Architectural Project Management 3 credits
Prerequisites: completion of core sequence. Management of architectural projects: project costs, timing, personnel, documentation, professional ethics and resource management. This course is required for the dual degree M.Arch./Master of Science in Management program. It may be used as an elective in the M.Arch. program.
INTRODUCTION
Building projects arise in many and varied forms. The assembled
results of these projects become unique patterns of assembly while becoming
products for final users in their own right. Each project can require a different
approach to planning, configuration, production of the final assembly, as well
as its facility management.
The variety of results implied by the variety of process implies that the challenges
to understanding could exceed human capabilities to understand the total process.
This is not exactly the case. There are ways to systematic organization a project
so that the predicable is easily categorized so there are resources available
to respond to the unpredictable. The ways for doing this have changed and continue
to evolve alongside the changing complexities of the industry, its clients and
their demands. It is possible to learn a great deal about being systematic prior
to and during the building assembly process, although this does present some
dilemmas for architects. First among the difficulties is to accept that architects
are no at the center of the process. A second difficulty is that other participants
in the process also act from a knowledge base. Third is challenge is that a
great deal can be learned from project management in other industries that seem
to have little to do directly with construction.
The course will deal with concepts of management and of projects, and then attempt
to present their integration relative to the role of architects. The project
management system, where it works well, tends to be more inclusive than exclusive.
To be inclusive the course covers several approaches to management.
CONTENT
The concept of learning to carry out rational management has
long been a dream of humans. Management schools are indeed founded on the belief
that such is possible. In some ways this dream is achievable yet in some ways
it appears hopeless in the face of rapid change, emerging technology and the
complexity created by both plus more.
Sometimes the building/construction industry seems hopelessly designed and arranged.
Other times it appears excitingly attractive to those who want to create value
in the process by doing it in novel and innovative ways. Indeed, there are ways
to greatly reduce the variety in a project and to create modules of elements
as well as of thought. Some of the more successful organizations indeed illustrate
how this is done. There are many rather simple things that can be done to make
projects more “manageable,” but prior to getting into those methods
of conceptualizing projects, and ways to manage them, we should first examine
the major characteristics of the building industry. With this we can begin to
fruitfully compare and contrast construction characteristics with those of other
industries; especially those that have faced serious design, procurement and
delivery problems but have found ways to overcome them to the credit of their
industry.
Lets begin with some characteristics of facilities. They are:
· Unique (even high-rise office buildings can and do vary).
· Immobile and occupying a highly unique location that can’t be
duplicated.
· Expensive in total, yet the relative ratios of material weight to cost,
and technology (capital) to labor is low.
· Exposed to the unpredictability, precariousness and ambiguities of
nature.
· Somewhere between economic production in factories and on farms.
· The assembled products are long-lived manifestations, that generally
outlive the parts.
· In other industries the purpose of a project is a means to arrive at
an end (a product as a means). In construction the project denotes an end as
well as means to other ends.
This means that a team producing a building is a unique assembly
of people with different skills and talents. As such, it has little organizational
history and recognizes from the outset that it will probably not work together
as a team again. The project management team is thus widely seen to be a “temporary
organization.” To add to the transitory nature of building project management,
most of the industry’s clients buy only one or two buildings in a life-time.
They are not very sophisticated in their understanding of the process and often
their expectations are out of line with the industry’s performance. They
are neither skilled in managing the building process, nor in hiring those who
are skilled.
In addition, the industry itself faces internal problems of quality control,
measurement of performance, raw materials that tend to have a high degree of
imperfections, and employees that often have no alternative for work. The size
and scale of its products, and their exposure to difficult environmental conditions
over very long life-spans, explains part of the previous problems as well as
presents addition problems for the results of the industry and those that use
its products.
The problems of the industry can exist for a long time. While it is possible
for buildings to improve with age, most do not. These characteristics begin
to define the serious challenges for those who work to manage projects in the
building industry, and thereby end up defining its needs.
The course begins with discussion of general topics and how they interrelated
to provide the challenges of project management. They are:
1. What is a project?
2. What is a portfolio?
3. What is a program?
4. What is management?
5. What is risk?
6. What is added value?
7. Who are the stakeholders in the process?
8. Is it better to manage a project via time or money as a constraint?
9. Which industry produces the most competent project managers?
10. What are the alternatives to project management?
This prepares the stage for discourse on how project-needs and management-methods relate, or fail to do so. This also serves as a base to examine project management via its ideas, tools and techniques as they may more closely relate to: architectural design and building production.
Grading:
Final grades will be based on:
· Assignments (40%),
· Mid-term (20%)
· Final project report and presentation (40%).
Objectives:
Project management has long been seen as a beneficial base
for product development in other industries (autos, electronics, banking, etc.).
Project management in its essence organizes a process that begins with idea
generation, travels through production and sales, and ends with client after-production
services, if a firm is qualified. Its application to the needs of construction
is relatively recent. While it is critical to note how project management developed
in other industries this is insufficient to the needs of construction. There
are serious dilemmas for any who bring project management knowledge directly
from other industries. The first is that the projects of project management
as other industries apply it are shorter-lived and more portable.
Perhaps the most that we can say about project management with certainty is
that it is “fragile.” As such, the most we can know about it is
that it is ever changing. With this in mind the following course for architecture
and construction students has been designed.
People who do project management generally rely on spreadsheets and charts in
the form of matrices. Now that computers systems are available these charts
have turned into spreadsheets with the options of being modified with ease,
and being susceptible to manipulation via various analytical tools. While pitfalls
await those who handle this abstraction you will still need to become familiar
with spreadsheet construction and manipulation during the course. Your final
presentation should use this skill.
Beyond this you need to learn how the construction industry is changing. In
this way you can both see how project management has surfaced in construction
and is changing to meet new production and client needs. You may even be able
to speculate on further changes that will undoubted occur. The only text for
the course addresses this issue.
References:
Project Management: A Managerial Approach, Third Edition, Jack Meredith and
Samuel Mantel, John Wiley and Sons: New York, 1995.
Forming a New Industry: International Building Production. by David Hawk, 1992.
Project Management for Design Professions (A copy is on reserve in the AIC in
Colton.)
Various articles from ENR and other publications.
Schedule:
Session 1: Introduction and overview to architectural project management.
Session 2: History of management of projects and related phenomena.
Session 3: Management theories and the Evolution of Construction Needs. Three
assignments.
Assignment One – Objective: To improve understanding of why PM emerged
as a problem solving approach, and then how it operates.
Your assignment is to identify the worse mistake you can find in a building-related project, and then describe how a different approach would have helped avoid it, or even managed to control it. These can be from any source. Due: 3rd class meeting.
Assignment Two – Objective: To improve understanding of wider versions of PM.
Your assignment is to identify the worse non-building-related project even
you can find and describe how it could have been better managed. Due:
5th class meeting.
Assignment Three – Objective: To improve your understanding of your specific
role in the building industry by speculating on what you would need to know
to a avoid the problems you found in the first two assignments.
Your assignment is to describe what you would need to know to be a project manager that could avoid both types of problems. This might involve another degree, a new set of courses, or different life experiences. Due: 8th class meeting.
Session 4: Examples: Introduction to the International Dimension
Session 5: Relations between Project Management, Program Management, and Construction Management.
Session 6: Examples: Project Management challenges.
Assignment 4: Identifying those you might work with/for/against?
In this assignment you need to find a short list of organizations that you might spend many years of your life within. From this list you need to select one and then find the key person within the organization to interview. During part of the interview you will need to discuss project management; their approach to it and your knowledge of it. Objective: You want to find out if investing years of your life in this organization is a good choice for you, and them. You will report on your interview to the class. Due: 11th class meeting.
Session 7: Information, its Organization, Management and Dissemination.
Session 8: Traditional Factors of Construction.
Session 9: Emerging Factors of Construction
Session 10: Discipline vs. Problem focused methods of management.
Assignment 5: Final Project.
To be discussed and described in detail later, but
should be conceived as a group project that combines your collective reports
from Assignment 4.
Session 11: Professional models of management.
Session 12. Architectural Project Management.
Session 13: Summary and Conclusions
Session 14: Student Presentations
Session 15: Final
You are to identify a firm that clearly manages projects as you define them.
Identify the individual in that firm who is thought to be best at overseeing,
carrying out or communicating what they call “project management.”
Interview that person relative to these four question areas.
1. What is the source of your method(s) of project management?
Internally created ____________________
Learned from another firms ____________________
Derived by a hired consultant ____________________
Requested by client ____________________
Still emerging ____________________
Other... ___________________
Explain:
2. How would you describe your firm’s approach to project management?
3. How do you see this approach changing over the next decade?
4. What should architecture/engineering university graduates know about project
management to better help with the operations of your firm?
For more information, please email me at davidlhawk@gmail.com,
or contact me by phone at
973-596-3019