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The battered and bruised Bath Spa project has been placed delicately in the hands of Capita Symonds. In April, Bath & North East Somerset council appointed the project manager to resolve the continuing technical problems that have beset the scheme. It clearly believes that a project manager will have the healing touch that its former contractor Mowlem lacked. So is this just a one-off twist in an ongoing saga of cock-ups on a troublesome job, or a sign that the project managers have elevated themselves into a more central role in the construction industry?

Project managers certainly appear to be more in evidence than ever before. Witness the rise of the so-called programme manager, essentially a glorified project manager who oversees the interlocking jobs on projects such as major infrastructure schemes. Led by US imports such as Bechtel Parsons Brinckerhoff and Fluor Daniel, as well as strong homegrown players including Mace and Atkins, the project/programme manager has grown in stature to the extent that it tends to be the first to be signed up to a large-scale schemes.

Last week Parsons Brinckerhoff won a role overseeing the East London Line extension, and in April Lend Lease was given the management contract for a 拢700m programme overhauling job centres in the UK for the Department for Work and Pensions. Then there is the project management job par excellence; delivering the work that will be required if London wins the 2012 Olympics, which client the London Development Agency will decide on by July.

The rise is also reflected in pure numbers. Membership of the Association for Project Management has risen from 1000 in the early 1980s to more than 13,000 today (of which about 40% operate in the construction industry). Geoff Hepple, director at Buro Four, confirms this: 鈥淭here are many more project managers in the market doing what we do than there were when we launched in 1985.鈥�

The profession first sprung up in construction in the 1970s and has been growing ever since. Graham Smetham, managing director at medium-sized contractor Trak, says that the profession is now even in evidence on smaller jobs: 鈥淲e are noticing them appear on jobs around the 拢2m mark, which a few years ago was unheard of.鈥� Smetham adds that he could see project managers emerging as lead consultants on professional teams, a role traditionally taken by the architect.

David Taylor, group managing director of Summers Inman, agrees. 鈥淧roject managers have overtaken the other professions, such as architects, contractors and engineers,鈥� he says. Taylor believes that this is largely because the profession is good at selling itself: 鈥淚t鈥檚 probably because we鈥檝e taken a more commercial approach. We are better at marketing ourselves and understand the finance side better than others, and clients like that.鈥�

As the profession has grown, it has also acquired a stronger identity. 鈥淭en years ago there was less certainty about what the role involved,鈥� says Buro Four鈥檚 Hepple. However, he also stresses that the remit of project manager is widening. 鈥淧roject managers are expected to be skilled in the early stages of a scheme, such as pre-project definition, where clients come to us with their broad vision, say, a better school or a more efficient business. Previously they would work that out it with change management consultants.鈥�

Equally, project managers are often involved long after the building has been delivered; for example, a client might ask the project manager to integrate a facilities management regime into its organisation.

This expansion of the project manager鈥檚 remit has produced a much closer relationship between client and project manager. As a result, Hepple argues that the project manager should always be the most important part of the team. 鈥淭he client gets far more out of a project manager if they appoint them first,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he project manager will understand the client better and the job will be better. For example, a client wants to build an HQ. We get involved from an early stage and find out there鈥檚 an ideal building already being built round the corner. We can help them move in and rent it. It鈥檚 a more strategic role.鈥�

There has been speculation that the rise of the project manager, by changing the traditional balance of the industry, is rattling contractors. However, Hepple says that while this may have been partially true in the past, the industry has moved on. 鈥淭here used to be a lot more tension,鈥� he says. 鈥楤ut now contractors recognise that the project manager has become more important to the client.鈥�

Project managers also have a much more harmonious relationship with designers, he claims. 鈥淭he traditional role was beating up designers and architects; now project managers have to have more of an appreciation of the design process. Likewise architects have more understanding of why project managers exist and see us more as a benefit than a hindrance.鈥�

With strategic importance, however, comes responsibility, and the project managers of today must be increasingly aware of public relations. 鈥淲e are now expected to have a wider appreciation of stakeholders鈥� views, from the designers to the end users of the building,鈥� says Hepple. 鈥淧roject managers have responsibility for them, rather than the client.鈥�

In turn, with more responsibility comes more risk. 鈥淧roject management has become riskier,鈥� says Taylor. But he argues that the skill of the project manager is in mitigating that risk by putting it in the right place. 鈥淚f the contractor is better placed to mitigate design risk than the architect, place it with them,鈥� he says.

The project manager may benefit from having a close relationship with the client, but this relationship has brought with it greater expectations of delivery. 鈥淭hey want a far more special service and they want to measure exactly how the project manger has improved things for them,鈥� says Hepple. Buro Four is working more and more on a performance-related fee basis for private and public sector clients alike.

Not only that, competition within project management has become tougher, resulting in greater pressure on fees. Hepple says that while the competition over fees may not be as fierce as in other professions, project managers have had to become more commercially astute. 鈥淭hey realise that to manage a project well you need to pay people decent money.鈥�

Few doubt that project managers are on the up, but they still have some way to go before they reign supreme in the industry. For example, Hepple believes the profession has been insufficiently embraced in the PFI sector. 鈥淧ublic clients and consortia need to recognise the value of project managers,鈥� he says. But if the recent growth in the industry is anything to go by it won鈥檛 be long before they do.