Construction Management Team Research Articles

An investigation into construction time performance

A systematic method for measuring construction time performance has been developed. This enables comparisons between individual project performances and best practice worldwide. Four factors affect construction time performance: construction management effectiveness, the sophistication of the client and the client's representative in terms of creating and maintaining positive project team relationships with the construction management and design team, design team effectiveness in communicating with construction management and client's representative teams, and a small number of factors describing project scope and complexity. This research has indicated that construction management team performance plays a pivotal role in determining construction time performance. It also reveals an important relationship between sound client's representative management effectiveness and good construction time performance. Detailed findings provide useful performance indicators that may be used to assist in defining benchmark measures necessary to assess a project's performance relative to a representative population.

Schedule ‘Games’ People Play, and Some Suggested ‘Remedies’

The intended purpose of construction scheduling is to assist with proper planning and coordination of a project. All too frequently, construction schedules are used primarily to help build claims against project owners. Much of the process of “building claims” through the use of schedules involves “schedule gamesmanship.” This paper briefly identifies 14 common schedule games played on public construction projects. The paper also offers 34 suggested “remedies” to help prevent schedule gamesmanship. Some suggested remedies involve changes to contract‐document language and, thus, need to be implemented during the design stage. Other suggested remedies are pragmatic in nature and can be implemented on a daily basis by a knowledgeable construction management team even in the absence of specification language.

The Construction Manager and Safety

When using the three-part Professional Construction Management (PCM) team of owner, architect-engineer, and construction manager to direct a project, the role which the construction manager has in site safety requires careful definition. A variety of approaches to safety are possible in the PCM technique. The different approaches are described, and some current problems in performance, liability and regulatory interpretation which accompany the various approaches are cited. With the wider use of a construction manager as overall coordinator of a multi-employer work site, the importance of this matter will grow. The purpose of this discourse is to stimulate additional analysis of the PCM safety issue to arrive at an optimum approach for the benefit of the worker, the owner and the other participants in the project.

Effective Contract Administration in Construction Management

In applying contract administration to any particular engagement, the task is that of identifying the needed function, establishing the level of effort appropriate to each function, determining what organizational entity should provide services required for each function, and developing contractual relationships between the participating organizations so that the total project implementation team will function effectively and efficiently. Through a requisite series of administrative procedures with attendant responsibility, the contract administration group pursues project administration matters to include complete communication between the requisite management personnel at all responsible levels. Included topics are the development of relationships and responsibilities of the construction management team, tasks of the contract administrator, construction contract handling, and change order administration.