De Pedro, Joyce Abegail D.

CE-4203

SELECTING, MOTIVATING AND ORGANIZING THE PROJECT TEAM

1. SELECTING PROJECT TEAM

a. Know the candidate’s Abilities
If you are an owner who has gone into a contractor's shop to get a job done, you should
have picked two or three of the top people during the contractor selection process. If you
are a contractor's project or construction manager, you will have to select the people
offered by the department heads or manager of the construction department. If you are
fortunate enough to have worked with the key people before, you can easily make a
decision as to the candidates offered. If you don't know the candidates, you should read
their resume , interview them, and check out any available references.
b. Selecting the person that will fit on your team
Things to consider in choosing key holders on your team:
Does the candidate subscribe to your management MO?
Will he or she fit in with the other players and the client?
• Don't select anyone who you feel has a stronger loyalty to a department head than to you or
the project team.
• Don't, under any circumstances, fill a key slot with anyone who isn't a team player!

Choosing only quality people is a matter of luck. You can’t avoid some lesser- quality performers.

• If possible, it is best to blend them into less critical levels of the organization where they are
least likely to hurt project performance.
• If you are forced into taking some marginally qualified people at key levels, back them up
with strong people who will require less supervision.
2. MOTIVATING PROJECT TEAM
Tools in motivating project team
a. Establish the project goals and instill them into the minds of the key players
- In addition to the general goals of quality, budget, and schedule, some project-
specific goals need to be formulated and written down. They may involve key
milestone dates or budget targets that must be met to earn a bonus.

Writing Job Description

• The project team job descriptions should not be the standard claptrap found in the
departmental files. An interesting approach to preparing the project job descriptions is to have
the team members start by writing their own. When they present the drafts for review, you are
sure to be surprised by just what they think their jobs are. The chances of developing good job
 descriptions are improved when you work out the final drafts together. The final drafts must be
typed and made a part of both the project organization and the team-member files

b. Generate ideas on how they can be met and on the role to be played by each member in
meeting them.
- Through those discussions, we can get each team member to buy into the goals and
become committed to meeting them.

Management by Objectives (MBO) is a personnel management technique where managers and

employees work together to set, record and monitor goals for a specific period of time. Organizational
goals and planning flow top-down through the organization and are translated into personal goals for
organizational members.

Making the MBO system work

The objectives for the program already have been set by selecting and stating the specific
project objectives (project goals) and getting the team members to buy into them. Writing the
objectives into the job descriptions gives everyone involved a clear and permanent statement of what is
expected.

According to Peter Drucker in his 1954 book, The Practice of Management.

“Having a say in goal setting and action plans encourages participation and commitment among
employees, as well as aligning objectives across the organization.”

MBO system forces the CM to delegate the responsibility for meeting specific project goals and
to force the decision- making process as far down into the organization as possible.

c. Have a system of project bonuses for key team leaders

- A program of company-paid social functions can be used as incentives when craft groups
have met their goals. The basis for the incentive bonuses should be simple and clearly
stated, and the bonuses should be paid at the point in the project when the goals have been
met. I am sure we all have seen project incentive bonuses evaporate while we are winding
down the project!

3. Organizing Project Team

(i). Organizing the Job in the Office

Article 3 of the 1997 edition of AIA Document A201- General Conditions requires the contractor
to; "carefully study and compare the various drawings and other contract documents relative to the work
. . . any errors, inconsistencies, or omissions discovered by the contractor shall be reported promptly to
the architect as a request for information."

Changing CSI specification division numbering

 In 2004, the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) reissued their standard Specification
Division numbering system, adding many more divisions beyond the previous Division 17 designation.

Addenda and bulletins

If during the bidding process the architect or engineer issued a number of addendums to the
plans and/or specifications, it is now time to assemble, categorize, and identify them for future use in
the administration of the project, and during the negotiations with subcontractors and suppliers. The
term addendum applies to changes in scope made before the issuance of a signed contract with the
general contractor. Changes made to either the plans and/or specifications after the contract signing are
referred to as bulletins.

Project files

All the written materials coming into, and going out of, the construction office will end up in
files, and it is important that they are easily retrievable.

The central file

A companywide filing system must be established, if it isn't already in place, so that all filing is
uniform. The main purpose of filing is to be able to retrieve a document that is needed, and usually
rather quickly.

The chronological file

In addition to the central, subject-related files for a particular project, another dual-tracking
filing system can be established, and all that's needed is to make another copy of each outgoing or
incoming document, or both.

(ii). Organizing the Estimate

During the period when the project was competitively bid or negotiated, the estimate was
probably modified several times and in many different ways. Numerous adds and deducts to various
elements of the estimate invariably occur as late bids are received and analyzed, and adjustments are
made.

Job scheduling

A job progress schedule is initially roughed out as the job is being estimated to primarily
determine the duration of construction for General Conditions time-related costs.

The critical path method (CPM)

The order list of predecessors and successors and, most importantly, the duration of each
activity within the critical path.

As we all know, the CPM schedule provides:

 • Concise information regarding planned sequences of construction

• Proposed calendar dates when activities will start and finish

• The identification of critical activities

• A matrix that can be manipulated to change the project's completion time, if required

• A basis for scheduling subcontractors, material, and equipment deliveries

• A basis for balancing scheduling, manpower, equipment, and costs

Activity duration times

The success of the CPM process hinges on the ability to determine activity duration time since
this is the system's basic building block. Subcontractors and vendors, committing to duration times, are
prone to be risk averse and therefore may add duration time much above that actually required.

The project meeting minutes

The minutes documenting the events that transpire at project meetings, whether they be with
vendors, subcontractors, inspectors, building officials, owners, or their design consultants are
considered "official business records,". It is one of the most important documents, some would say the
most important document, produced during the term of the project are minutes of meetings.

The information to be placed in the minutes includes:

• The project meeting number and the date of the meeting.

• The initials or the name of the person preparing the meeting.

Other forms to consider when getting organized

The following documents will be submitted along with the invoice for offsite stored materials and
equipment:

• A list of the specific equipment or materials for which payment is requested

• Location of the stored materials (some owners require storage in a bonded warehouse)

(iii). Organizing in the Field

Part of the project manager's responsibility is to assist the job superintendent in organizing the
field office at the beginning of the project. The field office must be organized to receive and store, for
rapid retrieval, all the paperwork, reports, and drawings that will be forthcoming from the office,
subcontractors, and design consultants.

Shop Drawing Organization

• Shop drawings should be placed on a plan rack if full size, or in a file drawer if only letter size,
but only when they are approved. All unapproved shop drawings be stored in an area that is not
 accessible to anyone but the superintendent, and that they are clearly marked "NOT APPROVED-
DO NOT USE."

The Future of Project Organization

Key Words :

• Linking

• Integration

The shortage of qualified, experienced managers in the construction industry requires each
manager to become more productive and reduce the duplication that exists in many areas of project
management today

PROJECT MOBILIZATION

Project Mobilization is a critical time in the birth of any project. Construction projects are almost
universally task-force-oriented, which means that the people who are assigned to your project will be
charging full-time to it whether they are working productively or not.

Periods of Personnel Shortage

Make your staffing needs known to the personnel providers as soon as possible to give the
suppliers ample lead time to locate the human resources. In a case of oversupply, don't take people
early just to satisfy some department head's desire to cut departmental overhead. Bring your key
people on board first to assist in the project-planning phase, as we discussed earlier. If there is a
personnel shortage, you may want to consider taking on a few good, key people sooner if they are likely
to be snapped up by another project. You will have to weigh cost versus potential benefits.

Updating the organization chart

The organization chart should be kept up to date as project personnel changes occur in the
course of the job.

Construction organizations

It is necessary to discuss the various methods of project execution available to us because it's
impossible to tell how the organization operates just by looking at the organization chart.

Design-build organizations

This contracting mode introduces a significant home office input in the form of the design team
required for the project. Design teams have the option of being operated in task-force or matrix mode.