WRE 451

Professional Practice and Construction Management

L4/T2 (Water Resources Engineering)

Badal Mahalder, PhD

Associate Professor, WRE, BUET

Lecture 2: Project Preparation and Professional Practice

Management Plan

Date: November 22, 2023

 Civil Engineering Profession
The geotechnical engineer and author, John Philip Bachner, lists five
characteristics of a profession. These are:
• Systematic body of theory
• Authority
• Community sanction
• Ethical codes
• A culture

❖ These characteristics help define today’s professional civil engineer, who

must be adequately prepared with a systematic body of theory that
incorporates a spirit of rationality.
❖ This theory is based on mathematics and natural sciences, such as physics
and chemistry.
 Civil Engineering Profession
Attributes of a Profession
1. Systematic body of theory
• Skills flow from an internally consistent system
• Spirit of rationality; expansion of theory
2. Authority
• Extensive education in systematic theory highlights the layperson’s
comparative ignorance
• Functional specificity
3. Community sanction
• State-sponsored boards
• License or registration
 Civil Engineering Profession
Attributes of a Profession

4. Ethical codes
• Ethical
• professional
• Client-professional
• impulse to perform maximally
• Colleague to colleague
• Cooperative
• egalitarian
• supportive
 Civil Engineering Profession
Attributes of a Profession

5. A culture
• Social values
• Services valuable to the community
• Various modes of ‘‘appropriate’’ behavior
✓ sounding like a professional
✓ saying ‘‘no’’ gracefully
✓ making presentations and conducting meetings
• Symbols
✓ argot, jargon
✓ insignia, emblems
✓ history and folklore
 Definition of Professional Practice
• Professional Practice is a term used to describe activities which will help
you apply your knowledge and aptitude to your industry, job role and
workplace.
• For instance, as a Water Resources Engineer, professional practice would
cover to solve engineering problems related to hydraulics, hydrology,
climate change, coastal engineering, drainage and water supply, etc.,
dealing with clients, creating quotes/procurement plans and many
more.
 Guidelines for Professional Practice

Public trust

• determines how they interact with and rely upon professionals.

• misleading financial statements, conflicts of interest, and insider trading
worldwide (i.e., Canada, the U.S., Bangladesh) are causing a growing
public mistrust in corporations and the professions.
• trust must be carefully conferred and protected.
• trust is fragile and easily lost.
 Guidelines for Professional Practice

Misperception of professions as elitist

• Professionalism and elitism do share similar concepts, such as high

standards.
• But elitism has also taken on the meanings of arrogance and self-
satisfaction which are completely at odds with the concept of
professionalism.
• we must continually and carefully show that we serve a cause for the
public and not for ourselves.
 Guidelines for Professional Practice

Public expectations

• clients feel they are entitled to immediate and faultless diagnosis,

prescription, action, and results at a very low cost.
• achieve this in every case is unrealistic.
• it is imperative that professionals manage expectations. We must
adequately inform clients of our professional responsibilities and of the
legal, ethical, and practical limitations of the service provided.
 Guidelines for Professional Practice

Increasing complexity and specialization

• increasing of human efficiency through the specialization of tasks.

• with the increasing complexity of large jobs, the work is broken into
smaller segments and divided among employees,
• professionals we must continuously develop our ‘soft’ skills - such as
communication, team work, and supportive supervision.
 Guidelines for Professional Practice
Accountable to multiple constituents

Engineers are accountable to:

• the public through services provided with a feedback loop through the
courts and issues of safety and liability,
• the regulator who has power of enforcement of legislation and
regulations,
• self and the profession through the Code of Ethics ensuring ethical
behaviour and skilled practice,
• the employer/client/supervisor through the employment contract, and
• the shareholders through the market place.
 Guidelines for Professional Practice

Mentoring

• Mentoring facilitates the transfer of knowledge and skills from more to

less experienced professionals.
• A comprehensive mentoring relationship would facilitate the
development and reinforcement of technical knowledge, managerial
skills, organizational knowledge, and ethical reasoning.
 Guidelines for Professional Practice

Involvement in professional and technical societies

• Involvement may contribute to the technical body of knowledge and

maintenance of competence.
• may increase awareness of and compliance with professional and
ethical standards.
• ongoing networking and mentoring reinforces the professionalism of
the group.
• involvement raises professional status amongst peers and with the
public at large.
 Guidelines for Professional Practice
Management of a Professional Practice
The management of a professional practice affects the ability of the organization
and its staff to meet its professional obligations.
Key factors in effective management of a professional practice

Statement of Purpose
• defines its corporate philosophy and long range objectives.
• establishes a sense of responsibility to employees, clients and the public.
• restricts the scope of practice to areas of competence and becomes the
central focus for future planning.
• should have the support of, and be communicated to, employees at all
organizational levels.
 Guidelines for Professional Practice
Strategic Planning

• provides support for the professional practice, a strategy describing where

it plans to be in the future -- targets, goals or objectives, and a plan of
how it intends to accomplish its goals.
• The formulation of strategy should balance both internal and external
factors:
✓ internally -- the strengths and weaknesses of the professional
practice and the personal values of its key personnel, and
✓ externally -- the opportunities in the industrial environment and
the broader societal expectations of the professional practice.
 Guidelines for Professional Practice
Strategic Planning

• With a strategic plan, overall strategy and purpose impact decision making
at all levels and in all functions.
• The plan should be communicated with clarity so as to influence action
throughout the professional practice.
 Guidelines for Professional Practice
Organizational Structure

• A clearly defined organizational structure is essential for effective

communication and control.
• Authority for operational decisions within the professional practice and
special alternative organizational arrangements established for special
projects should be clearly established.
 Guidelines for Professional Practice
Facilities, Resources, and Equipment

• The quality of working conditions, facilities, equipment and technical

resources all contribute to the professionalism, competence and
trustworthiness of the practice.
• The professional practice is responsible for providing ready access to
current technical information.
• Procedures should be implemented to ensure that design codes,
regulations, and other reference documents used by professionals are
kept up to date.
 Guidelines for Professional Practice
Loss Control and Risk Management

• Loss control is anything done to reduce personnel, material or financial

loss.
• It includes the prevention of exposure to loss, the reduction of loss when
loss-producing events occur, and the mitigation or reduction of risk.
• Effective loss control requires a quality program which incorporates
organizational, operational and public relations considerations.
• The professional practice should have an effective loss control program.
 Guidelines for Professional Practice
Loss Control and Risk Management

Some of the primary concerns of risk management are:

• assessing the risk factors and potential liabilities associated with

decisions, changes in procedures or new situations not covered by
established procedures,
• funding the exposure to risk,
• establishing a risk management program, and
• practicing effective dispute resolution methods.
 Guidelines for Professional Practice
Negotiating and Contracting Policies

• For consultants, the business practices for negotiating and contracting

professional services should conform to the standards of conduct and
should also respect and complement the duties and ethics of other
professionals.
• The scope of assignment, the fee structure that reflects the services and
the quality of the completed work should all be established with care.
• The process of negotiations and contractual agreements should reflect
public protection, satisfy client needs, and act in fairness and good faith
towards others.
 Guidelines for Professional Practice
Negotiating and Contracting Policies

• Consultants should avoid conflict of interest situations and should declare

any existence of potential conflict to the affected parties for formal
approval before continuing.
• The prime consultant should be responsible for engaging appropriately
qualified subconsultants to respond to client needs.
• The roles between client and consultant should be clearly defined with
respect to planning, financing, management and coordination of a
project.