Projects in construction cover several areas of
specialisation. It is to be expected that construction
project managers who specialise in, say building
works, will not necessarily be specialists in water en-
gineering projects. However, acquiring the knowledge
inputs for a particular type of project area enables the
project manager to develop two types of skills. These
are speci®c skills, which relate directly and only to
construction projects, and in particular, the areas that
re¯ect their speciality; and general skills, which are
transferable from the construction arena to other
®elds, but more importantly from one area of con-
struction to another. The general skills provide much
of the foundation for developing project management
skills. They are often essential for the project manager
to function eectively with his/her specialist knowl-
edge. The following general skills often become rel-
evant to construction project managers