Home - Project Management

7/21/2010

Never underestimate or overestimate the value of planning. When setting a up new program or system, I have seen several groups use the shotgun approach – throw out a lot of data points and use an iterative process to get the end result. While this approach certainly can work, usually a lot of time and effort is spent needlessly trying to sync the vision of the implementers with the vision of the users. Take some time and meet the key team in the program or system and discuss end goals and informational needs of the team. Draft up mock output results and work out the system needs before implementing to streamline the process. On the other hand, don't get so caught up in completing and defining the program or system that it gets caught in a committee loop and never gets off the ground. As with most things in life, balance is the key in getting the most out of the planning process.

Posted at 11:02 AM by Cherie Chance | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

4/28/2010

Project Management Metrics

One of my responsibilities as a junior project controller is to create and maintain project management metrics for our division. Some of the metrics are simplistic: how many projects were completed on time, how many were completed on budget and so on. Others are more complex, such as what percentage of the budget was spent on design support, average contract acquisition cost and overall division budget spend rate (i.e. if the division continues spending at the same rate for the rest of the year, will it exhaust the budget). . I pull most of the data from Primavera (the project controller for each project is responsible for updating and maintaining the information for each project). For some of the metrics, I can run a report in Primavera, but I have to extract some of the information manually. (i.e. for some of the metrics, the green, yellow or red status is based upon the phase of a particular project. For example, cost contingency can be lower for a project nearing completion but needs to be higher for a project just beginning; therefore, I have to open each project and determine the status.) Currently, I calculate all of the metrics in Excel and displayed in Power Point. Overall, these metrics have proven very useful to the project managers. I developed a dashboard so the division leaders can see the status of any metrics at a glance

Over the next few months, Cherie' and I will be working on automating this process more through Primavera so stayed tuned for updates and lessons learned.

Posted at 10:04 AM by Denise M. Hoomes | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

3/24/2010

Finding the Right Fit with Earned Value

When Earned Value is mentioned, many people automatically think: megaprojects, highly burdensome requirements, cumbersome reporting, rigidity, and too expensive. However, the basic concepts of Earned Value can and should be applied to most projects. The key to using an Earned Value Management System (EVMS) across all of a company's projects is scalability. Particular projects will often have stringent earned value requirements which will require a certain set of processes and procedures. However, a company can develop another, less rigid, set of processes and procedures for use with smaller projects, a concept commonly called Earned Value Light. A project is still broken down by a WBS into manageable pieces, which are defined with a specific scope, schedule, and budget. This information is set as a target, and then managed toward the target, as is usual with Earned Value systems. Managers look at what was planned to be done, how much has really been done, and the cost of that work compared to the budget. Areas such as change management, work authorizations, level of tracking and reporting can be adjusted to a less stringent set of processes than might be required in a more traditional system. This allows for a more basic, cost effective approach with smaller or simpler projects. Consequently, Earned Value becomes value added to much more than just megaprojects.

Posted at 12:09 PM by Cherie Chance | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

3/2/2010

An Earned Value History Lesson

A co-worker of mine recently sent me an article describing the creation and evolution of Earned Value. My undergraduate degree is in History so I always enjoy learning about how ideas or processes began. I believe it helps us implement a process better when we understand the history behind it. I hope you will find this article and subsequent interview as informative as I did. The interview is with Jim Morin, one of the pioneers of Earned Value Management System. The article was originally published in PMI World Today – December 2009, Volume XI, Issue XII. Enjoy!

http://www.pmforum.org/library/second-edition/2009/PDFs/dec/SE-Morin-HowItAllBegan.pdf

http://www.pmforum.org/library/interviews/2010/feb/Interview-Morin.pdf

Posted at 9:09 AM by Denise M. Hoomes | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

2/4/2010

Understand Your P6 Spend Plan

I had a colleague who recently ran into a project spend plan issue which caused him a needless and painful amount of explanation and resubmittals to the client. He developed a good schedule and cost loaded with the approved estimate and ran a baseline spend plan out of Primavera's Enterprise software and submitted this to the client. Unfortunately, the spread which he submitted didn't reflect the project baseline dates. Don't misunderstand me, Primavera can quickly and easily provide a spend plan based on your schedule. However, you need to be aware of exactly what you are looking at (and submitting). There are several things which you need to check when you use the spend plans:

If you are using a project without a project baseline, Primavera will use your resource planned dates to generate a budgeted spread. This may or may not reflect your activity dates. If your project has a project baseline, baseline spreads can use either planned or current dates, depending on your settings.
Be aware of whether you are reporting budgeted spreads, remaining spreads or baseline spreads. Each of these represents valuable information, but make sure you know which one your plan is using and that it is appropriate what you are trying to show.
You must have units entered to spread your costs. If there are no units, the spread will default to the beginning of the spread period.

Posted at 5:48 PM by Cherie Chance | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

1/24/2010

Flexibility Is Key in Project Controls

Just recently, I have been tasked with setting up a preliminary schedule for my first real project (by the way, all of my high school English teachers are cringing because I used passive voice. That's the coolest part about working with engineers now – passive voice, schmassive voice). I have worked on other projects, but they have all been in conjunction with another, more seasoned project controller. The nature of this project is demolition and deconstruction with a lot of complicated facets. I, along with Cherie's help, worked on getting the WBS set up for this project. We got everything just right, all of the activities in place, to find out that the project manager wanted to go in a different direction. So, we created a new project, with a new WBS, new activities and resource loaded it. I proudly presented this at our team meeting later that week. By the end of the meeting, I realized that the WBS would be changing yet again. Let me point out here that the project manager on this effort is actually awesome to work with and has been very flexible. Speaking of flexibility, that brings me to my point in this week's post. I realized very quickly, that flexibility is a huge asset in project controls because things (i.e. activities, WBS's, budgets, and even baselines) change. I think this is one of things I actually like most about project controls because it keeps you on your toes.

Posted at 3:10 PM by Denise M. Hoomes | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

1/15/2010

Don't Hide Your Variances, Use Them

Nothing defeats the point of using an earned value system as quickly as managing to achieve zero variances. Again and again, I have watched good systems lose valuable information by continually tweaking the system or data to remove variances due to management or client pressure. When used as the tool it is intended to be, variances provide the project team, management and end client valuable information. Virtually every project will have some variances, it is how those variances are managed that impacts the project. When variances occur, the cause should be identified, the impacts of the variance on the project schedule and/or budget should be assessed, and any potential opportunities for recovery of the variance should be identified, evaluated and implemented where possible. This information should be reviewed with the project team and management team on a regular basis until the impacted work is complete or the variance has been recovered.

Posted at 2:20 PM by Cherie Chance | Category: Earned Value Management | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

1/14/2010

The Expert and the Newbie: Project Controls 101

Allow us to introduce ourselves: my name is Denise Hoomes and I am a junior project controls specialist. I have been working in project controls for about a year and a half and feel only slightly less overwhelmed now than when I first started. Fortunately for me, the company I work for employees several experts in the field. One of them is Cherie' Chance, PMP. Cherie' has been working as a project controller for over 20 years and is one of the best. She is an excellent teacher and I can guarantee that she can figure out a work around for almost any issue with Primavera (and if you've ever worked with it, you know it's a very powerful tool but perhaps not the most intuitive software invented). Unfortunately for Cherie', she has been assigned the difficult task of mentoring me. My hope is that you will see two different perspectives woven throughout these posts: one from a beginner's perspective and another from a seasoned perspective and that both perspectives are beneficial to you. Join us on this journey!

Posted at 7:05 PM by Denise M. Hoomes | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

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Project Management