While construction procurement is essential in planning delivery methods and procurement tasks of a construction project, cost planning is critical to the financial management of the project throughout all phases of the building life cycle. Construction procurement is always associated with cost and cost planning is dependent on construction procurement. In this unit, therefore, you will study cost planning along with the knowledge of construction procurement. You will develop skills to critically examine the complexity of issues associated with strategic procurement and components of sustainable procurement processes. You will also analyse the impact of construction procurement decisions on economic, environmental, social, and cultural outcomes referring to a number of national and international case studies. This will enable you to reflect on the key themes in relation to procurement strategies, i.e. partnering culture as well as management of risks, stakeholder relationships, and supply chains. The knowledge gained here will eventually make you confident in practicing construction procurement within complex construction management environments in the public and private sectors. In the cost planning spectrum, the unit covers broader insights of design economics, cost estimating procedures, cost control mechanisms, and life cycle analysis for construction projects. The application of critical self-reflection skills and research principles and methods relevant to the construction industry will help you to prepare for dynamic construction industry environments and make sound professional decisions.

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Feedback from End of unit CQU survey feedback

Students commented that this unit provided a great learning process.

The unit will continue to make the scaffolded learning and student skills development across this unit explicit. This allows students to monitor and plan their learning journey each week and confidently complete all assessments.

Feedback from End of unit CQU survey feedback

Several units cover ethical and behavioural issues. This could be covered over several weeks in one unit.

Ethical behaviour is critical to a successful career in the highly legislated, high-risk construction industry. The potential situations and implications vary due to context and subject matters at hand. Therefore, it is referred to in several units and knowledge fields to highlight its integral linkage to industry practice through examples.