What is happening now in the industry is hard for me to explain:

Top State/National/International General Contractors producing underdeveloped level 3 baseline schedules with limited subcontractor input. This is what I am seeing:

1. CPM schedules being used to foster pay applications
2. CPM schedules built only to satisfy contract specs
3. CPM schedules updated monthly only to the degree required to process pay applications
4. CPM Schedules not designed/developed/updated enough to utilize for day-to-day PM/CM
5. Day-to-day PM/CM is being facilitated by to-do lists (even on nuclear outages)
6. Labor is being mismanaged by GC PM/CM/CPM teams
7. Roller coaster labor demands are eating into subcontractor profit
8. Rising owners contingency funds that are unnecessarily consumed
9. Root causes are hidden from top GC/owner executives and controlled by senior PM/CM forces

10.  Owner-side PM/CM forces are approving creative CO’s to cover incompetent PM/CM

11.  More and more construction acceleration in the 3^rd and 4^th project quarters

12.  Profit evaporation for all stakeholders directly proportional to constructive acceleration

13.  Project teams that have never been exposed to a valid baselines

14.  Project teams that have never had the luxury of valid weekly CPM updates and archives

15.  Project teams that have never experienced the power of a CPM schedule that accurately modeled and mirrored the project/could be used to support day-to-day PM/CM efforts onsite

At the heart of every successful construction project outcome lays the building and sustaining of trade momentum. The 15 items above are momentum busters and undermine the very possibility of a successful project outcome.

When scheduling is done properly – it saves and makes you more than it costs. So if you are looking at the money it costs you, without looking at the money it makes you, then you are only looking at half the picture.

I realize that most schedules are poorly designed /under – developed, do not model the building approach and are only updated monthly to foster pay applications. So they don’t make or save you anything! But whose fault is that?

If you hire someone that understands building sequences/ is an expert with Primavera/lives critical path methodologies and you mandated the schedule be updated/archived weekly; not only activity progress, but disruption and delay events too. You would start making money of the schedule … lots of it.

Remember: The Pareto principle is alive and well in construction. 80% of construction delays happen in the first 20% of project duration. And your best defense is a well designed, fully developed (submittals included) CPM schedule, updated/archived weekly.

Yet, even the best CPM schedules can’t perform themselves. We can help with that too. Schedule performance centers on building/sustaining trade momentum on-site. And building/sustaining trade momentum on-site ties back to building/sustaining what we call Brass to Brass relationships.

I will be covering how to build/sustain Brass to Brass relationships in my next post. Until then – keep on building.

What if I could provide you with a Primavera expert (a certified PSP) with extensive construction trade/trade management experience?

What if:

1. He could build and install your baseline (GC’s) or perform schedule review services (A&E’s)
2. He could embed streamlined CPM schedule updating/review processes
3. He could help vet the permanent CPM scheduler
4. He could support and collaborate with the permanent CPM scheduler through transition
5. He could even provide ongoing support if required
6. He could provide training if need be
7. He could then move to your next project and repeat the process

How much better would your projects turn out?

How much longer would your new hires last? Do you realize that the two most serious threats to your successful project outcomes are late baseline installations and CPM schedule updating that fosters only pay applications, not momentum onsite?

Let us buy you some time

Not only does this buy you some time to find the right candidate. This enables you to accept a candidate with less experience, which opens up your possibilities. This allows you to pay less in salary, and get more depth in skill-sets.

If you get the vetting right, successful project outcomes will follow

The toughest challenge with hiring schedulers is handling the vetting process. You have to be an expert scheduler to recognize an expert scheduler. Most PM/CM types don’t realize the difference a competent scheduler can make on a project.

PM/CM Formula: Construction experience + Primavera skill-sets = Project outcome

Whoever is most fluid using and speaking Primavera wins. I know that construction experience (trade/trade management) is just as important – but the industry gets that.  It is the Primavera piece they struggle with. It is the combination of these two things that determine project outcome. As the project size and complexity increases, the penalties that builders/A&E’s/and owners pay for not getting the significance of Primavera, grow exponentially.

Initial CPM scheduling support, securing the right scheduler into place, and the two tier approach – address and solve a lot of problems with limited down side. What is the downside?

A master scheduler with extensive construction trade/trade management experience that knows the project and is just a phone call away is a project schedulers dream.

If this strikes you as a good idea, call Don at: 434-286-2984 or shoot me an email at dcs@cpmschedules.com.

It was years before I made the connection between aim small – miss small and PM/CM and project controls.

I learned this catchy saying watching the movie, The Patriot.

In the movie, Mel Gibson’s character is raising a bunch of kids alone, his wife had died. He was trying to avoid getting involved with the Revolutionary War, fearing that he would be injured or killed and unable to care for his children. But after the English soldiers killed one of his sons and captured another, he set out, with two of his younger sons to free his oldest son.

In preparation for the ambush, Gibson’s character gives his sons 2 directions:

1. Let me fire first

2. Shoot the officers first and then work your way down

Then he asks his kids: What did I tell you about shooting? To which they reply; aim small – miss small. The ambush is successful and they retrieve the son and brother.

I don’t know if I would have ever noticed the aim small – miss small phrase, if the scene that followed it hadn’t been so moving, or if I didn’t have 3 sons of my own, of similar ages.

Whatever the reason, those words and that scene made an impact. Yet it was years before I made the connection between aim small – miss small and PM/CM and project controls.

It was not until I started working as a consultant, and realized that most of the project recovery work that I was getting, stemmed from underdeveloped scheduling. In some cases, contractors were attempting to use summary schedules to manage large complex projects.

Others were using (and I use the term loosely) schedules that were somewhere in between a summary schedule and a fully developed schedule. And this was at the root of their challenges. Schedules were not useful for anything other than fostering pay applications. So they were not really using the schedule to manage the day-to-day work of the project.

Trying to get the right level of detail in a schedule is like trying to draw the quality line in a paint job, or a concrete job, or a tile job, or any other trade product. Meaning; it takes an experienced hand to determine where to draw the line.

In general, for construction scheduling work, the optimal level of detail for an execution schedule is an average of 7- 10 day duration.  Meaning if you break your activities down by area and then by trade, your durations should average 7-10 days.

To achieve this level of breakdown, you are forced to think about how the trades will move horizontally and vertically throughout the project.  Essentially, you are forced to build the project, using activities and logic, on paper.

Sequentially, concurrently, however your resources fit-up to your contract parameters within the confines of known accepted trade practices … or sometimes even outside of known and accepted trade practices, for you trail blazers.  You have to organize the work.

This is the aiming small component.

It is this process that will uncover design glitches, material and methods questions, crew and equipment short comings, and conflicts that would not otherwise be discovered until the work was being performed.

Identifying these challenges early, allows the cumulative brainpower of the project stakeholders to be tapped to create a solution. This discovery/identification/solution cycle drives the miss small piece of the performance.

This is why I ask my clients to start building the baseline early, and to update the schedule weekly. It’s not so that I can collect more fees … although I like to collect more fees. It is because the fees that I collect are but a fraction of the money saved by the owner, the contractor, and even sub-contractors by doing more, and better planning.

Imagine experiencing trouble onsite on week 8 of a project and not infusing that issue into the schedule until after week 12, when your 3^rd monthly update is performed. You lost 25 calendar days. If the problem was on the critical path, your project now requires either 25  additional days to finish or will consume the cost to accelerate the project 25 days, assuming resources are available.

Better and more frequent planning is good for everybody. It pays for itself, many times over, when the quality of planning is high. What many contractors don’t realize is how the atmosphere onsite will change when advanced project controls processes are embedded into a project.  You won’t have to wait until you’re finished with the project for your client to award you another one – when:

• Your forces are proactively leading the project
• They are ahead of schedule
• Contractor-side PM/CM/The trades/owner-side PM/CM are working together like ants
• Subcontractors are praising your management and leadership to the owners forces

The rules change and your firm stands out above the rest as the one firm that makes the owners life better. If history is any indication of the future; your competitors will not catch-on for years. They are too consumed with marketing, and have an unlimited amount of excuses for why their operations cannot finish on time/on budget.

Aim Small – Miss Small!

If you enjoyed this post, please share it with a friend. If you have comments, questions or would like to suggest a post topic, please email me at: dcs@cpmschedules.com.

Pick one – and your career path will be determined accordingly.

The Masses

It is one or the other for everybody. Most CM’s/PM’s see it clearly as a necessary evil that is required by the project specifications and that is used only to the degree that the projects specification is enforced on any given project. This group of PM’s/CM’s create CPM baselines and usually monthly schedule updates to foster pay applications – and use alternative tools to manage the day-to-day work onsite. Based on my experience over the past 25 years (over 1 billion project dollars), I would say over 95% of PM/CM forces take this approach.

The Classes

But the top 5% of PM/CM forces know different. They have learned that in the right hands, CPM software is capable of accurately modeling the building activities across the project, and that the CPM schedule is to building execution, what the architectural drawings are to building design. These managers see the capability that the software has to quantify and qualify the project scope, and organize building activities into a baseline schedule that is not meant to be perfect. But it is meant to provide a base plan, which can be refined over time to serve as the best available map for the stakeholders to follow to the finish line.

These fortunate few (relatively speaking) PM’s/CM’s are experiencing career hyper-growth, in plain sight of their peers who don’t even see the difference.

They have either not been exposed or cannot grasp the fact that CPM software can be used to accurately control the horizontal and vertical flow of work across the project. Or maybe the masses don’t comprehend what that really means to a project. I don’t know whether they haven’t been exposed, just don’t grasp what it can do, or don’t grasp how what it can do – can transform their project outcomes.

When I realized the comprehensive capability of CPM technology (which took many years), I changed my career path. The awesome power of the tool so completely solved the problems that I encountered, both as a lead superintendent and a senior project manager, that I decided to base my career around CPM scheduling methodologies, and became a CPM scheduling consultant.

Critical Path Methodologies = Leverage, Leverage, Leverage

There is no other mechanism in the business of managing construction that is more powerful, and more leveragable than Critical Path Methodologies.

Yet, because of lack of competent schedulers, valid baselines are rare, and streamlined weekly updating processes are almost non-existent. Even though the technology has been around for 50+ years,  the masses still have gaping holes in their understanding of what CPM scheduling really is, and what it can do for their projects.

The missing piece, again on PM/CM teams is a scheduler that has both; extensive construction trade/trade management experience, along with, advanced Primavera skills. Just like in Too Green Too Few.

The challenge to creating advanced schedulers is: To develop Primavera skills that are effective, the scheduler has to have extensive hands-on construction trade/trade management experience. However, that is unfortunately, the career path less traveled. Scheduling is as much an art as it is a science. The scheduler has to know explicitly what he is trying to accomplish and how to break it down and organize it to be both; an accurate model for building activities, and an intuitive map for subs and vendors to understand. That is a challenge that is amplified by the fact that most schedulers are tasked with building and maintaining schedules for unique buildings, built by unique crews. So every project comes with new challenges.

Are PM’s/CM’s Naive or Ridiculous

To think that a scheduler, without extensive trade/trade management experience, could sit with a PM/CM/super for a few hours, or a few days for that matter, and understand the detailed aspects of the project well enough to model the flow of work accurately is naïve. And to think that a PM/CM/super is going to be available to the scheduler to make every decision that needs to be made during baseline creation/schedule updating is ridiculous. It is no wonder why schedules are not updated more frequently.

This approach to scheduling alone is enough to undermine what could be an otherwise successful project outcome. When you combine this approach with monthly (instead of weekly) schedule updates, the negative effects on the project are compounded. What you are left with is a CPM Schedule that is updated only frequently enough and substantially enough to foster pay applications. Does that sound familiar?

The result is that your PM/CM forces are managing your complex projects with something other than a CPM schedule. Usually the tool of choice is an Excel spreadsheet – which after all is nothing more than a glorified to-do list.

We all know what happens when complex projects are managed with to-do lists

The Excel spreadsheet is disconnected from any comprehensive schedule. The critical path is over prioritized. Near critical and mass volume work lags. Near critical work becomes critical and mass volume work becomes near critical. Then in the fourth quarter of the project the majority of the outstanding work is on a path with negative float (critical) and the strategy for completion turns into a hair scramble. It is every contractor/vendor for themselves … survival mode.

GC’s go into a reactive mode of PM/CM operation that focuses on CYA and creative C/O tactics to generate the time and money required to make-up for the lack of a comprehensive, weekly refined plan for achieving milestones. I use to do the same thing as a super and PM prior to learning a better way. It was a matter of survival, and then I learned how to use CPM software to manage day-to-day operations.

Everything changed

First the atmosphere on my projects went from hostile to friendly; subs and vendors favor projects that are better managed. They man-up those projects better. They make more money on those projects; they get along better with other subs and vendors onsite. Owner-side forces are happier too.

It’s all about driving and sustaining trade momentum into the project

Sustained trade momentum leads to what I have come to call: Extraordinary Project Outcomes (EPO’s). I say extraordinary, because I know what it is like to spend 1, 2, 3 years on a project, only to walk –off, in the face of your best efforts, over budget, late and without profit. In contrast to that experience; finishing ahead of schedule, under budget and with better than planned profits, is nothing less than extraordinary. Not to mention the ripple effects on employee/subs/vendors and last but not least, clients that follow an EPO.

How do you like the idea of having an acronym for an extraordinary project outcome? We make acronyms for terms we say a lot. I think we need to start talking more about extraordinary project outcomes. So I offer to you the EPO acronym. I know that some of you can’t imagine an EPO. I have been a part of many, and have driven and supported the transition of many projects from struggling to extraordinary.

The strategies above are not on trial, they are proven, and are being used by top tier PM/CM teams around the world. Yet, even within project controls companies, the numbers of schedulers with extensive construction trade/trade management experience are shockingly few, and there-in lays the bottleneck.

So don’t be afraid to bring in a consultant. The odds of you employing a master-scheduler in-house are not very good.

Please pass this article along if you enjoyed it. I look forward to your hearing from you.

It is only through optimization of the building approach and execution, that both the owner and builder can realize significant gains of time/money. It is stagnation of the building approach / execution or glitches within the building approach and execution that drive delays and additional cost to complete projects.

The CPM Baseline Schedule and subsequent period CPM Schedule Updates are at the heart of the process … or should be. The lineage of CPM Schedules carries the responsibility / accountability for providing a model for the building approach and execution. Remember the CPM Schedule is to the building approach and execution, what the architectural drawings are to the project design. Yet, this point is entirely missed by most owners and contractors. Hence the ritual of monthly CPM schedule updates.

The building approach is modeled in the design and development of the CPM Schedule. The design determines what stakeholders see when they look at the schedule. Is the schedule organized by areas of work, by trade, by critical path, or all three, or by three entirely different parameters? The options are unlimited to the scheduler and that is why no two schedules are ever the same.

Scheduling is as much an art as it is a science. Because no two building are usually alike and even when they are, they are built on different sites and usually built by different crews.

It is the design of the CPM Schedule that makes the schedule intuitive / user friendly / able to understand … or not.  The design of the schedule also becomes the structure that the scheduler has to work within to effectively model the flow of work throughout the project. Work flows throughout the project horizontally and vertically and the schedule is what determines the direction and pace.

The more accurately the CPM Scheduler is able to model the flow of work throughout the project – the more useful the CPM Schedule is to the trades building the project. That’s why getting an early valid (not perfect) CPM baseline schedule installed is vital to a successful project outcome. It provides a map to follow and starts the building of trade momentum.

If the schedule is not accurate, not even close to accurate, what do you think the contractor is using to manage the project with? Does partnership trump leadership? Does incompetence trump common sense? Sometimes …

Construction managers; don’t be afraid to hire a project controls consultant. Turn it around,  explain to the owner that it is your experience and wisdom, that leads you to seek out a specialized scheduling expert. Explain to the owner that allowing anyone to review the schedule outside from a professional scheduler would be assuming unnecessary risk for the project. Having said that, no two schedulers are the same and finding a competent consultant required due diligence. Get references, call the references.

It still might not be a slam dunk, but at least you won’t have to spend the rest of the project covering-up for mistakes you made in the schedule review.

1. Ahead of schedule finish/
2. Under budget finish/
3. Satisfied client that recommends your company to others/
4. Low employee turnover/
5. Low subcontractor turnover/
6. No serious human or environmental casualties/

All of the six project attributes above are rooted in Advanced Project Controls.

Are you looking for ways to improve your staff’s performance? Are your project teams under-performing across the board? If so, it’s likely that the project control’s systems that they are working within are to blame. Do your projects outcomes range from mediocre (best case) to failure (worse case)? If so, your project controls systems need to be bolstered.

Extraordinary Project Outcomes Require Advanced Project Controls

There is a good reason why your staff does not have the skill sets required to produce extraordinary project outcomes.

Skill sets required for advanced project controls are varied and are not typically found in the same person. Yet, the work of building and updating CPM schedules is the work of one scheduler. And when that scheduler is dependent on others to design or develop baselines, or logic changes on schedule updates; the system is taxed, is clogged, and fails.

Collaboration is required between PM/CM teams and key contractors are needed. That is a fact. But the art and science of advanced project controls is comes down to a single practitioner.  That person;

1. Has to have comprehensive  construction experience
2. Has to be a Primavera expert
3. Has to thoroughly understand CPM scheduling methodologies.

Advanced CPM Schedulers number so few, Statistically They Don’t Exist

The fact is that there are so few CPM schedulers about, that meet the three criteria above, that statistically they don’t exist. I have worked for international project controls firms, as well as contractors and owners.  Most of the guys/gals had civil engineering or construction management degrees and were Primavera software literate. They lacked extensive trade and even general construction experience. Others had architectural degrees and CM experience, usually on the owner’s side of the contract, but lacked Primavera and critical path methodology insights. Last, but not least is the few schedulers that came from the contractors side, they had superintendent or PM experience, but usually did not have strong software skills.

The fact is that hands on construction builder types, have aptitudes that are 180 degrees from the software jockey, analytical engineering types. Hence the two skill-sets rarely come together in one person.

There are exceptions. They are usually professionals that started their careers with extensive construction experience, and I mean actual trade experience. From there, they moved to construction management, usually on the contractor side, and then, once they realized the most concentrated and leveragable function within building operations is project controls, they settled into a project controls career. It is an uncommon career path; hence the relative skill-sets are equally uncommon.

How uncommon? In twenty three years, I have come across four schedulers that fit into this category. Three were working as consultants; one was working as a general Superintendent. But all you need is one to start your company’s transformation.

How Advanced Project Controls Found Me

My career in construction started out as an apprentice carpenter on commercial projects;  forming bridges and building foundations, framing office buildings, installing specialty doors and windows, and interior trim packages. When commercial work dried up in the late eighties, I built 130 homes (as a superintendent) for the nation’s largest home builder, and then returned to commercial construction, as a project superintendent.

As a lead superintendent and senior project manager, I muddled through, learning Suretrak, building and facilitating construction schedules. Progress was brutal. Still, it was steady. After five years, I was the most advanced scheduler that I knew. I was building in a major US market (Phoenix), working for a successful commercial GC that had 15 guys similar to me. He doubled his business in the two years that I worked for him, moving from 100M to 200M. That was 8 years ago and he has doubled twice since.

Then, I returned to Virginia to be close to family. Soon after, came the most important phone call of my career. I realized pretty quickly, the man on the phone knew more than anyone I had ever met about construction management.  I talked with him for an hour. More accurately, I listened to him talk for an hour.

He started emailing me white papers describing advanced project controls strategies. I applied what I learned to my then current projects. The results were nothing short of staggering. It was my first exposure to the last 30%, and to the extraordinary project outcomes that follow implementation. A few months later, I traveled to meet the man. As it turned out, he too, started out as a carpenter, progressed through the superintendent and PM positions and before embracing a career in project controls.

He was trying to convince me to do the same. A year later he was successful. He offered me a position that allowed me to work from home. I traveled to projects as required.

That was five years ago.  Chris Carson has since become the go-to guy for companies like Bechtel, to solve CM challenges that are beyond the competencies of their in-house staffs’. Chris travels around the world, working, speaking and teaching project controls.

By the time I took the position under Chris, I had been managing construction projects for 13 years. Yet, I knew that I had a lot more to learn about project controls.  I found out what I knew was about 70% of the trade.  Learning P3 and P6 simultaneously was difficult – even though I was an expert on SureTrak and MSP applications. Streamlining baseline and updating processes turned out to be key and enabled me to deliver tangible value to my clients on a weekly basis.

I was learning the last 30%. It took me three years of full time scheduling. I was working under an industry legend: Creating baselines and recovery schedules and updates for contractors, and performing schedule reviews for owners. When you’re scheduling full time, with multiple companies, your learning curve is accelerated. And still it took me 3 years to gain the last 30%.

Bringing the last 30% of project controls skill-sets to your staff would change the whole game.

Some call it the difference between a contractor scheduler and a professional technical scheduler. I don’t like to categorize, because I have not found two contractor schedulers or scheduling consultants, for that matter, that are created equal, when it comes to scheduling. In fact, I have met some schedulers working for contractors that are more skilled than most scheduling consultants.

What I see happening a lot with contractors is: Their staff schedulers are being guided and pressured by supers and PM’s to represent the projects in a certain way. That is backwards. It stunts the growth of schedulers, devalues the schedule and discredits the scheduler.

An accurate schedule designed and developed intuitively, and updated weekly,  is the ultimate tool for the superintendent to manage the day to day. It is also serves as the record and reason to support change management for the PM.

The only inputs that your CM staff should be giving your schedulers are those that would enhance the integrity of the schedules design/development/presentation/accuracy/etc. It is those qualities of the schedule that drive trust with the project stakeholders.

The last 30% is what transforms your project outcomes from mediocre to extraordinary. To really grasp how the last 30% effects; project atmosphere, employee retention, subcontractor retention, client retention and profit margin; you have to experience it.

What’s the Cost?

Zig Ziglar said that you don’t pay the price for good health, you enjoy the price of good health, and that you don’t pay the price to experience success in any worthwhile endeavor in life, you enjoy the price of success and achievement. The last 30% falls into that category. Most owners and contractors are focused on the initial cost of project controls, like the scheduling is just another job cost. They entirely miss the fact that there is another level of project management, driven by advanced project controls, that will set them free of the worries and hardships that plague the contracting masses.

The relatively few companies that have attained that level of management are not thinking that they paid the price for advanced project controls. Like Zig, they are too busy enjoying the fruits of Success. The price is overshadowed by the rewards. They are not broadcasting what they have discovered either. They are using advanced project controls to distinguish themselves from their competition to produce extraordinary project outcomes and win more contracts.

The last 30% cannot be skipped. When you take into account the comprehensive ripple effects that follow implementation, the return exceeds the investment many times over. The most exciting part is the realization that general contracting/construction management can be fun.

But what is the COST?

Do you agree that one fraction of 1% is a pittance, relative to the money spent on most projects in the fourth quarter on constructive acceleration? Acceleration that would not be required, if advanced project controls were implemented. I’m not even going to mention the negative ripple effects that occur from not having a valid always accurate (updated weekly) CPM schedule in place, and how that reflects on your company.

There are no real net costs to advanced project controls. The net financial effect of implementing advanced project controls is positive. This has to be the best kept secret in the industry. I have never seen it printed. Maybe that’s related to the fact that the number of advanced CPM schedulers about is so small, that many builders have not even encountered one. So they haven’t ever had the net gain experience. They probably have never experienced and extraordinary project outcome either.

Have you become construction site averse over the years? I used to be that way. I associated the project sites with stress and negative encounters.

That happens when you’re work load outpaces your ability to acquire skill-sets. Luckily, I was able to put on the brakes and catch-up my skill-sets. I see the same thing happening to many superintendents and project managers today. Some call it burn-out. I think more accurately, we should call it pushed past. Just say he’s been pushed past the point where his current skill sets allow him to be productive.

There is no better way to get these employees caught-up than to embed advanced project controls processes into their projects. As the advanced project controls take hold, the atmosphere onsite transforms, and the pressure on the employees subsides. And by osmosis they learn advanced CPM scheduling methodologies and the any site adversity is reversed.

For me, the whole construction site aversity changed after acquiring the last 30%. Now I enjoy being on-site. I am talking about a 180 degree transformation. When you can foresee problems and provide solutions in advance, when the CPM schedule is always accurate and used to manage the day to day trade-work on-site; the jobsite becomes a positive place to be for all the stake-holders.

You can cash-in on everything else that you have done across your whole career by teaming-up with CPM Schedules Corp.  You can leverage the efforts that you have made with employees, subcontractors, and clients, when you implement the last 30% of project controls insights/skill-sets?

Project management differences are subtle but the ramifications on-site are profound

The vast majority of Owners and Contractors do not realize that the last 30% even exists. It’s not that it is a secret (although most professionals are protective of what they know). It’s more that even most project controls practitioners don’t understand (even when they’re told) the profound effect of the last 30%.

I don’t think you can fully understand it, unless you have been a superintendent.  It is that experience of trying to wrap my arms around a complex project without having a system in place to do it, that made me realize the power of the CPM schedule, and the power of the weekly update.

Unless the schedule is updated weekly, it’s worthless for day to day management. And once you stop using it for day to day management, the schedule is relegated to an expensive SOV; updated monthly, only meet the project specification, to foster pay applications.  And then your complex project is being managed by a to-do list … you know it’s true.

If I had not been recruited by Chris, I would have fallen into the same trap. I did fall into the same trap as a superintendent and even as a PM prior to that call. And I’m sure that if I had not seen the power up – close, executing projects (especially recovering failing projects) I would not be so passionate about what seems to so many others to be an unexciting profession.

CPM methodologies enable skilled practitioners to model building approaches in the same way that architectural drawings model building designs.

Have you ever considered that? A CPM schedule is to the building approach what the construction drawing is to the building design. Look what we do to document construction drawing changes. Look what we do to document schedule changes …

Yet, to pull it off, the scheduler has to:

1.       Effectively model and continuously remodel the building approach because it changes

2.       Design and develop the schedule intuitively

3.       Capture the entire project scope

4.       Update the schedules progress and logic weekly

5.       Keep the schedule, the contract, and the project in-sync

Unfortunately that eliminates most project teams and or approaches. But let’s say you have that scheduler (or can find one). He/she knows how to design and develop a schedule. The activities cover the project scope, the organization is intuitive, and models a plausible approach for building the project.

You know that a valid baseline updated and archived weekly has the ability to model and mirror the project and to be the ultimate tool for driving and sustaining momentum on-site.

Yet, you are hesitant to bring a scheduling expert from outside the company. In your defense, many so-called experts are no more skilled than your in-house staff. I will give you that. But there is another dynamic playing out in the industry. That is, PM/CM/even owners that are insecure and think bringing in a competent scheduler from the outside makes them look incompetent.

To you I would like to say; first, fear not, because although your peers may know a bit more (or less) than you do relative to CPM scheduling, the difference is inconsequential. The industry at large does not know enough about CPM scheduling to produce extraordinary project outcomes. Let’s face it, recount your project experiences. Look around.  Second, keep your eye on the ball. If you can find a competent consultant, use his/her as a tool to drive successful projects.

Successful projects enhance the careers of the stakeholders involved in them

Don’t worry about sharing the credit for any one project. If you are involved with enough successful projects, your career will surely be a reflection of those projects. In fact, after a few successful projects with the same consultant, you can use your relationship with the consultant on the front end of the business cycle to win more work.

Call it bragging rights, call it competitive advantage, call it strategic alliance, the bottom line is you can gain credibility and differentiate your company from the competition. It is not something you should hide, or shy away from it is something you should highlight, move towards and embrace, and above all, exploit to win more contracts.

Does the undo button make Primavera easier to learn? It surely makes returning to a previous state in the schedule more possible – which makes keystroke mistakes easier to fix. However, designing intuitive baselines and developing schedules that cover the projects scope in a balanced, well organized, intuitive way, requires more than an undo button. It requires more than mastery of Primavera scheduling software, for that matter.

There is a formula for using Primavera schedules to facilitate extraordinary project outcomes. It works amazingly well. Yet few can grasp it … and still fewer can implement it. I can’t explain why that is. My friend told me that you can’t give your experience away to another person. I think that has something to do with it. Or maybe in my case, it is my inability to articulate the formula. I am going to try again. Here it is.

1.       Build a valid baseline. A valid baseline has to model the building approach, at a level of detail that allows the CPM schedule to be the tool for day to day project management. Break the activities down to an average of 7 day durations. Make sure to include all the major phases of the project: If the project is a Design/Build, include: design/buyout/submittals/fabrication/delivery/construction/commissioning/closeout  phases. Make sure that activity logic runs back through the phases to its origin.

2.       Install this baseline early in the project. It does not have to be perfect; but it does have to be installed early in the project. The baseline will be refined over time. Get it installed! If you don’t install the baseline at the inception of the project, you are undermining your ability to build and sustain trade momentum on-site.

3.       Update the CPM Schedule weekly. If you choose to update the CPM Schedule monthly, you are sabotaging your project. I don’t care what the contract specification requires. CPM schedules that are updated monthly are worthless for day to day management … absolutely worthless. What good is a schedule that is 5, 10, 15, even 20 workdays (which is 30 calendar days) off?  That is why nobody is using CPM schedules to manage day to day work on-site. That is why folks are using excel spreadsheets (to-do lists) to manage complex projects. That is why contractors are banging their heads against the wall, only to achieve mediocre project outcomes, and that is best case scenario (if their lucky). And that is why the CPM schedules are not respected by project stakeholders. That is why CPM Schedules have been reduced to expensive schedules of value (SOV), used only to foster invoices.

We have streamlined the updating process and can assist your staff by completing a valid CPM schedule update in only 2-4 hrs.

4.       Use the weekly updates to build and sustain trade momentum on-site. Facilitate an environment on-site that rewards participation. Seek out the most competent subcontractor foremen and owners, and ask for their insights, and suggestions for optimizing the building approach. Identify weak link subcontractors and provide them with additional attention, bolster their forces, strengthen your weakest links. There is no substitute for real leadership. Take responsibility. When it comes right down to it, building and sustaining momentum on-site requires building and sustaining trusted relationships. On a construction project, that starts with trade foreman in weekly scheduling / safety meetings.

There you have it – 4 steps to extraordinary project outcomes.  Are you thinking; if it was only that easy? I can tell you with certainty that it is.

I have  used these same strategies successfully, as both a superintendent and as a PM. Additionally, as a project controls consultant, I have used these same strategies to recover lagging and failing projects. So believe me when I say these strategies are not on trial. They are proven.

If your projects are not going smoothly, I am sure that you’re PM /CM teams are not following the four steps above. They probably did  not have a valid CPM baseline schedule to start with, and probably have not been updating (refining the CPM  schedule) weekly and using the CPM schedule to manage the project.

More likely, they are using to-do lists to manage complex projects and updating the CPM schedule, only to foster pay applications. That is the problem. It is a reoccurring problem. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Transformation requires change.

We can train your existing teams to follow the four steps outlined above. Installing those processes into your projects will transform your project outcomes. Don’t wait until you start new projects. The transformation has to start now. These strategies can be implemented at any project phase.  The best time to start is right now. You will see results immediately, you won’t have to be patient or even have faith. The proof will be on-site, and will be right away.

The twist is that advanced project controls cost nothing. In fact, they pay you. Consider that you spend 20, 40, 60, even 100% of your profit margin on constructive acceleration in the 4^th quarter in attempt to finish on time. Advanced project controls can be installed for a fraction of typical acceleration costs … not to mention additional overhead and penalty fees associated with late finishes.

The ripple effects of managing smooth projects are comprehensive and far reaching, as are the ripple effects of poor finishes. Imagine doubling your take home margin without increasing your forces. Imagine doubling your revenue with increasing your forces. I have seen companies do both, by embedding the four processes outlined above into their projects.

Yeah the schedule is there, but is it being used to manage the project?

When it comes to leading successful project outcomes, it really comes down to understanding project controls; creating and managing project costs and time schedules. Valid project controls requires two competencies to be effective. Yet most project managers / superintendents /construction managers / business owners responsible for managing projects miss this fundemental point.

If you want to produce successful project outcomes – you have to have someone on your team with the:

• Ability to design / develop / maintain a CPM schedule
• Ability to facilitate (or perform) the CPM schedule

If your thinking – no kidding, tell me something I don’t know … not so fast.

If the guy/gal that is building the cpm schedule does not thoroughly understand the building approach (and building systems involved) than he/she cannot effectively model it. If the schedule does not accurately model a valid approach to building the project – it will not be used to manage day to day activities onsite. Instead , it will be reduced to an expensive schedule of values (SOV).

If the schedule is not being updated weekly, it’s probably not accurate enough to use to manage the project. What good is a schedule that is 5, 10, 15, even 20 days off? What about about the logic? a schedule with poor logic can cause more harm than it does good for the project.

Remember, if the CPM schedule is not being used to manage the day to day work onsite, than you have a complex project being managed by a superintendent with a to-do list.

If you are managing your complex projects with to-do lists, you have systemic problems that will confine your staff’s ability to produce successful project outcomes. Intelligence is required to face this reality. Leadership is required to seek insight and transform the system.

CPM Schedules Corp. can help you with the leadership and insight requirements. We can train your current project management teams and install valid CPM Scheduling processes. We can also review and or create your baselines and perform your schedule updates until your project management teams are up to the task.

If you have current projects that are lagging or even failing; we can help you with those as well. Struggling projects never recover on there own. Recovery becomes harder and more expensive to fix – as more time passes.