Construction Management >> Goals, Planning, Scheduling

>Project Definition and Goals

A project can be defined as a series of activities with several distinguishing characteristics.

The following features correspond to  a project;

• The project has specific starting and finishing dates.

• It has well-defined objectives.

• It achieves a specified product or result.

• It is a unique, non-repetitive effort.

• Every project has a particular set of constraints centred around cost, time and resources.

Every project should have SMART (Specific, Measureable, Agreed-upon, Realistic, Time-framed) goals.

 

Project management is concerned with planning and scheduling of activities, specifying the material and quality of workmanship, coordinating with the client and contractor, organising the work, facilitating the resources, supervising and monitoring the work progress and verifying all the activities necessary for a project.

Project management provides a framework for the quantitative evaluation of work performed on tasks and prepare proper documentation of the project.

Project management is required to make sure that a project accommodates; client requirements, budget constraints, time constraints, performance constraints.

The following reasons may lead to the failure of Project management;

• Unclear definition of requirements and objectives

• Improper planning and review efforts

• Unclear communications between the team members

• Lack of consensus among the stakeholders

• Inadequate work breakdown structure

• Starting/completing activities out of sequence

• Unforeseen problems