Chapter 1 Notes CPM-1
Chapter 1 Notes CPM-1
The British Standard BS 6079: 2000 defines project management as the planning, monitoring,
and controlling of all aspects of a project and the motivation of
all those involved in it to achieve the projective objectives on time and to the specified cost,
quality, and performance.
Project management, according to ISO 10006: 1997(E), includes: the planning, organising,
monitoring, and controlling of all aspects of the project in a continuous process to achieve its
objectives.
D. Directing or leading.
• It involves influencing people so as to enable them to contribute to organisational goals
efficiently and effectively. Direction implies the following tasks:
o Providing effective leadership;
o Motivating the participant’s behaviour;
o Communicating instructions and orders; and
o Providing a suitable climate for subordinates’ development.
E. Controlling.
• It involves monitoring of the performance and applying corrective measures in case of
deviations from the plan. The process of control can be sub-divided into the following
stages:
o Specifying the factors to be controlled;
o Stating the methods of measuring control factors;
o Evolving systems for generating performance data;
o Monitoring data received and formulating corrective options;
o Applying corrective measures to put a plan on the scheduled path; and
o Replanning, when necessary.
The period between the start and completion of the facility is called Construction Project
Development Cycle.
Commencing from the concept analysis phase to its completion phase, a typical construction
project’s four sequential stages or phases are shown in Figure below: -
• The works carried out in any organisation can be divided into two categories i.e. new unique
endeavour and routine operations.
• The completion time for a unique endeavour can vary from a few hours to many years, and
the cost can range from low to very high.
• A project is a new unique endeavour undertaken to achieve specified objectives. ‘New’
implies that it is different from the management of routine operations, ‘unique’ means that
it is not done before (at the same location and with the same resources) and it is subject to
risks and uncertainties.
• Transient endeavour implies that it is a temporary organisation created to attain specified
objectives of completion time, budgeted costs, and development specifications.
• A project is a temporary endeavour or mission undertaken to create a unique products or
services or results. Temporary nature of project means that it has well defined beginning
and end.
• A project aims at accomplishing a development objective like creating a product or service
or a specified outcome.
• Each project has a specified mission or a purpose to be achieved. It ceases after the mission
is accomplished.
Construction projects come in many forms with varying purposes. There is no simple method
to classify them. These projects can be categorised by the nature of construction works, the
mode of execution, cost and time constraints, the inherent uncertainty (maturity level) or a
combination of these, as given in table below: -
There are many factors that determine the outcome of a construction project but the five main
parameters that can sufficiently define a construction project are: scope, quality, resources,
completion time and cost.
1. Scope defines the deliverables. The deliverables are measured in terms of the quantities
of work and the nature of the tasks involved in the execution of the project. The quantity
of work is surveyed from the design and drawings. Nature of tasks determines the
complexity of the work. Complexity increases as the number of dissimilar tasks
increase and it decreases if the tasks are repetitive (or similar in nature).
2. Quality of the product to be achieved in accomplishing tasks is stated in terms of
construction design, drawings, and specifications.
3. Resources are necessary to perform the work. Resource productivity measures the
efficiency with which the resources are utilised.
4. Completion time depends upon the speed with which the project is to be executed.
5. Cost is the budgeted expenditure, which the client has agreed to commit to
creating/acquiring the desired construction facility.
The above five parameters are interactive, that is, each parameter is a function of the other. In
addition to the above five parameters, there are many other features/variables that are
associated with project performance. These additional parameters include: project
organisation, culture, stakeholder’s interest, contractor’s performance capability, etc.
These parameters are interlinked and must be kept in balance to achieve project objective
efficiently and effectively within the changing environments.
The project planning, scheduling and controlling methodology employed for managing scope,
time, resources and cost, within the changing environments, is loosely called the ‘project
management techniques’.
Processes-
• Each phase, depending upon its deliverables, contains a single or a group of processes.
• A process is an action or a set of actions that are performed to bring about a desired
result.
• Each process is fed with inputs; these inputs are processed using tools and techniques
to produce outputs.
• The output of a process is generally followed with the start of one or more of the
subsequent generally sequential processes. The phases with processes in a typical
construction project are outlined below; generally, these project processes overlap.
• The processes in a construction project can be generally divided into two categories,
i.e.
1. Project management-related processes and
2. technical management related processes.
• Project management processes have similarities, but the technical management process
differs from project to project.
The development phases and processes, relating to project phases, given in subsequent
paragraphs, are concerned with management of projects and exclude the technical management
related processes.
Figure 3 Project Formulation, Planning and Design, Execution and Control, and Close-up Phases