Good Practices for Continuous Improvement in Management Tools on Rail Transit Projects

 

S.R. Covey’s Habit 2 from The Habits of Highly Effective People is -  Begin With the End In Mind.   This habit in personal effectiveness can be equally applied to project management inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs. 

For an experienced rail transit project professional, the path to the project success can appear very obvious.  However project professionals with less experience, and lesser familiarity with the business responsibilities of an Owner in the transport industry, may not recognize the connections between project management silos, the needed coordination with adjacent projects, or the Owner’s managerial approaches, decision making and performance metrics.  

Due to the scope, size and complexity of mega projects, many construction managers and project management consultants supplement services with software tools to manage the volume of records and knowledge created by contracts.   Some project management software tools allow project professionals to separate management functions into silos and segregate the silos for efficiency in executing project processes and deliverables driven by established performance metrics.   While this may help to organize the project work, responsibilities and personnel assignments, and to expedite production, it will need to be aligned with the Owner’s means, methods, organizational operating assets and processes used for the transport business.   

Project Management Institute’s – Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMI-PMBOK) reminds project managers that the project is a temporary endeavor, and as so, project managers need to adapt and effectively use the organizations existing business structures, organizational process assets and organizational business systems.   Following the life cycle of processes, the integration management by the Project Manger (PM) consists of:

• Develop Project Charter
• Develop the Project Management Plan
• Direct and Manage the Project Work
• Manage Project Knowledge
• Monitor and Control Project Work
• Perform Integrated Change Control
• Close Project or Phase

In some software tools, the management functions include design, construction, safety, quality, commercial, operations, outreach and safety/security.   And the technical reviewer assignments are separated into broad scopes of expertise, such as civil and structures, track and systems, stations and garages, commercial, and safety and security.  The software can also allow for delegation to other reviewers as well as to the Owner’s technical representatives with organizational responsibility for the scope that is the subject of the submitted documents.   Based on the typical rail transit organization, this can create overlaps as well as gaps in resources to handle a large volume of work.  

Keep the End In Mind – All the project records and knowledge created by the PM, contractor and construction manager will be transferred to the rail transit company/Owner

In rail transit organizations, work on fixed assets is separated into track, power, communications and signals, and bridges, buildings and facilities.   Unless the software tools can be adapted to best align with the Owner’s organization and be accessible for all reviewers, the entire contract submittal and deliverables review processes will become more complex than intended as cross functions are determined or missed.  This may require unbudgeted resources to correct and make the process efficient and to assure the knowledge is usable for the Owner’s organization.   

Essentials for maximizing benefits from software tools:

• Administrators/Document Control Managers must be familiar with rail transit organization structures, division of work and the technical expertise within management silos
• Assigned leads using the software tools must understand their role as well as the scope jurisdiction of support staff for delegating reviews
• All reviewers must have direct access to the software tool and the digitized project documents
• All support reviewers must have dedicated hours to accomplish the assigned workload within performance criteria
• Coding and labeling of documents must align with the organization’s system for storing and retrieving project records.

Introducing the organization to the software tools used by consultants and contractors requires an understanding of the rail transit operating structure, division of responsibilities, labor jurisdictions for work, and how it fits into the established groupings of technical experts. 

The civil and structure scope encompasses facilities, buildings and bridges that support rail transit infrastructure such as employee facilities, station buildings, platforms, parking areas, signage, fire protection, vertical transport, landscaping, and safety and security.  This infrastructure directly and indirectly supports and integrates with the operation of rail transit systems contained in the track and systems.

The track scope encompasses constructing track, track foundation, sub-ballast and ballast and special trackwork, such as switches that form interlockings for crossing trains from one track to another.   The systems’ scope, which is significantly larger and involves more complex technology, encompasses constructing equipment and interconnecting infrastructure forming assets for operations including communications, signal, power, supervisory control, operation center integration, security, fire protection and passenger information.  

The stations scope encompasses constructing buildings and waiting rooms, platforms and shelters, pedestrian overpasses and elevators, grade level parking, passenger information systems, and plazas, seating, walkways and landscaping.   The garage scope encompasses constructing multi-level parking, administrative offices, employee and equipment rooms, signage, fare collection, and landscaping.  

The safety scope encompasses constructing assets to mitigate job hazards and monitoring the means and methods used by consultants and contractors in performing the project work.   The security scope encompasses constructing assets with appropriate features, such as CCTV, intrusions alarms, structural barriers and hardening, to address threats and vulnerabilities from potential exposure to political and cultural environment in the area. 

Keep the End In Mind – PM's execution and delivery of assets and records must satisfy the rail transit company/Owner

The fixed assets in the rail transit projects are constructed, operated and maintained to support the operation of rolling stock, especially passenger cars and locomotives, for the movement of passengers between departing and destination train stations.  The fixed infrastructure and the rolling stock are interdependent to each other for moving customers safely, efficiently and comfortably, while meeting expectations for security, reliability and on-time performance.     

Good Practices for PMs to Improve Managerial Performance:

• Monitor and assess the quality of transactions from using the Document Control and  Project Management software tools, and undertake actions for improvements
• Review, identify improvements and actions based on published monthly, periodic and adhoc reports from Project Management Office (PMO), Consultant(s), Contractor(s), Oversight Consultant(s) and independent advocacy experts 
• Conduct and document monthly PMO/Project Quality Management System meetings
• Conduct and document monthly PMO performance meetings with the Owner
• Evaluate Lessons Learned for edits/improvements to existing Plans, Procedures/and Requirements
• Update/reaffirm Project Plans/Procedures on a semi annual or annual basis
• Monitor and undertake actions on recurring Non-Conformance Reports issued under the Quality Program.

TIP:   PMOs and Project Managers should continuously monitor processes and procedures, address inefficiencies, and reduce complexities that create avoidable delays in progress to production metrics and shortfalls in quality to requirements. 

TIP:   The quality of labeling and coding on contract submittals and deliverables directly influences the success for storing, searching and retrieving project records.   

TIP:   A comprehensive list of reviewers by technical scope should be consistently used to create primary and secondary assignments and work flows for commenting on the project documents.    

TIP:   Secondary assignments should include reviewers with technical jurisdiction on interdependent work and interfaces to the primary scope in the project documents.

TIP:   Document Control should monitor submittal content for correct titling and numbering convention to maintain threads on sequential iterations of documents from comment reviews and revision control on adjustments from new information during progress or changes in design and construction.