Community of Practice Roundtable 2

Real-life case study analysis and competency related issues in Class 2 buildings

The Centre for Smart Modern Construction - c4SMC successfully conducted a Roundtable for the Community of Practice (CoP) in Assurance-related Professions on 17 June 2021 at 1PSQ, under the theme “Competency-related Issues in Construction Projects”. Over 80 participants attended the event. The CoP was established in collaboration with the Office of the NSW Building Commissioner and consists of key professional institutions involved in construction certification. Participants included professionals representing the Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (AIQS), Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM), Association of Accredited Certifiers (AAC), Australian Institute of Building Surveyors (AIBS), Fire Protection Association Australia (FPAA), Australian Institute of Architects (AIA), Engineers Australia (EA), Australian Institute of Building (AIB), and the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), and academic staff and doctoral researchers of the Centre. CoP-Collage

We would like to thank Professor Deborah Sweeney, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President, Research, Enterprise & International who opened the sessions, and Professor Mike Kagioglou, Dean of the School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment who welcomed the participants.

CoP-Deb-Sweeney The Roundtable included presentations by the Office of the Building Commissioner (OBC) and two workshops. The OBC presentations were led by David Chandler OAM, NSW Building Commissioner who spoke about the role of the OBC in improving standards in construction in New South Wales. Angus Abadee, Director of Building and Construction Policy at the NSW Department of Customer Service explained the building reforms and regulations in New South Wales. Yolande Nyss, Programme Manager, OBC, presented a building case study with competency-related construction issues, along with Feris Chehade, Founder - Managing Director of Xavier Knight, and Joseph Chehade, Senior Project Manager at JD Projects Group.

CoP-David-Chandler

CoP-OBC

Professor Srinath Perera, Director of the Centre for Smart Modern Construction, provided an insight into the CoP and the workshop proceedings. The two workshops explored assurance-related tasks and professional competencies relevant to compliance and certification services provided by the professions involved in Class 2 building developments in the three key stages of the construction process, i.e., pre-construction, construction, and post-construction. The presented case study was evaluated in the first workshop, from a construction professional eco-system perspective, with facilitation of cross-discipline discourse. The second workshop analysed generic issues based on profession-specific groups (Architects, Engineers, Quantity Surveyors, Project Managers, Building Surveyors, Certifiers, Developers, and Builders). Each workshop was followed by a session of feedback presentations by the group moderators from the Centre. A summary report will be produced from the analysis of the inputs obtained from these workshops.

CoP-Workshop

The MC for the day was Thilini Weerasuriya, a Centre doctoral candidate. The Roundtable concluded with a vote of thanks delivered by A/Prof Mary Hardie.

CoP-Marini

We gratefully acknowledge the hard work of Marini Samaratunga, Centre Research Associate, who coordinated the event, and the valuable support provided by Cheryl Murray, Sara Baker, Wendy Pham , and Mabel Joe in managing the event logistics.

Last, but not least, we wish to thank the internal steering committee of the CoP, comprising of Centre academic staff and researchers, who spent many months collaboratively developing the competency mapping documents, and ensured the smooth running of the Roundtable. The steering committee comprised of Professor Srinath Perera, A/Prof Xiaohua Jin, A/Prof Mary Hardie, A/Prof Yingbin Feng , Dr Ali Al-Ashwal, Dr Robert Osei-Kyei, Dr Sameera Pathirana, Dr Sepani Senaratne , Dr Krisanthi Seneviratne, Dr Ursa Komac, Dr Payam Rahnamayiezekavat, John Smolders , Marini Sam, Navodana Rodrigo, Samudaya Nanayakkara, Kasun Gunasekara, Buddhini Ginigaddara, Amer Hijazi, Priyadarshini Das, Shiyamini Ratnasabapathy, Isaac Akomea-Frimpong, De-Graft Joe Opoku , Thilini Weerasuriya, Mohammed Hummadi, Bashir Tijani, and Kola Olayiwola.