Preparing a Project Manual: A Comprehensive Project View

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 originate a project manual to cover the project in its different development phases. These were initiation, predesign, design, preconstruction, 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 represent the flow of its activities graphically, as well as its inputs and outputs. The final deliverable consisted of a multiphased 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 (clients, financiers, designers, construction managers, general contractors, 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.