Construction Project Management

The purpose of this 5-day professional development course is to provide extensive training for Construction Project Managers. This course will give you skills and information that you can apply immediately on the job.

Using information and practices that are currently in place in successful firms, you will review case studies and learn application guidelines for success. This course encompasses technical skills, cognitive and interpersonal skills, and dynamic leadership and productivity skills of construction.

Course Outline For The Week:

Day 1:

Duties of the Modern Project Manager (Dr. Awad Hanna)

• Project delivery systems and the changing role of project managers (DBB, DB, CMR, IPD)
• Key discussions at turnover meetings
• Pre-Construction Planning Best Practices
• Team selection and turnover     
• Scope review
• Administrative setup
• Buyout process
• Layout and sequencing plan
• Two-weeks look ahead planning, procedure, contents
• Review procedure for change orders
• Project Control and productivity tracking
• Billing procedure and following payments
• Safety policy
• Post-mortem review and evaluation

Day 2:

What supervisors need to know about estimating and scheduling (Dr. Awad Hanna)

• To bid or not to bid
• Achieving higher hit rate
• Types of estimates (preliminary, engineering, and detailed estimate)
• Contents of an estimate (labor, materials, equipment, subcontractors, mark-up)
• Estimate accuracy (level of accuracy, bidding documents, contingency)
• Sources of estimating data and how to build your library of cost information
• Factors that determine variations in estimate (time, location, size, etc.)
• Work breakdown structure (WBS) and assigning cost codes
• How to save in labor and overhead
• Estimating errors and how to rectify
• Schedule and development
• Scope definition/WBS
• Activity sequencing and logic
• Duration time estimating
• Schedule development
• Schedule calculation/verification
• Critical path and critical activities (CPM) 

Day 3:

Managing field productivity to improve the bottom line (Dr. Awad Hanna)

What is productivity? And productivity trends

Seven pillars of productivity

• Management
• Manpower
• Materials
• Methods
• Mechanization
• Measurement
  • Earned value fundamentals
  • Measuring the output

Subjective evaluation

Quantity installed as measured

Partial percent complete method

• Simplified earned value project tracking
• Advanced earned value tracking
• Hanna control points and S-curves
• Performance factor profiles
• Early warning signs for detecting poor productivity
• Samples of bad projects/good projects
• Miscellaneous

Day 4:  

Ingredients of successful leadership: Develop Self- and Context Awareness (Dr. Ingo Holzinger)

• What is leadership? And what are your greatest leadership challenges? (Open discussions to set the context/positioning for the session)
• Developing self-awareness
  • Why is self-awareness important?
  • Leadership self-assessment (tbd) – Results and discussion of implications (possibly small group discussions)
  • Open forum: Key takeaways and skills to develop

• Developing context awareness
  • Leading high-performance teams: conflict, cognition, communication as key factors to consider for team success
    AND/OR
  • Power & influence
    (Experience brilliant exercise around the Battle of Gettysburg for this topic, but don’t know whether there will be enough 

Day 5:

Change Orders: Pricing Principles and Best Management Practices (Dr. Awad Hanna)

• Change order [definition, types (formal, constructive, and cardinal), contract language]
• Why change order cost more and typical recoverable costs
• Sources of cumulative impact
• Change Orders Pricing (3 levels)
  • Pricing at the labor Burden Level
  • Pricing at Job Expenses level
  • Mark up level
  • Theories of recovery (total cost, modified total cost, measured mile and Hanna method)
  • What cost can be added, at what percent and why (20 legitimate cost items)
  • Change order and schedule compression including the impact of overtime, overmanning and shift work
  • Best Practices for pricing and minimizing change orders impact

General Information:

• Registration deadline - September 25th, 2021. 
• Fee covers all course materials and meals for the week
• Earn 5 Gold Seal credits (SICs) towards your GSC designation

Intended Audience

These skills are not only helpful but often critical for success as a Construction Project Manager. To participate, attendees need only a basic familiarity with construction methods and procedures.

Thus, the course caters to both trainees and experienced PMs. The Instructors will present broad strokes that are applicable to all projects, as well as specific information that applies to specialty contracting.  

Your Instructors will be world-class construction experts, leaders in the field and experienced teachers and practitioners of construction.