Some construction projects are small renovations or repair jobs, like repainting or

fixing leaks, where the owner may act as designer, paymaster and laborer for the
entire project. However, more complex or ambitious projects usually require
additional multi-disciplinary expertise and manpower, so the owner may commission
one or more specialist businesses to undertake detailed planning, design,
construction and handover of the work. Often the owner will appoint one business to
oversee the project (this may be a designer, a contractor, a construction manager,
or other advisors); such specialists are normally appointed for their expertise in
project delivery and construction management and will help the owner define the
project brief, agree on a budget and schedule, liaise with relevant public
authorities, and procure materials and the services of other specialists (the
supply chain, comprising subcontractors and materials suppliers). Contracts are
agreed for the delivery of services by all businesses, alongside other detailed
plans aimed at ensuring legal, timely, on-budget and safe delivery of the specified
works.

Design, finance, and legal aspects overlap and interrelate. The design must be not
only structurally sound and appropriate for the use and location, but must also be
financially possible to build, and legal to use. The financial structure must be
adequate to build the design provided and must pay amounts that are legally owed.
Legal structures integrate design with other activities and enforce financial and
other construction processes.

These processes also affect procurement strategies. Clients may, for example,
appoint a business to design the project, after which a competitive process is
undertaken to appoint a lead contractor to construct the asset (design–bid–build);
they may appoint a business to lead both design and construction (design-build); or
they may directly appoint a designer, contractor and specialist subcontractors
(construction management).[16] Some forms of procurement emphasize collaborative
relationships (partnering, alliancing) between the client, the contractor, and
other stakeholders within a construction project, seeking to ameliorate often
highly competitive and adversarial industry practices. DfMA (design for manufacture
and assembly) approaches also emphasize early collaboration with manufacturers and
suppliers regarding products and components.

Construction or refurbishment work in a "live" environment (where residents or

businesses remain living in or operating on the site) requires particular care,
planning and communication.[17]

Planning
Main articles: Architectural plan and Pre-construction services

Digging the foundation for a building construction in Jakarta, Indonesia

When applicable, a proposed construction project must comply with local land-use
planning policies including zoning and building code requirements. A project will
normally be assessed (by the 'authority having jurisdiction', AHJ, typically the
municipality where the project will be located) for its potential impacts on
neighbouring properties, and upon existing infrastructure (transportation, social
infrastructure, and utilities including water supply, sewerage, electricity,
telecommunications, etc.). Data may be gathered through site analysis, site surveys
and geotechnical investigations. Construction normally cannot start until planning
permission has been granted, and may require preparatory work to ensure relevant
infrastructure has been upgraded before building work can commence. Preparatory
works will also include surveys of existing utility lines to avoid damage-causing
outages and other hazardous situations.

Some legal requirements come from malum in se considerations, or the desire to

prevent indisputably bad phenomena, e.g. explosions or bridge collapses. Other
legal requirements come from malum prohibitum considerations, or factors that are a
matter of custom or expectation, such as isolating businesses from a business
district or residences from a residential district. An attorney may seek changes or
exemptions in the law that governs the land where the building will be built,
either by arguing that a rule is inapplicable (the bridge design will not cause a
collapse), or that the custom is no longer needed (acceptance of live-work spaces
has grown in the community).[18]

During the construction of a building, a municipal building inspector usually

inspects the ongoing work periodically to ensure that construction adheres to the
approved plans and the local building code. Once construction is complete, any
later changes made to a building or other asset that affect safety, including its
use, expansion, structural integrity, and fire protection, usually require
municipality approval.

Finance
Depending on the type of project, mortgage bankers, accountants, and cost engineers
may participate in creating an overall plan for the financial management of a
construction project. The presence of the mortgage banker is highly likely, even in
relatively small projects since the owner's equity in the property is the most
obvious source of funding for a building project. Accountants act to study the
expected monetary flow over the life of the project and to monitor the payouts
throughout the process. Professionals including cost engineers, estimators and
quantity surveyors apply expertise to relate the work and materials involved to a
proper valuation.

Financial planning ensures adequate safeguards and contingency plans are in place
before the project is started, and ensures that the plan is properly executed over
the life of the project. Construction projects can suffer from preventable
financial problems.[19] Underbids happen when builders ask for too little money to
complete the project. Cash flow problems exist when the present amount of funding
cannot cover the current costs for labour and materials; such problems may arise
even when the overall budget is adequate, presenting a temporary issue. Cost
overruns with government projects have occurred when the contractor identified
change orders or project changes that increased costs, which are not subject to
competition from other firms as they have already been eliminated from
consideration after the initial bid.[20] Fraud is also an issue of growing
significance within construction.[21]

Large projects can involve highly complex financial plans and often start with a
conceptual cost estimate performed by a building estimator. As portions of a
project are completed, they may be sold, supplanting one lender or owner for
another, while the logistical requirements of having the right trades and materials
available for each stage of the building construction project carry forward.
Public–private partnerships (PPPs) or private finance initiatives (PFIs) may also
be used to help deliver major projects. According to McKinsey in 2019, the "vast
majority of large construction projects go over budget and take 20% longer than
expected".[22]

Legal

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Main article: Construction law

Construction along Ontario Highway 401, widening the road from six to twelve travel
lanes
A construction project is a complex net of construction contracts and other legal
obligations, each of which all parties must carefully consider. A contract is the
exchange of a set of obligations between two or more parties, and provides
structures to manage issues. For example, construction delays can be costly, so
construction contracts set out clear expectations and clear paths to manage delays.
Poorly drafted contracts can lead to confusion and costly disputes.

At the start of a project, legal advisors seek to identify ambiguities and other
potential sources of trouble in the contract structures, and to present options for
preventing problems. During projects, they work to avoid and resolve conflicts that
arise. In each case, the lawyer facilitates an exchange of obligations that matches
the reality of the project.

Apartment complex under construction in Daegu, South Korea

Procurement
Traditional or Design-bid-build
Main article: Design–bid–build
Design-bid-build is the most common and well-established method of construction
procurement. In this arrangement, the architect, engineer or builder acts for the
client as the project coordinator. They design the works, prepare specifications
and design deliverables (models, drawings, etc.), administer the contract, tender
the works, and manage the works from inception to completion. In parallel, there
are direct contractual links between the client and the main contractor, who, in
turn, has direct contractual relationships with subcontractors. The arrangement
continues until the project is ready for handover.

Design-build
Main article: Design-build
Design-build became more common from the late 20th century, and involves the client
contracting a single entity to provide design and construction. In some cases, the
design-build package can also include finding the site, arranging funding and
applying for all necessary statutory consents. Typically, the client invites
several Design & Build (D&B) contractors to submit proposals to meet the project
brief and then selects a preferred supplier. Often this will be a consortium
involving a design firm and a contractor (sometimes more than one of each). In the
United States, departments of transportation usually use design-build contracts as
a way of progressing projects where states lack the skills or resources,
particularly for very large projects.[23]

Construction management
Main article: Construction management
In a construction management arrangement, the client enters into separate contracts
with the designer (architect or engineer), a construction manager, and individual
trade contractors. The client takes on the contractual role, while the construction
or project manager provides the active role of managing the separate trade
contracts, and ensuring that they complete all work smoothly and effectively
together. This approach is often used to speed up procurement processes, to allow
the client greater flexibility in design variation throughout the contract, to
enable the appointment of individual work contractors, to separate contractual
responsibility on each individual throughout the contract, and to provide greater
client control.

Design
In the industrialized world, construction usually involves the translation of
designs into reality. Most commonly (i.e.: in a design-bid-build project), the
design team is employed by (i.e. in contract with) the property owner. Depending
upon the type of project, a design team may include architects, civil engineers,
mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, structural engineers, fire protection
engineers, planning consultants, architectural consultants, and archaeological
consultants. A 'lead designer' will normally be identified to help coordinate
different disciplinary inputs to the overall design. This may be aided by
integration of previously separate disciplines (often undertaken by separate firms)
into multi-disciplinary firms with experts from all related fields,[24] or by firms
establishing relationships to support design-build processes.

The increasing complexity of construction projects creates the need for design
professionals trained in all phases of a project's life-cycle and develop an
appreciation of the asset as an advanced technological system requiring close
integration of many sub-systems and their individual components, including
sustainability. For buildings, building engineering is an emerging discipline that
attempts to meet this new challenge.

Traditionally, design has involved the production of sketches, architectural and

engineering drawings, and specifications. Until the late 20th century, drawings
were largely hand-drafted; adoption of computer-aided design (CAD) technologies
then improved design productivity, while the 21st-century introduction of building
information modeling (BIM) processes has involved the use of computer-generated
models that can be used in their own right or to generate drawings and other
visualisations as well as capturing non-geometric data about building components
and systems.

On some projects, work on-site will not start until design work is largely
complete; on others, some design work may be undertaken concurrently with the early
stages of on-site activity (for example, work on a building's foundations may
commence while designers are still working on the detailed designs of the
building's internal spaces). Some projects may include elements that are designed
for off-site construction (see also prefabrication and modular building) and are
then delivered to the site ready for erection, installation or assembly.

On-site construction

On-site foundation construction.

Once contractors and other relevant professionals have been appointed and designs
are sufficiently advanced, work may commence on the project site. Typically, a
construction site will include a secure perimeter to restrict unauthorised access,
site access control points, office and welfare accommodation for personnel from the
main contractor and other firms involved in the project team, and storage areas for
materials, machinery and equipment. According to the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of
Architecture and Construction's definition, construction may be said to have
started when the first feature of the permanent structure has been put in place,
such as pile driving, or the pouring of slabs or footings.[25]