School of Engineering and Architecture
Civil Engineering Department
Construction Engineering and Management
Introduction to
Engineering
Management
Module 1 Chapter 1 – Project Construction and Management
Objective
After this chapter, the student should be able to:
 Explain the nature and purpose of management.
 Understand that management applies to all kinds of
organizations and to managers at all organizational levels.
 Define the managerial functions of planning, organizing,
staffing, leading, ad controlling.
 Show management process to management, its contributions,
as well as its limitations.
Content
This chapter focuses on
 Management and Organization
 Levels of Management Responsibility per Management
Function
 Functional Management Skills
 Management Process
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Module 1 – Introduction to Engineering Management
Related
Readings
These are supplemental content necessary for this chapter
 Richardson, G. L. (2015). Project management theory and
practice (2nd ed.). Boca Raton: CRC
 Burger,
R.
Management?.
(2020).
What
is
Construction
Engineering
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-is-
construction-engineering-management-845371
One of the most important activities in construction is managing. Ever since the dawn of civilization,
man has indulged in some form of construction activity and began forming groups to accomplish
aims they could not achieve as individuals, managing has been essential to - ensure the
coordination of individual efforts. As modern construction areas has come to rely increasingly on
group effort, and as many organized groups have become large, the task of managers has been
rising in importance. The purpose of this module is to promote excellence among all persons in
organizations, especially among managers, aspiring project managers, and other professionals.
1.1. MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION
Management is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals,
working together in groups, efficiently accomplish selected aims. This basic definition needs to be
expanded:
 As managers, people carry out the managerial functions of planning, organizing, staffing,
leading, and controlling.
 Management applies to any kind of organization.
 It applies 10 managers at all organizational levels.
 The aim of all managers is the same: to create a surplus.
 Managing is concerned with productivity, which implies effectiveness and efficiency
Management of construction projects is the art and science of mobilizing and managing people,
materials, equipment and money to complete the assigned project work on time within budgeted
costs in specified technical performance standards. It aims at achieving the specified objectives
efficiently and effectively by managing human energies and optimizing the non-human resources
placed at their disposal.
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Construction projects differ from other ongoing steady state business enterprises like construction
manufacturing and trading in many ways. The salient distinguishing features of project management
and its organizational implications are as follows:
1. The project mission is unique. No two projects are alike. The type of work at each site differs,
unlike in industry where a factory manufactures the same type of product repeatedly.
2. Projects are transient in nature. Unlike ongoing steady state enterprises, a project comes on end
after its mission is fulfilled.
3. Projects consist of a variety of specialized works and need a wide range of tradesmen, who are
casual employees. Since projects have a short life, workers move from job to job like nomads,
whereas the stable industrial enterprises have more or less permanent employees.
4. Project sites are in open remote areas and are prone to weather changes, whereas industrial
setups our house in a permanent accommodation.
5. Project works are carried out at places that are far away from the corporate head offices, unlike
the industrial management, which is generally located at the place of work.
6. Project work, specially in high-rise buildings, involves operations at heights, making the accident
rate higher done in industrial factories.
7. Construction projects operate under risk and uncertain conditions as compared two well defined
industrial processes.
8. The predetermined and specified start and completion dates of projects do not leave anytime
flexible, specially when projects are to be executed speedily under relatively risk prone complex
situations and resource constraints.
9. Project time and costs are correlated. Time delays in between the project execution can alter the
schedule of subsequent activities. Schedule slippages affect the project economy. Project delays
attract heavy penalties. cost on account of time delays, unless properly controlled, can increase
exponentially instead of marginally as in case of other ongoing enterprises.
10. Quality at each stage of project work is inspected construction quality judgment lies with the
inspector of works, rather than the measurement of tolerances of an industrial product. Further
acceptance of any work does not absolve the builder of defects appearing later on. In such
situations generally the entire completed affected work gets rejected, whereas with the one product
rejected in the manufacturing process.
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11. Project tasks are generally non routine. The art to be executed speedily. This hardly leaves
anytime for training or a learning process. Accordingly projects employ experienced staff with
proven skills. Comparatively, it is difficult to get state of the art experienced project operations in
management personnel done the on-going enterprises.
12. Since projects are generally handled by various companies the result in social, organizational,
technical and economic interactions. Unlike in ongoing concerns, any adverse effects in one project
can have its repercussions on other interdependent projects.
13. Most projects by nature contain several interrelated subsystems. Integration of activities of several
subsystems requires coordination and needs information for making decisions. Information
extraction for making decisions at various levels of management is relatively complex under dynamic
complex project environments rather than in ongoing stable enterprises.
Resources
Management of a construction project mission entails multidirectional interaction of dynamic forces
represented by its time, resources constraints and the changing costs. There is always a dynamic
link in how to manage time, how to manage resources and how to stay within the budget. This
dynamic linkage in the life span of a project, can be conceptualized by a typical project
management model sketched Fig. 1.1.
Time
Project Environments
Fig.1.1 Project Management Model
(K.K. Chitkara, 1998)
Despite diversity's end multifarious activities, each project is an entity in itself. It is organized to
achieve mission, within predetermined objectives. Its accomplishment is entrusted to a single
responsibility center, commanded by the project manager.
In such unpredictable fast changing environments, the project manager aims at achieving the
project mission
 Within the project time, cost, in quality;
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 By planning, organizing, coordinating, monitoring and controlling the available resources;
 Managing the organizational behavior with the assistance of the project team and the
specialists.
All manage organizations. We define an organization as a group of people working together to
create a surplus. In business organizations, this surplus is profit. In nonprofit organizations, such as
charitable organizations, it may be satisfaction of needs. Universities also create a surplus through
generation and dissemination of knowledge as well as providing service to the community or
society.
Project organization is temporary, it seizes after completion of project. It is conceived during the
project conception stage and it comes into existence at the start of planning stage. It grows
gradually. It undergoes changes in various stages of the project lifecycle to meet project needs.
Towards the end, it runs down and ceases after completion of the project. Its special attributes
include its innovation capacity to overcome problems as they arise. It is staffed with experienced
person to respond speedily with changing situations and to speed up decision-making.
The guidelines for designing of the project organization includes the following:
 organizational groups are designed to generally conform with the project work breakdown
structure.
 Each group is assigned responsibilities and allocated resources to meet the assigned tasks.
 The size and structure of the organization is change due to alternation in requirements.
However, the core project team continuous till the end.
 Project groups are suitably structured with emphasis on teamwork and informal relationship.
 Organization structure is kept flat to avoid bureaucratic tendencies and reduce channels of
communication with the project manager.
 Where possible, key staff is derived from their respective parent departments in corporate
office and their interfaces and communication links and clearly defined.
 The heads of line and staff departments are generally grouped into project management
team and planning chief is assigned responsibility of the coordination function.
Depending upon the nature of project and the corporate policy, the project management
organization pattern can vary from highly centralized functional organization to a dedicated project
team with fully decentralized authority.
Organizational structure is an enterprise environmental factor which can affect the availability of
resource and influence how projects are conducted. Organizational structures range from functional
to projectized, with matrix structures between them. Table 1 shows key project-related characteristic
of the major types organizational structures.
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Project Characteristics
Project Manager’s
Authority
Resources Availability
Who controls the
project budget
Project Manager’s
Role
Project Management
Administrative staff
Table 1. Organizational Influences on Projects
Organizational Structure
Functional
Matrix
Projectized
Little or None
Moderate to High
High to Almost Total
Little or None
Moderate to High
High to Almost Total
Functional Manager
Project Manager
Project Manager
Part-time
Full-time
Full-time
Part-time
Full-time
Full-time
The classic functional organization, show in Figure 1.2, is a hierarchy where each employees has one
clear superior. Staff members are grouped by specialty, such as production, marketing, engineering
and accounting at the top level. Specialties may be further subdivided into function organization will
do its project work independent of other departments.
Fig. 1.3 Functional Organization
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There are advantages and disadvantages of using functional elements of the parent organization as
the administrative home for a project, assuming that one has chosen an appropriate function. The
major advantages are:
1. There is maximum flexibility in the use of staff. If the proper functional division has been chosen as
the project’s home, the division will be the primary administrative base for individuals with technical
expertise in the fi elds relevant to the project. Experts can be temporarily assigned to the project,
make the required contributions, and immediately be reassigned to their normal work.
2. Individual experts can be utilized by many different projects. With the broad base of technical
personnel available in the functional divisions, people can be switched back and forth between the
different projects with relative ease.
3. Specialists in the division can be grouped to share knowledge and experience. Therefore, the
project team has access to whatever technical knowledge resides in the functional group. This depth
of knowledge is a potential source of creative, synergistic solutions to technical problems.
4. The functional division also serves as a base of technological continuity when individuals choose
to leave the project, and even the parent fi rm. Perhaps just as important as technological continuity
is the procedural, administrative, and overall policy continuity that results when the project is
maintained in a specific functional division of the parent firm.
5. Finally, and not the least important, the functional division contains the normal path of
advancement for individuals whose expertise is in the functional area. The project may be a source
of glory for those who participate in its successful completion, but the functional fi eld is their
professional home and the focus of their professional growth and advancement.
Just as there are advantages to housing the project in a functional area, there are also
disadvantages:
1. A primary disadvantage of this arrangement is that the client is not the focus of activity and
concern. The functional unit has its own work to do, which usually takes precedence over the work
of the project, and hence over the interests of the client.
2. The functional division tends to be oriented toward the activities particular to its function. It is not
usually problem oriented in the sense that a project should be to be successful.
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3. Occasionally in functionally organized projects, no individual is given full responsibility for the
project. This failure to pinpoint responsibility usually means that the PM is made accountable for
some parts of the project, but another person is made accountable for one or more other parts.
Little imagination is required to forecast the lack of coordination and chaos that results.
4. The same reasons that lead to lack of coordinated effort tend to make response to client needs
slow and arduous. There are often several layers of management between the project and the client.
5. There is a tendency to suboptimize the project. Project issues that are directly within the interest
area of the functional home may be dealt with carefully, but those outside normal interest areas may
be given short shrift, if not totally ignored.
6. The motivation of people assigned to the project tends to be weak. The project is not in the
mainstream of activity and interest, and some project team members may view service on the
project as a professional detour.
7. Such an organizational arrangement does not facilitate a holistic approach to the project.
Complex technical projects such as the development of a jet transport aircraft or an emergency
room in a hospital simply cannot be well designed unless they are designed as a totality. No matter
how good the intentions, no functional division can avoid focusing on its unique areas of interest.
Cross-divisional communication and sharing of knowledge is slow and difficult at best.
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Fig. 4 Projectized Organization
At the opposite end of the spectrum to the functional organization is the projectized organization,
shown in Figures 1-4. In a projectized organization, team members are often co-located, most of the
organization’s recourses are involved in project work, and project managers have a great deal of
independence and authority. Projectized organizations often have organizational units called
departments, but these groups either report directly to the project manager or provide support
services to the various projects.
As with the functional organization, the projectized organization has its unique advantages and
disadavantages. The former are:
1. The project manager has full line authority over the project. Though the PM must report to a
senior executive in the parent organization, there is a complete work force devoted to the project.
The PM is like the CEO of a fi rm that is dedicated to carrying out the project.
2. All members of the project work force are directly responsible to the PM. There are no functional
division heads whose permission must be sought or whose advice must be heeded before making
technological decisions. The PM is truly the project director.
3. When the project is removed from the functional division, the lines of communication are
shortened. The entire functional structure is bypassed, and the PM communicates directly with senior
corporate management. The shortened communication lines result in faster communications with
fewer failures.
4. When there are several successive projects of a similar kind, the pure project organization can
maintain a more or less permanent cadre of experts who develop considerable skill in specifi c
technologies. Indeed, the existence of such skill pools can attract customers to the parent fi rm.
Lockheed’s famous “Skunk Works” was such a team of experts who took great pride in their ability to
solve diffi cult engineering problems. The group’s name, taken from the Li’l Abner comic strip, refl
ects the group’s pride, irreverent attitude, and strong sense of identity.
5. The project team that has a strong and separate identity of its own tends to develop a high level
of commitment from its members. Motivation is high and acts to foster the task orientation.
6. Because authority is centralized, the ability to make swift decisions is greatly enhanced. The entire
project organization can react more rapidly to the requirements of the client and the needs of senior
management.
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7. Unity of command exists. While it is easy to overestimate the value of this particular organizational
principle, there is little doubt that the quality of life for subordinates is enhanced when each
subordinate has one, and only one, boss.
8. Pure project organizations are structurally simple and flexible, which makes them relatively easy to
understand and to implement.
9. The organizational structure tends to support a holistic approach to the project. The dangers of
focusing on and optimizing the project’s subsystems rather than the total project are often a major
cause of technical failure in projects.
While the advantages of the projectized organization make a powerful argument favoring this
structure, its disadvantages are also serious:
1. When the parent organization takes on several projects, it is common for each one to be fully
staffed. This can lead to considerable duplication of effort in every area from clerical staff to the
most sophisticated (and expensive) technological support units. If a project does not require a fulltime personnel manager, for example, it must have one nonetheless because personnel managers
come in integers, not fractions, and staff is usually not shared across projects.
2. In fact, the need to ensure access to technological knowledge and skills results in an attempt by
the PM to stockpile equipment and technical assistance in order to be certain that it will be available
when needed. Thus, people with critical technical skills may be hired by the project when they are
available rather than when they are needed. Similarly, they tend to be maintained on the project
longer than needed, “just in case.” Disadvantages 1 and 2 combine to make this way of organizing
projects very expensive.
3. Removing the project from technical control by a functional department has its advantages, but it
also has a serious disadvantage if the project is characterized as “high technology.” Though
individuals engaged with projects develop considerable depth in the technology of the project, they
tend to fall behind in other areas of their technical expertise. The functional division is a repository of
technical lore, but it is not readily accessible to members of the pure project team.
4. Pure project groups seem to foster inconsistency in the way in which policies and procedures are
carried out. In the relatively sheltered environment of the project, administrative corner cutting is
common and easily justified as a response to the client or to technical exigency. “They don’t
understand our problems” becomes an easy excuse for ignoring dicta from headquarters.
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5. In pure project organizations, the project takes on a life of its own. Team members form strong
attachments to the project and to each other. A disease known as projectitis develops. A strong we–
they divisiveness grows, distorting the relationships between project team members and their
counterparts in the parent organization. Friendly rivalry may become bitter competition, and political
infighting between projects is common. 6. Another symptom of projectitis is the worry about “life
after the project ends.” Typically, there is considerable uncertainty about what will happen when the
project is completed. Will team members be laid off? Will they be assigned to low-prestige work?
Will their technical skills be too rusty to be successfully integrated into other projects? Will our team
(that old gang of mine) be broken up?
The matrix structure is viewed as a temporary organization having human and non- human
resources with reduced vertical hierarchy so as respond speedily in a changing complex situation for
achieving this specified performance objectives. Matrix organizations, as shown in Figures 1.5, are
blend of functional and projectized characteristic.
The managers in a project team are its key personnel. They are drawn from their parent department
in our specialist in their field. They are charged with responsibility of the respective areas of activity.
In
this way, communication and coordination between top management and project management is
improved.
Fig 1.5 Matrix Organization
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Following are the advantages of the matrix structure:
a. it has a single project manager accountable for the whole project. The project management,
working as a team, performs the basic management functions of planning, organizing, staffing,
directing, controlling and coordinating the project work.
b. All managers owe their allegiance to the project manager, and not to their parent departmental
heads.
c. Personal commitment to objectives is the keynote of the matrix organization. It provides a climate
for motivation, effectiveness and personal development.
d. The specialist staff is employed effectively. The matrix organization balances their conflicting
objectives by reducing the communication gap.
e. The top management is freed from making routine decisions. As the decision -making machinery
forms an integral part of the metric structure.
f. It provides enough flexibility to meet uncertain and changing situation by the establishing a project
planning and control system at site to monitor the input flow of resources in the performance
output.
However, if not properly conceived and directed, the matrix organization can result in increased
conflicts, lack of coordination, low productivity, and enhanced costs.
1.2 LEVELS OF MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILTY PER MANAGEMENT FUNCTION
A given situation may differ considerably between various levels in organization or between various
types of enterprises. Similarly, the scope of authority held may vary and the types of problems dealt
with may be considerably different. Furthermore, the person in a managerial role may be directing
people in the sales, engineering, or finance department. But the fact remains that, as managers, all
obtain results by establishing an environment for effective group endeavor.
All managers carry out managerial functions. However, the time spent for each function may differ.
Figure 2 shows an approximation of the relative time spent for each function. Thus, top-level
managers spend more time on planning and organizing than do lower-level managers. Leading, on
the other hand, takes a great deal of time for first-line supervisors. The difference in time spent on
controlling varies only slightly for managers at various levels.
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Fig. 2 Time spent in carrying out managerial functions. Partly based on and adapted from Thomas
A. Mahoney, Thomas H. Jerdee, and Stephen J. Carroll, "The Job(s) of Management,' Industrial
Relations (February 1965), pp. 97-110.
1.2.1 Managerial Skills and Management Levels
The relative importance of these skills may differ at various levels in administrators: the
organizational hierarchy. As shown In Figure 2.1, technical skills are of greatest importance at the
supervisory level, and human skills are helpful in the frequent interactions with subordinates.
Conceptual and design skills, on the other hand, are usually not critical for lower-level supervisors. At
the middle management level, the need for technical skills decreases, human skills are still essential,
while conceptual skills gain in importance. At the top management level, conceptual and design
abilities and human skills are especially valuable, but there is relatively little need for technical
abilities. it is assumed, especially in large companies, that chief executive officers (CEOs) can utilize
the technical abilities of their subordinates. In smaller firms, however, technical experience may still
be quite important.
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Fig. 2.1 Skills and management levels
(H. Weihrich and H. Koontz, 1998)
1.3 FUNCTIONAL MANAGEMENT SKILLS
The overall aim of the management in an enterprise is to create within the enterprise, an
environment which will facilitate the accomplishment of its objectives. The term enterprise refers to a
business, government agency, hospital, university, and any other type of organization, as well as
nonbusiness organizations. In doing this, management has to perform certain functions. Although
the development of a theory in science of management suffers from disagreement among scholars
and managers, a general pattern of functions which management has to perform, has emerged.
Traditionally, management functions are grouped under six headings, namely planning, organizing,
staffing, directing and controlling, and common to all this function is the function of coordination.
These functional areas, with some adjustments on account of the special characteristics of
construction projects, are equally applicable in managing construction. The project management
functions of planning, organizing, procurement, leading and controlling are outlined below:
Planning involves deciding in advance what is to be done, how and in what order it is to be done in
order to achieve the objectives. Planning aims at deciding upon the future course of action. A plan
shows the committed course of action. Schedule depicts when the planned activities are to be
carried, it puts the plan on calendar date scale. In brief, planning and scheduling involves the
following:
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a. Crystalizing objectives
b. Collecting and synthesizing information
c. developing alternative courses of action within specified constraints
d. comparing alternatives in terms of objectives feasibility and consequences
e. selecting and scheduling the optimum course of action
f. establishing policies, procedures, methods, schedules, programs, systems, standards and budgets
for accomplishing project objectives.
Organizing is the process of establishing a structural relationship among functions of people, show
us to formulate an effective machinery for streamlining the achievement of assigned objectives.
Organizing involves the following main tasks:
a. dividing the work into component activities
b. designing job structures
c. defining performance targets and responsibilities
d. allocating resources
e. delegating authority commensurate with responsibility
f. establishing structural relationship to secure coordination
Staffing involves filling and keeping filled the positions in the organization structure this is done by:
a. identifying work-force requirements
b. inventorying the people available
c. recruiting, selecting, placing, promoting, appraising, planning the careers of, compensating, and
training or otherwise developing both candidates and current jobholders so that tasks are
accomplished effectively and efficiently.
Procuring it implies managing and keeping manned, the positions created by organization structure
in providing them the right quality resources at the right time. This resources include people,
materials, machinery and money. The connected project management tasks include the following:
a. Preparing resource procurement schedules.
b. Developing specifications for required resources.
c. Deciding appropriate sources of procurement.
d. Budgeting resources and arranging approvals and purchasese.
e. Sending the stage during resource holding at site.
f. Supplying on time required quality and quantity of resources check instruction sites.
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Directing or leading it involves influencing people so as to enable them to contribute to
organizational goals efficiently and effectively. Direction implies the following tasks:
a. providing effective leadership
b. motivating participants behaviour
c. communicating instructions and orders
d. providing a suitable climate for subordinates development
Controlling involves monitoring of the performance and applying corrective measures in case of
deviations from the plan. The process of control can be subdivided into the following stages:
a. specifying the factors to be controlled
b. stating the methods of measuring control factors
c. evolving systems for generating performance data
d. monitoring data received and formulating corrective options
e. applying corrective measures to put a plan on the scheduled path
f. replanning, when necessary
1.3.1 Project Management Team
The project management team led by a project manager, who is an agent of the client and
acts on his behalf. He is either appointed by the client or is position at site by the construction
management consultant (of the client). He coordinates and communicates with all the agencies
engaged in project work. In particular, he is accountable for planning, mobilizing, motivation,
directing, coordinating and controlling all the activities at the project site which are necessary for
achieving the project objectives of time, cost and quality. Loosely, the site in-charge of a major
contractor is also referred as contractor’s project manager or general manager or construction
manager.
The achievement of this project objectives is closely linked with this skill, effectiveness and efficiency
off the project management team, and how it is organized for conducting its operation, this team
consists of functional heads or the body of managers in a project. To quote example, turnkey
contractor’s project management team comprising of heads of staff and line departments of a
typical housing units building construction project, is shown in Fig. 2.
The size of the project management team depends upon the nature and scope off the project work.
In the medium and large size projects, it may include specialist to manage: construction planning,
architecture and engineering, tendering and contract administration, value analysis and quality
assurance, materials in equipment handling, and finance and personnel administration.
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Fig. 2 Typical housing units building construction project team
Depending upon the size and nature of the project, the project managers in the project team are
entrusted with the responsibility to accomplish project task. A large complex project may have a
manager in charge of each specialized task, whereas in smaller and less complex projects, only few
managers can look into all the task. The various ways in which the duties of a manager can be
combined with those of the project manager in small projects are:
a. Project manager /construction Superintendent planning and controlling manager, can be a single
individual.
b. Project manager/resources procurement manager/construction Superintendent, all can be
centralized in one person.
c. Project manager/ planning and controlling manager/contract manager, can be the same person.
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1.3.2 Role of Project Manager
Figure 3. Project Manager
The project manager is the king pin around which the whole organization revolves as
illustrated in figure 3. He is entrusted with the task of integrating the interdisciplinary and
interorganizational efforts under changing environments for successful accomplishment of the
specified objectives. He operates independently of the normal organizational chain of command,
with the sole aim of achieving the specified goals within the available resources. He assumes total
responsibility and accountability for the success or failure of the project. In particular his
responsibilities include team building, financial control, contract management, technical
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management, resources management, interface management and quality management. His
functions vary with the nature of the project and organizational set up, but his roles which reflect the
behavior patterns identified with their specified position are similar in almost all types of projects.
Ten related roles of the project manager, generally conforming to “Managerial Role Constellation
Advocated” by Mintzberg are outlined below:
a. Figurehead role The project manager, is the legal and social head of the project, is the single focal
point for making decisions, ceremonial functions and symbolic duties.
b. Leadership role As a leader, the project manager directs the interfunctional efforts through a
complex web of relationships created in the project organization by building a performance
motivated organization a of skilled and experienced people who collectively face the challenges
most by the people.
c. Liaisoning role The project manager maintains contacts outside the organization, deals with those
activities which may involve correspondence and contact with the concerned government officials,
contract vendors, professionals, and top persons of the construction industry.
d. Monitoring role The project manager focus is a planned approach for performing tasks. An
implements time, cost and quality planning and monitoring system for the project that highlights the
commitment of the project team to provide assured results.
e. Disseminators Role The project manager transmits the relevant information received from external
sources and internal systems to the concern people in the workplace. This information may be
written or verbal, formal or in formal.
f. Spokesperson's role The project manager act as the sole representative so home all
communications with the client or other external parties or conducted outside the project site.
g. Entrepeneurs role The project manager seeks and identifies opportunities to promote
improvements and needed changes.
h. Disturbance handling role The project manager maintains organizational harmony by resolving
conflicts and diagnosing organizational behavior in time. He applies corrective action when the
organization faces important unexpected disturbances.
i. Resources allocator role The project manager takes responsibility for allocating/have altering the
project resources and makes any changes which are necessary to ensure the availability of adequate
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resources on time. This role also calls for developing and monitoring budgets and predicting future
resource needs.
J. Negotiator’s role The project manager negotiates important conflicting issues and business
related matters, both inside and outside of the project environment. He represents the organization
on major negotiations.
In order to fulfill his assigned role effectively and efficiently a project manager has to have
managerial skill, technical expertise, business acumen, leadership qualities and excellent
communication and interpersonal skills. He should be a person with at least a degree or equivalent
engineering, architecture or quantity surveying. You should have relevant management
qualifications and a wide construction experience, at least few years of which should be on senior
position in major projects.
1.4 MANAGEMENT PROCESS
The process to management theory and science draws together the pertinent knowledge of
management by relating it to the managerial jobs-what managers do. Like other operational
sciences, it tries to integrate the concepts, principles, and techniques that underlie the task of
managing. This approach recognizes the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to
project activities to meet project requirements.
A process is a set of interrelated actions and activities performed to achieve a pre-specified product,
result, or service. In order for a project to be successful, the project team must:
 Select appropriate processes required to meet the project objectives,
 use a defined approach that can be adapted to meet the requirements,
 comply with requirements to meet stakeholder needs and expectations, and
 balance the competing demands of scope, time, cost, quality, resources, and risk to produce
the specified product, service, or result.
Project managers and their teams should carefully address each process. Project management
processes are group into five categories as illustrated in Fig. 4.1:
 Initiating Process Group. Those processes performed to define a new project or a new phase
of an existing project by obtaining authorization to start the project or phase.
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 Planning Process Group. Those processes required to establish the scope of the project, refine
the objectives, and define the course of action required to attain the objectives that the
project was undertaken to achieve.
 Executing Process Group. Those processes performed to complete the work defined in the
project management plant to satisfy the project specification.
 Monitoring and Controlling Process Group. Those processes required to track, review, and
regulate the progress and performance of the project; identity any areas in which changes to
plan are required; and initiate the corresponding changes.
 Closing Process Group. Those processes performed to finalize all activities across all Process
Group to formally close the project or phase.
Fig. 4.1 Project Management Process Groups (PMBOK Guide)
Table 4-1 reflects the mapping of the 42 project management processes into the 5 Project
Management Process Groups and the nine Project Management Knowledge Area. The
Project Management processes are shown in the Process Group in which most of the activity
takes place.
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Module 1 – Introduction to Engineering Management
Table 4.1 Project Management Process Groups and Knowledge Areas Mapping
Project Management Process Groups
Monitoring &
Knowledge
Initiating
Executing
Planning
Controlling
Areas
Process
Process
Process Group
Process
Group
Group
Group
4.4 Monitor
and Control
4.2 Develop
4.3 Direct and
Project Work
4. Project
4.1 Develop
Project
Manage
4.5 Perform
Integration
Project
Management
Project
Integrated
Charter
Management
Plan
Execution
Change
Control
5.1 Collect
5.4 Verify
5. Project
Requirements
Scope
Scope
5.2 Define
5.5 Control
Management
Scope
Scope
5.3 Create WBS
6.1 Define
Activities
6.2 Sequence
Activities
6.3 Estimate
Activity
6. Project Time
6.6 Control
Management
Resources
Schedule
6.4 Estimate
Activity
Durations
6.5 Develop
Schedule
7.1 Estimate
7. Project Cost
Costs
7.3 Control
Management
7.2 Determine
Costs
Budget
8. Project
8.2 Perform
8.3 Perform
Quality
8.1 Plan Quality
Quality
Quality
Management
Assurance
Control
9. Project
9.1 Develop
9.2 Acquire
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Closing
Process
Group
4.6 Close
Project or
Phase
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Module 1 – Introduction to Engineering Management
Human
Resource
Management
10. Project
Communication
Management
Human
Resource Plan
10.1 Identify
Stakeholders
10.2 Plan
Communications
11. Project Risk
Management
11.1 Plan Risk
Management
11.2 Identify
Risks
11.3 Perform
Qualitative Risk
Analysis
11. 4 Perform
Quantitative Risk
Analysis
12. Project
Procurement
Management
12.1 Plan
Procurements
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Project Team
9.3 Develop
Project Team
9.4 Manage
Project Team
10.3Distribute
Information
10.4 Mange
Stakeholder
Expectations
10.5 Report
Performance
11.6 Monitor
and Control
Risks
12.2 Conduct
Procurements
12.3
Administer
Procurements
12.4 Close
Procurements
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Module 1 – Introduction to Engineering Management
FOR DISCUSSION
1. How would you define management in construction? Does your definition differ from the one
'offered in this module? Explain.
2. What are the managerial functions?
3. How do the required managerial skills differ in the organizational hierarchy?
4. In what fundamental way are the basic goals of all managers at all levels and in all kinds of
enterprises the same?
5. What are some of the characteristics of excellent companies? Do the companies you know have
these characteristics?
6. What are the differences between enterprise and organization?
7. Is managing a science or an art' Could the same explanation apply to civil engineering?
8. What are the basic types of project organization and list at least one characteristic, advantage,
and disadvantage of each.
9. What is meant by the term process?
10. Identify the various management process and discuss their characteristics.
ACTIVITIES
1. Interview two local managers and ask them how they learned about managing. Ask what kind of
books they might have read on management (e.g., textbooks or popular books). Probe to what
extent these books have helped them to manage. You may also find it interesting to read one of the
best-selling books on management and mention it in the class discussion.
2. Interview two project managers and ask them how do they know how well their department,
agency, or organization is performing? Do they consider management an art or science? What type
of organization structure they have? Ask a copy of the company’s table of organization to be
presented in the class discussion.
CASE STUDIES TO BE PROVIDED BY THE PROFESSOR
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Module 1 – Introduction to Engineering Management
References
Richardson, G. L. (2015). Project management theory and practice (2nd ed.). Boca Raton: CRC Press
Meredith, J. R. and Mantel, S. J (2009). Project Management: A Managerial Approach (7th ed.). John
Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Chitkara, K.K. (2008). Construction Project Management: Planning, Scheduling and Controlling. Tata
McGraw-Hill
Cooke, B. and Williams, P. (2009). Construction Planning, Programming and Control (3 rd ed.). WileyBlackwell
Project Management Institute (2013). A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (5th ed.)
Weihrich, H. and Koontz, H. (2005). Management: A Global Perspective (11th ed.). Tata McGraw-Hill
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