The Importance Of Cost Management And Quality Surveyors In Building Projects

Read all the following details carefully and use knowledge gained from academic study personal experience or your own research and state your references to write your discussion. 

IInvestigate the criteria of what determines the success of a project. You may use a hypothetical project or one of your own choice or one which has been discussed in lectures to assist your discussion. In describing the success of the project discuss the role of the cost manager or the QS (Quantity Surveyor) and discuss why Cost Planning is recommended for all building projects. Discuss how the financial success of a project can be improved by cost planning and how the project team can impact where 

Factors that contribute to project success

Success of every project lies on several factors as set by the personnel on the ground. Project team must always remain aware of commercial performance, forecasting on accuracy in building, and maintaining deadlines in line with commercial calendar of the project. Correct management of budget and contractual relationships of the building project is essential in ensuring that a project becomes success. The involvement of Quality Surveyor in any project help it to achieve it success (Oliver 2018, p. 34). For instance, Quality Surveyor ensures that the financial position of building project remains to be accurately reported as well as controlled well. Such managers make project of building to be success as they are responsible for managing the contractual relationships between several parties involved in any specified building project. The success of every project lies in operations of cost managers (Ryan 20181, p. 165). These managers always have the responsibilities of advising on the potential of the site and working out what the project’s client can afford to construct that in most cases termed as ‘feasibility.’ Project with detailed information concerning costs of specified elements of work on the periodic basis tends to enable payment to different operations to be conducted to date. Project with managed costs tends to be successful because management of operational costs ensures that the initial budget is not exceeded.

Cost manager or Quality Surveyor is always important personnel in every building project. The key responsibilities of cost manager are diverse. The cost manager ensures that commercial processes are adhered to across every business unit in a project and actively seek to improve procedures and processes of building a project. Quality Surveyor also has the role of ensuring there is a robust, accurate, and timely cost and value reporting at every level of building a project. They ensure that there is accurate reporting of cash flow that takes place within the project (Obama 2018, p. 239). The manager also has the role of conducting cost management that includes process of overseeing and forecasting. Cost manager offers different reports on actual charges against estimate and identifies different underlying reasons for any variance. Moreover, cost manager has the role of updating the monthly costs as well as commercial plans for any building project. Quality surveyors help in ensuring that any main contract entered into posses’ terms and conditions appropriate for building project with commercial dangers identified. They have the role of ensuring that supply chains are engaged well with the appropriate contract terms and conditions. In the process of their operations, cost managers have the role of building and maintain good relationships with clients. Managers also have the role of preparing applications for payment for every person involved in building project (Propato, Clough and Polaczyk 2018, p. 17). Cost managers’ work in hand with the site management with the aim of forecasting predicted spends together with cash recovery while ensuring that both are kept in line with the target of building project. Moreover, cost managers work in hand with the procurement team along with manager of project delivery to develop and monitor strategy of procurement in project.

The role of Quality Surveyors and Cost Managers

Cost planning in any building project is key factor due to diligence step in the process of preparing for the construction project. Cost planning tends to tell the building owner how much a proposed project will cost up to its completion. In most cases, cost planning tells much on when the expected expenses will most probably occur. The information provided in cost planning is vital for obtaining financing of project and for determining whether the project can be profitable (Atkins, Marsden, Diwan, & Zwarenstein 2016, p. 4). However, without cost planning in every building project, owners of assets would enter unknowingly into plans of construction and perhaps into liquidation. Planning of cost decides fiscal viability of building scheme. After proprietor of project has put maximum charge, cost preparation determines if that charge can be reached within set schedule (Onsa 2016, p. 185) Moreover, cost planning is utilized to structure financing for the building project. Planning of charge notifies holder of every building of accurately when instalments of finance will be required so that building possessor can remain active with charges.

Cost preparation is the primary requirement of any contractor, or indeed any business operation to be profitable in building projects. While profit alone during construction of project does not guarantee survival, cash flow during the process of building remains to be fundamental too in project. Cost planning contains two features that include overall budget for the project making the contractor to focus on financing every activity as per the plan. It shows the total amount of money that every section of building project is expected to charge. Such directive provided by cost planning held in ensuring that every section in the project receives adequate money to be completed without any difficulties in operations of people involved in building the project (Hemmersam 2015, p. 49). Cost planning also has the feature of allocation of costs over time that is useful in helping the contractor to know what to do and how much to spend at every specified time. With effective cost planning in building project, contractors and project owners can predict how much the project has cost at any specified moment.

Cost planning improves project’s financial success by determining the scope of the project by ensuring that there are no wastes incurred during process.  The cost planning improves financial success by controlling problem of cost of operations (Wicker and Breuer 2014, p. 935).  Cost planning help in ensuring that contractor that win a building project has some good financial history that will ensure that once they win the contract they will be able to use the available finance with respect and care. The use of finances as per the guidelines in cost planning is vital in ensuring that projects attain success of finance. Cost planning aid in showing the owner of the project amount of money that is needed to be used for the project to be completed. It improves the financial success of projects as it records how expenses during the project will be used. It determines if the project will be of profit or if it will result in losses in operation (Nagesh and Thomas 2015, p. 359). Cost planning allows the project owners to understand what is needed for the entire project making contractors work in accordance to set budget that in return reduces any wastes of resources that might occur in the process of building. Therefore, cost planning improves financial success of project by determining fiscal feasibility of the project under construction.

The importance of cost planning in building projects

Cost planning ensures that there is allocation of all costs of project overtime that ensures that project attains its financial success by avoiding incurring extra cost in operations. Cost planning among contractors of different projects to predict the amount the project shall cost leading to correct budgeting of finance to be used in operations. Therefore, cost planning is something that every project manager is familiar with during their operations (Conger 2015, p. 123). The capacity to maintain the organized approach to task while remaining aware of control of financial aspects is not the easy skill. Although management of resources and time are vital to attaining goals, cost planning is ultimate on what determines the positive result of a project. Cost planning improves financial success of a project through the determination of a suitable amount of control over the project’s budget. It then makes project managers focus on exercising strict cost supervision (Mihi?, Petrovi?, Vu?kovi?, Obradovi?, and Djurovi?, 2012, p. 919). However, cost planning makes project managers conscious of where funds are allocated at all durations and if anything needs to cane to meet the set budget (Nagesh and Thomas 2015, p. 359). Cost planning help in improving financial success of project by ensuring that every manager is not caught with going over budget unexpectedly.

The preventatives, as well as corrective measures, are critical factors in improving the success of project. Most team members in a project use communication as a critical deliverable in achieving the much-needed goals of the building project. Project team have the immense duties of juggling along with resources that are always not under their direct control in order to produce the much-needed deliverables of project within the restricted constraints that they must adhere such as time, quality, or scope of project (Lane 2017, p. 601). The team uses preventive measures such as idea of performing the investigation in any operational issue within the project that might cause problem to their operations. By performing such investigations, project team are always able to impact success of project by making it every project budget and scheduled to be attained as per the program set in the initial stage (Wallace 2017, p. 29). The team of the project is able to improve the success of project by defining any existing problem on what occurred, place it happened, reason for its happening, time of occurrence, and how significant it is as a way of alerting the entire team to know and understand some of the issues that can affect their operations. Project team also uses preventative together with corrective measures to understand different processes involved in the building project. These steps allow the team to understand the necessary step that opts to be taken before any occurrence of such problem reoccurs before project comes to completion.

By use of preventive and corrective measures, the project team is always able to collect, analyze data, and find solutions to the existing problem during building of project. The collection of vital data helps in noting possible problems that might be affecting the project and in return work hard to correct such issues. The measures set by project team like collection of data improves the success of project like finding appropriate data that indicate which of the possible steps can cause any problem (Gill 2016, p. 11). The team in most cases views the project as duty being performed by them and therefore reports on performance of project to give a clear reflection on the progress of the project. In case some issues affect the operations, project managers, cost managers, and subordinate staffs are always working together to eliminate such concern that in return leads to the success of project. Project team focuses on finding essential needs for project that enables the team of the project to identify different opportunities available for improvement of process (Wallace 2017, p. 32). Moreover, project team is always concern with the current project, instead of future project, as prospect beneficiaries of corrective action towards improving success of project.

References:

Atkins, S, Marsden, S, Diwan, V & Zwarenstein, M. (2016) ‘North-south collaboration and capacity development in global health research in low- and middle-income countries -- the ARCADE projects’, Global Health Action, 9(1), pp. 1–9. doi: 10.3402/gha.v9.30524.

Conger, S. (2015) ‘Knowledge Management for Information and Communications Technologies for Development Programs in South Africa’, Information Technology for Development, 21(1), pp. 113–134. doi: 10.1080/02681102.2014.899960.

Gill, C. J. (2016) ‘The mCME Project: A Randomized Controlled Trial of an SMS-Based Continuing Medical Education Intervention for Improving Medical Knowledge among Vietnamese Community Based Physicians’ Assistants’, PLoS ONE, 11(11), pp. 1–19. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0166293.

Hemmersam, P. (2015) ‘Exploring Urban Data Visualization and Public Participation in Planning’, Journal of Urban Technology, 22(4), pp. 45–64. doi: 10.1080/10630732.2015.1073898.

Lane, K. L. (2017) ‘Building Strong Partnerships: Responsible Inquiry to Learn and Grow Together: TECBD--CCBD Keynote Address’, Education & Treatment of Children, 40(4), pp. 597–617. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=125698907&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 1 October 2018).

Mihi?, MM, Petrovi?, D?, Vu?kovi?, AM, Obradovi?, VL & Djurovi?, DM. (2012) ‘Application and Importance of Cost-Benefit Analysis to Energy Efficiency Projects in Public Buildings: The Case of Serbia’, Thermal Science, 16(3), pp. 915–929. doi: 10.2298/TSCI110911090M.

Nagesh, D. S. and Thomas, S. (2015) ‘Success factors of public funded R&D projects’, Current Science (00113891), 108(3), pp. 357–363. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=101021245&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 1 October 2018).

Obama, B. (2018) ‘Given the Strange and Uncertain Times We’re in’, Vital Speeches of the Day, 84(9), pp. 234–242. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=131528370&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 1 October 2018).

Oliver Bigas, L. (2018) ‘Financial Skills every manager should be able to NAVIGATE’, TD: Talent Development, 72(6), pp. 32–37. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=129741071&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 1 October 2018).

Onsa, E. H. (2016) ‘Editing the Environmental Data in All Stages of Building Projects in the Hot-Dry Tropical Regions’, International Journal for Housing Science & Its Applications, 40(3), pp. 181–190. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=124762699&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 1 October 2018).

Propato, M., Clough, J. S. and Polaczyk, A. (2018) ‘Evaluating the costs and benefits of marsh-management strategies while accounting for uncertain sea-level rise and ecosystem response’, PLoS ONE, 13(8), pp. 1–21. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200368.

Ryan, C. M. (2018) ‘An Earned Value Management Approach To Time-Weighted: Test Point Program Management’, Defense Acquisition Research Journal: A Publication of the Defense Acquisition University, 25(2), pp. 158–191. doi: 10.22594/dau.17-790.25.02.

Wallace, R. J. (2017) ‘Evaluating Methods of FAA Regulatory Compliance for Educational Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)’, Collegiate Aviation Review, 35(1), pp. 25–51. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=126014194&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 1 October 2018).

Wicker, P. and Breuer, C. (2014) ‘Examining the Financial Condition of Sport Governing Bodies: The Effects of Revenue Diversification and Organizational Success Factors’, Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary & Nonprofit Organizations, 25(4), pp. 929–948. doi: 10.1007/s11266-013-9387-0.