Appraisal of Construction Management Practice in Nigeria
Chapter One
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
- To identify whether Construction Management is a better procurement method than the other procurement systems
- To identify whether risk management service contribute towards the effectiveness of Construction Management
- To identify whether Construction Management effectively addresses traditional management seatbacks
- To identify whether there is a link between Construction Management skills and project constraints.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Project Management services
Introduction
According to the ASCE Quality Manual [1987], the discipline of project management can be defined as follows:
“Project management is the art of directing and coordinating human and material resources throughout the life of a project by using modern management techniques to achieve predetermined objectives of scope, cost, time, quality and participation satisfaction.”
The Project Manager, central to the project management process, is also defined as:
“A qualified individual or a firm authorized by the owner to be responsible for the dayto-day management and administration and for coordinating time, equipment, money tasks and people for all or specified portions of a specific project.”
Although quality management is a portion of the management of a whole project, the idea in the work of Das et al. [2000] describing quality management services, is worth noting:
Quality management services are described as “the decisions and actions involving quality planning and leadership, quality training etc.” The emphasis in this definition is the concept of management services involving decisions and actions.
The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary also gives a relevant definition of “Practices” as:
“Ways of doing something that is the usual or expected way in a particular organization or situation.”
An articulation of the above concepts facilitates defining project management (PM) practices, in this study, as:
‘The day-to-day ways of carrying out management and administrative activities and decisions that is the usual or expected ways of directing and coordinating projects resources by authorized firm or an individual construction professional for the purpose of achieving set project performance in terms of the time, cost and quality objectives.’
Construction professionals within project management teams usually find themselves being part of one of the parties to a building project. The three main parties to a building contract (client, contractor and consultant) form an integral part of the project management team in the construction industry. They all come together to take decisions and carry out activities for the purpose of achieving satisfactory project performance.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
Burns and Grove (2003) define a research design as “a blueprint for conducting a study with maximum control over factors that may interfere with the validity of the findings”. This research is a quantitative research work, therefore a quantitative approach was used in the study.
Data Collection Technique
Questionnaires served as the primary sources of data. Questionnaires were administered to building construction firms registered with Oyo state government.
Population Size and Sample frame
The population of the study consists of building construction firms in Ibadan, the sample frame of the study was 441 construction firms.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE SUCCESS OF CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT
Traditional Management Verses Construction Management
General management
In CPM, the project manager manages a project from inception to complete on and the project manger is an employee of the principal. The project manager is appointed to be a project team leader and to bring a businesslike approach into coordination and management of a diverse range of skills and organizations in producing a facility. While in TPM, an architect is appointed on a technical base with the view of managing cost, time and quality only; meaning the architect must manage the overall project as well as the design. According to (Havranek :1999) the technical difference between TPM and CPM is that, TPM was characterized by focusing on cost, schedule and achieving specification; but with CPM there is a broader range of focus like quality, risk management, human resources, leadership, organizational structure, and information system, which enhance cost, time and quality.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
The following conclusions are based on the insights gained by the author from the literature review and the analysis of the research survey.
The literature review highlighted the following:
The following conclusions are based on the insights gained by the author from the literature review and the analysis of the research survey.
The literature review highlighted the following:
- Management in construction is solely driven by project constraints and the more complex the client’s needs the more strategic the management system that has to be enforced. The selection of an appropriate building procurement system contributes to the achievement of the client’s objectives in terms of time, cost and quality. Although there is no better procurement system when the systems are compared, management systems seem to resolve most critical issues of the clients better than conventional systems. The technical complexity, time reductions and fewer cost overruns are managed efficiently in management than other systems.
- If there are two conflicting objectives in a project there will be no attainment of client’s objectives; if the contractor’s objective is to make a high profit and the client’s objectives is to spent less, clearly there is conflict. The choice of some procurement systems inflicts this conflict in their management strategy. Like design and built, the contractor manages the entire project and in the process the contractors objectives are put before the clients objectives, at the same time, some clients concerns are not on time and budget but are more concerned in completing the work without much involvement and prefer to use this strategy, therefore there is no better strategy, the strategy depends on the client’s requirements.
- CPM was not implemented to face out other procurement systems. Risk management and other management strategies are a good illustration of this. The same management process in the conventional methods still applies in Construction Management and the systems have similar characteristic but their objectives are different. The difference is with the additional services that CPM has to overcome the weakness of the TPM.
Competition is increasing; the market is fluctuating therefore risk is increasing and the more protective allowance that need to be done. Through case studies it was discovered that in this era no projects will prosper without any risk assessment and mitigation done before hand. Failure without proper drastically if no risk assessment and elimination is done on a project before hand; project fail without.
- Construction Management is successful today as compared with other procurement systems because it addresses the complexity of today’s projects requirements and design; it also runs parallel with the advanced technology which forces public sector departments and private sectors to be more productive. This calls for strategic management ethics on projects. Many dynamic projects have succeeded without project management simple because there were no time and cost limitations but today this parameter determines the success of a project and Construction Management priorities on these objectives.
- The intense management strategies of the management system will also determine success of a project. Most management systems do not address the project constraints and for a system to be successful it must address the natural causes of failure; Construction Management uses risk management as a tool that tries to address the natural project failure by eliminating them through corrective measures; this might not eliminate the risk entirely but a project that under goes a risk assessment will definitely reduce the risk to a great extent. Risk management proves that Construction Management is effective towards client’s objectives because of its management content. Project and their constraints require a lot of changes as the changes occur in all angles of a project; and the advantage with using Construction Management is; the management process allows change as the construction progress; this includes strategies that allow a particular constraint to be addressed as it occurs. Change control management eliminating the risk therefore it improves cost reductions and time scales, therefore having a great influence on cost overruns and delays. Again if it was not for the complexity and advanced technologies that world is revolving around today, there would not be much risk that today’s projects undergo; therefore there would not be a need for risk assessment that Construction Management seem to use as a help tool, which concluded that Construction Management is a success of today problems.
Conclusions
Based on the above literature review and survey analysis it could be concluded that the hypothesis stated that, “Construction Management is an effective services towards the client’s objectives,” was proved.
Recommendations
Based on the findings of the treatise, the following recommendations were made:
Project managers need to put corrective management strategies that Construction Management imposes in order to achieve success in their projects. And they need to be industry orientated to achieve the best results.
- The construction industry in Nigeria needs to encourage more institutional knowledge in project management, because project managers lack background knowledge of the discipline.
- Clients should start to make more use of Construction Management as it is beneficial to cost and time reductions.
- On commencement of the project the client’s must assess their requirements in relation to the procurement strategy before hand, to choose the compatible strategy to their objectives.
- Clear communication needs to be enforced from the commencement of the project to completion stages.
- Roles of the role player need to be clearly defined to avoid misunderstandings.
It is recommended that the research needs to further explore the following:
- A comparative analysis must be done on a project with Construction Management strategies and a project without these strategies.
- The success measures of a construction project.
- A survey research on the projects that have succeeded and those that failed using Construction Management.
- A comparative analysis of the type of procurement system that the constructor prefers.
References
- Anderson, S.D, Molenaar, K.R & Schexnayder, C.J (2010) Guidebook for Cost Estimation and Management for Highway Projects during Report 574, Washington DC
- Burke, R. (1999) Project Management: Planning & Control Techniques, 3rd edition, Technical Books, Cape Town
- Chappell, D & Willis, A (2010) The Architect in Practice, 10th edition, John Wiley & Sons. Inc, Chichester
- Chitkara, K.K(2002) Construction Management: Planning, Scheduling and Controlling, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing, New Delhi
- Davidson, J.F (2002) New Project Management Tools For an Age of rapid ChangeComplexities,2nd edition, Jossey- Bass, San Francisco
- Fewing, P (2005) Construction Management: Integrated Approach, Taylor & Francis, Abingdon
- Gray, C.F & Larson, E.W. (2006) Project Management: The Managerial Process, 3rd edition, Mcgraw-Hill , New York
- Harrison, F.L & Lock, D (2004) Advanced Project Management, A structured Approach, 4th edition, Gower Publishing Limited, Burlington
