Quality in Construction Management
by Stan Mehlhoff »
Achieving quality in the built environment is typically one of the stated objectives of all design and construction professionals, and it is generally assumed by the professionals that quality should be to the highest standard consistent with a clients budget constraints. Design and construction professionals look at a project’s physical quality as the stated objective and cost and budget are dependant variables impacting the level of quality achieved.
Owners and investors, however, generally strive for a level of quality that is subordinate to, but in concert with, other objectives of value and financial performance. From an investor’s perspective, financial performance is the stated objective, and quality and cost are the dependant variables impacting the objective.
The point being, quality is a definable and measurable variable, but it is only one of the many objectives to be achieved. A project’s differing stakeholders will have differing perspectives on the hierarchy of the numerous goals and objectives to be achieved and quality must therefore be defined and ranked. The number of failed projects where this simple principle was ignored is legion. (continued)
An abridged version of this paper was published as Chapter 7.14 in Managing Quality in Architecture
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