For any project, planning is the most crucial and defining phase of management. When it comes to project management in the construction industry, planning holds even more significance. It is the initial phase, and its extent of detail plays a key role in its success.
How well do the successive phases of project management get executed is greatly influenced by the planning of a project. Thus ensure that you emphasize the thoroughness and effectiveness of the planning process before the project work begins.
This article aims to introduce you to the key objectives that the effective planning process fulfills in construction project management.
Six key objectives behind construction project planning
Construction projects are complex and thus always rife with delays, conflicts, and disruptions. While there is no way to avoid such situations completely, you can always invest more time in the planning phase and reduce the probability of such occurrences.
You need to carry out planning in detail with a set of objectives in front of you. You must consider taking the services of a professional consultant since the conception of the project idea. Following is the set of objectives that the planning phase of project management can fulfill:
1.   Planning individual activities
Construction projects are inherently complex. They involve a lot more work than building walls with brick and cement. There are dozens of activities going on simultaneously. Breaking down construction of a huge building, from estimating the required material ad equipment to procurement and hiring of staff and setting contractual clauses up, is a hefty task.
You need to make an exhaustive list of activities that will cover all the aspects of the project management cycle. You will need the help of a quantum, and a delay expert consultant in order to avoid risks of delays while planning the activities. When you have taken all possible risky points into consideration while planning the activities, the chances of problems reduce significantly.
2.   Defining construction methods
Construction techniques and methods are numerous. Similarly, construction projects are different from each other in a number of ways. In the planning phase of construction project management, you have to analyze the requirements of the project.
You have to look closely at the help of construction consultants as to which methods, strategies, and tools suit the requirements of your project. Thus project planning fulfills the key objective of deciding how to handle which activity.
3.   Decisions on Construction equipment
The construction process is equipment intensive besides being labor-intensive. The budget of a project is influenced greatly by the kind of material and equipment you choose to use. Also, you have to decide which parts of the work can be completed with rented equipment.
For the rest of the work components, you have to lease or buy the equipment. Each of the three options, i.e., buying, renting, and leasing, have their own pros and cons. This is the reason al such decisions must be taken carefully in the planning phase of construction project management.
4.   Material procurement scheduling
The scope of project planning is not confined to the decision of construction methods and the breakdown of activities. Procurement is a key component of the construction project and requires planning beforehand. You have to decide at which point you need to procure and order certain machinery or equipment.
This is because of the reason that you cannot afford to keep all the material and equipment on-site for the whole project cycle. Thus proper planning of procurement should serve as a key objective of the project planning phase.
5.   Scheduling of documents and drawings
The construction process is highly dependent on drawings for building specifications. Besides, the documentation is a key component as well. You have to make sure that the drawings and necessary documents are available to the project manager or the entity in charge on the site.
The planning should include a schedule of specifications and drawings which need to be referred to or reviewed at any point during the construction process.
6.   Budgeting planning
Budgeting is the most difficult component of construction project management. Construction projects are huge in size and scale; thus, the budgets are also very huge. You have to make difficult choices and compromise on your preferences at times.
You have to make room for anticipated escalation of costs in case of delays in various activities. For this, you will need the help of a delay expert to keep the chances of escalation to a minimum. Consideration of all the foreseeable problems is a necessary component of project budget planning.
The planning phase of construction is the most crucial
Make sure you do not set out towards the construction project hastily. Every phase of project management holds its due significance. Planning is the first and most defining phase that needs your attention the most. It has important objectives which can only be fulfilled if you give it due time and effort.
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