PM and Construction

PMI does offer the Construction Extension to the PMBOK.

Hi Steve, I was motivated to get PMP certification from my experiences managing residential renovations.

My sense is that the field of construction is not particularly well-organized according to PMI PMBoK or Agile practice standards and frameworks. My observations are that project management is generally ad hoc, individual, and based on historical norms.

There was a recent article discussing the persistent productivity gap in construction and the burgeoning market for project management software in construction. Construction Drive put out an article describing this issue

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/con-...ufacton/505281/

In answer to your question, I believe there is a great deal of work that could be done to improve project management practice standards and frameworks, as a combination of at least waterfall and agile techniques, in construction.

In response, I have been working with a contractor of a small residential construction company who is keen to apply project management in his company. We have been developing a product/service package that would make project management software and skill development available to small and medium sized contractors, who normally do not have access to these kind of management approaches.

My feeling is that the productivity gap is found in efforts to apply rigid accounting based methodologies to construction projects, which, despite being governed by plans and schedules, actually give rise to complex phenomena that require daily, minute decision-making that aggregate to either a successful project overall or scope, schedule, budget overruns and quality deficiencies.

Steve-
I really enjoy reading responses from IT Guys about the application of their processes to our Industry.
Unfortunately, they fail to understand the complexity and dangers inherent in our decision making on our Projects. We all deal with serious MAJOR problems on a daily basis (referred to as the daily OH S***) and the environment we practice in is so far removed from the IT workplace.
In my experience, when it is 120-130F outside, I ask myself "did my CM make the best decision based upon the situation, or was his thought process influenced by his extreme exposure?". The Complexity of what we do is not readily explained to the IT guy with a Phd in Process, working in the air conditioned office space, with No Safety risks or Exposures (except for those pesky paper cuts)....
My Opinion.
M

I am not talking about having a stand up and scrum master. I hope I didn't steer you wrong in my intent. I am noticing a lack of formal/standardized PM principles in my industry, and was wondering if others did.

Personally I utilize tools from agile adapted to myself, job, and situation. If anything I don't believe any industry should use one practice I see them as tool to be utilized when needed. I just don't believe it is utilized in construction is all and was wondering if others noticed.

Steve and Jenny-
Jenny, I wish you the best at your efforts to drag your practices into the Digital World and the IoT.
I have pushed municipalities and General Contractors for the past 7 years to adopt Construction Management Software.
1) In the municipal arena, we just could not push the process past the budgeting stage. The KPI's and Management dashboards were not preferred by middle managers and senior managers. They simply did not want their performances assessed in a quantifiable manner. It is extremely difficult to assess specific performance at both the Project and Program level without these Management Dashboards......
2) In the private arena, I had the same roadblocks. I could not convince Owners/CEO's to spend the $$ to arm our PM's in the field with Tablets and Management Software. They refused to accept the concept that the efficiencies gained in the field, and the Dashboard information to Sr Management was well worth the trade off that some tablets would be lost or broken in the field.
3) A comment on the available software- In my Public (Municipal) searches and interviews with the major software suppliers as part of a selection committee, I discovered some programs that would work for us. However, I was extremely disappointed in the Products and the Companies that presented them. Some of these require steep staff learning curves and my Quest was to identify a Program that would be intuitive to the lowest common denominator in our admin staff.
While we did settle on a program, I am not yet convinced that the Vendors in this field have their act together. Most require training and all have online complaints..............
Good Luck!