The preconstruction phase starts once the general contractor bid is accepted, but before ground is broken. During that time, you’ll want to work on these three steps.
Assign a project manager. If the project manager hasn’t already been determined, you’ll want to establish it now. Sometimes a project manager is on board early and participates in the first stages of a project, while other times they aren’t hired until the design is complete.
Determine the rest of the personnel. Find a contract administrator or the person who helps the project manager. A superintendent is also needed to keep everything on schedule in terms of the materials, deliveries and equipment. Superintendents are also on-site to deal with construction activities. Finally, you want to have a field engineer, which is more of an entry-level position to deal with paperwork.
Investigate the job site. Conduct a site analysis to understand the social, climatic and demographic variables that might affect your construction project.
By this point, you’ve established your team and you’ve planned for the construction and materials necessary to complete it. Now you must purchase those materials and equipment. Depending on the organization, procurement might be the responsibility of the general contractor or subcontractors.
This is the stage you’ll be working with purchase orders, which are used as an agreement between the buyer and the seller.
Finally, you’re ready for the build! But first, set a preconstruction meeting to deal with work hours, the storage of materials, quality control and site access. Then get everyone on the construction site and set up as needed.
You’ll need to create a payment schedule and a process to deliver payments. This information needs to be transparent, not only to meet financial obligations but to maintain a happy and productive workforce and environment. Make sure your work orders are detailed enough to avoid misunderstandings between you and your contractors.
The last part of the project is after the construction is complete and the occupants move into or take ownership of the site. You must make sure all their requirements have been met, and usually provide a warranty period to make that arrangement official and binding.
What Is Construction Project Management Software?
Construction project management software organizes the planning, scheduling, building, resources and reporting associated with construction projects. It streamlines the process and improves productivity—all while keeping to a tight schedule and budget.
Project management training video (t8k47kt3r5)
Construction management software is designed to help managers control every phase of their projects by organizing its disparate parts and automating routines to add efficiencies. A construction project management tool also keeps stakeholders updated by sharing data-rich reports.
Because of the many documents related to any construction project, file storage and management of those files are also one of the key features of construction project management software. Having real-time data to foster collaboration, plan, schedule and manage resources is also an essential feature. Microsoft Project is one of the most commonly used project management software, but it has major drawbacks that make ProjectManager a better alternative.
To learn more, check our article about the best construction scheduling software of 2023.
Construction Project Management Tools
Just as you need the right tools to build a structure, you need the right tools to manage that construction. ProjectManager provides construction project scheduling, construction project planning, construction vendor management, cost management in construction projects and other features that allow you to work more efficiently and productively.
ProjectManager has an online Gantt chart maker, which provides a visual timeline for your construction project. It also makes editing construction project schedules super easy. You simply drag and drop a task bar to change the task’s deadline, and you can also see the actual progress in real time as the task bar is shaded each time the status is updated.
Also, look for a Gantt chart with task dependencies, so you can connect dependent tasks like steel delivery with the build phase automatically. That way, everyone knows the status of the different phases and aspects of the project. Gantt charts also allow you to find the critical path, which is essential for keeping your project on schedule.
Click HereTask lists are a simple yet very effective work management tool for construction crews. Task lists great to keep track of your daily work or for teams that need to create daily construction logs or a punch lists. With ProjectManager’s interactive task lists you can share files, leave comments and assign work to your team members in real time.
Monitoring your project execution phase is essential to the project performing as planned. Construction project management dashboards give you a high-level view, collecting data and calculating that information into graphs and charts that show a number of project metrics to keep you on track.
dashboard showing project metrics in real-time
Team scheduling and resource management are other essential features you’ll want, to help you chart the availability, skill set, cost and allocation of your workforce and your construction materials in real time.
ProjectManager's workload chart, ideal for resource management in construction
You can also monitor their workload and create calendars to help you manage team members’ hours, knowing when they’re going to be out, so you can plan. It also helps with tracking other resources and their costs, such as construction equipment rentals to keep your projects on budget.
Another way to manage your team’s hours is through timesheets. No matter where your team is located, either onsite or in the office, they can update their timesheets fast. They submit in seconds, and managers can easily review and approve all with a keystroke. And you can notify them that timesheets are due with automated emails.
Another way to manage your team’s hours is through timesheets. No matter where your team is located, either onsite or in the office, they can update their timesheets fast. They submit in seconds, and managers can easily review and approve all with a keystroke. And you can notify them that timesheets are due with automated emails.
ProjectManager's timesheets are ideal for construction project management
Not only your team but the many vendors you employ on a construction project can be managed anywhere and at any time, with the cloud-based construction project management software from ProjectManager. They can send updates while in the field and you can monitor their progress and track costs and performance.
Reporting features go further than the dashboard, focusing on project variance, tasks, cost and more. The better your data, the better your decision-making process. That’s why you want a reporting tool that can filter your information to show what you want to see and also target it for stakeholders.
Construction management software from ProjectManager is cloud-based and gives you unlimited file storage for all your documents, and there are even more documents in a construction project than the already paper-heavy regular project. You can then attach those files as needed to any communication or even task, and track updates to the documents.
Sign up now for ProjectManager and get 30 days free to try out these amazing features.
Types of Construction Projects
When looking into how to break down construction project management into types of projects, one must go to the source. There are three types of construction, in general, and they are buildings, infrastructure and industrial. The distinction can be further divided into residential and nonresidential.
From the three general types of construction, seven subsets can be listed.
Waterfall Project Management for Construction Projects