A form of professional project management in which an owner retains a construction manager to supplement its own development staff. The agreement with the construction manager describes the scope of services, which can be during the planning and design (pre-construction) phase or the construction phase, or both.

Construction managers are often retained in an advisory capacity when the owner has selected a design-bid-build project delivery system (Construction Manager as Advisor), either with a single contractor or multiple prime contractors. In other instances, the construction manager is retained to both advise the owner during pre-construction and as the contractor to perform the construction (Construction Manager at Risk).

For a discussion of construction management on privately owned construction projects, see Practice Note, Private Construction Project Delivery Systems: Overview.