Project Life Cycle – Phases in Life Cycle of a Construction Project

Every individual involved in the process of planning, designing, financing, constructing and operating physical facilities related to the project under consideration, gain different viewpoints on project management for construction.
The contribution of proficient knowledge can be very beneficial, mainly when it comes to large and complicated projects, since experts in various specialties can offer valuable services. On the other hand, it is very important and advantageous to understand how the different parts of the process match together.
The poor coordination and communication between the specialists can result in waste, excessive cost, and delays. It is chiefly the requirement of the owner to assure that such flaws do not happen between them. And it owes all participants involved in the project to regard the interests of owners, as at the end, it is the owners who provide the resources and make the decisions.
Implementation of owner’s viewpoint will help the participants to focus on the completion of the project by having proper attention in the process of project management for constructed facilities. This would minimize the old concept of bringing decisions based on the historical roles of specialists involved in the project.
Specialists mentioned are the planners, architects, engineering designers, constructors, fabricators, material suppliers, financial analysts and others. It is true that each specialist individually has a lot of contribution to the advances seen in the construction field.
But the understanding of the entire process of project management will make them respond more effectively to the owner’s desires. Hence, they can contribute their proficiency through opinions in improving the productivity and quality of their work.
Enhancement of project management boosts the construction industry which in turn facilitates the development of national and world economy. To have significant improvements, know the construction industry, its working environment and the institutional constraints affecting its activities and the nature of project management.

Construction Project Life Cycle

The purchase of a constructed facility is a major capital investment. The owner can be an individual, a private corporation or a public agency.
As the commitment of resources for such a large investment is stimulated by market demands or real needs, the facility is likely to satisfy certain objectives. These requirements will be within the constraints of the specified owner and applicable policies.
Most of the constructed facilities are custom made in consultation with the owners, with an exception in the case of the residential units that may be sold as built by the real estate developer. He is regarded as the sponsor of building projects, so far as government agency may be the sponsor of a public project and turns it over to another government unit upon its completion.
For project management, the terms “owner” and “sponsor” are one and the same because both have the ultimate power to make all important decisions. It is judicious for any owner to have a clear understanding of the acquisition process to sustain firm control of the quality, timeliness, and cost of the completed facility, as he is essentially acquiring a facility on a promise in some form of agreement.
The project life cycle for a constructed facility may be represented schematically in Figure 1. A project meets the market demands or requirement on a timely basis. a variety of possibilities may be taken into consideration in the conceptual planning stage.
Hence the technological, as well as the economic feasibility of each option, will be assessed and compared to select the best possible project.
The Project Life Cycle of a Constructed Facility
Fig.1.The Project Life Cycle of a Constructed Facility
The financing strategies for the proposed options and ideas should undergo a clear examination, which is later programmed with respect to the timing for project completion and based on the cash flow availability.
Once the scope of the project is clearly explained and defined, thorough engineering design will provide the blueprint for construction, and the definitive cost estimate will provide the baseline for cost control.
Careful planning and control during the procurement and construction stage, the delivery of materials and the erection of the project on the site has to be maintained. Once the construction is completed, there is usually a brief period of start-up of the constructed facility when it is first occupied.
At last, the management of the facility is turned over to the owner for full occupancy until the facility lives out its useful life. That is to check the building durability once the functionality is started. If the building cannot show any defects before the period specified, it was chosen for demolition or conversion.
The stages of development may not be strictly sequential as shown in figure-1. Certain specific stages require iteration, and the others can be carried out in parallel or in overlapping time frames. This decision mainly depends on the nature, size and urgency of the project.
Moreover, an owner may gain house capacities to handle the work in every stage of the entire process. If it is not possible they may request professional advice and services to guide the work in all stages. Reasonably, most owners choose to handle some of the work in-house. To guide other components of the work, they give the contract to outside professional services as per requirement.
Analysis of the project life cycle from an owner’s perspective would help us to focus on the proper roles of various activities and participants in all stages apart from the contractual engagements for different types of work.

Life Cycle Phases in Construction Project

A standard construction project, in general, has following five major life cycle phases:
  1. Initiation
  2. Planning
  3. Execution
  4. Performance and monitoring
  5. Closure
This has been shown in following figure in sequence:
clip_image003
A brief description specifically about each stage are explained below.

1. Initiation Phase of Construction Project

We have to create and evaluate the project in order to determine if it is feasible and if it should be undertaken, at the beginning of the project. Here the project objective or need is identified; this can be a business problem or opportunity.
A suitable response to the need is documented in a business case with recommended solution options. A feasibility study is conducted to examine whether each option clearly identifies the project objective and a final recommended solution is determined.
Many questions related to the issues of feasibility i.e. “can we do the project?” and justification like “should we do the project?” are mentioned and faced.
When a solution is approved, a project is initiated to implement the approved solution. For this, a project manager is appointed. At this stage, the major deliverables and the participating work groups are identified. This is the time when the project team begins to take shape. Approval is then required by the project manager to move onto the detailed planning phase.

2. Planning Phase of Construction Project

The planning phase involves further development of the project in detail to meet the project’s objective. The team identifies all of the work to be done. The project’s tasks and resource requirements are identified, along with the strategy for producing them.
In a broader sense identification of each activity as well as their resource allocation is also carried out. A project plan outlining the activities, tasks, dependencies, and timeframes is created.
The project manager is the one who coordinates the preparation of a project budget by providing cost estimates for the labor, equipment, and materials costs. This is mainly carried out by project scheduling software like MS project or PRIMAVERA. This scheduling charts would help us to track the stages of our project as time passes. This is also referred to as “scope management.”
The budget of the project already estimated is used to monitor and control cost expenditures during project implementation.
Finally, we require a document to show the quality plan, providing quality targets, assurance, and control measures, along with an acceptance plan, listing the criteria to be met to gain customer acceptance. At this point, the project would have been planned in detail and is ready to be executed.

3. Execution Phase of Construction Project

This is the implementation phase, where the project plan is put into motion and the work of the project is performed practically on site. It is essential to maintain control and communicate as needed during each implementation stages.
Progress should be continuously monitored and appropriate adjustments are made and recorded as variances from the original plan. A project manager is the one who spends most of the time in this step. Throughout the project implementation, people carry out the tasks, and progress information is being reported through regular project team meetings.
The project manager uses this information to preserve control over the direction of the project by comparing the progress reports with the project plan to measure the performance of the project activities. If any deviation is found from the already defined plan corrective measures are made.
The first option of action should always be to bring the project back to the original plan. If that cannot happen, the team should record variations from the original plan and record and publish modifications to the plan. all through this step, project sponsors, and other key stakeholders are kept informed about the project’s status as per the agreed rate and format of communication. The plan should be updated and available on a regular basis.
Status reports should always highlight the probable end point in terms of cost, schedule, and quality of deliverables. Each project deliverable produced should be reviewed for quality and measured against the acceptance criteria.
When deliverables have been produced and the customer has agreed on the final solution, the project is said to be ready for closure.

4. Performance and Monitoring Phase of Construction Project

This stage is all related to the measurement of progress and performance to make sure that items are tracking with the project management scheduling. This phase regularly happens at the same time as the execution phase.

5. Closure Phase of Construction Project

During the final closure, the importance is on providing the final deliverables to the customer, that is:
  • Handing over project documentation to the business
  • Termination of supplier contracts
  • Releasing project resources
  • Communicate the closure of the project to all stakeholders.
  • Last and final is to conduct lessons-learned studies to examine what went well and what didn’t.
This type of analysis would make the knowledge of experience to be transferred back to the project organization, which will help future project teams.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

40+ Construction Tools List with Images for Building Construction

Image
Construction tools list for building construction works such as concrete, brick masonry, leveling, wood works, floor works, slab works, brick laying, plastering etc. is provided. Every construction tool is necessary to achieve good results in the whole project. Along with these tools, the workers should also use some safety tools to prevent them from the unexpected accidents. Construction Tools List for Building Construction Some important construction tools and their uses are listed below: Bolster Boning rod Brick hammer Bump cutter/screed Chisel Circular saw Concrete mixer Cordless drill Crowbar Digging bar End frames Float Gloves Hand saw Helmet Hoe Iron pan Jack plane Ladder Line and pins Mason’s square Measuring box Measuring tape Measuring wheel Pick axe Plumb bob Plumb rule Polishers Putty knife Rammer Rubber Boots Safety glasses Safety helmet Sand screen machine Scratchers Sledge hammer Spade Spirit level Straight edge brushes Til
Read more

Building Materials properties and their Importance in Construction

Image
Building materials or construction materials are the major requirement in this modern age of technology. There are many types of building materials used for different construction works. Properties of Building Materials For a material to be considered as building material, it should have required engineering properties suitable for construction works. These properties of building materials are responsible for its quality and capacity and helps to decide applications of these material. Such properties of building materials are categorized as follows. Physical properties Mechanical properties Chemical properties Electrical properties Magnetic properties Thermal properties Physical Properties of Building Materials These are the properties required to estimate the quality and condition of the material without any external force. The physical properties of engineering materials are as follows. Bulk density Porosity Durability Density Density index Specific gravity
Read more

How to Prevent Errors During Setting Out Building Plan on Ground?

Image
Setting out building plan on ground is one of the most significant steps in building constructions and any errors at this stage would cause considerable problems, if it is not tackled immediately. Errors During Setting Out Building Plan on Ground There are different types of errors that might be made when a structure is set out for example gross errors, systematic errors and random errors. These errors should be prevented and there are some measures to tackle these issues. These measures will be discussed in the following sections. Fig.1: Setting Out of Building Plan on Ground Fig.2: Setting Out Building Plan on Ground How to Prevent Errors During Setting Out of Building? Following are the different types of control that should be carried out to prevent any errors during setting out building plan on ground: Good practice in office On site control Equipment and staff Checks Marking the ground Use of grid offset Good Practice in Office To successfully set
Read more

Factors Affecting Selection of Foundation for Buildings?

Image
Factors which affect selection of foundation for a building can be many from the soil conditions to the type of structure and loads from the building. All the factors are considered during selection of foundation for durable building construction. Factors Affecting Selection of Foundation Following are the factors which affect the selection of suitable foundations for building construction: Loads from building Type of soil Type of structures in neighborhood Type of foundations 1. Loads from Building The first factor considered is loads from building on the foundation. This load is a combination of dead load and imposed loads on the buildings. Other loads such as wind loads, earthquake loads, snow loads etc. are also considered based on location. The quantity of loads depends on the type of structure, number of floors and material of construction. As the number of floors increases, the dead load and imposed loads also increase. Choice of material for construction su
Read more

Ceiling types used in Building Construction and their Applications

Image
Various types of ceiling are used in building construction. Applications, aesthetics, advantages and disadvantages of these types of ceilings are discussed in this article. The ceiling of a building form one of the most important structural elements it terms of functionality as well as creativity which in turn bring good aesthetics to the building interior. This document would help you understand ceilings that in turn would help you understand the most suitable options while undertaking either repair or renovation work of our building interior. The ceiling gains a definition, ” A part of a building which encloses and is exposed overhead in a room, protected shaft or circulation space.” It helps us to create an enclosure and separation between spaces. They provide perfect lighting in the room by controlling diffusion of light. It also controls the sound around a room by making the room sound proof. It, therefore, stops the passage of sound between the rooms. Now ceiling also po
Read more

HOW TO DETERMINE DEPTH OF FOUNDATION

Image
Many factors affects the determination of depth of foundation. Calculation for foundation depth is done based on type of soil, ground water table, loads from structure, bearing capacity of soil and other factors. General factors to be considered for determining depth of foundation are: 1. Load applied from structure to the foundation 2. Bearing capacity of soil 3. Depth of water level below the ground surface 4. Types of soil and depth of layers in case of layered soil 5. Depth of adjacent foundation The minimum depth of foundation should be considered to ensure that the soil is having the required safe bearing capacity as assumed in the design. However, it is advised to carry out soil investigation before deciding on depth of foundation. Soil investigation report will suggest the foundation depth based on the type of structure, soil properties, depth of water table, and all other variable that should be considered. Soil investigation report provides bearing capacity of
Read more

WHAT IS VOLUME BATCHING OF CONCRETE AND HOW IT IS DONE IN FIELD?

Image
WHAT IS VOLUME BATCHING OF CONCRETE? Batching of concrete means measuring different ingredients of concrete (i.e. cement, sand, coarse aggregate and water) before mixing it. When this measurement is done on the basis of volume, we call it  Volume Batching . Below are mentioned some of important points to remember before adopting volume batching method in field. Volume batching is not a good method for measuring concrete materials. It is not applicable in case of reinforced concrete structure. This method of concrete batching may not be economical. It can be only used for unimportant concrete or for small concrete works. HOW VOLUME BATCHING IS DONE IN FIELD? Before batching concrete ingredients in terms of volume, we need to know two things. What is the relative proportion of concrete ingredients in terms of volume? What is the water-cement ratio? After knowing these two things you can proceed to batch concrete ingredients in field. The table shown below can be
Read more

Construction Project Management Softwares

Image
Construction PM Software A new wave of web and cloud apps are streamlining communication, simplifying document management, and improving efficiency in construction management.  Here are some of top construction management tools: Smartsheet Smartsheet  is a spreadsheet-inspired work management tool with robust collaboration and communication features. With pre-built construction templates, it’s easy to create a timeline, track progress, manage documents, and organize the details. Gantt charts are automatically created and auto-adjust every time a change is made, so you can share the most up-to-date timeline with team members or stakeholders. You can upload files from your computer, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, Evernote, or add a web URL, creating a central repository for all project documentation and contracts. Team members can have discussions directly in the sheet and set reminders and alerts, so everyone is on the same page. And lastly, Smartsheet integrates with ot
Read more

Methods of underpinning, Procedure and Applications in Foundation Strengthening

Image
Underpinning is a method for repair and strengthening of building foundations. Underpinning methods, procedures and their applications in strengthening of different types of foundations is discussed in this article. There are situations where a failure in foundation or footing happens unexpectedly after the completion of whole structure (both sub and superstructure). Under such emergency situation, a remedial method has to be suggested to regain the structural stability. The  method of underpinning  help to strengthen the foundation of an existing building or any other infrastructure. These involve installation of permanent or temporary support to an already held foundation so that additional depth and bearing capacity is achieved. Selection of Underpinning Methods Underpinning methods are selected based on age of structure and types of works involved. Structure categories based on its age: Ancient Structures :Age greater than 150 years Recent Structures : Age between 5
Read more

Methods for Calculating Cost of Engineering Consultant Services

Image
here are several methods by which calculation of engineering consultant services cost can be carried out in construction. It is possible to employ various charging approach at different phase of the consultant services. The application of each method or combination of methods is dependent on nature, scope and complexity of the required engineering services. In this article, these charging consulting services are discussed. Following are the topics discussed for calculating cost of engineering services or consulting services in construction: What are the factors that affect the engineering service cost? Methods for charging engineering services What are the Factors that affect the Engineering Service Cost in Construction? There are various factors that control the cost of engineering services required for a specific project. These factors are outlined below: The conditions at project site. Degree of danger that may be encountered and exposure possibility. System of pr
Read more