Construction management is the discipline of planning, coordinating, and controlling a construction project from preconstruction through closeout, covering cost, schedule, quality, safety, and the coordination of trade contractors. The term names both a professional service an owner can hire and a project delivery method, and the differences between its variants change who carries the financial risk.
What a construction manager does
A construction manager (CM) manages the building of the work rather than the design of it. Typical responsibilities run across the project life cycle:
- Preconstruction: cost estimating, constructability reviews of the design, scheduling, procurement planning, and bid packaging for trade contractors.
- Construction: running the site or overseeing the general contractor, managing the master schedule, administering trade contracts, tracking cost against budget, and coordinating inspections and safety.
- Closeout: punch list completion, commissioning coordination, and handover of the record documents to the owner.
The CM is a builder-side role. The people in it usually come from contracting or construction engineering backgrounds, and their daily instruments are the schedule, the budget, the submittal and RFI logs, and the change order log.
CM as agent versus CM at risk
The label covers two arrangements with different risk profiles:
- CM as agent (CMa) is a professional service. The construction manager advises the owner for a fee and manages the process on the owner's behalf, but the trade contracts are held by the owner. The CM does not guarantee the construction price.
- CM at risk (CMAR or CM/GC) is a delivery method. The construction manager joins during design to advise on cost and constructability, then commits to deliver the project, commonly under a guaranteed maximum price. From that point the CM holds the trade contracts and carries cost risk much like a general contractor.
Owners choose between them based on how much risk they want to transfer and how much preconstruction input they want from the builder. Public agencies in many US states can use CMAR as an alternative to traditional design-bid-build.
Construction management versus construction administration
The two terms are frequently confused because both are abbreviated around the same words. They name different jobs held by different parties:
- Construction management is the builder-side discipline described above: managing cost, schedule, and the physical delivery of the work.
- Construction administration (CA) is the design team's service during construction: reviewing submittals, answering RFIs, evaluating pay applications, issuing supplemental instructions, and observing whether the work conforms to the contract documents.
On one project both run at the same time. The CM manages the building of the work; the architect administers the design contract while it is built. The full distinction, including what CA does and does not obligate the architect to do, is covered in the construction administration entry.
Construction management versus project management
Project management is the general discipline; construction management is its construction-specific form plus the industry's own instruments and liabilities. A construction manager needs the general skills (scope, schedule, budget, risk) and the domain ones: reading contract documents, sequencing trades, procurement lead times, inspections, and the formal communication instruments the industry runs on. On the design-firm side, the analogous role is usually called project manager, and it interfaces with the CM across the RFI, submittal, and change processes.
Related terms
- Construction administration: the design team's construction-phase service, often confused with CM.
- Contract administration: administering the terms of the construction contract.
- AEC: the industry the CM discipline belongs to.
- Change order: the cost and schedule instrument the CM manages against the budget.
- RFI: the clarification instrument flowing between the builder and the design team.
Frequently asked questions
What is construction management in simple terms? It is the job of making sure a construction project gets built on schedule, on budget, and to the required quality. The construction manager plans the work, coordinates the trades, tracks cost, and manages the paperwork that governs changes.
What is the difference between construction management and construction administration? Construction management is the builder-side discipline of delivering the work. Construction administration is the design team's service during construction, centered on submittals, RFIs, and conformance with the design. Different parties, different contracts, running in parallel on the same project.
What is CM at risk? CM at risk is a delivery method where the construction manager advises during design and then delivers the project under a contract that transfers cost risk, commonly with a guaranteed maximum price. CM as agent, by contrast, is advisory only, with trade contracts held by the owner.
Is a construction manager the same as a general contractor? Under CM at risk the roles converge: the CM holds the trade contracts and carries delivery risk, much like a GC. Under CM as agent they differ: the CM advises the owner and manages the process without holding the construction contracts.
Do architects do construction management? Generally no. Architects perform construction administration, the design-side service during construction. Some multidisciplinary firms offer CM services through separate teams, but the disciplines remain distinct in contract and in liability.
Markdown version of this entry, for AI assistants and agents.