Practices Of Contractor Schedule/Cost Planning And Control

Since 1950s, project management has been acknowledged as an important methodology for planning, organizing, coordinating, monitoring and controlling project implementation in the United State with the development of network techniques such as CPM (Critical Path Method) and PERT ( Project Evaluation and Review Technique). Project management principles, methods and tools are effectively used to manage projects in all industries.

A project planning and control is a process that the project team intends to follow to realize the project objective. In today’s business environment, where the projects are constrained by aggressive deadline and limited resource availability, project manager need practiced, “best skill” skills and tools in project planning and control. It also involves the comparison of actual progress with the planning. The benefits of Project planning and control is more likely to lead to success and is more cost-effective than a “just do it” approach. It develops greater mutual understanding and more commitment to achieving the objectives within the project team. Project plan provides an “early warning system” so that problems identified while there is still time to do something about them.

In Vietnam, almost resettlement projects funded by government are delayed and had cost overrun because effective project management method is not provided. By case study analyses and comparisons to literature review, the objective of report tend to identify the strengths, weakness, and consequence for practices of contractor schedule/cost planning and control in construction project management.

Mr. Bui Van Cuong made a study about the practice approaches of contractor schedule/cost planning and control – a case study of resettlement high-rise building projects in Ho Chi Minh City since applying modern project management techniques in high-rise building which funded by government is very difficult.

The objectives of Mr. Cuong’s study were to: (1) investigate the practice of contractor schedule/cost planning and control in resettlement high-rise building project; (2) analyze the practices to find the strengths, weaknesses and consequence of practices schedule/cost planning and control; and (3) propose recommendation for improvement of project planning and control in resettlement high-rise building project.

It is important to explore the practice of contractor schedule/cost planning and control. Therefore, this study carried out to increase a better understanding of schedule/cost planning and control systems, and how can be applied it effectively in construction projects.

The project expands and cost overrun by reasons that investigated in resettlement high-rise building projects as shown in the table below.

Conclusion

Professional project management in the construction industry is a relatively new field in Vietnam so that the knowledge in this field is less common, especially in state own company. Almost project funded by government is schedule delay and cost overrun because of lacking effective application project management. This is a matter of great concern so that Project manager in Viet Nam have been recognizing the effective application project management for successful project implementation and are looking forward to receiving technology transfer associated with training and consulting in this area of expertise.

Investigation for practices of contractor schedule/cost planning and control

A project success or failure depends very much on knowledge of applying project planning and control where schedule/cost planning and control is one of the factors that project managers have a lot of interest. By analyzing the strength, weakness, and consequence for practices of schedule/cost planning and control in resettlement high-rise building project funded by government, we can identify that the reasons cause schedule delay and cost overrun is lack of knowledge for using proven principles and methodologies of modern project management techniques to manage project implementation. In conclusion, I want to emphasize that Work breakdown structure (WBS), Critical path method (CPM), and Earned value method (EVM) are very important and useful methods for schedule/cost planning and control that support efficiency for project managers in project planning and control. This study finds the strengths and weaknesses of schedule/cost planning and control, the results show as the table below:

Recommendation

Re-evaluated current project practices, which in many case, resulted in schedule/cost planning and control in project implementation and explore the possibility of training for weak areas. Encourage professional with experience in project management to explore ways to fund and put in place a specialized body of knowledge, potential certification program and cooperate with world’s project management community for the advancement of professional and its disciplines.

The table below shows the recommendation to improve the practices of contractor schedule/cost planning and control.


His thesis abstract is copied and posted

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, construction market is growing rapidly in Vietnam so that the needs of knowledge of professional project management are very necessary. Many high-rise building construction projects funded by government are implemented using traditional method for project management. Lacking of knowledge of applying the proven principles and methodologies of modern project management techniques is one of the reasons that cause project delay and cost overrun .Schedule/cost planning and control is one of the factors that project managers have a lot of interest. By investigating and analyzing the strength, weakness, and consequence for practices of contractor schedule/cost planning and control in resettlement high-rise building project funded by government, the result show the reasons cause schedule delay and cost overrun are the method delivery, using professional project management software, and lack of modern project management knowledge of Vietnamese project manager. Therefore, the government should encourage professional with experience in project management to explore ways to fund and put in place a specialized body of knowledge, potential certification program and cooperate with world’s project management community for the advancement of professional and its disciplines.