Construction Project Manager's Pocket Book

Duncan Cartlidge

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000034042
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Technologie et ingénierie
• Subtopic: Gestion de projet en ingénierie

The second edition of the Construction Project Manager's Pocket Book maintains its coverage of a broad range of project management skills, from technical expertise to leadership, negotiation, team building and communication. However, this new edition has been updated to include:

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• revisions to the CDM regulations,

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• changes to the standard forms of contract and other documentation used by the project manager,

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• the impact of BIM and emerging technologies,

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• implications of Brexit on EU public procurement,

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• other new procurement trends, and

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• ethics and the project manager.

Construction project management activities are tackled in the order they occur on real projects, with reference made to the RIBA Plan of Work throughout. This is the ideal concise reference which no project manager, construction manager, architect or quantity surveyor should be without.

1

Project management – an overview

In some respects the title of project manager and the term project management are misunderstood and overused in the construction industry, with individuals and / or organisations adopting the title without fully appreciating the nature or the scope of the discipline.

It could be thought that the main attributes of project managers are the so-called hard skills, such as financial analysis, technical know-how, etc., although most project managers and clients consider that effective leadership and the ability to communicate and co-ordinate effectively are equally important. Indeed, recently there has been increased emphasis on the so- called soft skills aspects of project management. This first chapter of the pocket book gives an overview of project management and the role of the project manager as well as outlining the softer (generic) skills required by successful project managers. As will become evident, project management is a global, generic discipline used in many business sectors, of which construction is just one. A criticism of construction project managers is that they have been reluctant to learn from and adopt project management techniques used in other sectors; whether this criticism is warranted is unclear. The remaining chapters of this pocket book relate to project management for construction and development and will be presented with reference to the RIBA Plan of Work (2013) and the OGC Gateway. Although the OGC Gateway model was archived on 22 August 2011 and will not be further developed, it is still widely referred to and for this reason has been included in this handbook.

What is a project?

Before it is possible to practise project management it is necessary to define the term project, as distinct from routine day-to-day business activities. A project can be thought of a temporary group activity designed to produce a unique product, service or result; in the case of construction, a new or refurbished construction project, a new piece of infrastructure, etc. Importantly, a project is temporary, in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources. Any activities or processes outside of the project scope are deemed to be ‘business as usual’ and therefore not part of the project. This transient nature adds pressure to the project manager as it necessitates the development of bespoke solutions. Construction projects traditionally use a management structure known as a temporary multi-organisation, as a project team often includes people who don’t usually work together – sometimes from different organisations and across multiple geographies. All must be expertly managed to deliver the on-time, on-budget results, learning and integration that organisations need. In recent times, Latham (1994) and Egan (1998), and subsequently a long list of both public and private sector construction-related reports, urged the introduction of partnering, alliancing and more collaborative working. The construction team has been encouraged to move away from the traditional fragmented approach to delivering projects, but nevertheless the need for project management remains unaltered. Decades after the publication of reports mentioned previously, construction still has a tendency to operate with a silo mentality; overcoming this mentality is a major challenge for construction project managers.

What is project management?

There are a number of definitions of project management which can make pinning down a precise view difficult. This in itself can lead to difficulties, especially when issues of roles and liability are raised. The term project manager is widely used in construction and occurs at many levels in the supply chain. In the UK, management techniques applied to construction, and in particular property development, first started to emerge during the 1970s when a particular approach to property development saw commercial success demanding stricter management and control of time and cost than had previously been the case. During this period contractors began to rebadge themselves as management contractors and some quantity surveyors added project management to their letter heading without fully realising the implications.

Finding a definition of project management in construction is complicated by the use in the industry of a variety of similar commonly used titles such as:

•Project monitor – this is distinct from both project management and construction monitoring and is defined in the RICS Project Monitoring Guidance Note as:

Protecting the client’s interests by identifying and advising on the risks associated with acquiring an interest in a development that is not under the client’s direct control.

Project monitoring may include:

•land and property acquisition,

•statutory compliance,

•competency of the developer,

•financial appraisals,

•legal agreements,

•construction costs and programmes, and

•design and construction quality.

Some or all of the above are also included in the project manager’s brief.

•Employer’s agent – an employer’s agent is employed to administer the conditions of contract, and does not perform the same function as the architect, contract administrator or project manager. For the construction professional the exact position of the employer’s agent can be confusing, in particular the duties, if any, that they owe to the contractor. The true employer’s agent is a creation of the JCT Design and Build Contract where the contract envisages that the employer’s agent undertake the employer’s duties on behalf of the employer. Article 3 of the contract gives the employer’s agent the full authority to receive and issue:

•applications,

•consents,

•instructions,

•notices,

•requests or statements, and

•otherwise act for the employer.

The employer’s agent has no independent function, but can be thought of as the personification of the employer.

•Development manager – as with project manager there are several definitions of the term development manager as defined by:

•the RICS Development Management Guidance Note,

•CIOB’s Code of Practice for Project Management for Construction Development, and

•Construction Industry Council (CIC) Scope of Services 9 (major works).

The RICS Guidance Note defines the role as:

The management of the development process, from the emergence of the initial development concept to the commencement of the tendering process for the construction of the works.

The role of the...