Embedding Facilities Management Knowledge into Project Management in Developing Countries

Project managers work toward achieving specific goals while avoiding the problems that arise when delivering projects effectively and efficiently within established project constraints. One important goal of Project Management (PM) is to achieve value for money (VfM) for the clients throughout the life cycle of the project. This is a goal commonly shared with their Facilities Management (FM) counterparts. Proper PM enables the FM to reach this goal through appropriate procurement strategies and value management practices, focusing on the life cycle, and bringing to the fore consideration of a facility’s operational requirements that leads to achieving minimum operational cost. In developing countries, the need for PM to incorporate FM is even more critical as the operational budgets of facilities are usually insufficient to maintain an optimum facility performance level for most of the time. In this context, in developing countries, PM is of paramount importance for the success of FM. Similarly, FM has the potential to improve PM. This chapter explores the current situation in PM and attempts to build a body of knowledge for developing countries in terms of how PM relates to, and affects, FM, and vice versa. The chapter is based on a literature review and interviews with eight experts with experience in the fields of PM and FM. In this chapter, it is established that to operationalize the PM-FM integration in construction project delivery and to attain the untapped value available from Integrated Facilities Management (IFM), the way forward for developing countries includes embracing technological advancements, applying procurement methods favorable to FM, applying FM benchmarks, and involving value-laden, knowledge-based facility managers for business processes. This chapter contributes to the development of the PM body of knowledge by exploring the current practices of embedding FM knowledge into PM, and existing FM knowledge transfer models to PM.