Construction Client’s Requirements – Innovation in Construction Project Management

Paper in proceeding, 2006

This paper report from a study in an ongoing project aimed to develop and suggest methods that will enable innovative and effective collaboration between clients and construction project management regarding project objectives. Increased need for professional clients and the aim of construction project management professionals to engage in a wider range of tasks and activities during the briefing, design and production phase of construction projects is the main outset. The study presented addresses the relationship between the roles and goals of the client and the construction project management organisations/professionals. The overriding aim is to explore the managerial support, facilitation and implementation of client requirements, to study experience from collaboration between stakeholders and to create knowledge of the relationship between an effective achievement of clients’ goals and the construction project management process. Existing project management and processes concerned with the planning of facilities are discussed based on theories in the field as well as on an interview survey among client organisations and project management organisations. Throughout, the focus is on project management and how it succeeds to convert the construction client’s corporate strategy and business into property investment or corporate real estate decisions. Such knowledge should make it possible to create innovative methods for facilitating construction briefing and project management. It will also support the provision of facilities and provide a deeper understanding of the consequences of strategies or methods for the improvement of the performance of the client organisation’s business objectives in construction projects. The development of such knowledge could be of particular interest for client representatives, project managers, development managers, facilities managers and design managers in the construction sector.