Barbara J. Jackson - Construction Management JumpStart

I want to start by thanking Sybex for launching the JumpStart series. I believe that it serves a unique purpose by introducing the public to a number of career paths that they may otherwise never encounter. I am especially grateful to Elizabeth Peterson for discovering my web page and making the phone call asking whether I would be interested in writing this book. I want to acknowledge her for recognizing construction management as the untapped career opportunity that it is. Elizabeth, by initiating this book on construction management, you have provided a great service to the construction industry and the clients it serves. Thank you.

I also want to thank the many other talented members of the Sybex team who helped put this book together. I'll start by thanking my developmental editors, Brianne Agatep and Maureen Adams, for walking me through the writing process and taking care of all of my formatting errors. Next I want to give a special thanks to Suzanne Goraj, who cleaned up all of my grammatical gaffes and helped my message ring loud and clear. And to Mae Lum, the production editor, a special thank-you for keeping everything on track while I traveled around the country teaching seminars and doing consulting work for the construction and design-build industry. I'd also like to thank Agatha Kim, Kelly Talbot, and Angela Smith for all of their contributions to making the second edition of this book even stronger.

Of course, I would be remiss without thanking the rest of the Sybex team responsible for tying up the loose ends and putting the whole thing together: compositor Kate Kaminski of Happenstance Type-O-Rama, illustrator Jeff Wilson of Happenstance Type-O-Rama, proofreader Nancy Riddiough, and indexer Nancy Guenther. For the Second Edition, copyeditor Kim Wimpsett, compositor James Kramer of Happenstance Type-O-Rama, illustrator Richard Sheppard of Happenstance Type-O-Rama, proofreaders Publication Services, Inc., and indexer Jack Lewis. For the Third Edition, thanks to copy editor Mike Isralewitz and production editor Jayalakshmi Erkathil Thevarkandi.

In addition to the fine folks at Sybex, a number of other supporters must be mentioned. Let me start by acknowledging several authors, most of them good friends and fellow faculty, who have written really good texts used as general references in the writing of this book.

Managing the Construction Process: Estimating, Scheduling, and Project Control by Frederick E. Gould (2004)

Construction Jobsite Management by William R. Mincks and Hal Johnston (2004)

Management of Construction Projects: A Constructor's Perspective by John E. Schaufelberger and Len Holm (2002)

Construction Management Fundamentals by Clifford J. Schexnayder and Richard E. Mayo (2004)

BIM and Construction Management: Proven Tools, Methods, and Workflows by Brad Hardin (2009)

I extend a very special thank-you to my dear friend, colleague, and technical editor Paul Weber for his diligent review of every word in the manuscript for technical accuracy and application. Paul, I greatly appreciate your support and assistance in helping me achieve this goal. And as always, your abilities to communicate graphically were put to good use in several instances throughout the book. I would also like to thank Jes Frazier for her steadfast help and support in helping me review every page and every word.

And finally, as always and forever, I thank my husband, Wayne, for his continued support, love, and understanding year after year while I continue to pursue the passions of my heart.

Barbara J. Jacksonis Director of the Franklin L. Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management, in the Daniels College of Business, at the University of Denver. She holds a BS in Housing and Design, an MS in Construction Management, and a PhD in Education and Human Resources. With over 20 years of experience as a licensed contractor and design-builder, she is a nationally recognized speaker and consultant on design-build project delivery, integrated teaming, and leadership and culture in the AEC industry.

Congratulations! You are about to embark on an adventure. This book is about the processes, the people, and the practices that we call construction management—a term and a profession that may be unfamiliar to many people. Construction, as most individuals understand it, is an activity or a series of activities that involves some craftspeople, building materials, tools, and equipment. But you will learn that there is a great deal more to it than that. If you think that construction is all about brawn and not much about brains, then you probably haven't been paying very close attention to what has been going on in the built environment in the past several decades. Buildings today can be very complicated, and the building process has become extremely demanding. It takes savvy professional talent to orchestrate all of the means and methods needed to accomplish the building challenge.

This book's focus is not on construction per se. Its focus is on the construction process and those individuals who manage that process. Construction management involves the organization, coordination, and strategic effort applied to the construction activities and the numerous resources needed to achieve the building objective. Construction management combines both the art and science of building technology along with the essential principles of business, management, computer technology, and leadership.

Construction management as a profession is a relatively new concept, which may explain why you have not heard of it before. Up until the 1960s, the management tasks associated with large construction projects were typically handled by civil engineers. But in 1965, faculty from nine universities gathered in Florida to form the Associated Schools of Construction. What started as a movement to upgrade the status of construction education at universities evolved into a standardized construction management curriculum leading to an exciting new career choice, one for which there was increasing demand. Men and women who love the idea of transforming a lifeless set of plans and specifications into something real—a single-family home, a high-rise office building, a biotech facility, a super highway, or a magnificent suspension bridge—had found an educational program that provided both the academic course work and the practical management tools needed to plan, organize, and coordinate the increasingly complex construction process.

If you are one of the many individuals who desire the intellectual challenges of architecture, engineering, technology, and business, yet long to be outside in the thick of things, getting your hands dirty and ultimately producing a tangible result—something of lasting value—then construction management might just be the ticket for you.

The purpose of this book is to give you a jump-start on understanding what construction management is all about. After reading this book, you will have a good sense of what the job of a construction manager entails and what is needed to be good at it. You will learn about the diverse tasks associated with planning, organizing, and managing a construction project to a successful end. You will also discover the many opportunities available for an individual interested in pursuing a career in CM.

You can continue to explore these opportunities by reading other books about construction management, by taking construction management classes, and by networking with practitioners in the industry. And for those of you who want to take your interests and careers in construction to the next level, you can consider pursuing professional certification through either the American Institute of Constructors (AIC) or the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA). Both of these organizations and their certification programs are introduced in Chapter 1.