In day to day terms, managing a building site is somewhere between a science and dealing with a madhouse full of demented jugglers, especially if you have never done it before. Partly this is because of the number of variables which can occur. The best strategy is to have a firm clear plan and then to have a set of fall back positions with their interdependencies worked out. On a good day everything proceeds well; on a bad one at least you achieve something useful and don’t come to a standstill.
On a larger scale of thinking, especially if money is tight and there is a risk you might not be able to afford to complete the house, it might make sense to have clearly defined intermediate stages where you could sell the partly completed project for a price which reflected the cost and effort which had gone into it. Typically this would be when the building is weathertight and secure or at the point before the internal finishes go in. At these points a potential buyer can see clearly what they are getting and how much they need to do to finish it. This is a strategy much used in Scandinavia by young families who are self building. If things go wrong and they have to sell up before completion they at least make a small profit. A building with half its roof on is not an attractive purchase.
help with managing?
Project management software is a good bet. Many self builders get by by using XL spreadsheets. This is fine but gets a bit clumsy when there are lots of them and it doesn’t allow for a Gantt chart (where time taken to do a particular part of a job is displayed as a timeline bar – so that you can see which jobs overlap with each other). The free US software is ahead of UK software in this respect but is mostly irrelevant because building regulations are different, manufacturers and suppliers are different and customs are different. Avoid US management software. Some UK software is tied back to a particular builders’ merchant so you may get a bit compromised using it. Keep an eye on this website as we are developing cutting edge software for the UK self builder.
If you are not experienced in house building work you may want to employ a self build consultant or a clerk of works or possibly a friend who has experience in the business. A consultant will probably be able to bring a wealth of information to the project and it is worth setting down exactly what you want help with.
A clerk of works is probably best employed to make regular inspections as the work goes along. They will report and help sort out any problems. Unless it is a very big or complex job it is unlikely you will need them on site constantly and they will be covering other jobs. There is a description of work undertaken by site inspectors on their institute web site. (which could do with a bit of updating at present)