June 11, 1997

Don't wait for a fire to build a fire station

By CLIVE SHEARER
Special to the Journal

The traditional approach to project planning and execution is to allow past experience to dominate. (If we did it that way before, we will do it that way again). Let's look at a typical approach, one which provides ample opportunities for failure.

Rough concepts are prepared and a scheme laid out. Contingency ranges are small and often inadequate. Alternatives are developed without rigorous thought based upon the random creative instincts of the project manager.

While the owner's preferences are developed into a scope, the end use vision is rarely tackled.

This is especially true for translating the project owner's grand scheme of the business or operation several years after completion.

Once the project is under way, the disciplines work in relative isolation, very often feeding on "best estimates" and old information. For example, the owner's project manager may be sharing information with you at the same time as the board of directors are meeting in another city to change plans. Or a prime consultant may be giving information about a change to a consultant, while another discipline whose work will also be affected, carries on blissfully unaware until days or even weeks later when someone mentions the change. This occurs because everyone else thought that everyone else would let everyone else know. And this occurs because there is no structure or mechanism in place to know who knows what and what they know.

The downsides to this approach are many. The optimum design may not be selected. Uncertainties may not be limited or even identified. Decisions may not be made using the correct assumptions and good judgment may be clouded by emotion. There may be no link between the uncertainties and the contingencies. The owner's hidden agenda may not be incorporated into the scope, because somehow the project drifted and "got away" from the owner's wishes, or because not enough time was spent with the owner to uncover those wishes. Interdiscipline coordination is traditionally unoptimized and optimum problem solving techniques are usually not utilized.

There are several things that the forward-thinking office can do to get a project off to a better start and keep it on track.

1. Institute a consistently objective method for gathering owner's input and translating it reliably into the scope, together with a weighting tool for the owner to balance factors such as cost, function and maintenance. There are both tangible and intangible benefits from spending this extra time with the owner at project inception. Remember, this is the time when owners are usually most accessible.

2. Evaluate potential problems during planning and put contingency mitigation steps into effect. This means not waiting for the fire to start before building your fire station.

3. Evaluate alternatives more rationally, reviewing design parameters in the form of ranges with the client. Screen data to check accuracy and precision.

4. Start investigation into extranet document coordination and transfer using custom software and e-mail attachments. This will include having all project documentation on-line, including memos, minutes, letters and scopes. Access will be controlled by a hierarchy of passwords, changing project-by-project. This is the wave of the future, so you may as well look into it now.

5. Implement a risk identification and assessment process. Risks for each task in the scope need to be known, ranked and evaluated.

   It is a comparatively small effort to implement a rational approach to planning and execution. It is a comparatively large effort to get project managers to consistently use it, but then project managers usually take their cues from their leaders, so it is the upper echelon who will set the pace.

   
   

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   Clive Shearer is a professional trainer, educator and retreat facilitator and can be reached at cgb9@yahoo.com

   
   

   Previous columns:

   • Four reasons to stay with the firm -- or to leave, 05-14-1997
   • THE DETERIORATION OF SYSTEMS OVER TIME, 03-12-1997
   • FOLLOW UPS CAN MAKE OR BREAK A BUSINESS, 02-12-1997
   • LEARNING THE RULES OF THE GAME, 01-08-1997
   • 1997 REGIONAL ECONOMIC FORCAST, 12-11-1996
   • BEWARE THE LURE OF MISSION STATEMENTS, 09-11-1996
   • PHONE ETIQUITTE FOR THE CONSULTANT, 08-15-1996
   • ESTABLISHING CLIENT TRUST TAKES BIG, SMALL COMMITTMENT, 07-10-1996