Responsibilities Flashcards
(35 cards)
What are all of the aspects of managing a project, aside from the actual design and documentation?
- Planning
- Scheduling
- Monitoring
- Coordination / Directing
- Updating Documentation
- Closing out
- Following up
What is the concept of “Partnering” in Project Management?
Two or more stakeholders in the project collaborate to manage it, sharing the decision-making process. These can include the architect, owner, contractor, and/or vendors.
What are the benefits and drawbacks of “Partnering” in Project Management?
- Closer communication between parties
- The day-to-day management can be more complicated
What must be done at the beginning of a project, whether it is being managed by “Partnering” or by one party?
Clearly spell-out the lines of communication between parties and who is responsible for which duties.
What are some of the possible responsibilities of the project manager with respect to the firm (internal)?
- Prepare proposals
- Estimate project fees
- Estimate project workload / man-hours
- Determine / assist with internal project staff assignment
- Schedule project staff meetings
- Be a conduit between the principal(s) and the staff
- Provide status reports to the principal(s)
- Ensure that the firm meets it’s contractual obligations in delivering the project
- Review all invoices to the client
- Track personnel time on the project and compare against original estimate
- Coordinate the production of construction documents
What are some of the possible responsibilities of the project manager with respect to the project team (external)?
- Project team marketing efforts
- Assemble project team (consultants, ETC.)
- Estimate project schedule
- Meet the client’s specific goals for delivery
- Schedule team meetings
- Assist in resolving conflicts between project team members
- Provide status reports to the client
- Be the contact person for regulator groups
- Obtain client approval on important milestones and decision points
- Ensure that all aspects of the project (including communication) are documented
- Review all invoices from the consultants and ensure they are paid (when appropriate)
- Assist with bidding and negotiation procedures
- Follow up with the client periodically after completion
What are some of the possible responsibilities of the project manager with respect to CA?
- Process CA documents (EG: change orders, applications for payment, ETC.)
- Keep track of construction progress and compare against original estimate
- Ensure that all duties of CA are carried out (including construction observation)
- Assist client with construction-related issues
- Properly close-out the job
Which responsibilities of the project manager are often accomplished using specific software?
- Estimate project fees and personnel time
- Track actual project costs and staff man-hours - Schedule work / deadlines within the office
- Generate invoices
- Record communication (EG: correspondence, transmittal, meeting notes, ETC)
- Track CA documents
- Record project decisions (EG: design decisions, specification decisions, ETC)
- Record contact info for all project team members and stakeholders
- Analyze project tracking to compare with firm-wide metrics
What factors are important when selecting the project team (consultants or contractor)?
- Past working relationships
- Size and complexity of the project (compared to size of firm)
- Special ability / experience of firm
What factors should be considered when assembling the project staff?
- Type and complexity of the project (ability and special expertise of staff needed)
- Size of the project (number and experience-level of staff needed)
- Availability of staff over project duration
- Billing rates of staff (compared to the fee for the project)
- Personalities and working methods (to ensure staff are able to collaborate effectively)
What are the two graphical methods for scheduling a project?
Gantt Chart and Critical Path Chart
What is the basic structure of a Gantt Chart?
- The vertical axis is a list of all required steps in order of when they occur
- The horizontal axis is the scheduled length of the project, usually (but not always) in weeks
- For each task, a horizontal bar is drawn in that row covering the schedule duration of that task
- If one task must be completed before another, an arrow is drawn from the end of that task to the begining of the dependent.
What are the aspects (benefits & drawacks, terminology) of a Gantt Chart?
- Also called a Bar Chart
- The tasks are called Activities
- Dependent tasks are called Dependencies
- Generally simpler than a Critical Path Diagram; known to be easy to create
- Suitable for projects of any size
What is the basic structure of a Critical Path Method chart?
- A series of sequentially numbered circles with arrows leading from circle to circle
- Each solid arrow is a task that must be completed, and the number below it is how many days it will take to complete
- No tasks leading out of a circle can begin until all tasks leading into that circle have been completed
- Dashed arrows (from one circle to another) show dependencies; they are not tasks and therefore have no duration.
- Bold arrows indicate the critical path
What are the aspects (benefits & drawbacks, terminology) of a Critical Path Method diagram?
- More often used with contruction management than in design scheduling
In Gantt and Critical Path charts, what is the Critical Path?
The series of tasks that form a chain of dependencies (the next cannot start until the previous has been completed) which has the longest completion time (sum of the completion time of each Critical Task).
If any Critical Task is delayed, the entire project is delayed.
In Gantt and Critical Path charts, what is the Float?
The maximum amount of time that a non-critical task can be delayed before it causes an increase in the schedule (IE causes a Critical Task to be delayed).
What are the basic aspects of a Work Plan?
- It breaks the project down into it’s component tasks and details how these tasks will be accomplished, as far as staff, schedule, and other firm resources.
- It is also sometimes called the Fee Projection because it shows how the fee will be allocated to complete the project.
- The core element of the Work Plan is the Schedule, which is usually in the form of a Gantt Chart
How does the Work Plan relate to the project fee and firm financial planning?
It describes how the project fee will be allocated to cover the project costs, such as paying employees and other costs. This is the portion of the fee after profit, overhead, and other business expenses are deducted.
What are the main components in a Work Plan?
- SCOPE: scope of services per the contract with the client
- TASKS: List of all tasks, broken into phases, that must be done to complete the services
- DEPENDANCIES: What tasks are dependant on other tasks to be completed
- MILESTONES: critical points in the schedule that must be met, which usually occur at a review step, client deadline, or completion of a phase.
- RESOURCES: what staff and other firm resources will be needed for each task
- TIME & FEE: in order to monitor progress, time within the schedule and project fee must be allocated to each task
- CONSULTANTS: what work and how much fee will be allocated to consultants
What is the typical list of steps to create a Work Plan?
- Evaluate Scope including the size, type, complexity, and budget)
- Determine Services that will be needed to complete the scope
- Define Tasks that are required to complete the services, including dependancies
- Establish Dates of the phases of design services, regulatory approval, and construction
- Assign Staff to each of the tasks
- Gragh tasks on a Gantt Chart (or other method) including duration of each task, which is based on the work for that task and how many / which staff are assigned to it.
What is the basic concept of allocating fee in the Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approach?
Top-Down Approach
Use an estimation method to determine the total project fee, then take the portion of that fee that accounts for the actual work being done allocate that to phases and then to individual tasks
Bottom-Up Approach
Break the project down into all of it’s individual tasks, determine the amout of time and which staff are needed for each task, and then use employee pay rates multiplied by time to get the total project fee.
Bottom-Up approach is more accurate, but is harder to use early on before the precise scope is known. Usually both methods are used and compare each other to reach a final proposed fee.
When using the Top-Down Approach, what are the steps to allocating the project fee within the Work Plan?
- Estimate Total Fee using one of more rules of thumb (percentage of construction cost, per-square-footage, building size & type), comperable past projects, and firm experience.
- Obtain Direct Labor Fee by deducting estimates for profit, contingency, indirect labor, consultants, and other non-reimbursibles. These are usually percentages that are estimated based on past experience.
- Allocate to Phases the direct labor fee, using a rule of thumb or other method appropriate to the project delivery method and client services.
- Sub-Allocate to Task Periods on the Gant Chart, by dividing the fee allocated to that phase amoung the tasks periods (usually weeks) for each task in that phase.
- Determine Staffing Hours by summing up fee for each task period (usually weeks)(including all overlapping task bars) and then dividing by the billing rate of the employees who will be doing those tasks.
Generall how it the fee (direct labor fee) allocated to the project phases?
- Typical spread (for design-bid-build) is:
SD=15% | DD=20% | CD=40% | BID=5% | CA=20%
- Additional services such as programing, feasibility, additional regulatory approval, or post-construction services effect the fee allocation
- The project delivery method also drastically changes the fee allocation
