Low-bid selection: Consists of selecting the contractor with the lowest price bid.
Best-value selection: This selection method evaluates both the contractors’ qualifications and the price to choose the contractor with the best price-quality relationship. The project owner also closely examines the request for proposal (RFP) submitted by contractors to make a decision.
Qualifications-based selection: This selection method focuses on the contractors’ qualifications. To do this, project owners analyze each contractor’s request for qualifications (RFQ) to decide which is the most qualified contractor for the project.
Once a contractor is chosen, a payment agreement contract must be signed, and the bidding process will be finished. Let’s review the most commonly used contract types.
These construction contracts are a legal agreement between the project owner who needs to outsource job site work and the general contractor who will get it done. Their purpose is to clarify things like the project scope and payment terms so that everybody is on the same page.
Some projects may involve a contract administrator, superintendent or field engineer, which act as assistants to facilitate the process.
Lump Sum Contract: A lump sum contract or fixed price contract, defines a total price for the completion of the project.
Cost Plus Contract: Cost plus fee contracts are made of two parts: a fixed fee that’s agreed upon by the project owner and the contractor, plus additional costs that are added as the project progresses.
Guaranteed maximum price: It’s the same as a cost plus contract, but a maximum price is defined.
Time and Materials Contract: This type of contract is used when there’s uncertainty about the project scope. The general contractor charges an hourly rate for labor and materials.
Unit Pricing Contract: Used when costs can’t be determined ahead of time, it sets unit prices for materials.
In addition to the contract type, the owner must decide which delivery method works best for the project.
The purpose of these construction delivery methods is to define how the project owner, the general contractor and the licensed designer (architect or engineer) will interact throughout the project.
Design-bid-build: The design-bid-build method consists in choosing a general contractor after the design phase is completed.
Design-build: In the design-build method, the design and build phases are executed by the same party known as the design-builder.
CM at risk: The CM at risk model empowers the construction manager, giving him more functions than he would normally have. In this project delivery method, the construction manager acts in two ways. On one hand, he is a consultant to the project owner during the design and development phases, and on the other hand, he monitors the contractor during the construction phase to control costs and guarantee that the project is delivered within the guaranteed maximum price.
Once the project owner has the blueprints, material take-offs, a construction project manager and a general contractor, the project can begin.
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Construction Project Management Processes
HereConstruction project management requires a broad variety of skills, along with the ability to interface with a diverse range of agencies and people in order to lead the project from concept to build. It’s important that construction project managers follow the principles of project management during every phase of the project life cycle.
You can’t start a project unless you know you’ll be able to finish it. First comes the due diligence to determine if the project is even feasible. How do you figure this out? You want to go through a feasibility study or what is often called a business case, in which you look at the goals, cost estimates and timeline to see if you have the resources to reach a successful project end within those constraints. You also want to define the reasoning behind the project and make sure it’s sound. If so, then you create your project charter to help initiate the project. You’ll also identify potential issues and risks in this phase.
You have approval, now how are you going to achieve success? Outline the tasks within the timeline, noting project milestones, and the resources needed to do those tasks within the budget allotted. Be transparent in your project plan, so everyone is on the same page and understands what needs to be done over the life cycle of the project. That includes detailing the cost, scope, duration, quality and communications used in the project. This is also when you’ll be able to conceptualize the best project team for the project and begin the process of assembling them.
The planning phase is probably the most important project management phase because you’ll create the documents that will guide the project execution. Here are some of them:
The project schedule is a big part of the planning phase in construction project management. Here’s an example of a project schedule from ProjectManager’s free construction schedule template.
ProjectManager's Gantt chart, the perfect tool for construction project management
Once you’ve completed the work breakdown structure, you’ll add your tasks to the left-hand side of the construction schedule template. You can add subtasks, add resources and costs, deadlines and more. Project phases can also be color-coded. To the right is a timeline that captures the entire project plan in one place.
Once you’ve completed the work breakdown structure, you’ll add your tasks to the left-hand side of the construction schedule template. You can add subtasks, add resources and costs, deadlines and more. Project phases can also be color-coded. To the right is a timeline that captures the entire project plan in one place.
On the timeline side of the Gantt chart, you can link dependent tasks, set milestones and a baseline to capture the project plan to compare to your actual progress when the project is being executed. There are a lot more features to play with on the Gantt chart that will help you plan and control your project. Download the free template to practice making your own construction schedule.
Once you have a construction plan that includes all the information you need to manage costs, scope, risks, time and other aspects of your project, it’s time to execute.
At this stage, you’re executing the project and taking the project plan and implementing it while factoring in the changes and work management issues that can arise during such a process. Whatever deliverables you promised must come through in the timeframe you noted. Now, as a construction project manager, you must deal with the project owner, stakeholders and customers and teams. The latter have tasks that must be completed, which means workload management and resource allocation. You’ll be setting up meetings and reporting frequently throughout this stage. This is where your project management tool will really be tested, but more on that later.
You can’t know the progress of your project if you don’t have a way to monitor it. You’ll be doing this during the previous stages of the project, but it’s important enough to demand its own separate stage in your management. You’ll want to have a way to note the progress, which is why you need to set up key performance indicators for cost control, time tracking and quality control. If you can stay on top of these figures, it’s less likely you’ll manage a failing project. Therefore, stay flexible and communicative throughout so you can adapt quickly to change when it occurs, and it always occurs.
When you’re managing a construction job, there are certain objectives you should consider. Just like in any project, you accomplish overall project success by breaking it down into phases. The following are four steps you can take to organize a successful construction project management project.
There are four parts to designing a construction project. It’s the project manager’s responsibility to make sure your design meets with building codes and other regulations.
The concept. What are the needs, goals and objectives of the project? You’ll be making decisions based on the size of the project, the site allocated for the build and the actual design of what you’re building. This is comprised of a list for each room or space under consideration, including all critical data.
The schematic design. The schematic design is a sketch that identifies the various parts, materials, sizes, colors, textures, etc. It includes the floorplan, elevations, etc. and even a site plan.
Design Development (DD). Design development requires research. What are the materials to use? What equipment will be needed? How much are the materials? What is the material take-off?