Construction Industry

Construction Management

By Matthew Bendert

Within the scope of a major construction project, the role of a construction management firm is vital. A construction manager, or management team is trained to coordinate the different processes and timetables necessary to complete a project. These individuals and teams mediate between owners, designers, contractors, and suppliers. As such, they act as overseers of the entire process, from inception to design to execution. …

Contract Administration

Caution: Contracts

by Dennis Brand

Ask a group of industry professionals to state what they believe to be the most important provision in a construction contract and you will probably get as many varied responses as there are people in the group.

Give the same group of people a copy of a standard form contract (e.g. FIDIC, ICE or JCT) to read with a form of Particular Conditions or similar attached, and invariably they will look first at the Particular Conditions and possibly no further. …

Contract Administration

Take care when taking over

by Steven Hunt

I sense that, for many contractors, ‘taking over’ is seen as the moment when the proverbial foot can come off the gas – the time when the contractor is finally relieved of the burden of delivering the project.For a contractor the process of taking over is an important one as the care of the works will pass to the employer and the employer’s entitlement to recover liquidated damages will cease. It is not, however, the end of the story for the contractor as he will remain liable for defective workmanship and materials beyond handover. …

PMP Hints

The Basic Concepts of Earned Value

In any project, the value to be gained is based on completing the work. From a customer perspective, the business value is achieved when the project is completed. If a project gets canceled 90% through completion, the business value might be zero.

However, earned value looks at this differently. With earned value, you are earning the value of the project on an incremental scale as the project is executing. When 50% of the work is completed, you could say that 50% of the value of the project has been realized as well. …

PMP Hints

Don’t “Shoot the Messenger” that Brings Bad News

You have all heard this saying (or something similar). It means that you should not take retribution against the person (or people) that deliver bad news. If you ask people for a status, accept the good and the bad for what it is – information for you to make better decisions.If you want people to tell you when there are problems, you need to accept the information and work with the team on causes and solutions (hopefully the team member is proposing solutions along with the problem). …

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