Weighing in the difference between Project Management to Construction Management

by Marvin Gamboa Project Manager(PMP) - Civil Engineer

Project Management and Construction Management are the two most common phrases in the field of management. These two fields of expertise are now promoted as separate professions. Each of these industries requires an equivalent management level of expertise. Some are confused between these two. So let’s try to understand their difference one at a time.

Project Management

Project Management encompasses the control and management of the whole project. The term project can refer to a lot of things. Project can be in terms of different industries like agriculture, communication, construction, pharmaceutical, mining, health care, food, beverages, aerospace, manufacturing, legal, transportation, electricity, electronics, and information technology.

In terms of engineering, the project would include the building’s structure and design, the cost and planning, management of the workforce, and the duration of the project. For example, a company launched a project that would renovate a portion of a university campus. The Project Manager and his team would have the supposed estimate for the cost of the renovation, the duration, the plan and the layout of the entire project. In this project, you would see that this would not only include one building. But it would include the other building in the area to be renovated.

As you can see in the example, Project Management employs the application of knowledge, skills, tools and processes to deliver the specified project requirements. Say, the client would ask it to be completed in 6 months, and should only be around a particular budget. In order for the Project Manager to successfully carry out the task, he/she would need to use the five small processes of project management, namely:

1. Initiate

2. Plan

3. Execute

4. Monitor and Control

5. Closing the project.

These process groups can be further categorized into different knowledge areas. These knowledge areas are Integration Management, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Human Resource, Communications, Risks and Procurement Management.

A number of institutions created corresponding techniques and tools to connect or relate each process. These processes can be arranged in sequence for us to easily visualize, and create mappings, diagram and flowcharts of the project.

Construction management

Because of the need to specialize everything in the field of engineering, Construction Management was created. The Construction Management is a part of the Project Management, but it generally deals with everything about construction matters. Like the Project Management, Construction Management is now a profession. There are countries catering or offering construction management courses, trainings since this is fairly a new field in Engineering.

Construction Management encompasses that of the knowledge and processes included in the project management plus employs these additional areas namely, safety and health management, environmental management, financial management and claims management. This helps focus more on the specific needs of a particular construction project.

In conclusion, these two fields are very much common with each other, which is no surprise why these terms are often used interchangeably with each other. The only difference between them is that the project management is more general, while the construction management is more specific.

To your project success,

Marvin M. Gamboa