Instructing Professional English for Civil Engineering

Technical section

Curriculum – 5 classes Reading list

Construction project phases and stakeholders
Business in the construction industry
Procurement in the construction industry
Estimation of construction costs
Innovation in the construction industry
Presentation
English for construction PEARSON
The Language of Civil Engineering in English
Construction Economics: A New Approach
Building Construction and Design Handbook

Construction project phases and stakeholders

A. Objectives
Provide students with the fundamental knowledge upon Construction phases and stakeholders of a construction
project.
B. Content
1. Structure
The lecture will be designed into 2 parts:

- Construction project stakeholders

- Construction phases

2. Activities in class
Part 1.

1. Reading

Defining Stakeholders
2
The term stakeholder means: "An organization, group, or individual "who could impact or be impacted by your
project." They literally "have a stake in" or are affected by an activity, decision, or outcome of your project work. It's
often easy to spot key stakeholders, those who have money, resources, or power on the project. Yet a good project
team will be certain to identify all stakeholders for ultimate [‘Λltimət] project success.
A few years ago, Denver, Colorado was looking for a construction company to do a major build out of our primary
freeway through the heart of downtown. The search included checking references of how previous cities experienced
the final contenders' [kən’tendə] work. The company that won the contract had high marks from the previous key
stakeholders and the residents and daily commuters of the previous city. During our project, there were four old
bridges that had to come down to expand the freeway, with new ones being built first to replace them.
There were also other contract requirements, such as three lanes of traffic must remain open during morning and
evening rush hours, so local workers could easily traverse the roadways to and from their daily jobs. Given that
project constraint, when would you take down a bridge? You got it, during the middle of the night. The quickest way to
remove an old bridge was to carefully set up explosive charges to blow up the old bridge. This contractor was so
keenly aware of all their stakeholders, remember anyone affected by a project activity, decision, or outcome, that they
clearly communicated their demolition plans for each bridge through the local news stations, and offered hotel
vouchers for anyone close enough to the blast region that the work activity might disturb their sleep.
Now that's an organization who understands not only who their stakeholders are, but how important every stakeholder
is, and how stakeholder experiences in one project can impact future project opportunities. Believe me, their care and
treatment of what some might view as the least important stakeholder went a long way to make their current customer
happy and open opportunities for future work based on the resounding recommendations of very satisfied individuals,
offering glowing testimonials.
Remember, every stakeholder is crucial to the success of your project.

Question:
Which section contains the following information?
 a. Winning a bid thank to great responds from previous stakeholders.
b. An example of how the contractor satisfies their stakeholders.
c. All stakeholders are needed to be identified to ensure the success of a project.
d. Understand the role of stakeholders to the success of a project
3

2. Vocabulary
Stakeholder A person, group or organization that has interest or concern in an organization. Stakeholders can
affect or be affected by the organization's actions, objectives and policies.
Shareholder is any person, company or other institution that owns at least one share of a company’s stock.

 Direct Internal stakeholders are people whose interest in a company comes through a direct relationship,
stakeholders such as through employment, ownership or investment.
(Internal
stakeholders) • Clients: both public and • Architectural Technician • Hydrographic Surveyor
private • Buyer Technical • Construction Manager
• Construction workers • CAD operator • Site Supervisor
• Investors • Construction Technician • Site Forman
• Suppliers • Estimator • Planner
• Financial firms • Plant Technician • Facilities Manager
• Trade associations • Roofing Technician • Managing Director
• Emergency services • Structural Engineer • Chairman
• Architects • Geospatial Modeler • Contracts Manager
• Site Supervisor • Quantity Surveyor • Commercial Manager
• Civil Engineer • Building Surveyor • Marketing Group
  Indirect External stakeholders are those people who do not directly work with a company but are affected in
stakeholders some way by the actions and outcomes of said business.
(External
stakeholders) • Pressure groups • Media
• Town Planner • Government authorities/Regulatory
4
• Communities (local residents) authorities
• Local landowners • Competitors
• Labor union • Environmentalist
• Others

Pressure group: Non-profit and usually voluntary organization whose members have a common
cause for which they seek to influence political or corporate decision makers to achieve a declared
objective.

Whereas interest groups try to defend a cause (maintain the status quo), the pressure groups try to
promote it (change the status quo).

Key stakeholders in construction projects

Project owner is the person who

 Wants to do the project
 Stands to win or lose the most in term of the outcome of the project
 Accepts full authority for the project
 Accepts accountability for the performance of the project
 Provides resources

User/client Is the person who will use and benefited from the project or the change brought about by the project

Project manager is the person who is responsible for managing the project right from planning of the project to the
closing of the project

Project consultants are professional advisors with experience who are hired to perform a specific project or are
sometimes contracted to access the current effectiveness of the management team of a specific
 company or other organization

Design team Includes architects, designers and surveyors

Structure/Engineering includes civil, electrical and mechanical engineers
team
5
Implementation team includes main contractor and sub-contractors

Contractor Contractor is either an organization or individual that is capable of doing construction activities when
entering a contractual relationship with respect to construction activities.
 In term of types of construction activities: Construciton Consultancy, Construction equipment
supplier, construction contractor.
 In term of contract partners and scope of work: general contractor, main contractor, sub-
contractor.

3. Exercises
EX1: Work in small groups. Think of a construction project in your area. Discuss which stakeholders were involved
and the role(s) they played.

EX2: position stakeholders given in section 2 into the following matrix

 6

Part 2

1. Reading
Phases of a project

A project is in a continual state of change as it progresses from its starts, as a need by the owner, through design
development and finally, construction. Figure below shows the various phases during the life of a project. As the project
moves from one phase to another, addition parties become involved and more information is obtained to better identify the
scope, budget, and schedule. There are times when a project recycles through a phase before gaining management
approval to proceed to the subsequent phase. During each phase, it is the responsibility of the project manager to keep all
work within the approved scope, budget, and schedule.
 In the early phases of design development, there may not be sufficient information to define the scope accurately enough
to know the work to be performed. A characteristic of most project managers is “I can do it”. This characteristic often leads to
assignment of work to the project manager before the work is completely defined or officially approved. This applies to the
project manager in either the owner, designer, or contractor organization. The people who work around the project manager
7
include clients, subordinates, project team members, upper management, and colleagues who are themselves project
managers. A project manager can not efficiently utilize his or her time or effectively manage when special requests are
made for work that is not well defined. If the condition exist, the work should be performed on a time and material basis for
actual work accomplished, until an adequate scope, budget, and schedule can be determined. Another option is to define a
scope, with a matching budget and schedule. Then when there is a deviation from the defined scope, the project manager
can advise the owner of the readjusted budget and schedule caused by the change in scope and obtain their approval
before proceeding with the work.

During the development of conceptual configurations and alternatives, the quality and total cost of the project must be
considered. This can only be achieved through extensive input from the owner who will ultimately use the project, since the
cost to operate and maintain the facility after completion is a major factor in project design. Sometimes the budget is a
controlling factor which causes the owner’s contemplated scope to be reduced, or expanded. If this condition exists, care
must be exercised to ensure the project meets the minimum needs of the owners expectations.

The owner’s authorization to proceed with final design places pressure on the designer to compiled the contract
documents at the earliest possible date. However, the quality and completeness of the bid documents have a great influence
on the cost of the project. Adequate time should be allocated to the designer to produce a design for the project that is
constructable and will perform for the owner with the least amount of maintenance and operating costs.

For large projects the procurement of bulk material and special equipment has a large impact on the construction
schedule. The project manager must ensure that long lead-time purchase items are procured. This must be coordinated with
the owner’s representative on the project team.

The type of contract chosen and the subcontractors selected to bid the project influence cost, schedule, and quality. The
project manager plays an important role in process of pre-qualification of contractors, the evaluation of bids, and
recommendations of the award of construction contracts.
 Owner’s need for project

Request for engineering study

8

Conceptual configurations and alternatives

for technical feasibility
Development of cost and schedule for
each alternative

Review by owner
Economic analysis for rate of return,
pay back period, capital recovery
and/or Benefit/Cost ratios

Owner request for Owner authorizes Owner abandons

futher study of project project project

Final design of project

Detail drawing, written specifications,
and preparation of contract documents

Procurement of bulk materials, special

equipment, construction contracts

Construction contractors administration

of contracts for physical work in place

Project close out. System testing. Final

inspection. As-built drawings
2. Exercise: Review each phase in the figure above and identify the party that most likely would be involved in
performing the work of the phase, and the party whose work will be most influenced by the result of the phase.
Identify parties as one of the following: owner, consultant to the owner, designer, construction manager,
constraction contract, finance advisor, supplier, user, local authorities.
9