Construction Management Guide

Construction Lifecycle Risk Management Conference

Date: 17^th & 18^th April 2011

Venue: Sheraton Abu Dhabi Hotel & Resort, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Welcome and Opening Remarks by the Chairperson, Samer H Skaik

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning.

I am delighted to join our speakers in welcoming you all and open this Conference on “Construction lifecycle Risk Management” in Abu Dhabi.

It gives me great pleasure and honor to chair this conference. I am so happy that we have in this hall, dedicated individuals from different backgrounds and expertise, from various industries across the GCC region. Those delegates who travelled for miles remind us how important this conference is. Thank you all for coming.

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Inherent risks are those that exist based on the general characteristics of the project. These are risks that can appear regardless of the specific nature of the project.

None of the inherent risks mean that the project is in trouble. Many of these risk factors will be rated as low or medium-level risks. Even if you identify an inherent risk as high, other project factors will come into play as well. For instance, the checklist below states that a large project is inherently more risky that a smaller project. This is generally true. However, an experienced project manager can mitigate many risks associated with large project size. Also remember, if your project falls into a high-risk category, it does not mean you will not be successful. It only means that you should put plans into place to manage the risks. (Read more..)

Estimate in Phases

One of the most difficult aspects of estimating projects is that you do not know exactly what work will be needed in the distant future. It can be difficult to define and estimate work that will be done three months from now. It’s harder to estimate six months in the future. Nine months is even harder. The reason is that decisions made and deliverables produced earlier in the project have an impact on what the work looks like further along. Therefore, there is more and more estimating uncertainty associated with work that is farther and farther out in the future. (Read more..)

It has been said that an army marches on its stomach. Contractors and subcontractors in the construction industry run on cash. Lord Denning many years ago made the oft repeated phrase that cash flow is the lifeblood of the construction industry and this sentiment is still relevant today. Estimators when preparing tenders usually concentrate on building profits into the price. Of equal importance is the amount of working capital required to fund the contract and the need to keep the amount to a minimum. The payment terms are therefore crucial to every contractor and subcontractor. Certification and payment should be the subject of careful strategy and planning. (Read more..)

By Martin Preston
THE majority of the features of a project finance loan agreement are the same as a corporate loan agreement. However, because the basis on which the lenders are advancing the loan is the forecast revenues of the project, rather than the assets or creditworthiness of the sponsors, the risks taken by the lenders and, therefore, the controls that they require under the loan agreement, are greater than would be required under a corporate loan agreement. Inevitably, some of these additional controls impact on the construction contract.

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by Sarah Blackman

zoomNets can be used to eliminate fall hazards but personal protective equipment should also be used when working at height.next »In order to prevent injuries or fatalities at work, companies should go out of their way to reduce hazards wherever possible. Where there is the slightest risk that someone could get hurt, personal protective equipment should always be used, as experts tell Facilities Management Middle East. (Read more..)

The Cost Management Plan describes the process that will be used to manage the project budget including tracking current expenditures, upcoming expenses, identifying potential budget overruns and evaluating overall project spending against the budget. The components of the Cost Management Plan can include:

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The Schedule Management Plan describes the process that will be used to manage the project schedule including tracking activities in progress, identifying activities to be completed, measuring activity performance against allocated time, identification of potential project delays, and evaluating overall project performance. The components of the Schedule Management Plan can include: (Read more..)

The majority of respondents pointed to improper planning and methodology (78 per cent), lack of communication (75 percent), and unrealistic target completion dates (67 percent) as the top three contributing factors to project failure. They also identified inadequate commitment and involvement from senior management (59 percent), insufficient budgets and resources (56 percent), too many assumptions and unknowns (51 percent), project politics and conflicts (38 percent), lack of set targets or measurable results (45 percent), and the formation of the wrong project team (27 percent) as other major causes. (Read more..)

Not everyone believes in project managers. Some common complaints include:

• They focus on planning and processes, and in the end, don’t produce anything of value.
• They speak using business and project management double-talk, and produce only papers, charts,
  graphs, analysis, etc, to justify why no actual product was going into production.
• They have a lack of real experience in the subject area, and they do not know how to actually build a final deliverable. (Read more..)