DEVELOPMENT CONSTRUCTION MANAGER HANDBOOK

Construction management looks very different from the developer's side of the table.

The Development Construction Manager's Handbook is a practical guide to managing construction from the perspective of the owner, developer, and owner's representative-where every construction decision ultimately affects the investment.

Designed for Development Construction Managers, Owner's Representatives, Development Managers, Project Executives, and construction professionals transitioning to the ownership side, this handbook provides a structured operating system for controlling projects from early due diligence through design, procurement, construction, turnover, and warranty.

Rather than focusing on contractor means and methods, the book focuses on the responsibilities that matter most to ownership: cost certainty, schedule predictability, risk management, contract administration, quality, decision-making, and successful project delivery.

Inside, readers will learn how to:

• Manage preconstruction and construction due diligence
• Establish effective design gates and constructability reviews
• Build and maintain a developer-side project budget
• Procure and evaluate general contractors
• Perform detailed bid leveling and quantity reconciliation
• Identify scope gaps, exclusions, allowances, and commercial risk
• Review construction contracts from an owner's perspective
• Analyze CPM schedules, critical paths, float, and recovery plans
• Evaluate change-order entitlement, pricing, and time impacts
• Review payment applications and forecast final project cost
• Build and manage an effective project risk register
• Establish owner-side quality and first-installation programs
• Manage multifamily production and phased turnover
• Prepare projects for TCO, CO, closeout, and operations
• Manage warranty obligations and recurring defects
• Create concise executive and lender reporting
• Build a repeatable daily, weekly, and monthly DCM operating system

The handbook also includes real-world development case studies, decision frameworks, contract examples, checklists, risk scenarios, sample reports, and working templates that can be adapted to actual projects.

Special attention is given to multifamily and large-scale development, where repetitive construction, civil infrastructure, utilities, long-lead procurement, phased occupancy, and hundreds of individual units create risks that traditional construction-management approaches often fail to capture.

Throughout the book, practical DCM Standards, Developer Risks, Field Checks, decision points, and escalation criteria translate construction information into actionable owner decisions.

The objective is simple:

Give ownership visibility before a construction problem becomes a development problem.

Whether you are managing your first project from the developer's side or overseeing a portfolio of complex developments, The Development Construction Manager's Handbook provides a practical framework for protecting cost, schedule, quality, and the developer's overall business plan.