Construction Management -v- Project Management

The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has for many years seen its role as the leader in construction management. The current challenge is to define and differentiate construction management from project management and from the role of an on-site construction manager.

I have been in the UK for the last couple of weeks and was at the CIOB Member’s Forum where this topic was discussed at length. My feeling is construction management has a very wide remit that underpins all phases of a built assets lifecycle from feasibility through to demolition and disposal.

My starting point is the presumption that construction management involves the application of construction knowledge to achieve the efficient creation, maintenance or changing of a built asset. Where a built asset, or the built environment, is a very wide definition that covers all man made structures from canals, roads and railways to any structure or enclosure.

As suggested by the diagram below, the application of construction knowledge through construction management has a very wide application. Whereas project management is focused on the efficient creation of a new product, service or result. Project management has a much wider remit than simply building. Any significant change can and should be managed as a project from the creation of a new software program to the reorganisation of a business’s processes.

The primary role of traditional project management in the construction industry (as indicated in the diagram below) is managing the site based construction activities from initiation through to closure. However, it is quite feasible for projects to be initiated at any phase of the built assets lifecycle to initiate a ‘change’ (eg, a maintenance project to upgrade the facility). Also, if multiple projects are involved such as building the 2012 Olympics, program management can be used to advantage.

If the ideas outlined above hold true, project management is the process of delivering a change, whereas construction management is the underpinning skill set used by a range of specific disciplines, including project management, as the built asset evolves from an idea to a design, to built structure, to a maintained facility through to its final demolition or recycling. It’s the knowledge of good construction practice that allows the surveyors and designers to create a cost effective design that is durable, buildable and maintainable; and similar knowledge is needed by facilities managers to look after the structure through its operational life. As suggested above, construction management is the effective application of construction knowledge to a proposed or actual built asset.

Based on these thoughts, a working definition for construction management could be: The effective application of construction knowledge to all aspects of the creation and care of the built environment to the benefit of society.

The lead discipline will change from Architects and cost engineers to construction companies and project managers to facilities managers depending on the phase in the built asset’s life, but each discipline also needs to understand and apply effective construction management to undertake their work practically and effectively.

What are your thoughts???

How to Suffer Successfully

How to Suffer Successfully, is the title of chapter four in Alain de Botton’s first book of philosophy, How Proust Can Change Your Life. The same idea is the theme of The Adversity Paradox by J. Barry Griswell and Bob Jennings.

The Adversity Paradox is full of inspiring examples of people who have suffered major adversity and have used the experience to improve their capabilities and gone on to outstanding success. The knowledge they gained from overcoming obstacles has played such a crucial role in their success trajectories that they now consider adversity to be an invaluable friend.

De Botton takes a more philosophical view and recognises there are ‘bad sufferers’ and ‘good sufferers’. Bad sufferers learn nothing from their adversities and react to them by engaging defence mechanisms that compound the problem such as rage, delusion and arrogance. Successful sufferers, including those identified in The Adversity Paradox, use their adversity to gain a better understanding of reality and by rising to the challenge, create a better future for themselves and others.

Whilst no sane project manager would chose to suffer sufficiently to produce their version of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, only the most naive would expect their project to run without a problem. Projects and their attendant stakeholders are a potential source of much grief and suffering, all be it at a lower level of intensity; schedule slippage test failures, cost overruns and accidents to name a few.

As identified by de Botton, bad sufferers try to hide the problems, blame others and learn nothing. Ethical and effective project managers accept their suffering and use the experience to grow their knowledge and capabilities. Quoting Proust, “Griefs, at the moment when they change into ideas, lose some of their power to injure.”

No one likes a project that fails! However, it is only when you are experiencing the pain of failure, the opportunity to learn from the failure opens up. By using the opportunity to maximise the lessons learned, you minimise the potential for similar problems in the future. The cost of the failure is the coin by which future gains are purchased. The difficulty is developing the level of understanding needed to really achieve valuable lessons learned; finding the ‘cause of the cause’. The second more complex challenge is ensuring the lessons learned are transferred to the organisations store of knowledge and available for others to use and thereby avoid unnecessary pain and suffering.

De Botton suggests being a ‘good sufferer’ does not entail subscribing to the Romantic cult of suffering for its own sake, rather making practical use of the occasions when suffering is unavoidable to create new insights and grow in capability or knowledge. Our addition to this basic idea for the practicing project manager is to then make sure the lessons learned are effectively distilled, recorded and made available to others for the future benefit of the organisation and the profession.

The Demise of the Iron Triangle

The iron triangle was invented by Dr Martin Barnes in 1969 to demonstrate the connection between time, cost and output (correct scope at the correct quality) – see The Origins of Modern Project Management. The correlation remains but the concept of the triangle is fading and becoming more complex.

The problem with the triangle is whilst the three interconnections are relevant; the way the elements interact geometrically is not intuitive or correct. Output should react inversely to the other two dimensions. Less output is bad, but less time or cost is potentially good.

As we move into second decade of the 21st century, leaving the ‘noughties’ behind, PMI have dropped the concept of the iron triangle from the PMBOK® Guide and the search is on for more meaningful and unfortunately complex metaphors to define the challenges of satisfying a project’s stakeholders and customers. This is a multi-dimensional problem and there is a real need for a new paradigm similar to the iron triangle but representing the many different facets of success.

As Albert Einstein once said “For every complex question there is a simple and wrong solution.” And whilst the iron triangle was not intrinsically ‘wrong’ in the 70s, 80’s and possibly 90’s it is certainly incomplete in the complex world of the 2010s.

I have seen several attempts to replace the simplicity of the triangle with tetrahedrons and multi dimensional effort charts but they lack clarity of insight. Another quote from Einstein is “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” The question and challenge is how to replace a project management icon as powerful as the ‘iron triangle’ with a more representative symbol.

What will be the new symbol of project management in the ‘teen years for the 21st century? Any ideas are welcome.

Be Lazy….. Be Happy

I have been dipping into a fascinating new book, The Lazy Project Manager kindly provided by its author, Peter Taylor.

This is not a book about managing projects…. it’s a book about managing yourself whilst you manage projects. The Lazy Project Manager is not intended to replace project management training manuals, courses, standards and other earnest but boring tomes. It’s the book you read when you are skilled at successfully running projects or programs and need to get a life outside of work as well.

Building on the ideas of Walter Chrysler and others ‘Whenever there is a hard job to be done I assign it to a lazy man he is sure to find an easy way of doing it.’; productive laziness is about achieving the success that matters with the minimum necessary effort. More bang for your buck!

Using a combination of humour from The Jungle Book (movie), Monty Python (and brontosauruses) and others, plus science from more reputable sources this is a fascinating read full of practical ideas.

To preview and buy visit: http://www.thelazyprojectmanager.com and you too may become productively lazy. Now all I need to do is find the time to finish reading it……

Brian L. Doyle

The impossibility of predicting the future has been brought home to me with a vengeance! My friend of 30 years, former business partner and teacher Brian Doyle passed away last night. When we last met, 10 days ago he was planning to be home from hospital within 2 to 4 days!

Brian taught me much of what I know about scheduling. Many of the themes running through these blogs are echoes of his thought and ideas.

• Keep the schedule simple and elegant.
• Make sure you get buy-in from the front line supervisors who will actually do the work (they’re going to do what they’re going to do, it helps if the schedule agrees).
• Understand the strengths and weaknesses of both the CPM methodology and the scheduling tools you use.
• Communicate, communicate and then communicate.
• Many useful heuristics on the way building projects in particular shape up from a time perspective.
• Keep focused on the big picture not the details.
• Common sense is a very rare commodity in people and totally absent in computers.
• Any wine will do as long as it is high quality and red.

Brian’s life has been long and varied, from the British merchant marine to helping develop the Queensland scheduling business for Tracy Brunstrom and Hammond, to running his on consultancy and for a while partnering me in the Micro Planner business. Along the way he was the founding secretary of the Project Managers Forum, the forerunner of the Australian Institute of Project Management.  Our thoughts are with his family.

I have just stared negotiations with a publisher to write ‘my book’ Scheduling for Effect. The book is some 18 to 20 moths of hard work away but it will be dedicated to a great scheduler and a better friend. Hopefully it will be a fitting tribute.

Frank Costigan QC

This is a brief post to mark the passing of a truly inspirational lawyer. I have been privileged to meet Frank Costigan on a number of occasions a various functions for Arbitrators arranged by the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators, Australia (IAMA).

Despite his courage and fame associated with tackling organised crime in Australia during the 1980s (The Costigan Royal Commission), I met a gentle, caring and gracious human being.

Franks credo is well worth reflecting upon:

“ … No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; … any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee …” – John Donne
“Meditation XVII: Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris”

If the mark of greatness is making a difference in this world, Frank Costigan QC certainly achieved greatness.

Another dimension of PM responsibility

I am writing this from Victoria, Australia where, whilst the dying has largely stopped for now, the bush fires are still burning.

Hills of Fire

The fires started on our hottest day in recorded history. This day followed on from a week with 2 more of the hottest days ever and 5 years of drought and below average rainfalls. We knew the fires would be bad, gale force winds, temperatures of 47oC (117oF) and almost zero humidity guaranteed any fire that started would be big – we just had no idea how bad! Whilst these conditions are not unusual in the deserts of central Australia, in temperate woodlands it’s a totally different story; the resulting fires were hot enough to melt metal. Thankfully none of our immediate family or friends seem to have been directly affected, but some came close.

Melted Alloy 'Hot Wheels'

The disaster relief efforts are now gearing up and in themselves will require a major project management effort. We would certainly encourage every project manager and reader of this blog to help with donations, support and any other practical assistance. Donations can be made directly to the Red Cross at http://www.redcross.org.au

For a better idea of what happened the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has posted a lot of photos on their web site at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2009/02/06/2484555.htm And whilst Victoria burned, the North of Australia was flooded and the UK had some of the worst snows in 20+ years, the climate is definitely changing.

Trees Explode

The thought behind this blog has a longer term focus though. The Project Management profession is about to be asked to deliver $billions of stimulus projects world wide – as well as doing a good technical job (see Can Bob the Builder Save the World Economy), I would suggest there is another dimension of responsibility needed in their delivery, an acute sense of environmental awareness! 

Managing our projects in as green a way as possible is, I suggest, an ethical and moral responsibility for every project and program manager. We may not stop the climate changes but we can limit the additional damage we do whilst we help save the global economy. After all, an economy without an environment to operate in has no future!

It’s up to all of us to do our best to make sure the 200 to 300 people killed by these fires, not to mention the injured and homeless are the victims of an exceptional set of circumstances, not the first of many similar climate induced disasters. We may not be able to influence the design of the various national stimulus packages, but we can influence the way we manage our projects to minimize their impact on the environment.

Can Bob the Builder save the world economy??

One of the construction industries best know characters (if you are under 5) Bob the Builder, is front and centre of the efforts to save the world’s economy.

Bob the Builder

As a start, his construction team’s cry of ‘YES WE CAN’ has been central to the Barak Obama election campaign. But this is only the beginning.

Obama in the USA, Kevin Rudd in Australia and a range of other governments are now asking the whole of the construction industry Bob’s key question “Can we fix it?”  Hopefully the answer is ‘YES WE CAN’. The amount of money being directed to construction projects to provide stimulus to the economy is enormous and will require a major response if the funds are to be well spent. As an industry we need to provide value and quality for the money being invested.

This opens up a two of interesting challenges:

• How are we going to meet the current short term demand for professional constructors? Possibly by attracting with people with project management, administration and scheduling people from the depressed IT industry – project management is supposed to be a portable discipline.
• How are we going to meet the looming long term skills shortage? Maybe one way to attract talent would be for the construction industry to set up a ‘Bob the Builder’ fund to ensure every child under 5 has access to this wonderful range of toys. After all as the old adage goes “The only difference between men and boys is the size of their shoes and the price of their toys” how hard will it be to persuade a young graduate it is nearly as much fun directing the operations of a back hoe, JCB or equivalent as playing with Scoop or Muck??

Bob and Friends

There are some interesting challenges ahead and Bob the Builder may not be able to fix everything but for the rest of us in the construction industry we have our work cut out.

Can we do it?    I certainly hope we can!

Note: Bob the Builder is a copyright brand owned by HIT Entertainment Limited

The Project Management Manifesto

The Project Management Manifesto is a call for the US government to properly oversee and manage projects that will be financed with taxpayer money. The originators of the Manifesto recognise that lawmakers and government officials in the USA have good intentions and are working hard to address the recession. But it is the project management profession that understands how to plan, manage and govern programs and projects. There are best practices available that should be used and promoted. It is very important that the stimulus funds are used as effectively as possible, and not wasted.

According to the PM Manifesto website: “We are a community of project management leaders who are experienced in delivering results. As seasoned professionals, we know that there are three key elements to achieving the successful completion of projects that all Americans want and our country desperately needs. We urge that these elements be part of all projects launched through The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.”

I believe this initiative should be extended to Australia and every other nation who’s government is planning to spend our children’s taxes to minimise the impact of the world-wide recession. The challenge is for project management leaders world wide to latch onto this initiative, couple it to effective practices and standards such as PRINCE2, PMBOK® Guide, OPM3, P3M3 and others and make a difference.

Project managers, project management professionals, company executives and government leaders are encouraged to visit the PM Manifesto website at http://pmmanifesto.ning.com to read the declaration and proposed policy measures, and then decide how to best make use of them ‘at home’.

For more on the launch see the PM Forum web site at seen at http://www.pmforum.org/blogs/news/2009/01/ProjectManagementManifestoPublishedinUS.html.

Expectation Management

I cannot think of anyone in the last 30 years who has carried a greater weight of expectation into a new job than Barak Obama. Not only the diverse expectations of over150 million Americans, but also the hopes and expectations of billions of people around the world.

Expectations include; solving the economic crisis, balancing the American budget, promoting racial harmony and equality, solving the Palestinian crisis, the Iran crisis, the Iraq crisis and possibly even the Afghan crises… sorting out the American car industry, delivering health care to the underinsured and solving unemployment and poverty to name a few.

With all the resources of the USA and the White House it’s a massive challenge and we whish President Obama every success in his endeavours.

My concern is the backswing when unrealistic expectations are not fulfilled. How President Obama manages this is likely to be educational and if the last 24 hours are anything to go by highly innovative. I could not think of a more effective way to mark the difference between the old Presidency and the new than seeing the President Elect helping out at a charity on the holiday before his inauguration.

This is a project management blog – the rest of us need to remember ‘unrealistic expectations are unlikely to be fulfilled’ and we need to make sure our stakeholders expectations are managed if we expect to be successful. For President Obama, the rules may be different – I certainly hope so there’s a lot for him to achieve.

As Theodore Roosevelt said in 1910 during a speech at the Sorbonne in Paris:

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

There’s lots to do and many of the changes will need good project managers to make them happen.  The next few years will be an interesting and hopfully successful journy.