PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project Management

Project Management

Overview

Construction is the industry that is widely accepted to have the most mature project management processes. IT project managers envy the accuracy with which their construction colleagues can estimate and predict progress on a building. They borrow their tools and techniques but struggle to emulate their results. They fall back on the conviction that "it's different in our industry." Thus, they resign themselves to continuing levels of underperformance.

This is a strange response when even IT project managers would agree that there is a core of project management knowledge that is common to all projects?who would doubt the wisdom of scope control in any project circumstance? Failure to leverage the learning of one industry into another is therefore normally explained by appeal to the need for domain knowledge. For example, the rate of change of technology, the volatility of requirements, and the invisibility of software are all supposed to make IT project management radically different. Fortunately, we do not need to resolve the debate about the importance of domain knowledge in order to improve learning.

Introduction

A project manager needs to posses 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

The project environment

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, ...