Successful Construction Project Management: The Practical Guide

by Paul Netscher

Successful Construction Project Management – The Practical Guide, provides useful tips to managing a construction project. It’s aimed at construction professionals as well as those studying construction project management. Managing a construction project isn’t an easy job and requires a large skill set. Some of these skills are learned by attending courses and colleges (which are often more theoretical than practical). However, others are only learned by experience, and often the hard way – learning from mistakes. This book bridges the gap between the theoretical and practical and includes chapters on planning the project, starting it, scheduling, running the project, completing it, people, materials, equipment, quality, safety, subcontractors, contractual and financial. These chapters are broken into multiple sections providing a step-by-step guide to successfully managing a construction project, and, including what-not-to-do to avoid costly mistakes. Key features of the book are • is written for construction contractors by a contractor • is written in an easy to read, friendly style, and avoids being too ‘textbook’ in nature • has numerous practical examples of situations the author has seen and experienced over twenty-eight years in construction • includes many topics essential to successfully managing projects which aren’t included in most other project management books (such as; teamwork, delegation, communication, time management and preparing for meetings) • has the information clearly set out and easily available so the book can be used as a continuing reference • is not specific to a particular country or field of construction • includes a large amount of valuable, useful and relevant information dealing with practical everyday issues of managing a project • has a summary of the salient points at the end of each chapter Managing a construction project requires Project Managers with an understanding of construction processes, able to develop schedules, procure materials and equipment, aware of safety, environmental and labour legislation, capable of working with different people including the public, their workers, the client and designers, and able to manage subcontractors. They need to develop an appropriate construction methodology which uses the available personnel and equipment efficiently, enabling the project to be built in the shortest possible time, taking into account the client’s requirements and the project’s location and restraints. In addition, they must ensure the project is carried out safely and meets the required quality standards and complies with all permits, regulations and registrations. They must manage contractual issues with the client in a manner which doesn’t jeopardise their company, ensuring the project is financially successful, while always maintaining good client relations. The project must be successfully completed on-time and closed-out correctly. The book discusses all of this, and more, in detail and includes many examples which provide relevance to the subject matter. By reading and using this book Project Managers will avoid some of the many problems encountered everyday on construction projects. The book should prove to be an excellent reference which can continually be referred to so that Project Managers don’t forget important steps in the construction management process. The contents should be easily understood by people in the construction industry and those studying construction. A glossary of terms is included since terminologies vary between countries and even companies.

257 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 14, 2014

Reviews

[Malek]

I understood why it is not going on

I was managing my own project while I was reading this book. A lot of issues mentioned here I was facing at that time. A bad practice to avoid I was doing etc....
And at the end this books helped me to catch my mistakes, to learn from them and to aspire to do less during the next.
Thanks for this valuable book.

[ªevket Süreyya TAªKAN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Real experiences

This book helps with practical tips learned from real experiences. A must read book for the people who are involved in construction projects, especially project managers.

[George Malone · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent beginners book with some high level case studies in them. I would recommend it for someone that has a general interest in learning about the pitfalls of managing a construction project. I like that the author shares personal experiences. You WILL run into problems in a project. The book emphasizes your success will be proportional to your preperation and ability to respond to issues promptly...then describes what those common issues are. This is somewhere between a 3 and 4 in my opinion. This book will likely be too basic for folks that have experience with a major construction company...but i still found portions useful regardless. It is always good to continue to learn from others. Avoidance of only one of the pitfalls in the book would make the book valuable in that sense.

[Milan Marojevic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful practical guide !

[Luan C. Do · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and easy to read!

This book is packed with practical discussions and case studies. It is a great reference because of the many lists that it contains.

[Niraj Mahto]

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