What Do Construction Project Controls Entail? Every successful construction project commences with meticulous planning. Effective project controls aid in monitoring the work and assessing whether everything is progressing according to the plan.

What are the fundamental capabilities of construction project controls?

construction project controls encompass the individuals, procedures, and systems utilized to strategize, monitor, and handle all aspects of a capital project’s lifecycle. These capabilities include, but are not limited to, planning and scheduling, risk management, cost and change management, tender planning and bid development, business intelligence, system architecture, and PMO setup and maturity. Their collective aim is to drive projects towards safe and successful delivery, saving time and money.

Now that we understand construction project controls as a multidisciplinary field, let’s delve into some of these core capabilities in greater detail:

Project Planning: At the core of any project lies project planning, which informs all stakeholders about the project’s direction and the path to be taken. The project planner collaborates closely with the project manager and their team to define the project scope, construct a time-phased plan, and create a project schedule. This schedule, once approved by key stakeholders, becomes the performance measurement baseline (PMB). The PMB serves as the reference point for tracking overall progress and performance, as well as monitoring and managing changes throughout the project’s lifecycle.

Cost Management: Cost management revolves around planning, estimating, budgeting, and controlling project costs. It helps project teams effectively plan and control budgets throughout the project’s life cycle. Cost management involves various processes, including resource planning, cost estimating, cost budgeting, and cost control. These processes are implemented to effectively manage project costs with the objective of saving money.

Risk Management: Risk management focuses on controlling risks by proactively planning, identifying, analyzing, and responding to events that may impact the project. The goals of risk management are to increase the likelihood and impact of positive events while reducing the likelihood and impact of negative events. By mitigating risks, time, money, and reputation can be saved.

Change Management: Change management involves the methodology used to manage deviations from the project’s scope during its lifecycle. While construction project controls aim to minimize changes, some change is inevitable. Effectively managing change is crucial to ensure fair compensation and avoid additional scope creep. Without a robust change management process, projects may find themselves completing additional work without proper time or compensation.

Organizational Change Management: Organizational change management is a systematic approach to handling transitions or transformations in an organization’s goals, processes, or technologies. The objective is to implement strategies for facilitating and controlling change while helping individuals adapt to the changes. Change management is essential for achieving operational effectiveness and realizing agreed-upon benefits. It is particularly important in project controls as the industry constantly evolves, requiring project controllers to oversee the implementation of new processes and technologies on a regular basis.

Data Structure, Control & Management: Often overlooked but a crucial aspect of project controls, data structure, control, and management involve overseeing and managing information and the processes governing its flow. This forms the foundation for a fully integrated and collaborative environment. Effective data structure, control, and management are vital for construction project controls departments to mature fully. By breaking down data silos and harnessing the power of project data, controllers gain confidence in data quality. This empowers decision-makers to take decisive actions to control project timelines, costs, and quality outcomes when needed.

Why are construction project controls significant?

Construction project controls, as a specialized field within project management, play a crucial role in driving projects to achieve their time, cost, and quality objectives. The primary aim of project controls is to maintain costs and schedules as close to the original baselines as possible. It accomplishes this by continuously monitoring, tracking, and reporting any variances, enabling early identification of problems and providing decision-makers with the necessary information and time to take decisive action.

Controls provide projects with a structured framework for effective management, breaking down data silos, fostering collaboration, and unlocking the valuable insights contained within project data. Project managers, who are primarily focused on project delivery, often have limited time to thoroughly review data and identify deviations from the project baselines. Construction project controls offer a much-needed health check by providing a data-driven perspective on the evolving status of project resources and objectives. Based on this information, project managers can make informed decisions and proactively address issues before they jeopardize the project’s time, cost, and quality objectives.

In simpler terms, construction project controls can be likened to the navigator, while the project manager is the pilot. The project controller keeps a vigilant eye on time, cost, and quality objectives, promptly alerting the project team to any potential problems before they have real impacts. It is ultimately the project managers, not the controllers, who oversee the implementation of recommended actions. Although controls are a specialization within project management, they engage with more than just the project managers to whom they report. They provide the entire project with structure, foster collaboration, unleash the power of data, and enable project teams to focus on taking action rather than being burdened by data processing.

Maintaining adequate control

Maintaining proper control necessitates a comprehensive analysis of the project’s current status in relation to its intended objectives. It also requires evaluating potential future factors that may impact the project. If a construction project is found to deviate from the desired goals in terms of budget, time, or quality, corrective measures must be taken.

Construction project controls encompass all stages of a construction project, from estimation to completion. They encompass all the individuals, processes, and tools employed to manage the project’s cost and schedule. It also involves a meticulous assessment of risks that could affect the project’s outcome.

Determing the required level of control

Excessive control can lead to a significant increase in costs, diverting resources from crucial tasks. Insufficient control can result in delays, errors, and subpar quality outcomes. The level of control necessary depends on various factors, including the project’s complexity, the organization’s maturity, team experience, cost requirements, and the project’s significance.

Superior staff augmentation

Asia Pacific Projets presents efficient resolutions to a diverse range of intricate challenges encountered within the construction industry. We collaborate directly with our clients to ensure projects are accomplished within the designated timeframe and budget. Asia Pacific Projets’s staff augmentation services can assist your organization in attaining its project management objectives.

We deliver top-notch staff augmentation for construction projects of varying scopes and scales. We provide a range of specialists tailored to the specific requirements of each company and project. Our experienced professionals are available at any time, for any duration necessary. Our team of Construction project controls professionals includes:

– Project Controls Managers
– Cost Managers
– Planning/Scheduling Managers
– Change Management Personnel
– Procurement Leads
– Estimating Personnel

Please send information or requests that you need to consult for Asia Pacific Projects via:

NGUYEN THI HIEU | Local Relations

Mobile phone: +84 918 331 489

Email: hieu.nguyen@appmvn.com