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Rwelamila, P D and Asalan, R (2010) Understanding of project management good practices by construction project managers: the case of ABCD. In: Egbu, C (Ed.), Proceedings 26th Annual ARCOM Conference, 6-8 September 2010, Leeds, UK. Association of Researchers in Construction Management, Vol. 2, 1189–98.
- Type: Conference Proceedings
- Keywords: project manager; good practice; South Africa
- ISBN/ISSN: 978-0-9552390-4-5
- URL: http://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/proceedings/ar2010-1189-1198_Rwelamila_and_Asalan.pdf
- Abstract:
Most people become construction project managers (CPM) by accident. The usual path to the job is through expertise in a technical speciality as an engineer, quantity surveyor, architect or any other related speciality. In short, those with technical skill are told to run projects because they have technical knowledge about the projects. The Tthe technical part of a construction project is often the smallest and easiest part. Technical success does not necessarily lead to project success; it is necessary but not sufficient. In order to manage projects successfully one of the requirements for a project manager (PM) is to have sufficient knowledge base in construction project management, and coupled with practical experience, the PM will have sufficient understanding of PM good practices. This paper reports on a South African research project which was conducted to evaluate CPM understanding of project management good practices. One major public sector organization employing more than 800 construction project managers was selected as a case study. In order to maintain the organization’s anonymity it is referred to in this paper as ABCD. From intensive literature review, universally accepted project management good practices were identified. These were used to evaluate the extent to which ABCD project managers understand project management good practices through a self administered questionnaire. The research results found that even though there are several areas of project management good practices in which ABCD project managers were found to have high levels of understanding, there were also significant areas of PM good practices which were not well understood. These findings have implications for CPM practices in South Africa and beyond. Recommendations are made to address the status quo in order to strengthen PM practices.