Building Information Modelling - Essay Example

Project management and Building Information Modelling Introduction Technological development is one of the contemporary factors that influence economic activities. Application of technology in information has particularly been significant in different modes of communication that range from administrative to programmed communication for profession-specific activities. Physical models that were previously drawn by hand and manually communicated can now be represented and transmitted, electronically, to other stakeholders over long distances and even be explained by aids of technology. This development has particularly been important in the engineering field in which some stakeholders develop models and different stakeholders who interpret the developed models simulate their properties undertake the constructions for achieving reality. Ensuring ease and success of such simulations has further prompted the need for standardization in modelling and communication of developed models in engineering. Of particular interest to the scope of application of information technology in engineering and modelling is the concept of Building Information Modelling that defines establishment and management of digital models of physical and operational features of a facility. The concept has been approved for its advantages and is being advocated for among government contractors. It has at the same time, though increasingly being adopted by many players, raised mixed reactions over its effectiveness and effects on business and clients. I, in this paper, explore the statement that ‘the introduction of Building Information Modelling (BIM) into the construction industry has the potential to change or influence the way project managers work in the future.’ In exploring this statement, I identify significance of IBM to project managers’ approach to work. The paper is however limited to secondary resources and may be subject to the authors personal bias. The role of the project manager The project manger assumes the general roles of a manager within the scope of a particular task that he is assigned to supervise. This identifies diversified roles that at controlling involved personnel and processes to ensure achievement of a project’s desired objectives. Different role are attributable to the project manager and the roles vary with different stages of a project and different scopes that a project may adapt. One of the identifiable roles of the project manager is the development of project proposals. This may be achieved together with other stakeholders to a project such as the project’s principal. This role includes development of a project’s scope and determination of economic necessities for implementing the project, and facilitates an understanding of the project. The project manager also plays a significant role in initiating a project, a role in which the manager identifies necessary personnel, ensures availability of the personnel, and mobilizes them towards implementing the subject project. The role also includes identification of necessary skills for the project, goals to be achieved in the project, and interests and motivational factors of the member of the project team (Hopper 2012, p. 18). In cases where project goals are developed by other parties and communicated to the project team, the project manager approves the objectives before they can be incorporated and communicated to the team. Placing an order for required resources in a project also forms part of a project manager’s role (Acs, p. 1). Other roles of the project manager include evaluation of potential risks to a project and establishment of control measures against identified risks and establishing minimum operation costs and making sure that operations adhere to the stipulated costs. The roles also include ensuring that both processes and personnel in a project adhere to expected codes and standards in the scope of implementing the project (Ncifcrf p. 3). The extensive roles of the project manager also involve developing schedules for team members and processes, budgeting, and planning for work. Developing work scheduled incorporates determination of the project’s period and how different tasks can be allocated to the available period. The manager also determines the amount of monetary resources that should be necessary for a project’s activities and period. Breaking down a project to its distinct tasks and establishing a clear timeline for executing the tasks also falls within the roles of a project manager (Hopper 2012). Gido and Clements however explore these roles from a planning perspective. Based on a consensus with a principle who may be a customer, the manager confirms a project’s goals, communicates them to members of the project team, and develops a vision from the objectives. This is followed by development of a plan for achieving the objectives and realizing the vision (Gido and Clements 2009, p 303). A project manager also performs such roles as an “integrator, communicator, and facilitator” (PM4DEV 2008, p. 75). As an integrator, the manager ensures that activities, processes, and involved personnel are organized to ensure cohesion in the project’s implementation process. The communication role of manager is however diverse and could be informative, administrative or motivational. Administrative communication contributes to cohesion in a project by ensuring that project members adhere to established standards for pursuing set objectives. The informative aspects of communication however ensure availability of necessary information to members of a project team while motivational communication empowers team members towards achieving project objectives. Motivation however incorporates influences both communication and integrative roles of the manager (PM4DEV 2008, p. 75). Different roles of the project manager are further identifiable from the manager fields of operation. Consultancy, for example, identifies a manager with the role of managing activities in order to realize objectives of a project team. The manager, as is identifiable within the scope of an IT project manager, makes decisions and implements solutions within his scope of operations (Schwalbe 2010, p. 21). The roles of a project manager are however wider, in other fields, and also include monitoring and evaluation of a project’s processes to ensure consistency with standards and expectations, management of a project’s financial resources, managing and linking the project team and the project’s owner or customers, and management of other resources for the project. The project manager is also responsible for achieved levels of quality in the project and the winding up of the project (Hooper, 2012, p. 18). The concept of hard and soft project management Project management skills can be categorized into hard project management skills and soft project management skills. Kloppenborg defines the scope of soft project management to include “communication and leadership” while the scope of hard project management includes elements such as “risk analysis, quality control, scheduling, and budget work” among other activities (Kloppenborg 2011, p. 5,6). Lester however argues that the distinction between hard project management aspects and hard project managements aspects is not precise and cannot be explained accurately. According to the author, the scope of hard project management revolves around issues and skills such as “budget case, cost control, change management, project lifecycles, work breakdown structures” among other operative activities within a project’s scope (Laster 2007, p. 5). The author also identifies a wider scope for the soft project management and identifies elements such as “health and safety, stakeholder analysis, team building, leadership, communication, information management, negotiation, conflict management, dispute resolution, marketing, sales, and law” (Lester 2007, p. 5). Bellow is an exploration of some of the soft and hard project management aspects. Change management Organizations, regardless of their scopes and the industries in which they operate, are subject to environmental factors that prompt them to initiate changes. Most of the factors to change are external environmental factors and may involve development of new technologies, change in legal perspectives towards an organization, entrance of new competitors in the market, changes in demographic factors within an organization’s target market, and concepts such as globalization. The factors may force an organization to implement change that may constrain its internal environmental factors and effective change management is necessary. Secord argues that application of new paradigms is a good strategy that can ensure successful change management. Attaining such a success is instrumental to the scope of project management because it reduces possible internal tension and resistance against change and ensures that team members are committed to desired and introduced changes in a project’s scope (Second 2003, p. 68). A project manager can however manage identified resistance to change through Armstrong’s outlined strategy. According to Armstrong, a strategy that begins with analysis of possible effects of a change and the elements of change that can cause resistance is necessary to change management. The management then identifies elements of change that can generate opposition and possible rationale behind the anticipated oppositions. Communication with the aim of resolving the fears and creating awareness over the scope of the change is then necessary (Armstrong 2006, p. 347). Work breakdown structures Work breakdown structure is another fundamental element of project management and is identifiable with hard project management aspects. It follows an outlined plan for implementing a project and disintegrates a project into divisible elements or activities that can then be dealt with separately. The breakdown structure helps in simplifying a process and the breaking down of an entire project into subunits, facilitates implementation of the project because of its simplifying role and the ability to allocate diversified roles to project team members based on the members abilities and talents (O’Toole and Mikolaitis 2002, p. 27). Developing work breakdown structures can however be achieved from diversified perspectives such as application of existing guidelines, using analogy, “the top-down approach, bottom-up approach, and mind mapping” (Schwalbe 2010, p. 191; Sears, Sears and Clough 2010, p. 68- 70). Risk analysis Involved processes in a project’s scope identify risks that need to be reviewed for control measures. This identifies the significance of risk analysis into understanding scopes of risks and their potential effects on a project if corrective measures are not implemented in good time (Heldman and Mangano 2009, p. 136). Risk management’s scope is diverse and explores risk that relates to human resource, equipments, processes, and clients among other involved aspects of a project (Moneim n.d., p. 1, 2). Managements’ poor attitudes towards project managers’ risk concerns further identifies the need for higher level competence in risk analysis in order to convince the managements that identified risks are imminent and should be managed to avert problems (Heldman, Baca and Jansen 2007, p. 184, 185). Quality control Quality control is another fundamental aspect of hard project management and involves monitoring and evaluation of a project’s processes and results in order to ensure compliance with desired objectives and set standards. Its scope identifies elements of a project that ought to be monitored, identifies standards for comparison and evaluation methods, and compares project elements with the standards. It relies of analytical skills and may require statistical concepts besides an understanding of the scope of the involved process (Fox and Waldt 2008, p. 106; Kerzner 2009, n.p.). Communication Communication is a fundamental skill of project managers and has significant effect on involved activities and processes in a project. Interpersonal communication skills together with awareness of stages in the communication processes facilitate different elements in a project’s scope such as giving directives and instructions for completing a task. Understanding communication barriers such as language barrier and effects of cross cultural differences are also instrumental to project management (Heldman and Mangano 2009, p. 10- 12). Leadership Leadership skills are also instrumental soft management skills to influencing project team members towards a focus on the project’s objectives and implementation of proposed developments in an industry. Leadership also facilitates teams’ empowerments and therefore ensures success of a project team (Heldman and Mangano 2009, p. 10- 12). Team building Team building involves integrating diversified people to a coordinated teamwork that can yield successful results and is one of the essential elements qualities of a successful project manager. This is because project scopes are not permanent and managers often work with different people, some of whom do not know each other and the involved activities in the project. The team building trait however allow the manager to link the people together and to create awareness of the project’s scope and improves a team’s output (Heldman, Baca and Jansen 2007, p. 338). Negotiation, conflict management, and dispute resolution The scope of project management that involves management of different people with diversified characteristics is always prone to conflicts and strategies for conflict resolution and managements, together with associated skills, are fundamental. Negotiation involves a discursive forum in which parties to a conflict explores involved issues towards a resolution that is instrumental for strong and positive relationships between a project manager and project team members and among project team members. The ability to manage emerging conflicts in the project team and to resolve realized disputes are other soft characteristics of project management (Lester 2007, p. 309-314). The inclusion of BIM into project management skills Building Information modelling is a “process of generating and managing building data” through application of computer aids. It is a manifestation of technological developments and identifies a three dimensional representation of structures in the construction industry. The application is also associated with standards of representation and has many advantages. It is however, a new development and many players in the construction industry are still reluctant to implement it (Chartered Institute of Building 2011, p. 207; Kelleher, and Walters 2011, p. 363). Integrating the application into the scope of construction engineering requires the diversified skills of a successful project manager, both hard and soft skills, in order to ensure that project team members accept BIM. The ability to ensure successful change management is instrumental to the application that is still new and is unfamiliar to most people n the industry. The project manager’s change management skills will therefore facilitate adaption of the technology as a change application in implementing construction projects. BIM’s scope of representation that allows simultaneous implementation of different phases of a project also facilitates, and is complementary to, the manager’s skill in work breakdown structures that disintegrates a project into different components that can then be undertaken differently. Similarly, the scope of IBM that involves clarity and standardized representation of structures facilitates analysis of models for quality controls. Application of IBM also identifies significance of, and facilitates communication among different stakeholders, in the construction industry and calls for management skills towards an integrated system and workforce. Consequently, the scope of IBM and project management skills is complementary (Construction Manager 2013, p. 19- 20). Significance of the study’s findings The study’s findings of a complementary relationship between Building Information Modelling and project management skills mean that the technology is an essential application in the construction industry. Introduction of the Building Information Modelling offers diversified advantages such as accurate information for implementing project, a concept that reduces probability of errors and facilitates success. The technology also facilitates project managers’ ability to disintegrate processes, facilitate simultaneous operations, and therefore save time. Further, the application offers comprehensive information to facilitate communication, risk analysis, and quality control. This features and their contribution to project management identifies significance of Building Information Modelling on project management. Conclusion and recommendations Project management is an instrumental approach to facilitating success in organizations. It however requires specialized skills that can be either soft management skills or hard management skill. These skills further identify with the scope of BIM through a mutual relationship in which the technology facilitates application of project management skills and the skills promote application of the technology in construction projects. It is therefore conclusive that introduction of the Building Information Modelling in the construction industry will transform the industry’s project management as its implementation spreads. This study, based on the established relationship, recommends integration of project management skills and Building Information technology as a strategy to improving success in the construction industry. Construction firms should therefore train their project managers on soft and hard project management skills and incorporate BIM in their operation. Reference list Acs n.d., Role definitions, The University of Utah, Retrieved April 3, 2013, . 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