MANAGING RISK OF DELAY – Managing Contractor Schedules (Part 13)

This McLaughlin & McLaughlin post is the thirteenth (13th) in a series  of discussions regarding various aspects of time management as it relates to the risk of delay.  This post addresses managerial considerations for dealing with schedules prepared by contractors and submitted to owners or their agents (construction managers, managing contractors, advisors, etc.).

Recently, Mr. Chris Carson authored an excellent article titledDealing with Contractors Schedules That Cannot be Approved.  This fine article was published in COST Engineering(September/October 2013).

This article contains excellent advice for project teams regarding schedule management.

Mr. Carson’s article is, in reality two articles in one.  While Mr. Carson’s article presents a methodology for problematic situations (which he calls DSAB), the preamble and initial discussion for this article is highly useful and applicable to project management teams as they address the frontend of project planning and execution.  This post summarizes the sage advice provided by Mr. Carson regarding frontend project management challenges as they relate to scheduling and time management. [Read more…]

MANAGING RISK OF DELAY – Progress Assessment (Part 11)

This post is the eleventh in a series of discussions regarding various aspects of time management as it relates to the risk of delay.  This post addresses planning for and implementing progress assessment.

Planning for and implementing progress assessment is, perhaps, one of the most important aspects of Time Management and, consequently, Managing Risk of Delay.  Timely (early) detection of trends (positive and negative) allows timely managerial action.  Timeliness of action is a heavy influence over the effectiveness of Time Management.  In project work, it is imperative that one finds problems quickly and fixes these problems rapidly.  In order to implement timely action, professional progress assessment is required.

The challenge associated with managing time is intensified in the case of larger and more complex projects as well as fast-track and high technology projects. [Read more…]

MANAGING RISK OF DELAY – Schedule Updates and Progress Considerations (Part 10)

This post is the tenth in a series of discussions regarding various aspects of time management as it relates to the risk of delay.  This post addresses planning for and implementing progress measurement and schedule updates.

The challenge associated with managing time is intensified in the case of larger and more complex projects as well as fast-track and high technology projects.

In order to professionally manage time (and, therefore, risk of delay) the manager must have a time baseline [typically a Critical Path Method schedule and a Performance Measurement Baseline – please see earlier posts on these topics] and a method to recognize variations from the baseline.  In order to detect variances, the managerial team must have an effective process to measure progress data and update the schedule (or time model). [Read more…]