy to the project management on managing projects, involve them in decision making based on different power levels they are on, and collaborate with them treating them as project partners encouraging their engagement and seeking commitment from them(Littau, et al., 2015). Project risk safety A project manage creates a risk management plan which involves activities like identification of risks, their root causes and categories of risks, identification of response strategy, evaluate risks on the basis of probability of occurrence and the impact of the same and managing risks. Various risks that a project manager has to record and manage in a construction environment can be related to costs, time, quality, environment or safety Table 1: Construction and Build Environment Project Risks (Zou, Zhang, Wang, 2005) Risks Category Risks Cost disputes, price inflation, inaccurate cost estimation, scope variations adding cost Time Tight schedule, inadequate schedule, approval delays, Quality High expectations, low competency of contractors, lack of coordination Environment Pollution, safety laws governance procedures, insufficient site information Safety Unskilled labour, excessive approval procedures, accidents, unsuitable planning Constraints and limitation On a construction project, a project manager may face certain constraints and limitations affected by budget, legalities, environment, technicalities, and social aspects. Economic Constraints: If the budget allotted is low then the project manager may have to compromise in the construction methods and equipments that may not be at par with the requirements of the project goal. For instance, in case the building has certain target of achieving sustainability, with low budget sustainable construction methods may not remain economic feasible for use. With economic constraints, a project manager has to make trade-offs between products, performance, functions, and quality of work. Legal Constraints: Legal constraints can be posed by safety regulations and work related laws. For instance, a person working over heights as per law is required to be provided with Protective Equipments for which the project manager has to make provisions in terms of availability of equipments, assurance of usage, recording of usage and communication about the same going as report to the government officials. Similarly, law may require the project manager to follow certain administrative procedure that could not be avoided even when they consume time and other resources that project manager may not be willing to compromise normally. Environmental Constraints: The public regulations and concerns demand a construction project to be managed in a way that it allows for air protection, noise control, tree preservation and addressing of other environmental concerns. For this, the project manager has to ensure that appropriate procedure are being followed and specific approvals are taken in order to proceed with construction activities. This may require construction of temporary structures that would ensure public safety, planting of new trees in nearby areas, and so on. Technical Constraints: The construction site itself can presented some technical complications like limitations of storagespace, restrictions in transportations, and other requirements that are to be outsourced such as ventilation, electrical works, telephoning system, plumbing, fire services and so on which would add the contracting and sub-contracting burden on the project manager. Social Constraints: This could include the constraints of working environment that may be affected by social norms and concerns. For instance, a construction may not work in rural areas, potential residents may want builders to follow "Feng Shui' principles while making layouts and so on. Thus, a project manager would be required to assess the social aspects of a construction project to ensure that difficulties do not arise at later stages on the project(Lau Kong, 2005). Project management model In this construction project, the PMI Model described in the PMBOK methodology could be used in which the project would be managed as per the five process groups including initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. In the initiation stage, project manager would gather all the stakeholder requirements and would formulate a project management initiation document. A discussion then follows with the team in which details of the requirements would be used for identifying various activities required to be completed on the project using which a project management plan is prepared. Then, the plan is executed by the project manager upon assigning roles and responsibilities to all team members and at the same time, the project manager has to ensure that all activities are performed in a controlled environment as per schedule and within budget. Once all deliverables are met, a formal project closure process is followed and a project sign off is taken from the sponsor by the project manager marketing the completion. Effective project managers - key characteristics Approach to achieving goals Key characteristics of project managers that help project managers achieve goals include: They have a skill to develop foresights on how every activity can affect budget, deadlines and quality of construction project They are organised in their approach which makes them understand the big pictures and set priorities of goals and tasks They focus more on the work at hand and the available resources and are not too analytical but more of pragmatists Effective project managers achieve their goals by following certain approaches including: Project managers start their day with setting up of priorities for each tasks to be performed in a day They identify times when they perform at their best and accordingly develop priorities for tasks with varied levels of complications Business strategies are used as guide for taking decisions Project Manager education, training and occupational standards Engineering Industry Standing Conferences has introduced National Occupation Standards for Project management in 1996 and the same were approved by Regulatory Authorities in August 2002. The standard included qualification structures, assessment strategies, and skill indicators. 5 key components of units of competence were identified in the standard including: Context of a project management unit Listing of unpinning knowledge Statements of competent performance Listing of Scope Specific knowledge requirements A project manager is required to have the knowledge about general principles and project processes, idea generation, idea evaluation, legislative frameworks, regulatory frameworks, project specifications, communication techniques and presentation techniques. With this understanding, the manager must have the skills to be able to: Identify project stakeholders and how they could influence a project Identify needs and understand responsibilities of stakeholders Review the project scope Define project objectives considering input and sources requirements Identify as well as quantify the project benefits Keep stakeholders involved on project as per agreed terms (Shannon, Dodd, Feest, Watson, 2003) Features of the five project management processes Some features of 5 key project management processes are explained below: Time management: This involves development of schedule plan, including defining of specific activities required to be done on a project, developing of the sequence in which they would be followed, estimation of required resources and time durations for each of the activities, development and control of the developed schedules. Cost management: This involved cost management plan development, estimation of costs that would be incurred on project, determination of whole project budget, and establishing of measures to control costs. Integration management: This involves development of a project charter containing necessary information for the board to approve the project, development of project management plan, direct, manage, monitor and control the work requirements of the project, perform change control and close project in a formalized manner. Scope management: Scope management involves collection of project requirements, development of scope, building of schedule outlining specific work requirements, validation of the elements of scope through identification metrics that could later be used for assessment of performance and scope control by ensuring all goals are met as well as scope is not exceeded. Risk management: This included planning for risk management, identification of risks, qualitative and quantitative risk analysis, planning the responses in the cases of occurrence of these risks, monitoring and controlling of these risks. Duties and responsibilities of contractor's project managers Key functions of contractor's project manager include: Forecasting: A project manager should understand the implications of current decisions on future performance of an organisation and be able to quantify the same in terms of monetary gains and losses as well as in terms of variations in schedules, quality and other project parameters. Planning: Manager identifies all components and parts of the project in detail including its requirements for manpower, finance, materials, plants, and more such that a plan can be made to acquire required resources and performed activities required to achieve project goals. Organizing: Project manage must be able to identify all resources required by the project and organize them across the contract period as per the contractual needs Controlling: Project manager must employ a qualified document controller for controlling all contract related documents(Atout, 2008). Coordinating: The project manager has to ensure a coordination between all project teams and resources to ensure that all collective goals of the project are met within desired constraints and limitations. Communicating: The project progress has to be recorded and communicated to the stakeholders at decided intervals with appropriate information necessary for making assessments and taking decisions. The manager also has to communicate decisions to the teams and encourage to adopt the required changes to be able to achieve objectives of a project. Comparison of contractual implications of using external consultants or internal teams - Hong Kong Contractual implications that can be caused by certain challenges in the internal and external teams include: Internal team implications External team implications Lack of skills in project manager Unavailability of project managers Lack of skills in the internal staff Lack of coordination among staff Lack of sufficient budget Lack of sufficient time to complete project as per the requirements Occurrence of major risks that were not considered at the time of planning leading to delays in furnishing responses Lack of commitment and cooperation from sponsor or top management of the organization Supplier may not be equipped to make quality deliveries Delays from suppliers causing delays in construction Inability to get sub-contractors for some work Lack of coordination between contractor and sub-contractors Lack of understanding of stakeholder requirements by contractors Dispute related to deliveries or payment matters between contractor and client Relationship of project managers with the design and production teams Project manager can assist the design and production team by performing following functions: PM can ensure that all the requirements needed by design team for forming designs are received from the client PM ensures that the design developed by the team is approved by the stakeholder before a project begins The communication between the design team and the production team is managed by PM The feasibility of the production is taken care of while making designs by providing necessary inputs to design team by taking the same from production team Attributes, knowledge and skills required for a project manager Attributes Knowledge Skills Visionary Project management methodologies Ability to develop a foresight on project outcomes Organized in professional approach Stakeholder requirements Communication skills Reliable as a person understanding responsibilities Project management tools Coordination and team management skills Action oriented to ensure things are kept on track Quality standards in construction Ability to motivate teams Experienced and knowledgeable about project management practices in construction Construction processes Ability to assess project stakeholder requirements Highly skilled in communication Project tracking tools Ability to understand and respond to stakeholders concerns Client Role Client has specific role to play in a construction project and that includes (Olander, 2007): Taking responsibility for project execution from start to finish of the project Approving all contractors involved on the project after proper assessment Ensure that all the needs of the users of a building are met Ensure that all permissions required for building construction are met before starting the project Client can also a sponsor for the project. Advantages of using project management for client Advantages of using project management practices for a client are: Project can be completed faster with much organized and streamlined processes that are scheduled well Client can achieve some cost savings with the improved coordination and speed of the construction project. Quality of the finished construction would be better as the process would involve careful evaluation of skills and capacities of contractors Various aspects like safety and communication that otherwise may go ignored would be well taken care of leading to less of conflicts and complications arising on project. Improvements in quality and standards The project management when used in the construction projects, the quality standards are made mandatory to use and are reflected in the project documentations and thus, there is an improvement in the practice of standards. Moreover, the project management practice also ensures that all quality standards are met on the project at the time of its assessment before it can be approved by the project sponsor as completed. Not just that, even at the time of initiation, the quality considerations and expectations are well recorded and monitored throughout the project life cycle to ensure that they are met as per the plan. Revised project execution plan Project plan is revised based on the contractual challenges and skill requirements of the project team. priorities of the construction and built environment sector In the construction and built environment, there are certain priorities that are required to be addressed by the project manager and these include: Development of a sustainable design that renders benefits to environment or harms it least(Sexton, 2011) The outcome of the project must remain profitable for the sponsors The building must achieve all the stakeholder needs as documented on the project management plan including requirements of space, facilities and comfort needs (Clough, 1972). best practice in project management to develop KPIs Best practices of KPI development in construction industry include: People Management KPIs: Metrics are developed for measuring employee satisfaction, staff turnover, working hours, sickness absence and so on. Environment KPIs: Environment specific KPIs include energy usage, water usage, wastage production, commercial vehicles movements, habitat retention and product life cycle performance. Quality KPIs: These would include measurements of client satisfaction, resident satisfaction, defects at the time of project handover, and defects found during inspections. Deliverables KPIs: This category of KPIs include construction costs, predictability costs, reparing costs, rent loss costs, construction time, and repair time(Print, 2003). Value addition by Project Manager Project manager adds value to the construction project by (Bonnal, 2012): Bringing coordination among all the internal and external team members Ensure that the project is delivered within the schedule and within budget Save on costs by avoiding unnecessary expenses on project Ensure that all stakeholder needs are fulfilled by keeping a continuous communication with them Ensure that all project risks are resolved before any significant impact is being made on the project. Revised project execution plan Project plan is revised based on the KPI requirements of the project team such that the same would be measured to understand the performance of the project project outcomes assessment The project is assessed on the basis of the following: Schedule delays and compromises Profitability Risks resolved Deliverables Stakeholder satisfaction level Resident satisfaction level Lessons learned Unresolved conflicts References Atout, M. (2008). The obligations of the Contractor's Project Manager in construction projects. UAESoE. Bonnal, P. (2012). Project Management.Construction Management and Economics, 30(3), pp.248-250. Clough, R. (1972).Construction project management. New York: Wiley-Interscience. DELNAVAZ, M. (2012). Project Managers Role in Sustainable Building Process. Gteborg, Sweden: CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY . Hills, M. J., Fox, P. W., Skitmore, M., K.H., C., Fong, P. S. (2008). The role of project managers in construction industry development. AACE International's 52nd Annual Meeting ICEC's 6th World Congress on Cost Engineering, Project Managment and Quantity Surveying (pp. 1-13). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: In Bridge, Carolyn. Lau, E., Kong, J. J. (2005). IDENTIFICATION OF CONSTRAINTS IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE . City University of Hong Kong . Littau, P., Dunovi, I. B., Pau, L.-F., Mancini, M., Dieguez, A. I., Medina-Lopez, C., et al. (2015). Managing Stakeholders in Megaprojects. University of Leeds. Olander, S. (2007). Stakeholder impact analysis in construction project management.Construction Management and Economics, 25(3), pp.277-287. Print, M. (2003). Overview of the Construction Industry KPIs. Department of Trade Industry, UK. Sexton, M. (2011). Sustainability: The changing built environment. Readings University. Shannon, D., Dodd, R., Feest, T., Watson, J. (2003). National Occupational Standards for Project Management. ECITB. Zou, P. X., Zhang, G., Wang, J.-Y. (2005). Identifying Key Risks in Construction Projects: Life Cycle and Stakeholder Perspectives. Sydney,Australia;: University of New South Wales.