Role of project manager in construction

 

Role Of Project Management:

1.       To avoid delay

2.       T0 achieve economy in project cost

3.       To use resources economically (sparingly)

Phases Of Project Management:

1.       Planning

2.       Scheduling

3.       Controlling

Planning:  Identifying various activities, costs, duration, sequences. Are involved in this phase.,

Scheduling: This phase includes fixing starting & finishing of activities & sequence.

Controlling: Recognizing bottlenecks and adopting measures.

 

 

 

 

 

1.       Bar chart

i)        It is introduced by Henry Gantt around 1900 A.D. Bar chart is also called Gantt Chart.

ii)       The bar chart consists of two axis The horizontal axis represents time required for completion of activities and vertical represents the respective jobs or activities to be performed.

iii)     Each bar represents one specific job or activity of the project. The beginning and end of each bar represent the time of start and time of finish of that activity.

iv)     The length of the bar, therefore, represents the time required for completion of that activity.

 

A typical bar chart is shown above. The bar chart indicates:

i)        Activity A is the starting activity and time required for it is 5 days. It starts at zero time and completes at the end of 5^th day.

j)        Activity B starts only when activity A is complete. It requires 10 days. It begins at other end of 5^th day (or at start of 6^th day) and is completed at the end of 15^th day.

k)       Activities B and C can start simultaneously and are called concurrent activities and both are independent. Activity C requires 3 days.

l)        Activity D starts only when activity C is complete. It requires 7 days.

m)    Activity E can start when activity E marks the completion of the project.

n)      The total time required for completion of the project is 22 days.

Advantage Of Bar Charts:

Very easy to draw and to understand

Easy to modify chart, if required.

Limitations or drawbacks of bar chart:

1.       Lack of degree of details: Only major activities are shown on a bar chart, no sub activities are shown. Too many activities make it clumsy. Due to this, bar charts are not useful for large projects.

2.       Review of project progress: A bar chart does not show the progress of work and hence it cannot be used as a control device. However, an existing bar chart can be modified to show the progress of work. This is done usually, by showing the progress of each activity by hatched lines along the corresponding bar. Generally, the hatching is done in top half the width of the bar.

3.       Activity inter-relationship: The inter-relationship between the activities cannot be clearly depicted or indicated.

4.       Time uncertainties: Bar charts are not useful in those projects where there are uncertainties in estimation of time required for the completion of activities. Due to this schedule cannot be updated.

5.       Bar chart can’t indicate critical activities requiring careful attention.

Suitability of bar chart: It is useful only for small size conventional projects specially construction and manufacturing projects in which time estimation can be made with fair degree of accuracy.

2)      Milestone charts: It is a modification over the original Gantt chart. Mile stones are key events of a main activity. These are specific points in time which mark the completion of certain portions of the main activity. The beginning and end of the sub divided activities or tasks are termed as mile stones. Each mile stone is represented either by a circle or by a square and is serially marked.

a)        Small sub activities: As the main activities are subdivided, the sequence of these subdivided activities within the main activity can be better understood and better controlling is possible.

b)      Interdependency of sub activities: The mile stones show the interdependency of sub activities or events within the main activity. But the mile stones do not show the interdependency between different main activities.

 

 

Milestone Chart limitations:

Does not show the interdependencies between activities or mile stones of different activities.

Difference between Bar Chart and Mile Stone Chart:

A Bar chart represents the activities while a milestone represents the events which mark either the beginning or the end of an activity. In the case of milestone chart, controlling is possible to some extent compared to bar chart.

2.       Linked Bar Chart: It is very similar to a normal Bar chart. However, by drawing vertical or inclined lines (links) connecting the end of one activity with the start of another, one can show dependencies of activities. Thus the logic links show the relationship of activities one to the other. The introduction of links makes that the operations involved are easily understood and particularly the restraints on each activity. When progress does not follow the programme, the linked Bar chart allows the analysis of the consequences of events that have occurred. More dynamically the chart allows prediction of the effect of events yet to occur. Typical linked bar chart is shown below.