A Guest Lecture on “Project Management” was organized by Civil Engineering Department, Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida on 10th October 2015. The guest lecture was organized with aim to cover the Management aspects mainly from construction Industry. Project management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria. Depending on the project, responsibilities may cover all aspects from the design stage through to completion and handover to the client.

Prof. D.V. Bhise (Head of Department - Civil Engineering) welcomed the guest, Mr. Ashok Kumar Garg (General Manager), Engineers India Limited (EIL), who delivered the guest lecture on the “Project Management”

First Session :

Mr. Ashok Garg, started the session by introducing his company and talked about the various aspects of Project Management i.e. Different types of projects and their classifying criteria. He said , a project is a temporary endeavor designed to produce a unique product, service or result with a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or deliverables) undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value. Mr. Ashok said the primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and constraints. This information is usually described in a user or project manual, which is created at the beginning of the development process. The primary constraints are scope, time, quality and budget. The secondary and more ambitious challenge is to optimize the allocation of necessary inputs and integrate them to meet pre-defined objectives.

Mr. Ashok Garg, said, project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to a broad range of activities in order to meet the requirements of a particular project. There are five phases of project management and if the lifecycle provides a high-level view of the project, the phases are the roadmap to accomplishing it. Five phases of project management are, project conception and initiation ,definition and planning , project launch or execution , performance and control and project closure ( punch list and reporting ).

Mr. Ashok Garg, also explained to students the concept of bar bending schedule in project with example. Bar bending schedule (or schedule of bars) is a list of reinforcement bars, a given RCC work item, and is presented in a tabular form for easy visual reference. This table summarizes all the needed particulars of bars – diameter, shape of bending, length of each bent and straight portions, angles of bending, total length of each bar, and number of each type of bar. This information is a great help in preparing an estimate of quantities. He further talked about the scope of the project management and the financial aspects involved in it.

Second Session

During second session, Mr. Ashok Garg, talked about the process involved in procurement of a tender and e-tender. Tender is a written invitation sent to potential suppliers of a good or service to inform them about the information the information required for the buyer to choose among them. Issuing a tender document typically begins the tender process by which a business selects qualified and interested suppliers based on such things as their price, availability and proposed delivery terms. He further covered the discussion on construction and work measurement phases such as reconnaissance phase, feasibility phase, preconstruction phase, construction phase and maintenance phase. He also informed them about the legal aspects associated with project management, cost estimating and cost analysis. Cost Analysis is a technique that is used to determine options that provide the best approach for the adoption and practice in terms of benefits in labor, time and cost savings etc.

In the end Mr. Ashok Garg, explained the students about reverse auction and its phases and compared the same with traditional auction with suitable examples. Reverse auction is an on-line bidding process which allows vendors to bid as often as they wish during the auctioning period. Three or more vendors should be available to participate in a reverse auction. Reverse auction is best suited to buying a large volume of simple, well-defined, or standardized commodities. However, reverse auctions are consistent and compatible in making “best value” awards. During an auction, bidders are aware of when the prices change; however, they do not know the names of their competitors.

The lecture was interactive & motivating with full of knowledge. Mr. Ashok Garg started the session with process of project and ended with general things about tender and auction as part of whole process. This guest lecture provided in depth knowledge about project management to the students.