Project Management – which may sometimes be confused with Construction Management – is a process for putting a whole project together, and is not just a form of procurement or construction for a building, or building sub-contracts, alone.
Project Management includes (but, of course, is not limited to) :
- Establishing the brief for the project and guiding principles & needs that will measure its success;
- Finding, briefing, recommending and managing the design consultants;
- Looking after the tenants, users and building manager;
- Reviewing the building site;
- Reviewing the program for design, documentation, tendering and for construction;
- Recommending and overseeing a building procurement method (in other words, a Project Manager may select or engage a Construction Manager, on behalf of the Client, if it is decided that one is required.);
- Reviewing budgets and cashflow including considering the return on the investment, rent and should look at Capital Costs as well as on-going or re-current costs;
- And it involves administering the contract during construction (the Project Manager may, or may not, be the ‘Superintendent’ to the Contract).
The decision to operate this way should be made by the client at the start of the project, and, in my view, the Project Manager should be appointed at the projects’ inception.
The Project Manager will become the contact between:
- the Client and the Consultants;
- the Users and the Consultants;
- the Client and the Builder; and
- the Consultants and the Builder.
The Project Manager then should be able to speak the ‘language’ of all parties involved and in effect become a manager – or interpreter – between them all.