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Construction Project Management: an overview By:-Dr. R. R Singh, Professor Civil Engineering, P.E.C. Chandigarh
Introduction • A project is composed of jobs, activities, functions or tasks that are related to one another in the same manner and all of these should be completed in order to complete the project. • Every project has one specific purpose : it starts at some specific moment and it is finished when its objectives have been fulfilled.
Basic Things for completion of a project • For completion of a project two basic things are required:- 1. Material resources 2. Man power resources
Many countries which are rich in material resources are exceedingly poor in terms of level of production or plan achievements. • While there are other countries which have very limited natural resources but have achieved higher level of productivity mainly because of talents, skills, experience and knowhow.
Availability, quantity and quality and use of human resources is a single determinant in accomplishment of project objectives. • Rapid accumulation of scientific technique in the recent past has not been matched by corresponding improvement in the sphere of human group relation.
In other words sociology has not kept pace with technology. • We are not in a position to utilize fully about technology advancements. • Unless we are also able to advance in social sphere. • Here comes the role of management while technology deals with material things, management deals with both, material and human beings. • Management increases the productivity though technological innovations, taking into account human factors involved in these advances.
Objectives of the Project • Each project whether big or small has three objectives:- 1. The project should be completed with a minimum of elapsed time. 2. It should use available man power and other resources as sparingly as possible without delay. 3. It should be completed with a minimum of capital investment without delay
Phases of Project Management Project management is a highly specialized job to achieve the objectives. Project management involves the following three phases:- 1. Project Planning 2. Project Scheduling 3. Project Controlling
Out of the above three phases of project management the first two phases are accomplished before the actual project starts. • The third phase is operative during the execution of the project and its aim is to recognize the difficulties during execution and to apply measures to deal with these difficulties.
Project Planning • Planning is the most important part of the project management. • It involves defining objective of the project, listing of tasks or jobs that must be performed, determining gross requirements of materials, equipment and man power and preparing estimates of the cost and durations for the various jobs or activities to bring about satisfactory completion of the project.
Why Planning is Important? Planning is important because:- 1. It provides directions. 2. It provides unified framework. 3. It reveals future opportunities and threats. 4. It provides performance standards.
In Planning phase plan is made and strategies are set. • Taking into consideration the companies policies, procedures and rules.
Plan • It is a statement of intent that is what is to be done. • It is interpreted in terms of what has to be done to resources to achieve the intent. • The resources may be office staff, tradesmen, labour, materials, plant and machinery, space and funds. • Plan is detail method formulated before hand for doing or making something.
Plan simply lists goals and defines the means to achieve them. • The listed goals are called events. And means of achieving these goals are operations or activities in attaining final target. • The size of activity depends upon nature, and scale of project.
However each activity should be sufficiently well defined for work or intent to proceed without interruption from other tasks. • Activities are those operations or plans which takes time to carry out and on which resources are expended.
Strategies • STRATEGIES: It is another important type of plan it specifies the central concept or purpose or enterprise as well as means by which it intends to carry that purpose.
POLICY, PROCEDURE AND RULES • These differ from each other in degree of specificity. These usually set broad guidelines for the enterprise. • For e.g. it might be policy of the departmental store that if customer is dissatisfied with any of its products. His money will be refunded. • Procedure specifies how to proceed in any situation. For e.g. before refunding the money of the customer the salesman should carefully inspect the article to be returned and then obtain approval from the manager for refund.
POLICY, PROCEDURE AND RULES • A rule is even more specific for e.g. the departmental store has rule that under no condition the money will be refunded to the customer if he brings the defective article after 15 days of purchase. • Thus plans should be finalized and strategies should be set after taking into consideration the company’s policy and rules.
Steps in project planning Following 8 steps are generally recognized in the planning process of a project:- • Define: the objectives of a project in definite words. • Establish: goals and stages intermediate to attain the final target • Develop: forecast and means of achieving goals. • Evaluate: organizational resources- Financial, Managerial, and Operational. To carry out activities and to determine what is feasible and what is not.
Determine: alternatives individual courses of action that will allow to accomplish goals • Test: for consistency with company policy. • Choose: an alternate who is not only consistent with its goals and concept but also one that can be accomplished with evaluated resources. • Decide: on a plan
Common Causes of Project Failure 1. Poor planning and/or inadequate process • It is important to define what constitutes project success or failure at the earliest stage of the process. • Lack of planning leads to inadequate preparation, unexpected problems, and poor execution. • “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
2. Inefficient way to document and track progress Tracking milestones is a crucial way to see if expectations are being met. Documentation and tracking also lets the manager identify which areas require more resources to be completed on time. 3. Poor leadership at any level The management-level executive also has a responsibility of ensuring the project’s success. He/she should work together with the manager to ensure that the company’s exact requirements are understood.
4. Failure to set expectations and manage them • If and when expectations are not met, there should be clearly-defined consequences. The task should then be prioritized and possibly reassigned to a more competent individual. 5. Inadequately-trained project managers • It is important to assign management roles only to individuals who have the capabilities to meet requirements. In some cases, poorly-trained managers are assigned to complex projects; this is a recipe for failure.
6. Inaccurate cost estimation When it runs out of resources, the project cannot be completed. This can be mitigated when the lack of resources is identified early by the project manager. 7.Lack of communication at any level Communication between the management executive and the project manager, and between the team members are always important. Everyone should feel free to come forward to state their concern or give suggestions
8. Culture or ethical misalignment The culture of the company must prize competence, pro-activeness, and professionalism. If it doesn’t, the team members may not have the motivation to do their best. In essence, everyone involved must be concerned about the success of their undertaking. 9. Competing priorities When a company’s resources are stretched, there will be competing priorities in terms of manpower and financing. Having good cost estimation at the start will eliminate this problem. 10. Disregard of project warning signs When a project is on the verge of failing, there will always be warning signs. Taking action immediately can save the project. Otherwise, the whole endeavor can just go down the drain.
How to Prevent Project Failure • Require weekly status reports that include: • Project start and completion dates. • Which milestones you’ve passed. • Percentage of the project that is complete. • Any accomplishments worth mentioning. • Important meetings attended. • Any threats or potential risks to the projected timeline. • Description of any problems you’ve encountered and resolved. • Personnel or equipment limitations. • Budget status. • Build an effective team by considering: • Employee skill, experience, participation ability, the projects they are already working on, and morale. • Pair newer resources with mentors. • Set a realistic schedule and stick with it. • Establish concrete, clear goal planning in project management.
Ensure senior management ownership and leadership from the beginning. • Require effective engagement with project stakeholders. • Ensure adequate skills and proven approach to project management and risk management. • Pay attention to breaking developments and implementation into manageable steps. • Evaluate proposals based on long-term value rather than price to secure delivery of business benefits. • Maintain connectivity with the industry at senior levels. • Ensure effective project team integration between clients and the supply/resource chain.
Brief notes on BOOT,BOLT,BOT as used in infrastructure projects • Infrastructure is the word used to collectively refer to the facilities like roads, railways, bridges, manufacturing plants etc. A good infrastructure is a prerequisite for economic growth. The infrastructure development was taken up on a large scale during the last decade. The Government envisaged the nation wide infrastructure development through the participation of the private sector. The investment required for these projects were huge and the gestation period of these projects were also quite high. The Government with a view to encourage the private participation in these developmental projects offered various business, models like BOOT, BOLT & BOT.
BOOT means Build Own Operate & Transfer. • Under this scheme the private participant will get an opportunity to own and operate the facility for some time and during this period the developer can commercially exploit the facility so developed. After the specified period the facility would be transferred to the Government.
BOLTBOLT means Build Own Lease & Transfer. • The Private participant will lease the facility to the Government and the Government will pay the lease charges for a specific period and on the completion of the lease period the facility is transferred to the Government.
BOTBOT means Build Operate & Transfer • Under this scheme the private participant will not be owning the facility. The private participant would be entitled to operate the facility for a specific period during which the revenues from the operation would be shared between the private participant and the Government or the Government will be paid lease charges by the private participant. On completion of the specified time the facility will be transferred to the Government.
