On time and on budget. This is the on time part.
There isn’t just one schedule. The design tream and the contractor will each have their own detailed schedule. Your project manager should combine them into an overall project schedule that allows them to drive the overall process and to insure that deadlines are met and problems are resolved.
When you’re faced with a years long process, it’s sometimes hard to generate a feeling of urgency among team members. Don Young, a fellow project manager, says his job isn’t done until people are acting like their hair is on fire. You generate urgency by establishing many short term deadlines and getting buy-in from all team members.
One thing is for sure, you never get back any day that you waste early in the project.
Here are the basic elements of successful schedule management
- Allow time for your decision making process – The project manager needs to understand your process. This is the most often neglected element on a schedule. How your organization makes decsions, how streamlined or cumbersome that process is, aside from any formal process, who wields the power— all these things need to be incorporated into the schedule.
- Include every task – Most schedules include the work of the primary design team and contractor but there are also a host of other engineers and consultants, other vendors both part of the design team and those directly contracted by the owner. There are also utility providers and government agencies. To construct a schedule, imagine the sequnce of events by every actor in the process, and how they depend on each other. That needs to be included in the schedule.
- Utilize scheduling software – This is the only way to interrelate scores or hundreds of tasks and milestones. This software provides multiple ways to present your project. Build the schedule in detail, then it can be summarized in various ways for different audiences. If your schedule isn’t easy to update, it won’t be updated. As a place to start, I recommend trying Smartsheet. It’s easy and intuitive to learn and use, very functional and reasonably priced.
- Understand Risk – Accept that there is risk in most tasks and build it into the schedule. Include contingency/float. If you have a non-negotiable deadline, build in a lot of float. Finding the balance between the best case or the worst case schedule is the art. As the owner, don’t be passive. You need to participate in these discussions.
- Get Buy-in – Everybody on the team, including the owner, should collaborate in developing the schedule and then commit to their part. If you start to see a pattern of missed deadlines, you should intervene.
- Reactive and Proactive – During much of the design and construction phases, the owner takes a more reactive role with the design team and then the contractor driving the project. You will, however, need to be actively involved, driving activities such as program development, staff planning, finance or capital campaigns, and IT and special systems planning. Having this work done in a timely manner is critical to the progress of the project. This proactive role becomes more critical as you near the end of the construction. You will need to coordinate your own work relating to staffing, move logistics, and contracting with various vendors and service providers. You may enlist your project manager for their schedjuling expertise but it’s up to you to define a workable plan.
Follow the link to:
Sample Schedules