title: International Construction Measurement Standard
Creators: name: Mitchell, Charles
Publisher: name: Technological University Dublin
Year: 2016

description: Welcome to ICMS: Global Consistency in Presenting Construction Costs ICMS aims to provide global consistency in classifying, defining, analysing and presenting construction costs at a project, regional, state, national or international level. This project is the first of its kind, bringing together numerous organisations from around the world to create shared international standards for presenting construction costs. This first edition of ICMS focuses on capital costs; however, future editions of ICMS may incorporate other matters such as costs in use. Consistent practice in presenting construction costs globally would bring significant benefits to construction cost management. Globalisation of the construction business has increased the need to make meaningful comparative analysis between countries, not least by international organisations such as the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, various regional development banks, non-governmental organisations and the United Nations. The Coalition did not identify any existing standard that was suitable for international adoption. For this reason, the Coalition has come together to create shared standards. At a meeting at the International Monetary Fund in June 2015, Coalition members confirmed they were committed to promoting the implementation of ICMS to encourage world markets to accept and adopt ICMS as the primary standard for presenting construction costs across different nations in a consistent way. An independent Standard Setting Committee (the SSC) was formed. The SSC includes technical experts from 11 countries and a combined expertise covering 47 different markets. The SSC worked virtually and also met three times, once in Brussels and twice in London. A wide range of professional organisations are represented in the Coalition and the SSC. They were generous in providing their national standards, which provided the basis for the early deliberations of the SSC. The SSC produced the complete consultation draft of ICMS within a year, in July 2016. Following the private consultation period in October 2016, two public consultations took place between November 2016 and April 2017. The completed first edition was published in July 2017. The Coalition accepts that standard setting is a continuous and dynamic process; it will be listening closely to the global construction cost management community to ensure necessary updates are captured for continued improvement. In addition to preparing further editions of ICMS for additional categories of civil engineering projects, the SSC will also monitor all guidance notes on ICMS to ensure that they are consistent with the principles and intent of ICMS. All local, regional or worldwide approaches will be documented to allow coordination, expansion and consistency of ICMS guidance whenever required. The Coalition is beginning the important work of implementation by liaising with governments on a national, regional or state and local level to seek adoption of ICMS. Many key stakeholders are being engaged in the process of implementation. A list of ICMS-supporting partners is shown on the ICMS Coalition website (www.icms-coalition.org) – these organisations are committed to the adoption of ICMS. The Coalition, the SSC and the numerous participants in the consultation are proud to present ICMS. For further information on ICMS please visit the website (www.icms-coalition.org). On behalf of the ICMS Coalition Trustees: Ken Creighton – (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) - Chair Martin Darley – (Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering) - Vice Chair Julie Dela Cruz – (Philippine Institute of Certified Quantity Surveyors) – General Secretary Craig Bye – (Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors) - General Secretary