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PRODUCTIVITY SERIES REVIEW (reissued)

October 8, 2011 By

Project Professionals blog had a series of posts earlier this year.   Over the next several weeks, the intention is to add to this popular series.  This summary was posted in June.  Since June, the number of readers has increased significantly.  Consequently, we are reissuing this post as a kickoff and restart of the labor/labour productivity series.

Productivity has become a hot topic and has given rise to much discussion and debate in the project management world.  Labor productivity can be a competitive advantage or a managerial disaster.  Therefore, we believe that there is high potential benefit in a review of McLaughlin & McLaughlin’s Productivity Series.  Below, we have the titles and links to each post followed by a brief summary of the content.  We intend to augment these posts with additional writings on the subject.

 

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Claims, Featured, General, Productivity, Projects Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PROJECT MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES – Project Planning Lessons Learned (Part 9)

September 11, 2011 By

RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS

Project success and failure outcomes…  Planning the project properly, documenting the plan professionally and then implementing the plan successfully are likely the sources of most project success and failure outcomes.  Using best practices and learning from the experiences of others are effective methods for skill set development.  Many organizations that use project management on an ongoing basis close out projects with a compilation of “lessons learned.”  These firms have found value in studying the specific issues that have emerged in the past.

As part of the planning process, a review of relevant lessons learned can be instructive as well as a “sanity check” or completeness evaluation regarding the adequacy and comprehensive nature of your Project Management Plan.

This post continues the focus on issues in planning and problems that have their source or root cause in planning.  The subject is Resource Requirements.  In this regard, the post will focus on human resources or staffing.  This discussion is not focused on direct labor (e.g. construction craft labor, software engineering man-hours). [Read more…]

Filed Under: Claims, Featured, General, Projects Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

RESOURCE CENTER UPGRADE

September 7, 2011 By

The purpose of this post is to advise readers that the Project Professionals Resource Center feature or page has been upgraded.  Please visit this useful page and familiarize yourself with the content.  Please visit the Resource Links page which provides links to useful industry tools and resources.  The pages were derived from years of frustration searching for reliable, substantiated references.  So, the desires to share our choices are listed on the noted pages.

The Resource Center feature of this McLaughlin and McLaughlin [M&M] blog provides blog visitors with information and links to important and useful publications that relate to project management and dispute resolution in project work.

Recently, the Resource Center was upgraded to include several new publications, cite a new version of Mr. Pickavance’s book on delay and add some useful Resource Link updates. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Claims, Featured, General, Projects, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PROJECT MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES – Project Planning Lessons Learned (Part 8)

August 29, 2011 By

STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT

Planning the project properly, documenting the plan professionally and then implementing the plan successfully are likely the sources of most project success and failure outcomes.  Using best practices and learning from the experiences of others are effective methods for skill set development.  Many organizations that use project management on an ongoing basis close out projects with a compilation of “lessons learned.” These firms have found value in studying the issues that have emerged in the past.

As part of the planning process, a review of relevant lessons learned can be instructive as well as a “sanity check” or completeness evaluation regarding the adequacy and comprehensive nature of your Project Management Plan.

This post continues the focus on issues in planning and problems that have their source or root cause in planning.  The subject is Stakeholder Management. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Claims, Featured, General, Projects Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PROJECT MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES – Project Planning Lessons Learned (Part 7)

July 30, 2011 By

Planning the project properly, documenting the plan professionally and then implementing the plan successfully are likely the sources of most project success and failure outcomes.  Learning from the experiences of others is an effective method for skill set development.  Many organizations that use project management on an ongoing basis close out projects with a compilation of “lessons learned.”  These firms have found value in studying the issues that have emerged in the past.

As part of the planning process, a review of relevant lessons learned can be instructive as well as a “sanity check” or completeness evaluation regarding the adequacy and comprehensive nature of your Project Management Plan.

This post continues the focus on issues in planning and problems that have their source or root cause in planning. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Claims, Featured, General, Projects Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PROJECT MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES – Project Planning Issues (Part 6)

July 25, 2011 By

Planning the project properly, documenting the plan professionally and then implementing the plan successfully are likely the source of most project success and failure outcomes.  While project planning is one of the most fundamental skill sets in project management, the requisite processes and actions are not well developed or successfully implemented.  There is value in the planning process and value in implementing a well documented plan.  This was discussed in the prior post in this Subject Series.

Learning from the experiences of others is an effective method for skill set development.  Many organizations that use project management on an ongoing basis close out projects with a compilation of “lessons learned.”  These firms have found value in studying the issues that have emerged in the past.

This and several following posts focus on issues in planning and problems that have their source or root cause in planning. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Claims, Featured, General, Projects Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PROJECT MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES – Project Management Plan (Part 5)

July 20, 2011 By

This post is the fifth in a series of discussions regarding current challenges being encountered in today’s project management.  More specifically, we have titled the series PROJECT MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES, since we intend to focus heavily on the managerial aspects of program / project management.  This post addresses the Project Management Plan [also known as Project Execution Plan, Project Plan and other titles].  The last post (Part 4) addressed the project planning process.

Authoritative information and guidance regarding project management comes from many sources.  A few that may be obvious include:

In order to frame and organize this topic, we are using the PMI Project Management Processes for a Project as presented in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide).

Many discussion groups and forums can be helpful.  These include AACE, PMI, LinkedIn and others. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Featured, General, Projects Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PROJECT MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES – Project Planning Process (Part 4)

July 15, 2011 By

This post is the fourth in a series of discussions regarding current challenges being encountered in today’s project management.  More specifically, we have titled the series PROJECT MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES, since we intend to focus heavily on the managerial aspects of program / project management.  This post addresses the project planning process.  This is a crucial challenge and the importance of this process cannot be overstated.

Authoritative information and guidance regarding project management comes from many sources.  A few that may be obvious include:

In order to frame and organize this topic, we are using the PMI Project Management Processes for a Project as presented in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide).

Many discussion groups and forums can be helpful.  These include AACE, PMI, LinkedIn and others. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Claims, Featured, General, Projects Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Owner Furnished (Supplied) / Free Issue Equipment and Materials

March 15, 2011 By

Introduction

Owner furnished (supplied) equipment (OFE), also known by other terms such as “free issue” presents unique planning and scheduling challenges.  The idea is that another party to the contract procures / orders and supplies equipment, material (even services, such as utilities or scaffolding) to the contractor.  The notion is that the contractor receives the equipment, goods or services and then erects, installs or otherwise uses these items.

The motivation for this type of arrangement can be one or more of several seemingly logical concepts.  Equipment with long lead times for fabrication and delivery may be ordered in advance of placing a contract for the equipment erection or installation.  Another motivation relates to cost savings.  Some believe ordering equipment and commodities (bulk materials) can be done by a general contractor or owner (owner, developer, employer) and thereby save a markup by a subcontractor.  In these cases, an interface is created between the ordering/procurement entity and the execution (engineering, erection, installation, fabrication, etc.) entity.  The creation of this interface becomes the issue. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Projects Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Project Management – Single Asset Owners

March 4, 2011 By

This post discusses unique project planning and management challenges associated with projects that are owned by single asset owners.  Examples include power plants, large commercial facilities and process plants.  These assets tend to be project financed using the single asset as collateral.  The financing typically relies on revenue generated from operation of the asset.  Hence, delays in achieving revenue generating status can be extremely problematic.   Our conclusions and recommendations are based on decades of experience with many such projects.

Introduction

Revenue generating facilities (e.g. power plants, chemical process facilities) are sometimes owned by a standalone entity.  The design, engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, startup and turnover of these plants and facilities can be particularly challenging for both owners and contractors.  The planning, scheduling and execution of these requires attention to some unique and compelling factors. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Projects Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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