|
|
|
Objective
The objective of planning, scheduling and cost control is straightforward -- complete the project on time and within budget; maintain a high level of technical quality; conform to all applicable codes and local ordinances; reflect the client's scope, standards and other requirements; incorporate applicable professional engineering standards and practice; be responsive; maintain an excellent working relationship with the client's representatives and others involved in the execution of the project; and continuously strive for technical excellence.
Bringing projects in on time and under budget is more an art than a science. However, there are basic principles of good management that can be applied to assure maximum results -- even when some project activities do not go as planned, which is the usual situation. Successful projects start with a good proposal where the project requirements are well defined, and the project plan and schedule, and cost estimate are well thought out and realistic. Each project, whether an engineering study or a facility design, requires similar inputs and outputs to effectively manage manpower flow, costs, quality and timeliness.
The first step in the project management process is to plan the work. This must be done accurately and completely so that tasks are well defined as well as the interdependence of the activities of each technical discipline involved in the implementation process. The inputs generally consist of a listing of activities required to complete the project and the informational needs required to complete each activity. Project activities are then grouped in logical order to satisfy project needs such as administration, design, procurement and construction. The outputs are the manhour requirements to complete each activity broken down by classification of staff required, start time and duration. The manpower schedule can then be summarized by week or month (depending on the size of the project) to provide a manhour estimate, cost of services estimate within budget, a manhour projection for staffing, and the master plan for controlling the project as work progresses; i.e., this will be accomplished by comparing actual work progress, manhours and cost with the plan. Just as important, the plan will facilitate timely recognition of scope changes, their overall effect and basis of documentation with the client. An important factor often overlooked in the planning and scheduling process is the availability of vendor and other technical information necessary to start and complete each activity. Therefore, it is necessary to schedule the timely receipt of outside information needs so that the work can proceed efficiently and on schedule. Examples of informational constraints are technical information from a vendor, another discipline group, an outside consultant, a preceding activity, or the client. The plan must be kept under constant review to stay on track, since deviations will occur and require periodic modification to the plan to maintain schedule and stay within budget. From time-to-time, unplanned activities may be incorporated into the project. Such unplanned activities might be the result of oversights or changes in scope. In any event, they can adversely affect schedule as well as cost; also, the completion date of the project might be affected as well as the number and classification of staff needed to complete the project might be changed. For these reasons, it is essential that the plan and schedule be kept updated to reflect all changes as they occur so their impact will be recognized and timely corrective action can be taken. Controlling cost and progress requires at least a weekly review of progress by making a comparison between accrued manhours and cost versus planned. However, being within the manhour and cost budget does not necessarily assure that the project is on target since actual work progress may not be commensurate with the time and dollars expended. It is therefore necessary to check the progress of the work for each activity to be certain that the work completed is commensurate with the time and dollars expended. If not, to then determine the reason(s) and take immediate corrective action. Sole reliance on percentage of budget dollars and hours consumed to determine progress should not be relied on -- this is not adequate for determining project status. When reviewing project progress, it is often better to estimate the number of manhours required to complete the item rather than relying entirely on estimates of percentages complete and then comparing these hours with the hours that are left. Using percentages to estimate degree of completion can sometimes be dangerous as a control tool, since the statistics could mean different things to different people.
The scheduling of the activities must be realistic and consider resources that are available. There are always practical limits of resources and the plan and schedule should recognize this. As stated earlier, each activity must be shown on the plan and schedule, and the interdependence (logic) of each of the activities must be taken into account in determining the sequential progression of project activities. For example, while most activities are interdependent (one must be completed before another can start), some are independent. The project work schedule should be more detailed and include more activities than the outline plan and schedule presented to the client with the progress report. The plan and schedule for the client will be developed from the project manager's working schedule (not the reverse) for use in keeping the client well informed of actual progress. Again, it is stressed that the plan and schedule must be reviewed periodically so that potentially adverse impacts such as new activities not previously anticipated, client or vendor information transmittal delays, changes in manhours to complete the activities, and scope changes in the project, etc., are recognized early so that timely corrective action can be taken to minimize adverse impacts on completion and budget.
As the status of activities shown on the plan and schedule is reviewed, the manhours required to complete the various activities may require revision to reflect changing status. A manager is deceiving himself and probably jeopardizing the Company's overall performance if he puts on blinders and assumes that he can make up the overrun elsewhere and does not correct the problem causing the overrun. Only monitoring and timely and effective control actions will make the plan and schedule happen. When time and dollars are lost, the manager must devise ways to recoup the lost dollars and time on other activities in addition to devising ways to complete the activity in trouble (overrun) as quickly as possible.
Internal Weekly Project Status Report
This computerized document is issued weekly and reflects the accumulated manhours and cost for each active project on a company-wide basis. The data for each project is summarized separately listing all personnel charging time to the project, the actual hours charged and their cost, as well as the total manhour and cost, including out-of-pocket expenses. The data contained in the project status report is vital to managers for updating their project plans and schedules. This report is also useful in determining whether the manhours are being spent in accordance with the planned schedule as well as indicate adjustments that might be in order. Most important, the status report eliminates the need for each project manager to do the bookkeeping associated with extracting time charges form the time sheets.
Project progress must be continuously monitored to determine if work progress is in accordance with the plan and schedule and if our clients' money is being spent wisely. The project must also be monitored to adjust activities, schedule and costs to reflect the real situation with respect to project charges. It is deadly to wait until the completion date has been reached to find that you have overrun the schedule and money and at the same time, discover that because the project is not completed, manpower resources planned for use on other projects will not be available. When this occurs, we have not only let our client down, but our Company's reputation and goodwill is diminished, which will have a long-term adverse affect on our ability to survive as a business.
The sole objective of project planning, scheduling and controlling is to manage projects effectively to serve our clients in a highly professional and economical manner, and to assure ZEI, Inc.'s financial and technical success in a highly competitive business environment. We control the project, not let the project control us. We recognize the need to stay "on top" of the project work so that we can determine quickly when project work is not progressing as planned and then take action to rectify the situation. Discovery that the project is not on track near the end of the project can be devastating since time will not be available to affect meaningful corrective measures and costs will increase beyond control.
|
|
Send mail to zei@flash.net with questions or comments about this web site.
|
