Integrated Cost And Schedule Control For Construction Projects

Management and administrative processes within the construction industry have been undergoing major changes in the last several decades. These changes have involved significant adjustments in management science and manage ment techniques, brought about by the need for contemporary valid informa tion with which to manage the construction process. In short, management in the construction industry is changing significantly; change will continue at an accelerated pace at least through the next decade. The responses required of construction industry management are now resulting in a movement away from an entrepreneurial management style to professional management tech niques and procedures. THE COMPELLING ECONOMIC ISSUES The issues forcing these changes are economic. The rising costs of construction and of money are forcing the buyers of construction services to be more demanding. Their demands are for more construction economies, more pro duction, and more productivity than at any time in the past. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the Business Roundtable on construction and in the response of the construction industry to it.· To be successfully responsive, management in the construction industry will be required to use the best project management methods available for cost control, schedule control, and for financial and accounting controls. But responsive professional management can survive and will flourish within this more demanding eco nomic environment.

The key to successful project control is the fusing of cost to schedule whereby the management of one helps to manage the other. Project Control: Integrating Cost and Schedule in Construction explores the reasons behind and the methodologies for proper planning, monitoring, and controlling both project costs and schedule. Filling a current void the topic of project control applied to the construction industry, it is essential reading for students and professionals alike.

Critical Path Method (CPM) and Performance Evaluation and ReviewTechnique (PERT) are widely recognized as the most effectivemethods of keeping large, complex construction projects onschedule, under budget, and up to professional standards. But thesemethods remain underused because they are poorly understood and,due to a host of unfamiliar terms and applications, may seem morecomplicated than they really are. This encyclopedia brings together, in one comprehensive volume, allterms, definitions, and applications related to the time and costmanagement of construction projects. While many of these termsrefer to ancient and venerable building practices, others haveevolved quite recently and refer specifically to modernconstruction and management techniques. Sources include hundreds ofprofessional books, trade journals, and research publications, aswell as planning and scheduling software vendor literature. The detailed glossary of all applicable terms includes across-referenced listing of examples that describe real-worldapplications for each term supplied. An extensive bibliographycovers all applicable books, articles, and periodicals available onproject planning, scheduling, and control using CPM and relatedsubjects. This book is an important quick reference and desktop informationresource for construction planners, schedulers, and controllers, aswell as civil engineers and project managers. It is also theultimate research tool for educators, students, or anyone who seeksto improve their understanding of the management of modernconstruction projects.

Cost and Value Management in Projects provides practicing managers with a thorough understanding of the various dimensions of cost and value in projects, along with the factors that impact them, and the managerial approaches that would be most effective for achieving cost efficiency and value optimization. This book addresses cost from a strategic perspective, offering thorough coverage of the various elements of value management such as value planning, value engineering and value analysis from the perspective of projects.

Project managers tend to believe their cost estimates - whether they have exceeded budgets in the past or not. It is dangerous to accept the engineering cost estimates, which are often optimistic or unrealistic. Though cost estimates incorporate contingency reserves below-the-line, these estimates of reserves often do not benefit from a rigorous assessment of risk to project costs. Risks to cost come from multiple sources including uncertain project duration, which is often ignored in cost risk analyses. In short, experience shows that cost estimating on projects is rarely successful - cost overruns routinely occur. There are effective ways to estimate the impact on the cost of complex projects from project risks of all types, including traditional cost-type risks and the indirect but often substantial impact from risks usually thought of as affecting project schedules. Integrated cost-schedule risk anlaysis helps us determine how likely the project will go over budget with the current plan, how much contingency reserve is required to achieve a desired level of certainty, and which risks are most important so the project manager can mitigate them and achieve a better result. Integrated Cost-Schedule Risk Analysis provides solutions for these and other challenges. This book follows on from David Hulett's highly-praised Practical Schedule Risk Analysis. It focuses on the way that schedule risk can generate cost risk, and how to handle this relationship. It also applies the Risk Driver Method to the analysis so that you can clearly and transparently identify the key risks, rather than just the most risky cost line items. With detailed worked examples and over 70 illustrations, Integrated Cost-Schedule Risk Analysis offers the definitive guide to this critically important aspect of project management from surely the world's leading commentator.

Using a systems perspective, this updated version concentrates on the planning, scheduling and control factors of a project needed to bring it in on time and on or under cost. This edition contains expanded coverage of computer simulation and applications, information management and expert systems in project management. Includes a new chapter on Total Quality Management.

Aiming to bridge the gap between the quantitative viewpoint of management science and the practical, day-to-day needs of project cost management, this text offers coverage of an integrated cost management programme. It presents the use of method study techniques to increase the effectiveness of procedures and improve the productivity of resources, emphasizing a systematic approach to cost control.