Project Management for the Program of Construction - Essay Example

? Project plan David Construction Introduction Project Management for the program of construction provides a challenging and tricky academic path in the project management dealing with or addressing the international, national, regional and local need of managing projects that are complicated within the industry of property and construction. It offers a kind of learning experience that is dynamic and exiting, building on the available experience and background. Infrastructure’s design, management and construction together with the established environment have a very critical role in developing a society that is more sustainable. The human resources and material required for these projects should be examined and managed in a way that is efficient and responsible. However, in going about the challenges that come up from handling the projects that are complex in the organizations that are temporary and multifaceted with a mix of individuals and experts, the sector of construction needs professional architects and engineers with social, technical and managerial expertise and competencies. With focus on the management in the built environment and sector of construction, this project is going to involve the management of infrastructure and space. This paper is going to lay down a plan for the new development for the David Construction in dwelling construction. ID Activity Duration Dependency 1 Design 1.1 Site Plans 1 day 1.2 Elevations 2 days 1.1 1.3 Floor plans 2 days 1.1 1.4 Mechanical plans ? day 1.3 1.5 Electrical plans ? day 1.3 2 Site preparation 2.1 Surveying 2hrs 1.1 2.2 Mains water 1 day 1.4 2.3 Sewerage system 1 day 1.4 2.4 Electrical service 1 day 1.5 2.5 Natural gas service ? day 1.5 2.6 Excavation 1 day 2.1 3 Foundations 3.1 Footing 1 day 2.6 3.2 Foundation 2 day 3.1 3.3 Baseline walls 1 wk 3.2 3.4 Basement drainage and floor 1 day 3.2 3.5 inspection 1 hr 3.3 4 Structure 4.1 Framework 3 wks 3.5 4.2 Roofing 4 days 4.1 5 Services 5.1 Plumbing 3 days 4.1 5.2 Heating system 3 days 4.1 5.3 Electrical wiring 3 days 4.1 5.4 Inspection 1 hr 5.3 This project will have to take a total of one month, three weeks, and sixteen hours to be completed. In other words, it will take fifty four days, sixteen hours for successful completion, according to the project plan. A proper planning of project means identification, early and constantly, the exact tasks that should be accomplished; with considerations of the resources in terms of funds, available time, facilities and personnel. This has an implication that where more than an individual is required, there is assigning of specific responsibilities to the people by their names. The individuals have to dedicate themselves to completing the tasks within the stipulated time frame. In the project, no duplication of effort is allowed. There must be recognition of the interfaces between tasks and the duty or responsibility of dealing with the assigned differences. Nonetheless, beyond the duty of the performance of their individual specific works, all the engineers on the project team should take the credit for the success of the entire project (BARTOL and MARTIN, 2003). A good engineering work that is party to a failed project is wasted. It is clear from experience that: An excellent technical activity is usually masked and even annulled by improper administrative control. An excellent technical activity cannot actually by itself be able to manage a project, and also a project cannot manage itself. Therefore, it is the duty of the engineers to purposely manage their projects. As the project work is ongoing, there must be changes in the schedules and plans. Most engineers wrongly have the belief that it is not possible for technical work to be controlled. This in itself actually becomes self-fulfilling prediction. It is a demand and expectation of management that technical gets effective administration and control. The control of project is ensuring that the technical goals of a project are accomplished within the set time and funds. The scheduling of money and time is not alienated from the technical work. By their actual nature, technical decisions have effects on the money and time consideration. · Leadership styles All leaders do not have the same perspective or attitude. A few of them use the carrot strategy and some use the stick approach. Therefore, it is true that all of the leaders do not do things in the same way; that is their styles vary. The styles of leadership vary with the type of individuals that the leader deals or interacts with in their lives or line of duties. A perfect style of leadership is one that helps the leader to get the best out of the individuals who depend on their leadership or follow them. Leadership is not universal, meaning that any kind of leadership style can be applied in any situation. It is usually good or advisable to adapt a kind of style the properly fits a particular group or situation (GARY, 2002). That is why it is important to have a good understanding of some other styles of leadership, since the more the approaches one is familiar with or understands, the more tools they will be able to use so as to be in a position of leading effectively. There are various kinds of styles of leadership that we are going to look into below so as to find the best that suits this project. Transactional leadership This style of leadership begins with the idea that the members of the team agree to be obedient to their leader when they take the job. It usually involves the company paying the members of the team in return for their good compliance and effort. The leader of the team has the right of punishing his or her subjects if it is believed that they do not meet the expected standard. Although this kind of leadership might appear to be paternalistic and controlling, it comes with some advantages. The first one is that this kind of style of leadership clarifies the responsibilities and roles of everybody, thus there is not conflicts or even frictions when operation. In addition, since this kind of leadership styles judges the members if the team on their respective performance, those who have a lot of ambitions or even who are encouraged by the external rewards which include compensations usually succeed. However, the disadvantage of this style of leadership is that the members of the team cannot do much in improving their work satisfaction (GIGNAC, 2008). This is a kind of management and not an actual style of leadership. This is because it focuses on the tasks that are short-term. It has some limitations for work that requires creativity or some knowledge. This is the best kind of leadership style for this project as it requires the workers to give maximum respect to the leader, since just a slight mistake can lead to shoddy work, and when such kind of project is not handled properly, the consequences are usually dangerous (STEWART, 2005). The workers also have the obligation or compulsion to perform to the best of their ability since the leader is in a position of punishing them when they do not work as required, and it is can work well in a project that is short-term. Transformational leadership For a person to be considered a transformational leader, he or she must have the ability to offer inspiration to his or her subjects or people that they lead. A typical description of a transformational leader is generally one who is in a position of motivating or inspiring individuals to doing things. A good transformational leader actually shows this capability more than any other kind of leader. They are the leaders that will always ask several questions when they are talking to their workers or subjects. They will usually make a very solid eye contact and even put everything at stop so that the workers know that their focus is on them. This is a kind of leader that will make sure that he or she takes a lot of care in ensuring that their workers are taken care of and all of their needs are fulfilled (BEARDWELL and HOLDEN, 1998). In keeping as simple as possible the transformational leader’s concept, it is best described as one that is concerned about their worker’s feelings. A good transformational leader at times takes additional effort to finding out or establishing how their workers feel as regards the changes that are being initiated, ask about how they feel about different issues, and try to encourage them to make their own situation better. For this kind of a leader, we find that it is all about the empowering of every worker to work harder for their individual reasons and not because that is want the organization wants. However, in this project of construction, this is not an appropriate style of leadership as it focuses on the long-term while this is a project that should be completed within a specific period of time. This style of leadership focuses on the empowering of employees, which is supposed take a long period of time and this can only be applied in business that usually have time to grow (SCHEIN, 2006). Servant leadership This kind of style of leadership, in several ways, is a form of free and democratic leadership since the whole team is usually allowed to take part in the process of decision making. The leaders in this category usually sit back and see work done, or in other words lead from behind. They normally prefer not being in the limelight and allowing their subjects to take credit of their good work. The leaders who foster this kind of leadership style acknowledge and recognize that the company’s strength is within its employees; therefore, they will dedicate themselves to accomplishing the needs of their workers as much as possible. In return, the workers will dedicate their efforts to make sure that the goals of their leaders, which have to be linked to those of the organization, are achieved with the much needed efficiency as possible. The individuals who use this kind of style of leadership will empower their workers to be able to perform well (SCHEIN, 2006). This kind of leadership style is not appropriate for this project as it requires leading from the front and not sitting back and watching the work done by the workers. It is a type of work that requires professionalism and good guidance is essential, besides, this kind of leadership appears to be long-term as it also involves the empowerment of employees to make them perform well, and this can always take a lot of time, thus not good for short-time projects such as this. Effective project management and risks associated with the project Project management refers to the art of the management of a project together with its deliverables with a view of producing services or goods that are finished. There are several ways that a project can be done and the way that is carried out is the project management. It includes the identification of requirements, establishment of attainable and clear goals, balancing of the demands that are in competition from the various stakeholders and making sure that there is achievement of a commonality of purpose. It is apparent that if there is no systematic and a scientific approach to the management practice, corporations would actually find themselves drifting in a pool known as organizational development, thus would not be in a position of attaining the various challenges that are thrown to them by the present era. Therefore, the significance of an effective project management to corporations cannot be just be overlooked by any individual. Lack of a scientific approach to the job involving the management of projects and achievement of goals, it would really be hard for companies to have a successful execution of the projects within the time constraints, quality and scope and then deliver the results expected. There should be a framework as well as a well defined way of handling or issues to make sure that there is an outline to the project management art. Therefore, it is true that project management is all about the creation of structure and management of the commitments to a project and the delivery of expected results. An effective project management is usually the key to the success of a project (LUTHANS, 2005). There are several risks that are associated with this project and their possible solutions or ways of dealing with them. One of the risks is an unsuitable planning of the construction project. This might come as a result of insufficient scheduling of program, lack of knowledge by the contractors or innovative designs in the construction programs design, as well s the variations of the programs of construction. To sufficiently deal with this risk, it is important to have an informative program planning in the design stage, and the innovative design’s constructability be reviewed. If there is no coordination between those taking part in the project, chaos might erupt in the management of the programs and the construction team. However, we find that a general contractor and a skilled of professional manager in the coordination of the program and the team is critical. Moreover, it is important to strengthen the team’s view of communication and cooperation as it might help in the improvement of the construction’s efficiency and quality (KLEIMAN, 2007). Lack of adequate amount of skilled labor might also lead to delays in the construction project. The best way of going about this is by the contractor mapping out the progress of the construction project at all time and also coordinating various stakeholders in the project so as to be able to secure adequate experts and skilled labors who can readily work. There are normally eruptions of disagreements in many projects of construction, in terms of the variations and discrepancies in the construction and design (KOLB, 2008). In order to be able to avoid or deal with this sufficiently, it is important that the contractors discuss with the team taking part in the project and make negotiations with the manager of the project, specifically the client’s representative, about the possible changes in the documentation and then take not of the delay of the development in the construction log. There are normally pollutions caused by noise and this is a serious issue in many countries as it might lead to complaints by those living around the site of construction, which can consequently lead to the intervention by the relevant authorities. The contractors can avoid these problems by arranging for a proper time for the work of construction that produces a lot of noise to avoid clashing with the neighbors. Some other risks that are associated with the construction projects are general accidents which usually come as a result of things such as lack of proper management of the project, negligence of the policies of construction, and the confliction of the construction programs that are unparallel. When these happen, the result will be individual change, thus impeding the progress of the construction process (LATHAM, 2006). The contractors should therefore form a methodical planning of the construction program and give training on safety matters to the individuals taking part in the construction project so as to enhance their safety awareness and avoid unnecessary accidents. Processes of a quality project management In order to successfully manage a construction project, there are four steps that the manager of the project should follow. All of the parties involved should form a project plan, establish a schedule for the project, supervise the schedule of the project plan and manage the change events. Every step needs commitment and dedication from all the team members, and every step or stage in the process is critical to a successful outcome of the project. The first step is the formulation of a project plan or game plan for the execution of the project. The planning should be considered as a completion of a puzzle; that is the identification of all the pieces should be done, as they are all critical or essential to the completion of the puzzle. More so, this process includes the establishment of the cost and time for all the pieces, eventually resulting to the project’s total cost and time (BARTOL and MARTIN, 2003). After planning, the next step in ensuring success in the management of construction project is the development of schedule. The most important aspect of the process of construction management is the appropriate scheduling of the tasks. This does not only help in the dividing of the work in accordance with the activities, but also enables the other parties involved to be able to know the kind of activities that should be carried out and the correct time for doing that. All of the parties involved in the process of construction should be involved in the planning of the schedule timetable and ‘buy into’ the sequence of the project before the actual construction commences (BENNIS, 1994). In a construction project that is considered successful, the schedule acts as the roadmap of the project that can be examined by all of the parties to find out when their respective job is sequenced. This enables then to make proper planning and make sure that they have the necessary materials and equipment required for the job. It also informs the parties taking part in the construction project what job follows, precedes and takes place concurrently with their job. In addition, it will enable all of them to plan their work at the site of the project so that there will be no interference with the work of some other parties. It also enables the engineer, owner or client, contractor and architect to make plans for approvals of decisions on some deliverables of items of the project (MORGAN, 1997). The third stage in the successful management of a project of construction is the monitoring of the development. Before the commencement of the work, the schedule acts as the plan, and later on in the project known as the baseline schedule. Immediately the project of construction starts, the schedule then turns out to be a dynamic tool, which can always change in accordance with the project. It is the responsibility of the contractor to make sure that the schedule is up-to-date, including noting of the dates of activities and durations when they take place. It is also referred to as an updated schedule. Immediately there is the determination of the frequency of the schedule updates, the supervisor will give instructions to the parties involved in the process of construction to make sure that their individual work tasks are updated (ZALTMAN and DUNCAN, 2006). A schedule is usually updated every month so as to be in a position of keeping pace with the applications of monthly payment. This must be a minimum frequency for all of the updates of the project schedule, regardless of the kind of the project. The fourth and perhaps last important step in ensuring success in the management of construction project is the management of change events; this is because changes must always occur in the course of the project and there is no question about that, that it becomes very important to know how to go about that (ADDISON-WESLEY, 2009). The management of the schedule to account for the changes is very different from the process of monitoring and reflection of that development in a schedule that is updated. If all these steps are considered and well taken care of, the project will be a great success and the house built will be of very high quality. Conclusion As a professional supervisor with the full responsibility of the foreseeing of the construction of the building, I will need to be in a position of the handling of the aspects of the traditional management such as time and economy, as well as the construction specific features such as human and technical demands relation to the regulations about the environment and energy. Some other factors that have been taken care of in the project include the societal context, corporate social responsibility, culture and accountability. It is true that construction management requires a comprehension of the process of design and construction, and the knowledge of the modern management of business. This project of construction has a fixed time frame and a result-oriented process of planning for the completion of the project with objectives that are very specific. For a project such as this to be successful, it has to begin with a clear description and justification of the project; continue in accordance with a strategic plan that is comprehensive, and then deliver results that are demonstrable. Some elements in the process of strategic planning will differ from one project to another, like size, site and scope, but it is a rule that construction project management has a lot in common or similarities with the other types of projects. References ADDISON-WESLEY, MA. (2009). Multisource Feedback?’ A Theoretical Model, personnel psychology; spring , 58(1), 33-66. BARTOL K. and MARTIN C. (2003), Management, USA, McGraw-Hill. BEARDWELL I. and HOLDEN, L. (1998). Human Resource Management – A Contemporary Perspective. McMillan Publications. BENNIS, W. (1994). On Becoming a Leader. Perseus Press. GARY. (2002). Performance appraisals don't work. Industrial Management, Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Page: 15(4). GIGNAC, G. E. (2008). Genos Emotional Intelligence Inventory: Technical Manual. Sydney, NSW. Genos Press. KLEIMAN, L. (2007). Human Resource Management: A Tool for Competitive Advantage, South-Western College Publishing, Cincinnati. KOLB, D. M. (2008). How Existing Procedures Shape Alternatives. Journal of Dispute Resolution. LATHAM, G. (2006). Increasing Productivity through Performance Appraisal, (2nd. Ed), Reading, LUTHANS, F. (2005). Organizational Behavior, Mc Graw Hills Publication. MORGAN, G. (1997). Images of organization Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. SCHEIN, E. (2006). Organizational Culture and Leadership. 2nd Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. STEWART, J. (2005). Managing Change through Training and Development, Kogan, London, Print. ZALTMAN, G. and DUNCAN, R. (2006). Strategies for Planned Change. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Read More