One of the recommended practices in construction projects is to conduct a Post-Construction Review to provide feedback to the project team and other stakeholders to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of future projects. The objectives of the review are to assess the project outcome, document the project, evaluate best practices, examine project issues and lessons learned and provide recommendations for improvement for future projects.
One of the options for capturing the feedback of those involved in the project delivery is by sharing surveys to assess the performance of critical project processes like Request for Information (RFI), and submittals among others. The survey questions should be specific, easy to respond to, and available online. Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) like PMWeb can be used to design and share those surveys across the project team. PMWeb form builder module will be used to create those surveys where the table option will be used to create the survey questions to enable the project team to respond to and provide feedback if any. A separate form will be created for each process like for example RFIs, Submittals, Change Orders, Progress Invoices, and Field Inspection among others.
When the project team member completes the survey, he/she will submit the survey as per the predefined workflow steps assigned for this survey category. Different workflows could be assigned to surveys that are relevant to cost-related matters such as change orders, and progress invoices among others. The workflow will also be the basis for changing the status of the survey from “Draft” to “Approved”.
The data captured in those Post Construction Survey forms will become the basis for creating the assessment dashboard for each project management process. In addition to the data captured from the surveys, the dashboard will display the information that relates to the actual performance of the process. For example, the dashboard will include a visual that shows the total number of process transactions categorized by discipline or any other category. In addition, it can include another visual to show the elapsed duration for performing each process again categorized by discipline or any other category. The reported data can be limited to a single project, portfolio of projects, or all projects. Of course, the more surveys get captured the better knowledge the organization can have of those processes.
The Post Construction Survey dashboards created for the different processes will be made available during the Post Construction Review Meeting for which the attendees will review and discuss rating results, comments and remarks shared and the best practices, lessons learned, and recommendations for future projects.
About the Author
Bassam Samman, PMP, PSP, EVP, GPM is a Senior Project Management Consultant with more than 35-year service record providing project management and control services to over 100 projects with a total value of over US $5 Billion. Those projects included Commercial, Residential, Education and Healthcare Buildings and Infrastructure, Entertainment and Shopping Malls, Oil and Gas Plants and Refineries, and Telecommunication and Information Technology projects. He is thoroughly experienced in complete project management including project management control systems, computerized project control software, claims analysis/prevention, risk analysis/management (contingency planning), design, supervision, training, and business development.
Bassam is a frequent speaker on topics relating to Project Management, Strategic Project Management, and Project Management Personal Skills. Over the past 35 years, he has lectured at more than 350 events and courses at different locations in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and South America. He has written more than 250 articles on project management and project management information systems that were featured in international and regional magazines and newspapers. He is a co-founder of the Project Management Institute- Arabian Gulf Chapter (PMI-AGC) and has served on its board of directors for more than 6 years. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI), a certified Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP), and Earned Value Professional (EVP) from the American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE) and Green Project Management (GPM).
Bassam holds a Masters in Engineering Administration (Construction Management) with Faculty Commendation, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA, Bachelor in Civil Engineering – Kuwait University, Kuwait and has attended many executive management programs at Harvard Business School, Boston, USA, and London Business School, UK.