The Client Role in Successful Construction Projects

Jason Challender, Russell Whitaker

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781351674188
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

The Client Role in Successful Construction Projects is a practical guide for clients on how to initiate, procure and manage construction projects and developments. This book is written from the perspective of the client initiating a construction project as part of a business venture and differs from most available construction literature which can externalise the client as a risk to be managed by the design team. The book provides a practical framework for new and novice clients undertaking construction, giving them a voice and enabling them to:

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• Understand the challenges that they and the project are likely to face.

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• Communicate and interact effectively with key stakeholders and professionals within the industry.

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• Understand in straightforward terms where they can have a positive impact on the project.

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• Put in place a client-side due diligence process.

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• Reduce their institutional risk and the risk of project failure.

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• Discover how their standard models are able to co-exist and even transfer to a common client-side procedure for managing a construction project.

Written by clients, for clients, this book is highly recommended not only for clients, but for construction industry professionals who want to develop their own skills and enhance their working relationship with their clients. A supporting website for the book will be available, which will give practical examples of the points illustrated in the book and practical advice from specialists in the field.

Part 1

An introduction into the construction industry and construction clients

Jason Challender

1Introduction

The owner of a project must provide clear direction and timely decisions, and must assist the project management team to drive the project to a successful conclusion.

(Thompson, 1991)

It is perhaps the above quotation which has provided the focus for this book in an attempt to encourage clients to take a more proactive stance in project management, change current working practices in the construction industry and improve project outcomes. Accordingly, the main focus of the book is to explore the role of clients in construction management. In this regard, the overarching aim of the book is to create a factual client ‘how to do it’ guide or ‘toolkit’ for procuring more successful project outcomes. It is intended that this practical guide for clients can develop into a common due diligence framework on how to initiate, procure and manage construction projects and developments. From this perspective, it will raise awareness of best practice and instil improvements in construction contracting with clients at the epicentre of project teams. It will seek to address the significant institutional risk that lies in the lack of a clear and consistent approach to the client role in projects and guidelines. Such an approach will constitute a viable tool in ensuring effective, appropriate and successful interfaces of clients in pursuit of improvements to construction management. Furthermore, it is also intended to provide an important insight into the influence of construction clients in the success of construction projects and redevelopment programmes.

The book investigates the current arrangements that exist within the global construction industry, to create a more comprehensive understanding of the problems of client knowledge, interface and integration within project teams. It explores and analyses the overall commitment of organisations to encouraging client engagement in all construction stages which could be hindering the overall effectiveness of construction projects. This is intended to provide a suitable context for paradigm shifts in practice with measures to improve client interface and leadership as the catalyst for increasing project success.

A deficiency in appropriate and strong client leadership in the construction industry has been highly documented by authoritative sources over many years. The book will seek to address this ongoing dilemma and act as a catalyst for improvements to the construction procurement processes. This is intended to encourage more successful team integration and collaborative ways of working between clients, their appointed consultants and the whole supply chain. This is a deliberate attempt to improve client project management practices, which have arguably not been delivering the impact and benefits in terms of successful collaborative project outcomes.

The book is intended to assist academics, construction related practitioners and clients in their awareness, breadth of knowledge and comprehension of the issues around client leadership, with the overarching aim of delivering projects that are more successful. This is felt to be particularly important as in previous studies into construction clients, very little attention has been focused on giving practical advice. The book has sought to infill the literature gaps through examination of traditional client roles and through providing guidance through the toolkit on potential improvement measures. Case studies and practical examples have been included to assist the reader on how theoretical perspectives can be applied to real life construction projects and scenarios. The book has also addressed academic calls for greater insight into construction client leadership that can be created, mobilised and developed and more understanding of the resultant positive effects and impact that can be generated therein (Walker, 2009). There will be frequent reference to construction practitioners’ views and opinions throughout the book and these have been sought through research carried out in 2017 from a small sample of semi-structured interviews. Participants from these interviews included clients, design consultants, main contractors and subcontractors. Other findings have been sought from the widespread experience of the joint authors of this book.

There have been few books which have been written on the specific subject of incentivising appropriate client leadership in construction specifically through a ‘client-side’ practical guide or ‘how to do it’ toolkit. Those which have been published have largely focused on theoretical studies examining different client behaviours and relational analysis of clients with construction teams. Furthermore, the component elements of client leadership have been covered previously but there has been very little to articulate how these can be incorporated into construction procurement strategies. The book, drawing on case studies from the authors’ experiences and interviews, takes a different approach to construction clients by asking some very fundamental questions:

• What is the importance and influence of client involvement and leadership in influencing more collaborative working and project team integration?
• What is the extent to which informed clients can influence the success of construction projects?
• How can client interventions be best embedded into procurement of projects?
• What constitutes best practice and what is the extent to which the client’s role can influence the success of construction projects?

In consideration of the above questions the book’s objectives are:

• To be the standard reference for business people in understanding projects and reducing construction based risk.
• To explain in straightforward terms with practice based examples where the ‘client factor’ has an impact on the project and the main differences of business as usual and project practices.
• To use case studies to look at patterns of client behaviours, and how these affect successes, failures and key risks of projects as perceived by clients and other stakeholders.
• To use the above as the ‘client voice’ to provide a client checklist, and reduce employers’ risks on projects.
• To identify valued knowledge, skills, attitudes, behaviours and business practice that clients use in their approach to projects.
• To identify a set of clear guidelines, national or international, to support the client role.
• To form the basis of a practical toolkit for guidance and teaching around the unique role clients have in project development.
• To look to future developments and identify the key role clients take in Building Information Management (BIM), new developments in the RIBA Outline Plan Stage of Work and other areas such as continuing project integration and collaborative working.

The book is mainly intended for construction management practitioners and clients but could suit a wide target audience including under and postgraduate students and academics. For clients it will provide a summary of best practice and guidance in client project management from initiation to post-handover across many different client sectors. For professional practitioners, the book will explore how client management can be a complementary project skill and whether such skills can be proven to reduce risk in projects. The qualitative research for the book has consisted of interviews with a small sample of experienced construction clients. Accordingly it will provide the ‘voice’ of professional and institutional clients and present their recommendations and mechanisms for the creation of a common standardised client protocol. Furthermore, it will also consider whether this approach might complement other developments in project management such as project team integrated working and BIM.

The book’s findings are presented to encourage professional practitioners to implement improvement measures...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Foreword by Miles Wade
• Foreword by Peter McDermott
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Part 1 An introduction into the construction industry and construction clients
• Part 2 A construction risk management model for clients
• Index