Construction Management Guide

Dubai has recently seen record numbers of construction-related court cases and arbitrations and its arbitral institutions should now prepare for a second wave before the year-end, writes HENRY QUINLAN*.
DUBAI has not escaped the widespread effects of the global economic downturn, which has had a wide impact on the construction sector, largely due to the enormous number and scope of projects in the emirate.
Liquidity has been one of the main casualties of the downturn which, together with falling property values, has put both developers and contractors under significant financial pressure. [Read more…]

There are two major definitions for configuration management.

1. It can be a term given to the identification, tracking and managing of all the assets of a project. This definition would be especially relevant on software development projects where the “configuration” refers to the collection of artifacts, code components, executables, etc. The items that you will track under configuration management are called “configuration items” in the Capability Maturity Model (CMMI). These configuration items can be interpreted quite broadly to include things such as: [Read more…]

Efficiency and effectiveness are key to the smooth functioning of an organization and can be achieved if work is properly planned and delegated. Before you start your work, take some time to plan. These plans should be flexible so that you can adapt them to different situations. However, you should ensure that details do not slow down your work. Here are some tips: [Read more…]

by Michael Pilkington and Peter Smith

As the economic slowdown continues to affect the Dubai construction market, there is no doubt that for much of the industry one inevitability will be an even greater squeeze on cashflow. [Read more…]

Have you ever been on a project that missed all of its commitments for cost, schedule, and quality? Although it may seem counterintuitive, there are a number of projects that have major problems, even some that are cancelled, on which the team members all receive great reviews and the project manager is promoted. [Read more…]

In organizations where poor performers are (involuntarily) allowed to thrive, the levels of productivity and morale take deep plunges, and turnover increases. When organizations impose no checks on performance, top performers leave because they want to avoid associating with a management that tolerates mediocrity. With only mediocre employees staying on, the work culture evolves to accommodate mediocrity. This has a damaging, long-term effect on productivity and, even worse, the organization’s reputation. [Read more…]

A Hewlett-Packard executive once noted, “If you catch a two cent resistor before you use it and throw it away, you lose two cents.  If you don’t find it until it has been soldered into a computer component, it may cost $10 to repair the part.  If you don’t catch the component until it is in the computer . . . the expense may exceed the manufacturing cost.” [Read more…]

In a large project, there may be many people that have some role in the creation and approval of project deliverables. Sometimes this is pretty straightforward, such as one person writing a document and one person approving it. In other cases, there may be many people who have a hand in the creation and others that need to have varying levels of approval. [Read more…]

Once the methodology has been selected, the PMO has to work to get the organization to adopt the common processes. Two of the primary ways this is done are through training and coaching services. [Read more…]

Episode 1

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