What is Construction Management?
Construction management is the practice of overseeing projects to ensure they are completed on schedule, within budget and to specification. It combines project management techniques and software with leadership strategies.
Pre-construction activities involve hiring construction teams and employing risk management practices to minimise variations on site. This may involve inspecting contractors' financial, insurance, and safety records as part of this process.
Project Planning
At this stage, team members identify all of the work that needs to be completed and devise a strategy to complete it. This may involve outlining deliverables, features, costs and tasks with deadlines set for them; and conducting risk analyses to identify any possible roadblocks during construction that require contingency plans to address.
Importantly, a great construction manager requires both hard skills like project forecasting and scheduling as well as soft ones like communication and leadership. They may oversee projects involving numerous subcontractors, architects and engineers - providing both technical and management perspectives to ensure projects stay on schedule, within budget and of high quality. That makes them such an indispensable member of any project team!
Budgeting
Budgeting is an integral component of construction management that involves tracking expenses and ensuring projects stay within their allocated financial limits. Budgeting also entails setting labor and material budgets based on project timelines and specifications, as well as creating cost-saving strategies.
Budget managers at large construction companies typically oversee projects from pre-planning through completion. Working closely with a team of financial experts, these managers create comprehensive and accurate construction budgets. Furthermore, they may be responsible for procuring tenders from main contractors while assessing risk levels as well as including rough estimates into overall project plans and programmes.
At various stages of construction, revisiting your budget should be revisited frequently to ensure costs match expectations and any deviations from plan are identified and corrected - saving both time and money by preventing delays due to inaccurate data.
Scheduling
Construction management involves overseeing contracts, complying with safety regulations, meeting project deliverables on schedule and overseeing engineers, surveyors, architects, general contractors and specialty contractors.
Project scheduling is an integral component of construction management, as it transforms project action plans for scope, cost and quality into an operational calendar or workflow system. To effectively schedule construction projects it requires defining relationships among work activities as well as their critical paths; estimating duration estimates; and placing them in their most natural order.
Poor scheduling can result in production bottlenecks that lead to delays in project completion. Delays due to materials arriving from vendors outside your immediate region could compound into an impassible delay for your project; construction managers can minimize these risks by purchasing and storing materials early, altering specifications as necessary or opting for local suppliers with shorter lead times.
Contract Negotiation
Construction managers play a vital role in contract negotiation. Well-crafted contracts help avoid disputes, reduce risks and establish clear expectations between all parties involved.
Contractors use this stage to negotiate their scope of work and establish qualifications for additional tasks based on plans and specifications. They also consider change orders that might alter price points, shift risks or delay schedules.
Negotiations is part of any tendering process or after selecting the contractor with the lowest bid, although negotiated contracts have become increasingly popular as they enable contractors to demonstrate they can complete projects to their client's satisfaction while increasing chances of future business referrals.
Contracts should also detail how disputes will be settled, including arbitration or lawsuit. They can include a "float", which provides extra time in the schedule to account for unexpected problems like weather or government restrictions due to COVID-19.
Contract Administration
Contract administration in construction management refers to overseeing contracts among all of the parties involved in a project, from preparation and review through negotiation, change management and dispute resolution to making sure all obligations under each contract are fulfilled by each party involved. Effective contract administration reduces risks while fostering healthy business relationships while assuring timely project completion.
Construction project managers face one of the most arduous processes when overseeing projects; it involves procuring all essential supplies and making sure they arrive on schedule, as well as checking whether contractors are adhering to schedule and making progress as expected. Construction managers need to monitor costs, budgets and schedules closely in order to stay ahead of their competition.
Construction managers may be required to select contractors based on previous work and experience, safety record, insurance coverage and financial stability. In addition, they are also accountable for creating tender documents as well as any related matters.
Risk Management
Risk management is one of the cornerstones of construction project success. Without an effective risk management plan in place, companies could face significant costs such as fines and lawsuits that impact negatively upon finances, time and physical resources - not to mention better workflow. Proper risk assessments save both money, time, physical resources and help create better workflow.
Once qualitative risks have been identified, they should be prioritized according to impact and likelihood of occurrence so that teams can determine appropriate responses for each identified risk.
At regular intervals, review should take place to address potential problems before they become serious and help in mitigating risks and managing what sometimes appears uncontrollable. Software updates can make this easier as updates can easily be sent directly to everyone for review - eliminating miscommunication that causes delays and cost overruns.