Skills for Managing Projects Part 1, Technical Knowledge

What skills are needed to manage construction projects?

As a professional construction project manager, I'm often asked this question. In a large development project, your greatest ally will be your project manager, but in smaller projects people often try to self project manage with varying levels of success.

If you want to manage a project I have outlined below the various skills needed and ideas on how to get them:

TECHNICAL SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

Contrary to popular belief, the more you understand about the technical side of the type of project you are undertaking the better. I studied for a Master's degree in Construction and Enterprise Management at UCL with a degree accredited by the Association of Project Managers to enable me to manage complex multimillion pound projects. However, books, guides, youtube videos and short courses can give you a very good overview of the skills needed to manage smaller projects.

But without understanding the technical parts of your project you stand a high risk of falling foul to cowboy builders, project overrun or runaway costs. So if your project is a HMO conversion, read your council's guidelines on HMO requirements and then google relevant components e.g. fire doors, smoke alarms, fire alarms to find guides in the format that best suits your learning style. Pay particular attention to the different types, the benefits and disadvantages of each, the process and cost of installing. You can't learn too much! As an example, when I was converting my parents' London ex-Local authority flat into a multi-let HMO, I enrolled on a kitchen fitting course and learnt how to physically fit a kitchen with my bare hands! I actually found it quite satisfying But this course taught me how to price up a kitchen, prevent common build mistakes, prevent safety issues, identify and mitigate procurement risks, how to read and understand technical drawings, work with multiple trades efficiently and identify cheaper design alternatives that deliver the same quality. Below is a photograph of me working on a cabinet to install in my parents kitchen. In this project my parent's were able to make a profit of almost a quarter of a million pounds on selling the newly created HMO that I project managed! You don't have to self install as a Project Manager but that saved my parents upwards of £5,000. Acquiring technical knowledge is the gift that just keeps on giving!