iStock/Drazen Zigic
Armed with a deep understanding of finance and the building process, controlling a construction job in terms of time and money has always been the core of a project manager’s role. Today, that definition has been — to put it mildly — stretched. The advent of the coronavirus has rewritten the PM playbook. Project managers now not only have to build structures, they also have to rebuild stakeholder confidence, as the pandemic has transformed construction management in some unexpected ways, as well as accelerated changes to the practice that were already underway.
Scope Creep
One very apparent change is that the scope of services provided by PMs has expanded well beyond the traditional perimeters of a project. In order to keep owners, architects and contractors all moving together, we need to be good communicators, with strong interpersonal skills. Now, however, it’s not unusual for project managers to include non-project services to help the client deal with all the new pandemic-instigated issues they are facing.
“It’s important to know that the lessons we learn now about efficiency and productivity will still be valid as we go forward beyond the COVID era.”
