Are you into construction? If yes, then your construction process must follow a project life cycle. Whether you are developing an application or building your brand strategy, you must have effective project management in place to ensure successful project completion.
This blog focuses on the various stages of building construction, details the importance of each phase, and offers insights into effective management practices for you to stay informed. Whether you are a construction project manager, architect or a project stakeholder, understanding the life cycle stages will help you navigate the complexities of construction projects to achieve sustainable and high-quality outcomes.
Project Life Cycle: What Is It and Who Manages It?
A construction project life cycle refers to a systematic framework that outlines the distinct phases through which a project undergoes- from initial planning to final handover. One can divide the cycle into various stages- pre-construction, construction, and post-construction. Each of these stages consists of further stages that have specific objectives, processes, and deliverables, contributing to the overall success of the project. With a clear understanding of the construction phases, project managers can have a structured approach that helps them in planning, execution, and control. Although you might come across various versions of stages of construction, mostly you can divide them into five stages. These include initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, control, and closure.
A project manager is generally responsible for managing the project’s life cycle. However, when a construction firm executes multiple projects, they create a project management office or PMO. This body consists of project managers and project portfolio managers who collaborate to allocate organizational resources that would effectively coordinate the efforts of the employees.
However, the number of members associated with a project management team depends on the size of the organisation and the complexity of the project. Moreover, every project management team requires project management software to manage the various stages of the construction. The best project management software comes with tools for planning, scheduling and tracking projects from the start to finish. Construction project managers and other construction professionals can use these softwares to create project schedules, allocate resources, estimate the budget and gather updates of the projects. They come with real-time project dashboards, Gantt charts, workload management charts and other online project management tools and features that help professionals stay updated with their ongoing projects.
The Phases of a Project Life Cycle
A project life cycle comprises five stages, each of which is essential for the best delivery of the project. These stages are:
1. Project Initiation Phase
The first stage of the cycle period in the construction sector is vital. This is when a sponsor advocating the project starts gathering the information for presenting the project’s proposal to the stakeholders. The stakeholders understand the project, analyse every detail, and give their opinion whether they would go ahead with the project. Often, this phase begins with a business case, feasibility study, cost-benefit analysis, and other research that determines whether the project is feasible. A project manager is responsible to draft a project charter at this stage.
Once the project charter gets approval, the manager assembles a project team followed by a project kick-off meeting. After this, the manager prepares a project plan, marking the starting of the next phase. Also, home designs play a huge role in crafting the home’s outlook and aesthetics.
The phase comprises three different steps, including:
Programming and feasibility: The planning team is responsible for outlining the objectives and goals of the project through a feasibility study or business case. Decisions taken at this stage include the size of the project, height of the buildings, number of rooms to include and the space used for the project. Once the team makes the decision, they create a project initiation document (PID).
Schematic designs: At this point, the team creates a sketch highlighting the space, material, colours and textures. The information is crucial during the design development, for researching the equipment required and materials used.
Contract documents: These contain the final drawings and other specifications.
2. Project Planning Phase
It’s the second stage of a project, where the project manager creates a plan. One must remember that project plans vary from one organisation to another. Nevertheless, any project management plan must cover the following key areas.
Project goals: Every project plan generally sets SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely) goals.
Project resource management: It’s how a project manager can make the best of the available resources to achieve the expected goals. It also includes planning and allocating professionals, materials, equipment, and other aspects.
Project budget management: It involves preparing a project budget along with planning, tracking and controlling a project’s financial resources.
Project scope management: The project scope refers to all the tasks that different agencies need to execute to complete a project. The manager mentions the details in a scope management plan, which is a subsection of the project plan, explaining the ways of task execution, their outcomes, deliverables, and their success criteria.
Project stakeholder management: It refers to the ongoing process of identifying, analysing, planning, managing, and tracking interactions with the people and groups that might affect the project’s success.
Project quality management: It ensures that the project delivers the right results while remaining mindful of the required quality standards and satisfying the customers.
Project risk management: A project manager must identify and deal with potential problems that might affect a project. You can easily identify the issues and mitigate their influence to avoid unexpected expenditure.
Project change management: In case of any changes in the project, such as allotment of new tasks, changes in deadlines, or processes, this phase helps a project manager to adapt to changes smoothly.
Project schedule management: Through this, a project manager decides which tasks require performing at what point of time so that the project stays on schedule.
3. Project Execution Phase
It’s the third phase where the manager implements the project plan and completes the project deliverables. As a project manager, you assign tasks, clarify roles, answer questions, supervise the processes, facilitate communication and attend meetings, support the team and keep them on track. It often involves providing team members with new tools, materials and resources.
Often, teamwork becomes challenging for projects, especially with multiple people and complex tasks. Companies are frequently utilising new software, encouraging teams to work together and minimise downtime.
4. Project Monitoring and Controlling Phase
This phase starts simultaneously with the third phase or the project execution phase. It involves setting up certain controls and key performance metrics to measure the effectiveness of project execution.
For effective management of projects, a manager must ensure to take the following steps:
Creating baselines of projects: The baseline stands as a fixed reference point capturing the actual project plan. It further includes the scope, schedule, and cost baseline. It stands as a helpful project boundary, determining the efficient execution of projects.
Establish project metrics and key performance indicators KPIs): Next, as a project manager, you need to determine the project metrics and track the KPIs. Common examples of project metrics include schedule variance, cost variance, and return on investment.
Set up project controls: This includes various tools, techniques, and processes that help in project monitoring for aspects like schedule, cost, quality, scope and risk.
Use of project dashboards: The dashboard contains essential tools used in tracking various project metrics. You can get a visual representation of stats like cost, time, progress, and more. You can also customise your project dashboard to show different metrics. You can also use portfolio dashboards that highlight data across projects.
Create project management reports: These are a fast and easy way to communicate updates and project reports with your stakeholders. You can also use customisable reports for sharing data statuses, tasks, workloads, variance, and timesheets.
5. Project Closing Phase
At this stage, all the phases of project management end. However, the life cycle doesn’t end until the project closure phase is over. While completing the deliverables satisfactorily to the stakeholders is essential, you, as a manager must disassemble the apparatus created to fulfill the project. Disassembling the apparatus involves discontinuing work with the contractors, ensuring clearance of payments, signing off all project documents, and archiving for planning future projects.
Once all the stages of construction projects end, the project manager often conducts a meeting to discuss what worked and what didn’t, so that he/she can repeat the success and avoid the mistakes. Based on the insights gained from the meeting, project managers can create a lessons-learned document. It logs the challenges, successes,and failures of the project. It helps the project managers and the team to learn for future projects.
Conclusion
From initiation to closing a project, each phase of the construction life cycle depends on the other. If there is an error or delay in one stage of the project, you can notice its effects across the entire life cycle, threatening the project’s viability.
As a leading construction firm in India, Brick & Bolt successfully completes all its projects through effective planning. The organisation aims to offer their clients transparency and trust in the construction space by using technology. We map the quality and progress of each of our projects using artificial intelligence and computer vision, ensuring the best results. Contact Brick & Bolt to build your dream home today!