The South African Journal of Psychiatry publishes topical content in psychiatry for clinical practice and academic pursuits, including work in the subspecialty areas of psychiatry.

Project manager competencies have been widely discussed in the literature. Although many works present lists of competencies for project managers, specific competencies for smart buildings were not found. This work aimed to identify the main competencies of project managers for the management of smart building projects. The methodology consisted of a two-step approach using the guidelines of preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) to perform broad and detailed bibliographic research. Initially, a literature review was carried out to identify the main research fields related to the management of smart building projects and the specificities of these fields that can influence the management of this type of project. Next, these specificities were related to the competencies of project managers mentioned in the literature, to identify a set of more relevant competencies for project managers of smart building projects. The results showed that the main research fields are related to scope, risks, costs, schedule, technologies and systems, sustainability, and general characterization, which consider objectives, barriers, challenges, and regulations. They also showed that the most relevant competencies for managing smart buildings projects are technical competencies, leadership, communication, budgeting, attitudes toward risk, strategic management, organization, and specifying real requirements. These findings show the importance of hard and soft skills for managing smart building projects.

This article assessed the perceptions of local construction firms (LCFs) on cash flow management techniques (CFMT) practices with the aim of drawing out relevant inferences that will improve firms’ cash flow. About 59 LCFs were surveyed out of which 31 firms’ questionnaires were fit for analysis. The questionnaire for this study elicited general information about the respondents, their firms and how regular they practice six identified CFMT measured on a five point Likert scale. The result showed that all LCFs are categorised as micro and small business enterprises. All the mean scores were below the midpoint score of 3.00 but greater than 2.00 which indicate a generally fairly practice of CFMT. Most LCFs practiced reduction of profit margin in order to win contracts and CFMT of trade credit (TC) supplies of materials are more frequently practiced than the supplies of labour, and hiring of plants and equipments. LCFs should maximize working capital by assigning profit markup on the criteria of the balance use of cost item base and front-loaded profit markup distribution in presenting a fair bid that will be ethically acceptable. LCFs can also maximize the use of TC supply to achieve highly liquid firms.

Identifying factors influencing the viability of medium, small, and micro scale construction firms (MSMSCFs) is a crucial precursor in positioning such firms to aid economic and infrastructural development, especially in developing countries. This article assesses viability factors that are influenced by building information modeling (BIM) in MSMSCFs amidst construction firms’ viability factors. Out of a total of 177 workers surveyed from 59 MSMSCFs that were awarded construction project contracts in sampled institutions in Nigeria, 65 staff members from 31 MSMSCFs were accessed. The factors were ranked and reduced to significant ones through principal component analysis. Ten significant factors influence the viability of MSMSCFs and six of them are enhanced by BIM implementations. All eight component factors and 18 of the 27 variables with high factor loadings can be influenced by BIM implementation. BIM can potentially curb corruption in construction projects and enhance MSMSCFs’ quality of service, clients’ satisfaction, construction management and technology, professional performance, procurement practices, and prompt payment of work certificates. All stakeholders need to pay prompt attention to factors that can be influenced by BIM to improve the viability of MSMSCFs, thereby hastening BIM adoption and utilization, especially in developing countries.

Construction projects demand a higher amount of energy predominantly for heating, ventilation, and illumination purposes. Modular construction has come into the limelight in recent years as a construction method that uses sustainable building materials and optimizes energy efficiency. Ventilation openings in buildings are designed to facilitate air circulation by naturally driven ventilation and could aid in reducing energy consumption in construction projects. However, a knowledge gap makes it difficult to propose the best dimensions of ventilation openings in buildings. Hence, the aim of this work is to empower the decision-making process in terms of proposing the best ventilation opening dimensions toward sustainable energy use and management in buildings. A novel framework is presented herein to evaluate the impact and propose the best dimensions of ventilation openings for metal frame modular construction in Brazil, using building information modeling. The ventilation openings were constructed and their dimensions evaluated in eight Brazilian cities, based on the bioclimatic zone (BioZ) classification indicated in ABNT NBR 15220: Curitiba (1st BioZ); Rio Negro (2nd BioZ); São Paulo (3rd BioZ); Brasília (4th BioZ); Campos (5th BioZ); Paranaíbe (6th BioZ); Goiás (7th BioZ); and Rio de Janeiro (8th BioZ). The study results show that the energy consumption of the same building model would vary based on the dimensions of ventilation openings for each BioZ in Brazil. For instance, modeling the same modular construction unit in the city of Rio Negro could consume around 50% of the energy compared to the same unit constructed in the city of Rio de Janeiro, using the small opening sizes based on the smallest dimensions of the ventilation openings. Similarly, modeling the construction unit in Curitiba, São Paulo, Brasília, Campos, Paranaíba, and Goiás could reduce energy consumption by around 40%, 34%, 36%, 18%, 20%, and 16%, respectively, compared to constructing the same building in the city of Rio de Janeiro, using the small opening sizes based on the smallest dimensions of the ventilation openings. This work could help practitioners and professionals in modular construction projects to design the best dimensions of the ventilation openings based on each BioZ towards increasing energy efficiency and sustainability.