Project Management in Construction

1.I find it very important that Mr. Walker has emphasized the importance of teaching general management before entering into the realm of the complicated teaching of construction management. Constr. Mgt. is not an independent teaching, but a very special case of management. It has naturally to be based on the foundations of the GENERAL MANAGEMENT. Congratulations.. 2. He makes some original definitions of management. I highly appreciate his definitions like "Management is the dynamic input that makes the organization work.". However, I expected to find several chapters in this book, explaining the basic activities, general principles and the elements of management, EXACTLY what Henri Fayol has mentioned 100 years ago. 3. IEEE has updated Fayol's terminology at 1984, printed and distributed to its members, who lead the world's most important sector, electronics and computer industries, as a study of Prof. Irwin Gray from NewYork Inst. of Technology. This gives a very good idea about the freshness of Fayol's teachings. The, in construction mgt.mostly referred, famous Proj.Mgt. Institute is the worldwide known sub-org. of the IEEE, Inst. Of El.and Elktron. Eng.s in USa. 4. Every student of technical schools should be taugth management completely from Fayol's teachings,as they learn physics from Newton and Planck directly. I hope that the Author forgives the harsh expression of a veteran construction man: Anybody who teaches management should not attempt to find the definition of management from the "Shorter Oxford English Dictionary' 100 years later than Fayol's excellent definition; no need to explore America again. 5. I congragulate the Author for mentioning H.Mintzberg in his book.. His analogy of construction projects with Mintzberg's configurations Professional B-aucracy and Ad-hocracy, is to be blessed. This analogy gives a good idea about the complexity of the construction, but underestimates the complicated task of management of construction projecst. I kindly remind that there is not a real management in adhocracy, and is very little in the professional b-racy. Management of a construction site of average size can only be compared with the most complex configuration of H. M-berg: THE DIVISIONAL FORM, with its numerous crews, subcontractors of various contracrs, its logistics, accounting, perfformance evaluations, etc. 6. I expected the Author of this valuable book would teach organization to the technical u-grad students directly from the teachings of Mintzberd and save several chapters for his teachings.. 7. This book is one of the best of its category I have ever read, on construction mgt, keeping Dennis Lock's place at the top, I hope the Author finds my comments not more than a few constructive remarks, and may take them into consideration for the further editions. Dr. Kirhan Dadasbilge, MSc.CE