User:Stanimir

The must-have tools for a Construction Project Manager

 

Introduction

To be a Project Manager has never been an easy job. The construction industry has evolved much, and the complexity of projects has increased accordingly. In the past, building shapes were not that ambitious, and the more extravagant, which are now considered architectural landmarks, took ages to build. Just to mention some examples: the Norte Dame took over 200 years to build; Cologne Cathedral with around 600 years; the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, which started construction in 1882, and is still not finished. There are many factors influencing the long construction time, such as political instability, lack of financial and physical resources, wars, and many more, but a major reason the construction process was delayed that much was the lack of coordination and communication. Any change of design meant that all the drawings, calculations and models had to be remake, and that took time. Fortunately, nowadays that is not an issue.

Abstract

Capitalism has put a lot of pressure on time and resources, which results in the need for optimizing processes; information technologies; data extraction; coordination and communication across disciplines, contractors, and stakeholders. Smaller construction projects are easier to manage, as the workload is not that huge, and one can probably do well with more simple tools for design, planning and management, but when it comes to big- and mega-projects, or very complex ones with special requirements, the lack of proper methods and tools will cost the project dearly, both in time and money. This article will show the relevance and need for digital tools for design, planning and management a Project Manager should have in the 21st century. It will analyse one specific digital tool for managing Construction projects, list the types of features needed to execute a big and complex construction project and will analyse some examples. It will also consider the advantages and disadvantages in using those types of software and will discuss what could be improved in the future.

Terminology

The following terms and definitions will be used in this article:

Scope - authorized work to accomplish work agreed objectives.

Project - projects are temporary and focus on retaining or adding value or capability, for a sponsoring organization, stakeholder or customer. Operations are performed through ongoing activities and can be focused on sustaining the organization, such as through the delivery of repeatable products and services. (REF DS)

Furthermore, the projects that will be mentioned are construction projects and have a budget of over 10 M DKK.

Stakeholder - person, group or organization that has interest in, or can affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by, any aspect of a project, programme or portfolio. (REF DS)

Typical stakeholders in a construction project are: investors, contractors and subcontractors, users and (in some cases) the municipality.

Work package - group of activities that have defined scope, deliverable, timescale and cost.

Control - comparison of actual performance with planned performance, analyzing variances and taking appropriate corrective and preventive action as needed.

Issue - event that arises during a project requiring resolution for the project to proceed.

PM - Project Manager

BIM - Building Information Modeling

Model - a 3D representation of the building project in a digital format.

The essential tools for PM

A project managers role can vary with different projects. Tender preparation, coordinating task between the different disciplines, estimating time and cost, and monitoring the work on site are some of the typical tasks a Project Manager has. To keep track on the project, be informed about changes and act fast when needed, a PM must make use of the best software available, because the “conventional” e-mails and paper drawings are not enough to communicate fast and effectively.

Design Phase

After the project scope is defined and the key stakeholders are identified, the design phase can start.

BIM concept

Nowadays, the Building Information Modeling (BIM) is playing a key role in the construction industry. As the name implies, the building project is represented by an object based 3D (some software even claim to have a 4D) model, which contains metadata. Autodesk, which is one of the leading companies in the field, describe its as the following: "Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the holistic process of creating and managing information for a built asset. Based on an intelligent model and enabled by a cloud platform, BIM integrates structured, multi-disciplinary data to produce a digital representation of an asset across its lifecycle, from planning and design to construction and operations."[1]

In other words – a BIM model is a digital representation of the project, with object-based elements, containing metadata, which later can be extracted and used with other software. A BIM model serves as the groundwork for the project, as most of the relevant information can be accessed instantly from it, by using work-sharing. Depending on project needs, and goals set, the settings can be made so different disciplines can work simultaneously on the model, without interfering in each other’s work.

One of the most used and popular software for BIM models today is Autodesk Revit. Because of its popularity, the majority of other software have made a plugin, or at least made their software compatible with it, in order to access the huge market.

ICT Contract

The basis of communication regarding project information must be agreed upon with an ICT Agreement [2]. It lists the types of file formats, classifications, names, specifications and other relevant information to be used in the project. This improves the coordination and efficiency of work.

AutoDesk Revit

Choosing a software is very much individual, and some software are better at performing in certain task, while they are worse at others, therefor there is no “right” or “wrong” ones. With that in mind, there are some that have more features and are more user-friendly than others. Within the top 10 of many charts online, rating the best BIM software 2023, you will most likely find Revit, AutoCad, ARCHICAD, Rhino and SketchUp. For simplicity, only Revit AutoDesk will be examined in this article. It is a 3D geometry based BIM software with build in libraries of objects. Examples can be wall, roof, floor, window, etc. All objects are grouped into families and types, and contain information relevant to them. This information is called metadata.

Designing the model

In big projects, every contractor/subcontractor will have their own BIM model with shared coordinates to work on. Typically, a BIM Coordinator will be responsible for delegating access and rights to different users according to their role. As Revit supports work-sharing, it allows all the disciplines to see the changes in the model made instantly and adjust their design if needed.

Clash test

Once the design is in progress, a good practice would be to supervise it throughout all the stages, so no big surprises come in the end. To monitor, a PM must perform “clash tests” on the models. That consists of merging the different models together and checking where the geometry overlaps. Those overlapping are called clashes, or issues. The amount of clashes tends to be proportional with the size of the project, as the bigger projects contain more objects and the geometry becomes more complex. Once those clashes are identified, they can be assigned as tasks to different disciplines. Comments can be written, specifying the action needed.

Simulations

One use of the metadata is to make simulations. There are many types of software specialized in different types of simulations, but some that are without a doubt useful are for example: load-bearing simulations; energy simulations; daylight simulations. They take the metadata as input and use build-in formulas to produce in few hours results, that took days not so long ago.

All those tools are essential as they reduce the time for design significantly, improve coordination between the different disciplines, and increase overall performance.

Planning

Cost estimation

There are many ways to estimate the budget of a project, and most firms have their own way of dealing with it. Estimations are based on current prices found in catalogues, previous orders, special agreements, etc. Some use spreadsheets, others software, and the accuracy can vary. Unexpected cost and contingencies must be taken into consideration always. Another use of the metadata can be utilized here, by extracting the quantities for those spreadsheets, instead of typing them manually one by one. This can be a great advantage for bigger projects. There is even software, which takes a couple of hours to estimate the total construction cost, including labour, materials, and leasing of equipment, based on the quantity of the objects. It’s called Sigma Cost Estimate. In that way, decisions regarding for example material choice can be taken at a much early stage. Moreover, it estimates the time it will take to complete building a given object.

Execution

Dalux

Having a BIM model is essential, but in order to manage the project, one has to supplement it with other software. Dalux is a software company specialized in exactly that, and it has created packages to support the different processes trough the who life of the project.

Idea

The idea of the project is manifested trough the BIM software, where the different disciplines coordinate with each other to create a meaningful model. Once all the models are linked, they can be exported directly into Dalux.

BIM viewer

Before accessing the quality of the design, or work done, a PM has to be able to navigate into the model. Dalux here has a clear advantage, as it uses low resolution rendering, which reduces the lag time when working with the model, and in big projects, with many details, even a simple zoom in/out can cause lag on a regular machine.