Preparing a Project Manual: A Comprehensive Project View

摘要

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for a capstone project, Construction Management students are required to prepare a construction project manual. Rather than copying and pasting from existing company manuals, a new experiment was conducted requiring the students to prepare a project manual from scratch, to cover the project in its different development phases; Initiation, Pre-Design, Design, Pre-construction, Construction, Handing over, and Commissioning. Developed procedures had to be self-contained, including their purpose, scope, definitions, Key Performance Indicators (KPI), and any relevant forms or checklists. Additional components included a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM), and a newly coined term TPRC which stands for: Tools, Personnel, References, and Controls. A flowchart was developed for each procedure to graphically represent the flow of its activities, as well as its inputs and outputs. The final deliverable consisted of a multi-phased manual reflecting different project phases. Deliverables were evaluated and judged by a panel of construction professionals from the local industry, representing different project roles on a project team (Client, Financiers, Designer, Construction Manager, General Contractor, Subcontractors, and Users). Further evaluation was conducted one year after graduation, gauging the former students' perceptions of the project manual and its applicability to their role in the construction industry.