Dr. Bassam Ghulman, development projects expert and supervisor of the Haramain train project, summarized the components and success factors of projects in 20 items that ensure the excellence and success of projects, and explained that one of the most important reasons for the success of projects is the existence of a project resource management concerned with planning and cost estimation, and determining the actual need for labor, equipment and machinery, building materials, and following up on subcontractors.

This came at a rally held at the Saleh Abdullah Kamel Hall at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Makkah recently. This came at a forum held at the Saleh Abdullah Kamel Hall at the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently. The forum addressed the functions and tasks of the project manager, limiting them to planning, scheduling, organizing, structuring, staffing, preparing the human cadre, monitoring, controlling, following up and directing.

Project Resource Management

Through his personal experience in project management, Gulman warned that providing equipment of all kinds from one agent is better than multiple agents in order to achieve the benefit of winning the services of the agent to provide spare parts and maintenance, stressing that maintaining equipment and machinery, especially large ones, inside the project is better than moving them outside the project to gain time.

He pointed out that the resource management is concerned with ensuring the quality and quantity of materials needed for the project, pointing out the importance of taking into account the specifications, standards, date and method of supply, adding, “It is not a good practice for project managers to supply the necessary materials in an early period to the site, which may cause obstruction to the movement of equipment, cars, machinery and labor and expose them to theft, sabotage and damage to bad weather conditions.”

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Subcontractor Management

<Gulman emphasized the importance of managing subcontractors for the success of any large project that requires the entry of specialized contractors, referring to the golden rule in dealing with the subcontractor, which is "the subcontractor signing the same contract that the main contractor signed with the owner to bind him to the items mentioned in the contract," indicating that subcontracting is the weapon of the involved contractor, and insider contracting is a philosophy through which the main contractor tries to achieve gains with the least possible effort in light of the system allowing dealing in this way for good reasons, including creating the opportunity for specialized contractors to participate in the implementation of some components of the ongoing projects

Good project planning

Gulman explained that one of the factors in achieving the success of any project is good planning, which includes identifying the processes to be implemented, as well as identifying the relationship between each activity within the project, indicating that one of the most famous planning methods is the critical path method, which is used 90% in projects implemented in the Kingdom.

Calculating project cost

"The cost estimation process starts from the beginning of the project design process to determine the financial capabilities and abilities of the owner or developer, and the task of cost estimation is to ensure the implementation of engineering designs without exceeding the size of the estimated budget for the implementation of the project works."

Gilman addressed the role of project cost estimation to achieve success in the implementation of the project.

Two costing methods

There are two ways to estimate the cost of any project, the first is the approximate method, which is characterized by its ease and speed of implementation, but it is not accurate, as exemplified by the method of estimating the cost of implementing a hospital project, where its cost is usually estimated according to the number of beds, which is estimated at one million riyals per bed, so that the estimate of implementing a hospital project with 400 beds would be 400 million riyals.

He pointed out that there are two ways to estimate the cost of any project. He pointed out that one of the methods of approximating the cost of projects is the area unit method by calculating the construction areas and the volume unit method to calculate the costs of building tanks, refrigerators and warehouses, and the crystal cost method is used to estimate repeated and similar projects such as villas and housing apartments, and there is a method of costing the parts of the project, such as estimating the costs of implementing the foundations, then columns and roofs.

He pointed out that the second method is to estimate the cost of implementing a hospital project. He added that the second method of estimating the cost of any project is the detailed method, which is considered the most important and gives more accurate figures and is characterized by the fact that it can only be worked on once the project drawings, specifications and conditions are completed and available.