Part 5 of 10-The Book that Most Impacted My Career-Excellence in Engineering

 

This is Part 5 of a blog about a book that most impacted my career - Excellence In Engineering by W.H. Roadstrum, 1967, and relates it to Project Management Institute’s Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK).

My work experience includes varying roles in managing projects and integrating the deliverables from Project Controls such as estimates, schedules, progress reports, financial reports, and project performance reports.   In all cases, the project team was responsible for the quality and implementation of the deliverables from Project Controls.   These deliverables were essential tools for the team to manage project performance to scope, schedule, budget, project objective, safety and quality goals, and customer expectations.  

The effectiveness of the tools is a function of the organizational assets that are inputs to Project Controls, and from which the project management office establishes requirements, processes and procedures to create, generate, measure and assess realistic project metrics.

In Excellence In Engineering-Chapter 4, Roadstrum emphasizes several points on Project Controls:

1. Good technical engineering work will be obscured (and can even be completely nullified) by poor administrative control.

2. Good technical work will not by itself control a project.A project can not control itself.It must be deliberately controlled by the project team, especially the project engineer.

3. Plan and schedule for almost every engineering project will change significantly during the work.

4. It is a surprisingly common belief among some groups of engineers that technical work can not be effectively controlled.This attitude prevails at times even in high places.Such a conviction sometimes reflects the influences of a manger who feels the same way, or of previous ones who did.

5. The idea that projects can not be effectively controlled is a self-fulfilling prophecy for the engineer who thinks this way.

6. From a business standpoint, company management naturally expects that technical work will be administered effectively.

Work flow for initial schedule development consists of:

1. Establish initial overall concept.

2. Determine critical factors in each area.

3. Specify all interface conditions and alternatives.

4. Establish estimates {for each of the activities.

5. Establish final configuration and make recommendations.

6. Complete proposal document and costing.

Good Engineering Practices for Scheduling

1. Schedule the whole project vat the outset.Recognize interdependence of parts.

2. Identify the critical items early.Keep a current list of them.

3. Seek out the best time and cost estimates available on critical items.

4. Modify and update schedule as needed.

5. Bring all contributors or contributing groups into the scheduling process.

Poor Engineering Practices for Scheduling

1. Make no schedule or only a trivial one.Never go into the critical detail which will determine the success of the project.

2. Fail to recognize the interdependencies in schedule.Schedule unrealistically.

3. Make schedules in too much detail.Include non-critical detail.

4. Select schedule milestones which are difficult to follow and assess.

Chapter 6, PMBOK-Fifth Edition provides some guidance on inputs and outputs for the schedule development and maintenance cycle.

In PMBOK Section  6.6.1, the inputs for an effective schedule include: 

• Activity list

• Activity attributes

• Logic ties between activities

• Interdependencies between work packages and other projects

• Enterprise factors, such as manpower and equipment

• Organizational assets and processes used by participants, including the contractor and client.

PMBOK Section 6.6.3.2 defines the product for Project Schedule, which is created using the input and expert knowledge of project staff and applying scheduling standards and tools defined in the Project Management and Scheduling Plans.    The section describes the project schedule as an output of a schedule model that presents linked activities with planned dates, durations, milestones, and resources.  At a minimum, the project schedule includes planned start date and finish date for each activity.