Project Management View from Rail Transit Programs and Projects

Construction of buildings, building systems, infrastructure assets, and systems  in most industries, including rail transit, follow well established and repeatable means, methods, work sequences, and best practices to predict project cost and schedule outcomes.     In turn, this provides project teams critical input for repeating good practices, avoiding poor execution decisions and creating accurate deliverables containing quality data and metrics to monitor and measure project performance.

Estimators and Schedulers are specialists in using software tools to create deliverables and provide technical observations critical to effective planning, performance monitoring and decision making.   Most typically, they provide services and deliverables through a centralized Project Management Office and are assigned responsibilities to support multiple projects and various project participants.    While accountable to the PMO’s project control managers, they serve the needs and expectations of a much larger group of project participants.  

Their expertise supports:

• Strategic Planners:    Program and project development with estimated order of magnitude budgets, project duration, summary milestones and calendar relationship with other projects.
• Budget Analysts:   Analysis of project costs and operating and maintenance expenses, and financial plan and timelines for securing, allocating and distributing project funding.
• Contract Officers:    Contract bid estimates, change order estimates and contractor schedule review and claim analysis.
• Project Control Managers:  Project budget and schedule baselines, earned value calculation sand proposal for schedule/cost recovery.
• Project Managers:   Cost/schedule performance index reports, analysis to plan, and recommendations for improvement.
• Risk Managers:   Cost and schedule data supporting risk impacts, mitigation activities and response plans.

Developing estimates and schedules for project work, design and construction businesses apply historical data on other projects as well as the successful processes, new materials, and tools and equipment presented by industry leaders and advocates.   This allows the designers and contractors to continuously improve these deliverables using best practices for work execution, selecting the most efficient systems, equipment and materials, and to test, start-up and commission project products. 

There are industry handbooks to assist estimators and schedulers with guidance for creating the most complete and realistic deliverables to support project managers throughout the project life cycle.   However, the application of the handbooks requires a balanced approach that allows PMs, estimators and schedulers to make good judgments backed by results specific to the Owner’s experience. 

The format and content of deliverables is dependent on the Owner’s preferences or as defined by the Owner’s Project Management Office (PMO) for creating deliverables using software tools such as Timberline, MSProject, and Primavera.    Additionally, estimators and schedulers are usually uniquely qualified with working knowledge of estimating and scheduling standards and procedures, training in the Owner’s software tools, and have a work record that is dedicated to the profession of creating high quality estimates and schedules. 

Good Practices for Estimators and Schedulers

• Demonstrate familiarity with projects in the rail transit industry
• Establish processes and logic sequences for construction and system delivery
• Review actual expenses from Owner’s projects similar in scope and magnitude
• Conduct field visits to the project site and to completed project sites
• Chair development meetings with project team
• Review Lessoned Learned documents from successful and problematic projects
• Understand and explain interdependencies of project work
• Provide recommended solutions and alternatives for deliverable results that fall outside project limits

Good Practices for Estimate and Schedule Deliverables

• List all input documents, design level and data dates such as project charter, project management plan, project plans, contract documents.
• Reference and/or append all industry sources of data such as vendor quotes, and labor and productivity rates
• Itemize assumptions for work jurisdiction, contract packaging, procurement method, and contract delivery
• Describe the basis for cost and schedule contingency and risk allocations
• Identify critical interfaces between work packages and project milestones
• Specify typical crew size as reflected in labor agreements
• Provide contact information on the creator, checker and approver

TIP:    Retain working documents, including material take-offs, for future review to substantiate the deliverables.

TIP:    Provide separate line items in estimates and schedules for Contingency and Risk Reserves with responsibility designated to the project manager.

TIP:    Complement contingency and risk reserves with plans in the Project Management Plan for managing and distributing funding allocations at various project milestones or as needed to mitigate or respond to risk events.

TIP:    Create activities for track/power outages or services changes that support construction activities, and tie them with predecessor, successor, and concurrent activities.