PMC, as seen a decade ago

Project Management Consultancy, as seen a decade ago 

At Masters we believe in teamwork, at work and also in celebrations! As we complete 10 years this month, over the next few days we will be sharing our story of existence with you. Starting from what led to our inception, our virtues (that still hold strong today), our key contributions to the industry, what to look forward to in the next 10 years and much more insights. Stay tuned!

Read at - http://www.masterspmc.com/celebrating-10-years-of-masters/74-pmc-as-seen-a-decade-ago

As technical the term Project Management may sound to many, to my inner conscious I smile and say it to be the most simplest phrase. In very simple language, I would say Project Management, as we understand at Masters, is the process and activity of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals in scientific or daily problems. What integrates technically here is the industry; i.e. construction.  

As we have maintained here at Masters over the last 10 years, correct application & integration of various project management processes & tools results in planning, managing and controlling various project parameters including the cost, the time, the scope and the quality, thereby delivering the product.

During this journey of 10 years of Masters, we have come across an array of experiences from various clients as regards their understanding and expectations from a Project Management Consultant and an amalgamation of these put together interests me to pen down the development in the notion of having a PMC on-board for a project.

As we closely look back, say 10 years back, at the approach/modality of Project Management, substantial changes/up-gradation are observed in today’s time. If I only talk about the very basics, in those days of a decade back, I correctly recall the existence of a PMC on ground was extremely narrow. Most Clients as well as the Contractors were not in particular aware of the role & responsibilities; keep aside the value additions, which a PMC would bring on board. Variation was felt in the understanding of the Contractors and the Client’s w.r.t the authority that a PMC team would carry, the systems that a PMC would follow and the results that would be seen. 

These differences, as we talk about briefly, have certainly brought more challenges to the PMC teams in implementing an overall Project Management system and methodologies amongst all stakeholders involved in the project. 

In the then construction industry, the PMC was by and large understood to be working as an overseer appointed by the client to examine and scrutinize contractor’s quality of work at site and certification of bill for work executed by contractor. And this, belief, was popularly termed as “Supervision Consultancy”. 

However, taking the challenge as the opportunity, the industry today understands the importance of PMC’s which is due to increasing awareness on the role & significance of PMC.

The then PMC role, as on today have evolved and emerged broadly into two categories:

1. Technical
2. Commercial

Project key Stakeholders have started to understand the importance both of the technical as well as the commercial roles and the value additions which a PMC brings in within the two.

 The Clients have felt the importance and have established the requirement of the technical roles addressed by PMC team with extensive involvement primarily in the process of Project Design Management, Procurement & Contracts Management, Planning Management, & Construction Process Management in one hand and Q.S. and Cost Management as part of Commercial Management on the other hand. 

However, in the last 10 years, Project Management did not stop here and have moved a step ahead. A PMC team today understands that besides their primary role to complete the project within the desired time, cost and quality they are also responsible for continuous development with particular emphasis on Project Integration Management, Project Communication Management, Risk Management, Stakeholder Management etc. 

With this continuous evolution of PMC service in Construction industry, we at Masters have always put our best endeavor to ride through a learning curve and maintained our services at par with the best industry standards and practices. Development and up gradation of Project Specific Procedure (PSP) of Masters in the recent past has been a step towards such an effort in maintaining the pace for development of PMC services. 

Masters is proud to have been a part of this most important decade for the industry which has seen the establishment of requirements and significance of PMC. 

Saikat Majumdar              (AGM)                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Masters Kolkata