My personal experience has shown that a lot of emphasis is placed on Construction Project Management, with little importance assigned to planning of the Design activities.
I believe that every project is created twice, Mentally at the design stage and Physically at the construction stage, both stages carrying equal importance.
Why therefore is there very little available literature / research / software on Design Planning and Management..... or am I not looking in the right places?

Dear Suqlain ,

I agree that emphasis is toward construction planning,rather than design.Mind you ,design planning is done by big companies (Bechtel ,Snam Projetti..etc),where design activities,and stages are broken down with time-line frames.Timing will vary according to set up ,availabilty of design software..etc. You can use the same Construction Management software ,by replacing the activities ,with those for Design and using times (manhours) as fits your company's standards.

I hope this is satisfactory..

Regards,

Whylie

Management of the design phase should be no different than the management of the construction phase.

It has been my experence that the design phase is where the project is made or broken. Time can be easly lost in design and have to be made up at great cost in the construction phase. Assumptions made in the design phase can have large cost, time and quality impacts in construction and in use of the works.

Management is management is management. One has only to (and this is the hard part) recognize and respond to the different environments.

Its like planning a trip. You must know where you are, where you want to go and be able to pick out the options in how to get there. Once on the road you have to watch for signposts and keep to the plan unless there is a reason to vary, then you make a new plan and follow it. If the trip is taking too long or becoming too costly then reaccess your plan. Keep everybody informed at al times.