Location, Location, Location

No, I am not talking about real estate, I’m referring to location of the project when it comes to project estimating. I was assembling an estimating module for one of my workshops and got into the factors used in estimating. This article will be about some of the factors we use and why. On a day to day basis we use factors for labour productivity. We also take a labour rate from one area and use a factor to get a rate for another area. For conceptual estimates, we may want to evaluate a project by comparing the installed cost... Read More»

Is This A Project Managers’ Favorite Task?

You know what task I’m talking about. Your project is up and running, you’re moving on to another project, gearing up, getting organized, motivated, excited about the new project, just can’t wait to get going, when the boss says, “Oh, by the way”. These are words no project manager wants to hear, but I digress. The boss comes in and says, “Oh, by the way, don’t forget, you have to close out your last project”. Talk about being deflated. Project closeout is the least enjoyable project task there is. It is boring, you’re not motivated, the other team members are... Read More»

A quick reminder: Agendas are important

Sometimes, I'll admit, I get a little lazy. No, "lazy" isn't the right word...it's more like I get a little too "comfortable." I'm comfortable with my project team; I'm comfortable with the work being done; I'm comfortable with our interactions; I'm comfortable with where we're headed; I'm comfortable with my own understanding of what's coming up and what we're supposed to be focused on; and I'm comfortable with my own ability to shoot from the hip. So sometimes, when I'm "comfortable," I come into meetings with an agenda in my mind, rather than published ahead of time. But just recently,... Read More»

Do You Always Under Estimate Your Projects?

I got a request the other day looking for someone to do a workshop on estimating. Some engineers were interested in what projects really cost and how are these costs developed. It sounded like they were doing the estimating and were always wrong. If you do not understand what goes into an estimate and the process involved you will always end up with a poor estimate. In this article I want to give them, and you, the detail that goes into an total installed cost (TIC) estimate for a complex project (multi-disciplined project). This is an estimate that covers the... Read More»

Project Profitability & Cash Flow

In this article I want to talk about project profitability and financial cash flow. This is not the monthly cash flow number you have to report to management, but the overall project financial cash flow and how it fits in with the capital budget and project profitability. The capital budget is a corporate plan outlining the planned expenditures for fixed assets. Capital budgeting is the process used by a plant to analyze projects and decide whether or not they should be in the capital budget. In the capital budgeting process, the cost of a project must be developed. The project... Read More»

Cut those bugs in half!

Recently I had a conversation with a friend that had had a very interesting question from a Manager during an interview. After I figured out the answer, I realized that the same concept can be used for finding defects in Project output, and that it is the most efficient way to narrow down failure in either code or process. Since I know you are all wondering, here is the question: You have 20 red marbles, all of which weigh the same except for 1 which is 1 ounce lighter. You only have a balance scale and you have to identify... Read More»

Vendor Data Requirements (continued)

In the last article I started a discussion on Vendor Data Requirements and their importance to your project. This is the vendor data you require with their proposal and later in the project should they be the successful bidder. In review, this document is typically used when purchasing equipment and outlines to the vendor exactly what information you expect him to include with his quote. In this article I will cover additional information that you should be asking for and why you need the information. Following are some additional data items typically required from a vendor ; 6. Transport As... Read More»

Introduction to Cumulative Flow Diagrams

I often hear of IT managers discussing their staffing woes and looking for ways to get budget for additional staff. In this episode I'll recount a fictitious (or so you think) conversation between a harried team leader and one of her Agile colleagues. Team Leader: We are completely overloaded, we keep falling more and more behind and quality is suffering. Agile Manager: How do you plan on resolving the situation? Team Leader: Well I've been telling management that we need more staff, but they don't seem to be listening. Agile Manager: Maybe they just have a hard time seeing the... Read More»

A Bit of a PM Pep Talk

I've recently been thinking about time Project schedules, budgeting and goals. I recently got into an interesting argument with another Project professional about being "on time", and some very interesting thoughts came out in the debate. If you think back to what we were once taught about goals, they were supposed to be "SMART" - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time sensitive. When you think about it, that's what our project plans and schedules are supposed to be - "SMART". Of course, we all want to be "on-time" and "on-budget", so we are under a fair amount of pressure to... Read More»

We Received The Wrong Equipment Again? Put A Stop To It.

What Does The Owner Want? As a consulting engineer we recently did a project where the specification called out asbestos gaskets. Knowing that asbestos has not been used for years in North America, plus the fact that a different project engineer, working for the same company, on another project did not want to use them, we assumed that this project engineer would do the same. We spent some time researching what was used in the past, made up a specification deviation (asbestos gaskets were still in their standards) and sent it to the owner. To our surprise he refused the... Read More»