| An understanding of the construction project life cycle is essential for all who are associated with the construction industry. The materials in this book have been prepared primarily for use as a textbook for students in the design professions, construction management programmes and facility development and management curricula. The topics covered here ought to be of interest to others involved with the project development process as well, including material and equipment suppliers, insurers, owner representatives and members of the legal profession.
As the subtitle indicates, the book is designed around the framework of the project life cycle, commencing with various pre-project decisions and then ranging, in order, through planning and design, contractor selection, project mobilisation, on-site project operations and project closeout and termination. In addition to this very intentional aspect of the book’s design, there are other themes that are of special interest to the member of the modern-day construction management team. The reader will find a very international flavour, as we refer to examples of practices, regulations and terminology from around the world, even as we emphasise the commonality of much that happens in construction. The early decades of the twenty-first century will see increasing use of information technology in construction practice and the book devotes several sections to the application of various kinds of software and electronic-based communication methods to project management. Likewise, because environmental impacts due to construction operations have become important concerns of the construction manager, a section is devoted to the causes, mitigation and prevention of such impacts. At several places in the book, the relatively new practice of formalised partnering is discussed. The construction team’s responsibility for constructability and value engineering analyses to improve the efficiency of construction operations and the value of the completed facility is a theme that is also found throughout these pages. |
