Building the Argument: What makes project management in the Construction sector different?

On 25 February, the SWWE Regional Network were very pleased to welcome members from the CIOB to this joint event with Dave Corbin, Head of Client Accounts at Gleeds and Claire Biggs, Senior Project Manager, J4 Projects. Dave is the APM’s Built Environment Interest Network Lead, and Claire is a member of the IN Volunteer Group.

Dave and Claire discussed the various project life cycles used for built environment projects, including different procurement routes, the partnering approach being adopted by the sector, statutory approvals, and how sustainability is being addressed.  

To start things off, Dave and Claire had some Slido poll questions for the audience.

Firstly, whether the audience worked in the built environment sector, 65% said they did.

Are PM skills transferable between sectors? The response was equal between totally and mostly.

Can the APM generic life cycle smooth project delivery across any sector?  Mostly yes or not sure.

Is training available to help PMs transfer to the BE sector? Don’t know and no.

How can the BE attract recruits to the sector what are we doing that discourages people? Various responses including too masculine culture, poor pay, lack of awareness.

The responses were captured and added to the slides.

Claire then discussed BE plans of work in the UK, (RIBA), with the deliverables for each stage and also some of the different international BE plans of work.

There was then a detailed discussion of how the RIBA plans of work compared with the APM life cycle, with emphasis on governance stage gates and the specific regulatory environment for the BE, and sustainability. Regulatory approvals take time which must be planned for.

The differences in the role of the Project Manager in the BE sector were discussed looking at what was common and what was different.  It was noted by the audience that some of the potential differences were sector dependent, and there was more in common between some sectors such as defence.

The BE regulatory compliance & design standards were discussed, including the core statutory regulation such as building regs, H&S, fire safety, national standards codes and guidance such as British Standards, and ISO Standards, and client specific standards such as the Education,(DfE) Justice,(MoJ), Healthcare, (NHS), Planning and environmental controls, Security and Protective Standards, Sustainability and Carbon Standards, and Digital, BIM and Golden Thread requirements.

The different project disciplines and their roles and responsibilities were discussed, including Architect, Principal designer, Structural and Civil, Cost Manager, Mechanical & Electrical, and Planning consultant. 
An example organisation chart of a university project demonstrated the highly complex nature of governance boards, decision making and roles.

Dave then discussed typical BE procurement strategies, covering types of contract, the approach; single or two stage, single source of competitive;  and form of contract, inc. NEC, JCT.

He then discussed the efforts over the last 30 years to change the BE culture from confrontation between client and supplier to more collaborative. There have been many reports over the years since the Latham report in 1994 trying to shift the BE culture.  There are pockets of good practice, but still a long way to go across the sector generally.

Dave discussed how sustainability has developed from a nice to have (which often got cut due to budget), to regulation and client demand and validation standards such as Passivhaus.  40% of carbon emissions are due the BE and so there are huge gains to be made.

We finished with another Slido poll about what the SRO and Client value in their Project Manager / Project Leader?  Honesty, Transparency and Competence were the main expectations.

Another question on the immediate differences between your sector and the BE highlighted areas such as specific risks, specific terminology, regulations, but otherwise not huge differences.

The question was asked again about PM Skills transferability.   The results were similar: mostly and totally.
And finally, whether the APM generic life cycle could enable smooth delivery of projects in any sector?  There was an increased view that it could.

There are differences in how projects are managed in any sector, but project management skills are transferable. However, to be fully effective a project manager does need sector knowledge and experience of the different stakeholder and regulatory environment which can make it more challenging to transfer between sectors.

Martin Gosden
SWWE RN