Budgets & Scheduling

Completing a construction project on time and within budget is key to meeting the Project goals to assure the success of the Project. A budget and schedule are central to communicating the requirements of a project. Embedded within them are concepts and assumptions of project delivery processes, the form of agreement, measures of quality, and all the finite details of a project. Therefore, for a project to succeed, these concepts and assumptions must be communicated, not just once, but continuously through the duration of the project.

Bids

A bid, or tender, is a firm value of the construction project, determined by the contractor, upon which the contract to construct is based. A bid may be a single value covering the entire work, or it can be a series of line-item values, often referred to the Schedule of Values, that breaks down the single total value into measurable sub-components of total cost. There are two types of bids, formal and informal.

Formal - typically a public or private entity requiring strict competitive bidding procedures, typically resulting in a bid form.
Informal - typically a private entity with less rigid bidding requirements, perhaps by invitation only, requesting a proposal reflecting the scope described by the Owner verbally or with drawings and specifications

Budgets

Money drives projects, projects require money. Project success is primarily measured in terms of money, but also a variety of other stakeholder outcomes. Money talks.

The single biggest driver of project and change management in construction and facility projects is money, along with time and quality--the triple constraint. Quality is a function of money: “you get what you pay for!” Time is a function of money: “cheaper, faster.”

And so many arguments and decisions around construction projects are centered on money issues, which means the ways of communicating about money is so critically important to project success--poor money management, and poor communication about the money issues can wreck or save a project, even when the amount of money involved may be small. One of the greatest sources of losing the goodwill that may have been generated over the project duration is to save up the “bill” for the end, and then asking for a big change order, and not managing this change process regularly during the course of the project.

So the lesson: be clear about money issues, and communicate regularly--early and often--about money issues in a clear and systematic way. First know, then manage your stakeholders expectations about money. It’s that simple.

Estimates

Check out CMGT 4022 for an entire course on construction estimating, and in the meantime, read more about writing for estimates here:

Schedules

Coordination of Construction Projects require careful planning and scheduling. The Schedule is the main tool Construction Managers use to communicate the Construction Plan to their own team as well as to Subcontractors, Suppliers, Designers and Owners. The Schedule shows the planned means, method, sequence and timing of a Construction Project. The Construction Schedule is the basis and framework for completing the Project on time and on budget and provides a baseline to monitor and measure progress. The Schedule determines when the Work should be done and in what sequence.

Proposals

Feasibility Studies

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