Liquidated Damages for Construction Delays

Liquidated Damages is defined as “a sum which a party to a contract agrees to pay or a deposit which he agrees to forfeit if he breaks some promise and which, having been arrived at by a good faith effort to estimate in advance the actual damage which would probably ensue the breach, are legally recoverable or retainable as agreed damages if the breach occurs.” [Read more…]

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Nine Tips for Improving Negotiation Skills

Professional salespeople love negotiation, but many soloists are more comfortable doing their job rather than negotiating about it. Here are nine tips for improving your negotiation skills.
As a proposal strategist and writer, my job is to get my clients shortlisted with the opportunity to negotiate for an important project or contract. During many hours spent burning the midnight oil together, clients become friends, and I usually end up caring about the outcome almost as much as they do.
By keeping tabs on the progress of some very long post-pitch negotiations and seeing the tactics employed by some exceptional salespeople, I have picked up some great tips for improving negotiation skills that will help you navigate this important, but nerve-wracking, part of the sales process. [Read more…]

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Construction Safety

Unfortunately the construction industry has become stereotyped as an accident prone industry, in fact only mining and fishing industries have higher fatalities. Depressingly, the accident rates experienced closely correlate to the level of activity within the industry, indicating that when work load is high, safety tends to receive less attention. [Read more…]

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Civil Engineering Estimation

An estimate is a calculation of the quantities of various items of work, and the expenses likely to be incurred there on. The total of these probable expenses to be incurred on the work is known as estimated cost of the work. The estimated cost of a work is a close approximation of its actual cost. [Read more…]

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Manage Human Resources – Framework

Small Projects

Whenever a project manager has team members on the project, he needs to recognize the needs of managing human resources. However, these small projects will probably not need to worry too much with formal people management processes and techniques. First, if it is a small project the project manager does not have to acquire much staff (if any). The project team is most likely assigned by a functional (staffing) manager. There is not much opportunity to develop the team members since the project is probably short. There is also little opportunity to formally manage people other than making sure the team members know the work they are responsible for and making sure that the work is completed successfully. Similarly, a small project is normally not going to run into many people problems. [Read more…]

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FIDIC Americas Contract Users’ Conference – the latest addition to the Contract Users’ Series!

FIDIC Americas Contract Users’ Conference

2nd & 3rd October – New York, USA
Created by FIDIC in association with IBC Legal Conferences

10% saving for CMguide readers – quote VIP code: FKW82297CMGP [Read more…]

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Force majeure – the devil is in the detail

By Ruth Wilkinson

Key Points:
• A force majeure clause normally excuses one (or both) parties from performance of the contract in some way on the occurrence of a specified event or events beyond their control

[Read more…]

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Liquidated damages: who pays for losses?

 By KATIE LISZKA

THE use of liquidated damages provisions is widespread throughout the construction industry. Those operating in the industry locally are generally familiar with the underlying legal principles applying to such provisions, such as the fact that there are marked differences between the treatment of liquidated damages under the UAE law and English law. [Read more…]

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Strive to Create High-Performance Teams

Have you ever been on a project team that had everything going right? The team members all got along; they all had the right skills; everyone worked hard and pulled together to get the project done.

Those are just some of the characteristics of a high-performing team. High-performing teams can sometimes form by themselves, perhaps even in spite of a manager that gets in the way. However, it is more typical that a manager helps a team become high-performing and facilitates them through a process that leads to the team becoming as effective and efficient as possible. [Read more…]

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Provide Meaningful Performance Feedback

The role of the project manager normally does not include providing formal performance reviews to team members. This is usually a responsibility of each employee’s functional manager. However, there is no question that a project manager does need to provide performance feedback to team members to let them know how they are doing and whether they are meeting performance expectations. This includes recognizing when team members meet their commitments and providing feedback to them when they are not meeting your expectations. [Read more…]

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