With the economic development of China, there are more and more large-scale construction projects in China. However, in many large-scale construction projects, the scope has been expanded and the actual investment cost is far greater than the estimated cost. Moreover, in the construction process of large-scale construction projects, the constant change of project requirements leads to the increase of time and cost. The reason can be said to be poor management of the project scope. Determining the project scope can clarify the deliverables of large-scale construction projects, improve the accuracy of cost, time and resources estimation, determine the benchmark of progress measurement and control, and help to clarify the distribution of responsibilities [1]. Therefore, it is urgent to standardize the scope management of large-scale construction projects.
After introducing the related concepts of large-scale construction projects and scope management, the content of scope management of large-scale construction projects and the key points of scope control are given.
1. Related concepts
1. 1 large-scale construction project
Large-scale construction projects are a set of projects that are interrelated in function or region. These projects obtain the overall benefits of the project in a coordinated way and realize the strategic objectives of the organization. In China, large-scale construction projects are usually public projects invested by the government, such as Shanghai World Expo venues and Shanghai Hongqiao comprehensive transportation hub.
The construction intention of large-scale construction projects generally comes from the development planning of building cities and the development strategy of investment institutions. Therefore, large-scale construction projects have great influence on national and local governments. Large-scale construction projects involve many stakeholders and diversified investors, which also determines the diversity of their goals. Secondly, because large-scale construction projects are composed of interrelated projects, the interfaces of construction, investment, functional requirements and operation between projects are complicated, which makes the management interface extremely complicated. All these characteristics increase the difficulty of scope management.
1.2 scope management
The project scope is formed in the conceptual planning stage of the project, which reflects the purpose and goal of the project. The project scope includes two aspects, one is the project output scope, and the other is the project work scope. Scope management of the project includes the process of ensuring that the project does and only does all the work required for the successful completion of the project. The scope of managing the project is mainly to define and control which work should be included in the project and which work should not be included in the project. The integrated management of project output scope and work scope is an important content of project scope management. Only by scientifically integrating the two according to the configuration relationship of specific projects can we ensure that the project will finally be satisfied by the project owner.
2. Contents of scope management of large-scale construction projects
2. 1 defines the goals and objectives of large-scale construction projects.
Project objectives are the results to be achieved through the implementation of the project. The process of project implementation is the process of pursuing project objectives. It is very important for owners and many stakeholders to determine the functional objectives of large-scale construction projects. As a way of communication, the goal of large-scale construction project makes all stakeholders and project team members clear their respective responsibilities, and also makes the project and stakeholders reach unity.
At this stage, the objectives can be improved and optimized through customer acceptance review. Receiving management is a process of evaluating the deliverables in large-scale construction projects, which is fully recognized by the owners and stakeholders, thus reducing customer dissatisfaction.
2.2 Planning the scope of large-scale construction projects
This stage is a process of determining and formulating deliverables and income activities that meet the objectives of large-scale construction projects. This stage is also the preparation process of project scope specification and project scope management plan for large-scale construction projects. The project scope statement defines the main deliverables of the project, helps the stakeholders of large-scale construction projects reach an agreement on the scope of the project, and can be used as the basis for future project decisions. The project scope management plan explains the management methods of project scope and project scope change.
2.3 Develop requirements for large-scale construction projects
At this stage, the requirements and specifications for implementing large-scale construction projects are determined and explained in detail. In this paper, the projects or project sets that constitute large-scale construction projects are called components. It is necessary to formulate specifications at the level of large-scale construction projects to ensure that all internal components and external entities are fully handled. The requirements of large-scale construction projects include project set level and component level. The requirements at the scheme level can be understood as high-level and macro-level, involving business, law, technology, environment and other requirements and norms. Component-level requirements mean that the requirements of the project set are decomposed into the requirements of the contractors that make up the project. Each implementing organization must have a complete process to manage requirements, including high-level requirements covering business, owners and stakeholders, industries and other project-related fields.
2.4 to develop the framework of large-scale construction projects
At this stage, it is mainly to establish the structure of internal components of large-scale construction projects, determine the relationship between components, and establish a set of rules to govern the interaction and evolution of large-scale construction projects. This is also the process of compiling the framework benchmark of large-scale construction projects. Project set architecture benchmark is a collection of internal components of large-scale construction projects, which describes the characteristics, capabilities, deliverables, time, external interfaces and how each component contributes to the benefits of the whole large-scale construction project.
2.5 create WBS for large-scale construction projects
This stage is a process of decomposing the deliverables, project activities and implementation stages of large-scale construction projects. It breaks down all work activities into more manageable parts. It provides a basic framework for the project management team to report the project status and progress, so as to promote the communication between the project manager and stakeholders throughout the project life cycle. WBS can be used to exchange information related to the project scope, including schedule, risk, performance, dependency and budget. WBS is also the main foundation of other project management processes and deliverables. Because large-scale construction projects are composed of many projects or project sets, the composition is complex. Therefore, to create WBS for large-scale construction projects, we should use experienced experts and work breakdown structure templates to carry out work breakdown according to scientific and reasonable processes on the basis of large-scale construction project framework benchmarks and large-scale construction project demand documents.
2.6 Large-scale construction project structure management
This stage ensures that the relationship between elements in large-scale construction projects is well constructed and follows the governance rules defined in the framework of large-scale construction projects. In the life cycle of large-scale construction projects, due to the inevitable project changes, it is necessary to update the project set framework benchmark and project set management plan in time.
2.7 Management Component Interface
Because large-scale construction projects are composed of multiple projects or project sets, their investment subjects are also diversified. Therefore, there are not only construction interface problems but also management interface problems between large-scale construction projects. When a project changes, it will inevitably involve the communication of multiple stakeholders. Therefore, the communication management plan of large-scale construction projects is essential and should be updated in time according to the changes of project requirements. There are also interface management problems in the implementation stage and later operation of large-scale construction projects, and these interfaces are also part of the overall scope of large-scale construction projects. In order to maintain the consistency of the scope of large-scale construction projects, the transparent management of component interfaces is the key.
2.8 Monitoring scope of large-scale construction projects
The change of scope may have a significant impact on large-scale construction projects. It may come from project stakeholders, components of large-scale construction projects, initially unrecognized requirements and architectural problems, or external resources. Each potential change request should be analyzed and its impact determined. The control process of scope change is hierarchical. There is a change control committee at the project level of large-scale construction projects to analyze the changes at the project level. If the change control committee at the planning level determines the impact on components, then these changes will be submitted to the change control committee at the component level for more detailed impact analysis. The results of the analysis will be returned to the program-level change control committee, and the impact on other components or component interfaces will be identified.
3. Key points for controlling the scope of large-scale construction projects
Project scope control is to keep the project scope under control all the time, so that the change will not have a negative or negative impact on the project. In view of the characteristics of large-scale construction projects and the problems existing in current scope management, scope management should strengthen the following aspects.
3. 1 Attach importance to the preliminary work of the project
Because large-scale construction projects are mostly political tasks of countries or regions, the project duration is often a time node mandated by the government according to needs. In this case, if the construction period is tight, the successful completion of the preliminary examination and approval procedures will have a fatal impact on the follow-up work. For example, if the preliminary design review fails, the following construction drawing design review cannot be carried out, so that bidding cannot be carried out, let alone construction. Although the government will take special approval in an emergency, it is still necessary for the construction unit to make relevant preparations in advance so that the follow-up work can proceed smoothly. Some pre-approval documents didn't get official documents at that time, and they may only be temporary permits, so they should be reissued in time to avoid affecting the completion and acceptance of later projects.
3.2 Do a good job in design management.
The cost of preliminary work tasks such as planning and design only accounts for a small part of the total investment of the project, but it determines the future investment scale, difficulty and progress of the project. Whether the proposed project can realize the strategic intention of the owner depends largely on the quality of the design. Large-scale construction projects are not only huge, but also involve different departments and units. It is very difficult to coordinate the relationship between various units and unify the design. The construction headquarters of large-scale construction projects should establish the overall management mechanism of design through the construction of design platform to realize the systematic management of large-scale construction projects, including establishing unified design standards and styles, coordinating design interfaces and controlling design progress. In addition, large-scale construction projects can be evaluated and fed back through specially commissioned consulting institutions.
Through the design management platform, the professional design units are linked, the responsibilities of each unit are reasonably defined, and the advantages of all parties are brought into play.
3.3 Strengthen the scope change control
Large-scale construction projects are extremely uncertain and relatively risky, and cannot be guaranteed not to be changed. Although the project plan was initially considered to be reasonable and detailed, it is bound to change more or less due to changes in the external environment. The core task of project scope management is to control the change of project scope. The purpose of change control is not to control the occurrence of changes, but to manage changes and ensure that changes are carried out in an orderly manner.
In order to implement change control, an effective scope change process must be established. This process should include confirming the change, evaluating the business value of the change, analyzing the impact of the change on the project, and submitting it to the project sponsor for evaluation to determine whether to implement the change. However, only the scope change process, without effective change control means, is difficult to really control the change. In the process of scope change, it is necessary to clarify the subject of change, what kind of change needs to be implemented, the impact of change and whether the customer accepts the cost of change.
3.4 Finish the final accounts and file management.
The huge volume of large-scale construction projects determines the workload of late settlement and file management. The final accounts of the project involve the process of checking, declaration and approval of engineering quantities, and the final accounts involve the interests of all stakeholders, so it is necessary to communicate with various cost consulting units and construction units. It is also quite difficult to finish them in a short time. Therefore, it is necessary to make a special progress plan for final accounts. The special scheme can specify the time for final accounts declaration and urge the construction unit and cost consulting unit, specify the time for final accounts completion and urge the internal staff of the owner.
The archives of large-scale construction projects record rich engineering experience and are great wealth for follow-up projects. However, archives management has been neglected in China. For such a complex system as a large-scale construction project, its files are complicated. On the one hand, the construction unit should solve the problem of archives warehouse, on the other hand, it should ask professionals to sort out archives. Similarly, a special file management plan can be made to ensure the timely acceptance of files.
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