PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project Management



Project Management

Introduction

A project manager needs a variety of qualities if he is to successfully attain his goals and gain respect as a project manager. He is accountable for resource planning and developing schedules. Cost, time, and budget estimation are also his areas to cover. He should be able to solve interpersonal conflicts, detect any undeclared assumption, ask penetrating questions, and be emphatic, competent, and enthusiastic(Crowston, Thompson 2006: 407).

Factors Contributed To Success

The nine primary elements are:

Integration Management

Scope Management

Time And Cost Management

Quality Management

Human Resource Management

Communication Management

Risk Management

Project Communications Management

Procurement Management

Introduction

This paper deals with the importance and the role of costs, contract s, communication and claims, as well as the influence of procedures related to the latter elements , in cost management, project management and quantity surveying.

The Management Of Cost

“He that counts all costs will ne'er put plough in the earth” (Scottish proverb in Browning, 1982: 378)

Aims and goals of cost management

The basic goals of cost management and the pricing of a project or product relate to the link between price and intrinsic value, affordability in relation to needs or investment, and managing the procurement process.

Cost managers (cost planners) should therefore understand that they need to work with clients (investors) from the very inception of a project, even earlier, and then throughout the process to ensure the best results. This does not mean that a cost planner or cost manager is a “cost cutter”, far from it, a cost manager should take responsibility (with designers, the client and other role players) to ensure that the interests of the client, community and environment are served (Ferry and Brandon, 1991: 5).

Ashworth (2002) proposes that the emphasis should always be on securing developments that best satisfy the criteria identified by the developer (client) at inception, including the type, scale, standards, funding, cost and timing of a project. Different tasks need to be performed by different people involved in respect of design, cost, forecasting, planning, organizing, motivating, as well as controlling and co-ordinating the management functions (Ashworth, 2002: 5).

The cost managers should be continuously involved from the design to the co-ordination and auditing, to ensure best cost results, specifically in commercial property, where investment is required to yield the best financial returns.

It should also include a service that takes the following aspects of value into account:

Physical: a quality building

Psychological: a pleasant-looking building which is good to live in, “places of the soul”

Real quality: cost effective but with specifications that fit the purpose

Durability: taking life-cycle costs and whole-life costs into account

Design: design-to-cost, cost design and appearance

Affordability: budget and returns are important

Timelessness: short-term fashions as opposed to design that will withstand the pressures of current whims

Quantity surveying and cost management methods and tools

Although cost management may be seen as an obvious and simple process, in reality it is not. All aspects associated with a project have a direct impact on costing and how it is managed (Knipe et al., 2002: 257).

The quantity surveyor is ideally placed to manage this ...