Archive for the 'project planning' Category

Istarted mind mapping in the mid '80s. It was part of a program at my company to accelerate our learning. It was coupled with a speed reading program and rapid recall training. For the most part, all three stuck. But it's mind mapping that has been most useful over 20 years later.

Tony Buzan introduced the world to mind mapping. Essentially, it's an association technique for taking notes or collecting thoughts in a word-art fashion. Ideas are linked one-to-the-other making associations. According to Buzan, and in my experience, mind mapping increases your recall and helps make surprising connections of otherwise seemingly unrelated ideas. It is a great approach to use for planning, in preparation for innovation, and when in the midst of doing something creative.

Read the rest of this entry ¶

There's nothing like learning-in-action.¹. We just finished our planning session for our development project. I was surprised by how much time we spent defining what it meant to be done. In the LPS world we call that establishing conditions of satisfaction. But we struggle to get team members to stay in that conversation. "Just tell me what you want!" The ScrumMaster wouldn't let us move on 'til he confirmed that the whole team understood what would satisfy the Product Owner.

I'm looking forward to comprehending!

Towards the end of today's session, I noticed that our ScrumMaster frequently said, "We'll inspect and adapt." (He said it before we started the planning. I just hadn't noticed.) "Of course," I thought. The future is uncertain and unknowable. That's just what we do on (LPS) projects. But I also know it's not what is usually done on CPM-style projects. Conventional wisdom (and scheduling software) guides people to put a plan in place and stick to it. The result is project managers often try to get reality to match their plan. Doesn't work. Never did.

Read the rest of this entry ¶

1. Chris Argyris claims it's the primary way we learn. See his book Knowledge for Action. [ ⇑ back ]

Why would a lean projects guy hire a Scrum software development ScrumMaster? Short answer: it seemed like a good idea at the time. Seriously, I'm doing some work for an architectural engineering firm. The company focuses on designing technically sophisticated manufacturing facilities. We are developing for them a responsibility-based planning approach. It's starting out as a Scrum adaptation of the Last Planner System® (LPS). I thought…what better way to understand how Scrum can inform the changes to LPS than to perform our own development effort as a Scrum project.

Read the rest of this entry ¶

Hard to imagine in the world of projects that anyone would ask the question "Why do deadlines matter?" However, in the world of politics and world conflicts the argument is front and center. We learned this week, President Bush just won his battle with the Democrats in Congress. There will be no deadlines in the funding bill for the war in Iraq. To my surprise, I opened the June issue of Business 2.0 turning to Jeffrey Pfeffer, Professor, Stanford University, to see his essay Why Deadlines Matter. Read the rest of this entry ¶

Our everyday speaking gets in the way of better planning. This weekend I was listening to Tim Russert interview Presidential Spokesman Tony Snow on Meet the Press. Tim asked Tony about the plan for winning the war in Iraq. The question inferred that something went terribly wrong. Tony replied,

"I'm not sure anything went wrong. Battle plans don't live beyond the first encounter with the enemy."

Tony went on to say that like most of life we can't anticipate the future…no amount of planning can change that. Tony is right about that. The future is uncertain and unknowable. Grasping that fact is a key to better planning. Read the rest of this entry ¶

Yesterday I made a posting "On the Side" calling attention to The PM Toolbox's follow-up to my work on Gantt charts. Well, it turns out The PM Toolbox was just republishing someone else's work. And they did it without any obvious credit to the author. (They included a link at the very end of the article using the word "source" rather than the author's name or website name.) Glen Alleman is the author of that fine essay. His writing, appearing in Herding Cats, is a very thoughtful and provocative essay. Have a look at Visiting Gantt Again.

I've removed my original posting. And, you won't be seeing any more links in this weblog to the offending site until they start giving due credit and writing their own material.

Previous in series

Project constituents always have two big questions:

1. How is the project going?
2. When will we finish?

While the Gantt chart doesn't answer those two questions, it is a great conversation starter. The Gantt chart sets the context for engaging others to shape assessments about the project. A Gantt view quickly conveys a whole perspective — high level — of the work required and the work accomplished. Speaking with a Gantt helps you collect the attention of the people in the room. It is a prop for bringing focus to the project while aiding the participants to put aside their coming-in concerns. By the way, people expect to see a Gantt chart. Starting a project review or planning update without one might distract your participants.

The purpose of planning is getting that work done that should be done.

But you'll need more than the conversation starter if you intend to answer the two big questions. You'll also want to know how good your planning is. There are three easy-to-calculate measures of planning effectiveness (reliability). They are

Read the rest of this entry ¶

Previous in series Next in series

The readers' comments on my last two day's postings on Gantt charts have helped me get my thoughts together for a longer up-coming project tip. In the meantime, I'll share these thoughts.

Gantt charts are snapshots of the state of a project. They leave open to interpretation the basic question everyone has about projects, "How is the project going?" The question requires an opinion. A snapshot is a poor basis for an opinion. We want to look across time to provide grounding for an assessment.

People can read a Gantt chart without training.

Progress updates on Gantt charts are misleading. The second question everyone asks is, "When will the project finish?" While done might mean "done", 60% complete doesn't tell you anything about how much time is required to finish the other 40%. If it were just one activity that was 60% complete we might have some idea about the impacts to other activities. As soon as there are more than one activity in a state of Read the rest of this entry ¶

Previous in series Next in series

I'm preparing to write another e-Tip on Gantt charts. (I know, it's been quite some time since my last e-Tip.) The Agilists and the Leanies don't use Gantt charts for planning, managing, or controlling their projects. Yesterday, I asked, What Has the Gantt Chart Done for You Lately? Chet and Jerry both left comments saying they see value in using Gantt charts for communicating overall project status, particularly up the organization. I'd also like to know,

"How are Gantt charts being used to brief the project team?"

A Gantt chart can provide a contextual view of the project.

I have the sense that a Gantt chart can provide a contextual view of the project. At the same time, I've been working on some big projects — power station construction — where the only briefing of the project team is done verbally. How do you see Gantt charts could be used to keep a team focused on the project?

Previous in series Next in series

Almost every project has a Gantt chart, but what is it doing for you? I ask the question with a sincere interest in how projects are better managed with Gantt charts. Is it a visual thing? Does it help you to steer the project? How does it aid you to stay in control? Alternatively, are their other tools that you rely on to manage your projects? Please leave your comments.

Previous in series Next in series

Some people think that construction safety is a matter of establishing safety as a value. If people value safety, those people argue, then workers will work safely. While that might be true, we don't have time for that. It can take years to establish a value for anything. The task of producing the value for safety becomes more difficult with new people always being introduced to the construction environment. We need to improve safety immediately. And we can.

While most planning approaches define what should be done that is insufficient to assure work will be done.

In the previous post in this series I said we need to follow the rule to only do work that is in a condition to be started and finished. But how do we do that without impacting productivity? Working to the safety rule is supported by a process for making work ready.

Making work ready — including all aspects for working safely — is an aspect of the planning system. While most planning approaches define what should be done that is insufficient to assure work will be done. Read the rest of this entry ¶

Previous in series

Construction safety has to improve. Fast. But it hasn't. Not in over 15 years. About 1,200 people have been dying on construction sites each of those 15 years in the United States. An average of 4 deaths each workday. One thing that has changed in those 15 years is that now Latinos make up a disproportionate number of those deaths. And many more are injured every day.

All it takes is a planning process for making work ready.

The basic approach to safety has only changed slightly. At OSHA's instigation, safety promotion — usually practiced as sloganeering coupled with rewards and punishment — has been supplemented with an increased attention on education. Some companies have benefited from it. However, even the relatively safe firms have a way to go. I won't write a long essay on this. I just want to share one action we can immediately adopt that will make construction sites far safer. And there is data to support it.

Read the rest of this entry ¶

Next in series

Is project management even possible? David Schmaltz thinks not. He writes Why Project Managers Can't Manage Projects. Just read it…please…for your sake. It's Pure Schmaltz!

It wasn't a happy time for Johanna Rothman this week. She hurt herself in the kitchen making tea. She needed to visit the ER for 4 stitches on her head. She seems to be all right. Typical of Johanna, the injury produced a project lesson, Unanticipated Events Screw Up Schedules. Reading only the subject I thought of the local paper reporting Dog Bites Man. I almost skipped her posting. Glad I didn't.

Always knowing where you'll find response capacity is critical to being able to keep your project commitments.

In the winter in the Northeast we can anticipate snow, sleet, and ice. We don't know exactly when it will occur, but except for the most unusual winters, we know we will incur weather that leads to delays. While we don't put snow "on the schedule", we can add a contingency for snow somewhere "in the plan".

Then there are events like needing 4 stitches that we don't anticipate. In some settings these unanticipated events can have serious impacts on our schedules. When deadlines are important contingencies become critical, especially when those deadlines are tight. Always knowing where you'll find response capacity is critical to being able to keep your project commitments.

Thanks Johanna for reminding us. And do be careful making tea.

Indonesian Contractors' Readiness towards Lean Construction

Muhamad Abdu and Hengki a Roza (Muhamad made this presentation via a Skype connection.)

Academia in Indonesia is leading the way to introduce lean construction. Indonesian firms have the same problems in construction as found elsewhere: late projects, high waste, breaking budgets, rework, etc. Lean construction has been identified as the means to address this. Like other countries, Indonesians are showing some hesitance towards adopting lean.

Use the survey questions to gauge your own readiness for lean construction.

They are using an assessment tool coupled with a relationship map to make their assessments. They performed a case study involving 3 major ISO 9000 certified contractors. They are interested to gauge how contractors' current efforts in four major areas influenced their readiness to adopt lean approaches. Those areas are:

• Reducing Cycle Time
• Reducing Variability
• Increasing Transparency
• Continuous Improvement

In these firms they found a high adoption of continuous improvement practices, yet they showed a lower level of familiarity with reducing cycle time. From these assessments they made predictions about the challenges the firms would encounter when they adopt lean practices.

I found the study and approach to be a good way to assess a starting-off condition for the basis of an implementation approach.

Subcontractors have a different focus from contractors derived in part from working on multiple projects simultaneously rather than one at a time. The researchers used a computer simulation to examine resource allocation behaviors.

Subcontractor Resource Allocation in a MultiProject Environment

Michael Harel and Rafael Sacks

They performed a survey of 28 contractors and 29 subcontractors for the basis of establishing a better utility function than the inferred "win as much as you can" approach.

In only 55% of the cases did PMs enable subcontractors to work with effective crew sizes

Some of the findings:

• More than 48% of project managers admitted to exagerating resource requirements by at least 20%
• More than 75% of project managers assume a priori that Subs will bring less than 80% of the resources needed
• The average amount of work ready expected was only 60%
• 40% of PMs admit that contract price was the prime reason for selectin a subcontractor

• The researchers concluded that in only 55% of the cases did PMs enable subcontractors to work with effective crew sizes.
• Subcontractors adopt a defensive behavior of overbooking their resources while supplying fewer resources than demanded.

The survey results confirmed the original mistrust-exploit view of contractor-subcontractor behavior. PMs and Subs are more likely to play 'Win as Much as You Can' than not.

Lean concepts of establishing flow by pacing activity has made its way to construction.

Actions to Influence Continuous Flow

Jammara Rossi Bulhoes, et al (presented by Flavio Picchi)

Value stream mapping was adopted to identify components of inventory, levels of work in process, and delivery delays. Used the TPS house to shape an implementation approach for a large shopping plaza in Brazil. They started with standardized work.

Changing minds of engineers was the first challenge.

Engineers had a large batch mindset. "Talking to them about lean concepts — small batches and flow — was a great fight." Eventually they adopted a small batch approach that was paced (matched) to other work. They then brought a focus to reliability at every stage of activity. Buffers were established for rain delays. They also used a five why approach for the problems they incurred. Results:

• Cycle time reduced
• Waste reduced. Productivity was 2x the budget and 4x the reference case.
• Far more reliable workflow

Still, people thought that large batches might improve performance!

Unreliable or unexpected behavior of trade contractors in allocating resources is a major source of variation in construction. Last Planner® acts to reduce variability.

How Last Planner Motivates Subcontractors to Improve Plan Reliability

Rafael Sacks

Contractors are involved in multiple projects. They tend to optimize for their own benefit by sending workers to projects. Contractors are motivated by profits, cash flow, risk, and reputation.

Sharing information about reliability — PPC — changes the behavior and consequently the equilibrium state.

The starting case is a naive subcontractor who provides enough people for the work that is available. Clever subcontractors assess the reliability of the project manager to provide the work that was promised. Rafael modeled the behavior using game theory. He concludes from the model that subcontractors will provide fewer resources than requested and the project manager will ask for more than is needed. Neither has the knowledge of what the other is doing. This is the equilibrium case. The situation changes when they are using the Last Planner.

Sharing information about reliability — PPC — changes the behavior and consequently the equilibrium state. Both parties are more likely to ask for and provide for exactly what is needed.

• When plan reliability is made transparent by means of PPC
• Plan reliability continues to improve
• Honesty improves
• The entire project moves to a higher performing situation

Rafael concludes: use a pull approach and share reliability data. Only then will people become more trusting and trust-worthy.