Project Management Jigsaw – Current Trends

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Arnab Ghosh, Managing Director, Corporate Fitouts at Colliers India In its true sense, project management refers to a professional service that ensures a multi-disciplinary complex project is delivered within an agreed time cost and quality. The quality aspect here includes all parts and is not limited to construction. To do the same, the Project Management firm ideally needs to be onboard during the inception stage itself. The inputs of professionals during the pre-construction are what determine the final quality of the product. Eighty percent of a Project's cost, quality, and duration is defined by the decisions we take during the pre-construction period. Clients today are reluctant to use project management professionals in the pre-construction phase. The trend is to manage the design and procurement in-house and use a project management firm only for construction supervision. Construction management as a service is limited in scale and cannot be compared to full-fledged project management. The construction management fee is decided based on the person-month rate, project organogram, and project duration. Each team member is given a role and responsibility. However, since their control on the design and vendors is limited, the Client will find it challenging to make them accountable for the project delivery. A faulty design or a wrong choice of Vendor can be mitigated to a certain extent by the Site team, but they leave their scars on the project cost and duration in most cases. The success of a project is closely linked with the team we initially set up for delivery. A good project management team will be able to advise the Client correctly at the right time, ensure the design process has direction, work within agreed cost and time parameters and help the Client procurement to prequalify the right set of Vendors. It will define pre-construction milestones and make sure all stakeholders work in tandem to achieve them. Communication and understanding of the Client's intent are critical skillsets for Pre-construction managers. The design thinking process starts from the design brief, and proper articulation of the desired reality of the Client helps the designers and the project management team. A good procurement strategy can help the client source the right vendors for the Project with multiple options. The intent is to identify equivalent Vendors who are qualified and keen to participate in the tendering process. Projects must follow a logical sequence of activities. Respect for the process is crucial to achieving quality, and it is necessary to avoid shortcuts and uninformed decision-making. The gateway protocol where the pre-construction activities move through gateways after taking necessary stakeholder approvals is an effective way to avoid rework. Full-fledged project management services always add a lot of value if the same is availed consciously. Clients benefit from the knowledge and bandwidth of the project management team who are managing similar Projects. The PMC team also becomes part of Project-specific crucial decisions with full accountability on the table. This model is more applicable for Clients who do not have resources with project management skillsets inside their organization. An aware Client will employ PMC professionals and support them to deliver within the framework of their organization. The quality and experience of the Project Management team is a crucial factor here for the Clients to feel comfortable as they are working as an extended arm of them. Unfortunately, Project Management as a service is slowly but surely losing its sheen. From a full-fledged service model, it is now divided into service modules. Clients are choosing modules at their convenience without understanding their ramifications. Dilution of the single point responsibility in projects is affecting project objectives and increasing risks. Client organizations' root cause behind this change in approach is their experience with inept project management teams. In many instances, Clients have been forced to intervene and resolved frictions or disputes between Architects, Project Management teams, and Vendors. As professionals, we need to introspect about the quality of our deliverables and, more importantly, the attitude with which we approach a project. We must consider ourselves as the Client's representative and make sure the desired reality objectives guide all our efforts. We must understand the Client's business goals and how can the Project be navigated towards the same. The Client also needs to acknowledge how quality Project management, if engaged early, adds value and does not equate it to a person-month amount. A large-scale complex development envisaged by a Client organization will impact a lot of lives as and when it gets built. The translation of the vision becomes more accessible when a qualified and mature project management team is in place from the beginning to propel the flight, keep it on course, and ensures it lands safely.