Projects come in many different sizes and complexities; however, from my experience over the years, there are basic steps that project managers can apply to most projects that would make construction management and project delivery easier and more structured while increasing their chances of success.
So, how do you successfully deliver a project?
Here is the project delivery method:
1. Review the Project Agreement
I’ve seen many project managers roll into the execution phase of the project before thoroughly reading the Contract or the agreement. In most cases, only skim over it briefly.
I understand the Contract documents can be a very dry read. However, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of entirely going through the whole document with particular attention to the commercial clauses.
The contract documents, in addition to the commercial terms and conditions, are also the basis for the project scope, time, and cost.
2. Understand the Scope of Work
As mentioned in the previous step, you would have understood the scope of work better by going through the Contract documents. The scope definition can take many forms, including a design brief, scope statement, schedule, and drawings. Ensure you go through all the Contract appendices as well.
Project managers must ensure the scope is clearly defined. If there are ambiguities in the documents, raise it with the client so that you have the same understanding and expectations of the scope.
This could save you a lot of trouble in the future.
3. Create a Project Schedule
Now that you fully understand the scope, it is time to create the project schedule. The schedule shows the activities required to complete the project by the deadline provided in the Contract.
To create the schedule, you must understand which resources are available and can be applied to the project, estimate the resources’ productivity, and establish the logical relationship between the design and construction schedule’s activities.
A good tip when creating the schedule is to include third-party or client-related activities or milestones for accountability and traceability.
4. Develop a Cost Plan
As the delivery organization’s ultimate goal is to make a profit, project managers must ensure their projects aren’t losing money, which is, in project management terms, ‘running over budget‘; hence, creating a realistic budget is crucial.
To develop the budget, you need to estimate all the costs required to deliver the project scope within the project duration, which can be either time (man-hours), material, or third-party services.
Make sure you add a contingency to the budget estimate. The rule of thumb is that any cost item with low certainty or high risk attracts high contingency and vice versa.
5. Create a Reporting System
The previous steps are considered part of the project planning. However, for any project delivery system or plan to work, we must first monitor its performance by creating a reporting system.
The reporting system includes tracking work progress, updating the schedule, capturing actual costs, and comparing them to the budget.
Setting up the reporting system early in the project and having the discipline to produce the reports regularly allows you, as a project manager, to have excellent insight into the health and performance of the whole project delivery system.
6. Execute the Work
This is the stage where project managers typically spend most of their time. As you have completed all the previous steps, this is the right time to get hands-on with the project delivery.
There is an extensive range of activities under the execution phase, including chairing team meetings, assigning tasks, and placing procurement orders for materials and services.
Good communication, appropriate stakeholder management, and team buy-in during the execution phase can make this process efficient and enjoyable.
7. Adjust Your Plans As Needed
In step five, we discussed creating and using a reporting system, but what if, through the reporting, you discovered variances in the time plan (schedule) or the cost plan (budget)?
For example, the project is running behind schedule or is estimated to be exceeding the budget.
This is a time to analyze and understand the root cause of the variance and adjust your plans accordingly. In project management terms, ‘updating the baseline.’
Several factors can cause project delays and budget overruns. One common factor I’ve seen over the years is scope creep.
As a project manager, you must ensure changes to the scope are captured and documented and, consequently, the time and cost plans are revised.
8. Close Out the Project
The project is considered closed out when all the scope has been completed, the client has beneficial use of the project deliverables, the quality checks have been done, and the final cost account has been closed.
During this stage, project managers should reflect on the project’s development and record the lessons learned for the next project.
This is also a time to celebrate the achievement and the hard work spent during the project time with the team!
