The construction industry is a massive and gigantic business. From building a shopping mall, hospital, complex to a single residence, each construction project is a highly structured undertaking with a budget ranging from millions to trillions of dollars.
What is construction project management?? How is it different from construction management?? Both are one and the same. The specialized services that use project management techniques to supervise the planning, design, and construction of a project from beginning to end with multiple phases of the project lifecycle are termed as construction management.
The Project Management Institute (PMI), USA has developed the construction extension to Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) guide, which is a standard, that has processes extending from initiation to closing a project. It provides construction-specific guidance to the project management practitioners from the Construction industry with additional areas that are not found in the PMBOK guide. They are
- Project health, safety, security, and environmental management
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All project resources instead of just human resource
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Project financial management along with the cost
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Management of claims in construction
Project management in the construction industry brings tremendous value to all stakeholders. A construction project manager must possess excellent soft skills along with organizational, communication, leadership, risk management skills, and a profound knowledge and experience in the building process.
Construction project management's importance is umpteen, abundant, and bountiful. Effective construction project management provides the project manager advantage by increasing the potential for successful completion of the project within budget, on time with minimal financial and legal complications.
The biggest profit of Project Management Professional (PMP) certification is that it cannot be confined to a single industry. The project management and Agile framework, processes, and principles learned during PMP certification training can be applied to any field or industry at a global level.
Benefits of PMP certification in the construction industry for the professionals of all roles and designations are:
- Selecting the best project using various project selection methods
- Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling the Scope, Time, and Cost\
- Executing the projects with the Highest Quality, Safety, Standards, and Regulations
- Identifying the risk and putting the right response strategies
- Using the best Procurement processes to make the material available at the right time
- Applying Interpersonal and team skills to manage conflicts with contractors
- Tracking project performance as per agreement
Construction management training course also contains the ten knowledge areas given by PMI which makes you a construction and project management expert to deliver projects successfully with governance and customer satisfaction. These knowledge areas include
- Project Integration Management- For effective co-ordination between various project elements
- Project Scope Management- To ensure only the required work is included
- Project Schedule Management- To manage the project duration and milestones
- Project Cost Management- To identify the resources and keep the budget under control
- Project Quality Management- To ensure that all the Quality requirements are met
- Project Human Resource Management- To develop and employ the project professional effectively and keep them motivated
- Project Communication Management- To manage internal and external communications with efficiency
- Project Risk Management- To identify, analyze`, and mitigate the potential risk
- Project Procurement Management- To obtain resources and manage contracts
- Project Stakeholder Management- To identify individual, people, groups and organizations that would impact or are impacted by the project
The standard processes learned in PMP certification training helps the construction project manager to lead the project from a concept to reality before their eyes. It combines the everyday responsibilities of a project manager with the experience and understanding of the construction industry, thus closing the project with the best quality, zero fatality, meeting standards, and complying with regulations.