When entering the construction industry, the idea of handing over abuilding unfinished may seem strange. Some building works could benot working, not done right or not done at all - yet, the industryalmost unanimously agrees “Yep, that’s pretty much done”.

The contractual term ‘practically complete’ may even seem a bitloose. Practically can mean “nearly” or “almost”. So whydon’t Clients and Superintendents just wait a bit and issue aCertificate of Entirely 100% Total Completion?

Of course, ‘practical’ in this context means “reasonable” or“virtually”. It’s a pragmatic solution to not being able tomove in until the works is perfect, but complete enough to be able tosafely be occupied and used.

The concept of Practical Completion got me thinking about the“agility” of construction industry. Agile in this context is theability to bring something into production with the minimum amount ofinformation required, but whilst having a reasonable level ofutility.

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Property Development vs Software Development

Property development is considered the inverse of softwaredevelopment.

Construction requires large amounts of information to come togetherbefore anything is developed. On the other hand, softwaredevelopment’s philosophy is to develop and deploy the productstraight away and reiterate on feedback.

Conceptually this makes sense - it’s cheaper and easier to deletecode than it is to delete a brick wall. And you’d be crazy to startconstructing a building with no plan or design.

Regardless of this, the project management methods/frameworks thatare applied on construction development projects are often pittedagainst those applied for software development projects. As a result,building and construction is touted as a laggard industry which lacksingenuity and agility.

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Practical Agility

There is some truth to the construction sector being slow to adapttechnology (at least in Australia).

Although builders have started to adopt SaaS solutions, IoT devicesand other tech gadgets, this has not trickled down (or up) to theclient-side consultant team. Many of the ways information is recordedand reported has not changed for decades.

However, the concept of ‘Practical Completion’ was an example ofthe construction industry adopting agile techniques that arepragmatic and innovative. It made us consider what other ‘agiletechniques’ exist in the construction industry. Here are a few wenoted below.

• Practical Completion: Allows occupants to use a building before finished and for minor defects and incomplete works to be completed post-occupation
• Prime Cost and Provisional Sums: Allows estimated costs for unknown or un-scoped works to be included in the contract which can be settled during construction
• Design & Construct Delivery Method: Allows construction to commence with an initial partial design and for that design to be completed later
• Staged Construction / Separable Portions: Allows some aspects of a building to open and be occupied whilst other construction continues in other areas
• Modular Construction Technique: Allows construction of various components of a building offsite, which can be quickly craned into place.

Can you think of any other agile techniques that are used inconstruction? Since you’ve made you’ve made it this far, we’dlove to hear from you!

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