L14: Construction Project Management Flashcards
What are the four key qualities of a good PM?
- Considerable construction experience
- Expertise and experience in specialised construction management techniques
- Capacity to shift between micro and macro management
- Good people skills
Why are project managers needed?
Makes sure margin between bid and cost is maintained
How does project management differ from normal management?
They mostly manage people from outside their organisation
What is the management by exception process?
Accepted cost and time goals made initially; must be tracked and monitored to keep on track and manage additional labour/materials
What are the five main project management components?
- Project cost control
- Project planning
- Project scheduling
- Production planning
- Project financial management
What is CPM and a distinct advantage of it?
Critical Path Method - used to manage large number of job activities based on a network
Three phases: planning, scheduling, time monitoring
Time evaluation
What are the 5 steps to construction planning
- Determine general approach to project
- Breakdown project into activities
- Order activities
- Present as network
- Receive endorsement from other parties involved
What are the two general approaches to project planning?
Beginning-to-end planning - breaks job into activities step-by-step
Top-down planning (work breakdown structure) - breaks overall projects into major components and then smaller portions
What are the advantages/disadvantages of beginning-to-end planning?
Advantages - full understanding of project, simple linear process
Disadvantages - level of detail must be decided at beginning; often becomes less detailed over time - can omit groups of activities
What are the advantages of top-down planning?
Can serve many network users
Less omissions and more flexible
What are job activities?
Single work step with recognisable beginning and end
What is job logic?
Determining the order activities are to be completed in the field
What are project planning restraints?
Limitations that regulate order of activities; can be physical or relating to resources/safety
What are the two types of drawing network notations?
Arrow notation - activities shown as arrows separated by nodes
Precedence notation - activities depicted in boxes linked by arrows; activities given unique number, prefix/suffix and colour coded
What are the steps of project scheduling?
- Estimate time required to complete each activity
- Computer overall project time
- Establish time intervals for each activity
- Identify crucial time activities
- Shorten project length if required
- Use surplus/float times to adjust and smooth demand
- Make working project schedule
What are activity times and the rules to using them?
Working days
- Evaluate activities one at a time
- Assume normal level of resources
- Assume standard workdays
- Use consistent time units
What is time contingency?
Added to project or major components to account for non-normal conditions arising
What is the most common project delay?
Weather delays; weather calendars used for contingency to estimate days lost to bad weather
What are early activity times?
Start at beginning and forward pass calculations; earliest start + duration = earliest finish
What are late activity times?
Start at end and backward pass calculations; latest finish - duration = latest finish
What is the total float?
The difference between the earliest and latest start times for each activity
What is the critical path?
Path of critical activities (0 float); typically 20% of activities
What are milestones?
Particularly important points in time with no duration to complete
What are Gantt charts used for?
Bar charts to show the project schedule plotted to a horizontal time scale
What is re-engineering the project?
Process of examining a project and its components to find a better way of accomplishing tasks
What are the key elements in production planning?
Support - resources reach site, sufficient utilities, site laid out properly
Technical problems - dewatering
Personnel
Safety
Quality
Material ordering/expediting - delivery times
What do the numbers in the network boxes mean from left to right?
Earliest start Duration Earliest finish - Task - Latest start Float time Latest finish
What does production planning involve?
Establishing the methods used in construction, assignment of personnel, movement of material, process of construction
What should subcontractor selection be based on?
Quality prequalifications BEFORE cost
