In recent years, Information Technology (IT) has been transforming business practice in many sectors resulting in efficiency gains and improved services for the client. The construction industry lags behind other manufacturing and service industries in adopting the new technology. To promote the wider use of IT in construction, it is essential to equip practitioners and graduates of construction related disciplines with knowledge of existing construction IT applications. This book provides an overview of a broad range of IT applications currently available for all stages throughout the life cycle of a building project, from essential office and information management through to computer-aided design (CAD), cost estimating, project planning and scheduling, and facilities management and building maintenance. It is an invaluable and handy reference for construction professionals and clients, as well as being a clear and comprehensive text for students studying construction, building or architectural courses.

Understanding and Negotiating Construction Contracts The complexities of construction contracts are made easy with this thorough and readable guide Construction contracts can be complex for both owners and contractors. For contractors, negotiating fair and balanced commercial terms in contracts is just as important as properly managing projects; a properly negotiated contract can mitigate unnecessary risk and unnecessary risk transfer. This, in turn, reduces exposure to financial liability for the contractor and for avoidance of contract claims and disputes. Understanding and Negotiating Construction Contracts provides a comprehensive and readable introduction to the world of construction contracts. Providing, for example, coverage of the four most common types of contracts—lump sum/fixed-price, cost-plus, time-and-materials, and unit-pricing—it promises to reduce uncertainty and allow contractors to enter contractual negotiations with greater confidence to be able to achieve a fair and balanced contract. This updated new edition reflects the up-to-date best practices to understand how to better negotiate the commercial terms and conditions in construction contracts. Readers of the second edition of Understanding and Negotiating Construction Contracts will also find: Updated information on indemnity, insurance, and negotiation An all-new chapter with a contract analysis checklist Real-world examples drawn from small residential, retail, large commercial, and international projects Understanding and Negotiating Construction Contracts is essential for construction professionals and college students studying construction contracts and the liabilities arising out of them.

The ISO 9000 family of quality standards has been adopted world-wide as a framework for building better relationships between suppliers and customers. Originally a manufacturing-industry concern, quality is now acknowledged to be a key issue for the construction sector whose clients increasingly demand quality certification. This book explains the concepts and practice of quality assurance and management in construction. Clearly written and well illustrated, with plenty of sample quality system documents and other pro-forma, this book will make the daunting task of developing, implementing and managing a quality system a great deal easier for contractors. This is practical guide for building and construction contractors and sub-contractors, project managers and other construction professionals. Also for undergraduate and postgraduate students of building, construction management and project management.

This book breaks new ground by creating a framework to understand clients’ actions and needs. Most construction management books focus on improving the construction process; this one focuses on a better engagement with the client. It challenges conceptions of both the construction industry and clients’ businesses so that a more effective process and greater client satisfaction can be achieved. The book suggests that ‘buildings are not about building but about changing and developing the client’. The technical, organisational and psychological aspects of this are described and analysed in detail so that current experience can be explained and better practice determined. The book offers well-researched information about clients in a number of sectors - developers, supermarkets, NHS, government, airports and housing associations - which will help you understand what these client’s business or service needs are and how construction fits into this. It demonstrates how to develop an appreciation of the client’s perspective with a toolkit for ensuring successful client engagement. This makes Understanding the Construction Client a user-friendly and practical guide, as well as significant text for academia.

This book provides an overall understanding of construction contracts, explaining a range of topics with in-depth examples, allowing engineers, site managers, architects, contractors, and other construction professionals in search of information on construction contracts to find it in one place. The volume further serves as a learning tool and a reference guide for students and instructors. Adopting a primarily Canadian perspective, the book provides references from two Standard Contract Documents CCDC (Canadian Construction Document Committee) and FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers) and briefly describes other major contract documents used within USA and UK construction industries.

CONSTRUCTION RISK MANAGEMENT DECISION MAKING Explores the relevance of systems thinking and behavioral science in construction risk management Effective risk management is a vital component of all successful construction projects. Although quantitative tools for evaluating data and minimizing risk are readily available, construction managers commonly adopt a more innate, experience-based approach. In Construction Risk Management Decision Making, project manager and senior consultant Alex C. Arthur provides step-by-step advice on assessing and prioritizing risk using qualitative decision-making systems in the construction industry. Incorporating key theories and concepts from systems thinking and behavioral science, this highly practical guide focuses on the behavior patterns of real people in the industry, rather than complex quantitative techniques and data. Concise, easy-to-understand chapters highlight the current practices of construction risk management while helping readers view risk and decision making from a broader perspective. Throughout the book, the author presents invaluable insights into the ways construction professionals think and behave in the real world. Addresses the actual risk management practices of construction professionals Applies human behavioral theories to the study of construction risk management decision making Illustrates the highly intuitive approaches prevalent in various construction projects Features real-life case studies and practical examples throughout Construction Risk Management Decision Making is an excellent textbook for advanced students in project management, engineering, construction, and surveying courses, and a must-have guide for practitioners of construction management, surveying, and architecture.

Delays in construction projects are frequently expensive, since there is usually a construction loan involved which charges interest, management staff dedicated to the project whose costs are time dependent, and ongoing inflation in wage and material prices. Many techniques are used to analyze delays. Some of these methods have inherent weaknesses and should be avoided. This book points out the shortcomings of these faulty methods and explains how a delay analysis should be performed. It then describes specifically how the analysis is done with CPM schedules. A explanation of delays and delay damages, presented in a straightforward, accessible manner, should be useful to public and private owners, construction managers, general contractors, subcontractors, designers, suppliers, and attorneys whose work involves them in the construction industry. The discussion will include subtleties of the process, such as shifts in the critical path, and non-critical delays. The subject of damages is covered in detail, including the major categories of extended field overhead and unabsorbed home office overhead. Likewise, the damages suffered by the owner, either actual or liquidated, are also explained. Finally, a chapter is devoted to managing the risk of delays and time extensions from the viewpoints of the various parties to a construction project. A discussion of early completion schedules and constructive acceleration is also included. In this new ediion, all chapters are updated to reflect the changes in the construction field since the first edition published over l6 years ago. The Second Edition includes over 40% more information such as new methods for analyzing delays with examples of the proper approach. The author also includes a new chapter on risk managment which focuses on the delay-related risks of the various parties in a construction project. - Explains the different categories of delays - Addresses the concept of concurrency and also non-critical delays - Discusses the more common approaches used for measuring and analyzing delays and the strengths and weaknesses associated with them - Prevention of Time-Related Delay Problems