Project Management View from Rail Transit Programs and Projects

This is Part 8 of a blog relating sections of Excellence In Engineering by W.H. Roadstrum, 1967, with Project Management Institute’s Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK).

Remembering “Engineering work is project work”, Roadstrum carries this theme throughout the book.   As a result, Chapter 14-The Project Engineer can be applied equally to current day project management and the Project Manager.   

Before citing the good and poor practices for the project engineer, Roadstrum describes the role of project engineer, and his supervisor the unit manager.  

The unit manager’s function is to get the engineering work in his assigned area of responsibility done effectively on a continuous basis.   Describing the project engineer, Roadstrum writes, he supplies the people and other resources needed for the work.  He provides work for his people and meets the budget.  He hires and fires people, trains them, appraises them, and adjusts their salaries.  He forms projects and project teams and provides them with support and guidance.

The project engineer’s function is to execute the assigned project on time and within the budget, and with excellent technical results.   He is the leader of his men on the project and he is devoted entirely to getting the project done through administrative ability and team leadership and B) his own outstanding technical understanding and efforts. 

Good Practices for the Project Engineer

1.The unit manager with overall responsibility for the project assigns a project engineer; together they work out the manpower and other resources and support requirements.

2.The project engineer sets down on paper, with manager’s approval, the specific project goals, and the resources to be used, including the funds and time.

3.The project engineer operates the project in such a way that essentially all professional contributors are aware of every important development or problem on a daily basis.

4.The project engineer keeps himself current on all aspects of his project so that he is ready at any time to explain where the project is technically, financially, and schedule-wise.

5.The project engineer uses to the maximum possible extent the resources and support available to him and his people.

6.The project engineer acts as the principal writer and editor of major project reports.

Poor Practices for the Project Engineer

1.The unit manager assigns no project engineer or assigns one on an inadequate part-time basis.

2.The unit manager assigns a “technical” project leader with no responsibility for project administration.

3.The project engineer buries himself in one technical phase of the project to the detriment of the other necessary aspects and of his overall integrating role.

4.The unit manager assigns a nominal project engineer but then runs the project himself.

5.The project engineer allows such friction to develop between his immediate group and other interested groups (for example, production) that present and future progress of the project is hindered.

6.The project engineer delegates parts of the work to others and then fails to exercise the leadership needed to draw everything together for an excellent solution.

In PMBOK Chapter 1, the responsibility and roles of the project manager are very concisely described.  Section 1.7 states the project manager is the person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives.  

Section 1.7.1 summarizes the responsibilities of the project manager and the key factors for success.   The project manager is responsible to satisfy the needs: task needs, team needs and individual needs.   This requires project managers to possess and demonstrate:

• Comprehensive knowledge of project management
• Effective performance of activities encompassing all project management knowledge areas
• Superior personal interaction skills and proactive behavior with all project participants.

The interpersonal skills expected from successful project managers are:

• Leadership
• Team building
• Motivation
• Communication
• Influencing
• Decision making
• Political and cultural awareness
• Negotiations
• Trust building
• Conflict management
• Coaching

This blog will cover sections of Excellence In Engineering by W.H. Roadstrum, 1967, and relate them to Project Management Institute’s Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK).

In Chapter 4 of Excellence In Engineering, Roadstrum covers Scheduling, Monitoring and Controlling processes and practices project work.    While Part 5 and Part 6 of this blog series presented Scheduling and Monitoring, this blog will cover the Controlling element.

From a project perspective, the controlling process is initiated after the baseline schedule is prepared and the processes and practices for monitoring project activities and progress to the baseline are implemented by the project team.   Similar to controlling contract change orders, changes to the schedule need to be identified, confirmed, evaluated for effectiveness and then implemented to create a new baseline for monitoring work. 

Near the end of the Chapter, Roadstrum summarizes: 

Good Engineering Practices for Controlling

1.Take early corrective action where needed.

2.Balance project effort on all needed phases.

3.Watch continually for places where the effort can be reduced.

4.Make changes early rather than late.

Poor Engineering Practices for Controlling

1.Mistake “scheduling” for “control.”  Fail to monitor or to take needed action.

2.Overemphasize certain areas to the detriment of overall cost and schedule.

3.Failing to make controlling changes in time.

The development and use of scheduling software has enabled project teams to more effectively and efficiently monitor project work by providing automated analysis of critical schedule metrics to produce numerous reports for earned value, changes in critical activities, and production and performance indexes.    

PMBOK Chapter 6-Section 6.7.2 identifies tools and techniques for Control Schedule, including:

• Trend Analysis – This examines metrics comparing actual progress and expenses against past performance and available unit cost/production rates for the project estimate.
• Critical Path Method – This examines activities on the critical path to assess early or late completion of work and to identify threats or opportunities for schedule adjustments.
• Critical Chain Method – This examines resources allocations planned and actual to assess production rates, to forecast for activity completions and to identify adjustments in resources that may improve the schedule.
• Earned Value Management – Based on the earned value, this compares schedule and cost of planned work with the budget value of work completed.   The ratios for cost and schedule produce performance indexes (CPI=EV/Actual Cost; and SPI=EV/Planned Value. )

The controlling process encompasses documenting the rationale for the schedule action, and provides feedback to produce and share Lessons Learned on other projects.   The schedule software output can be used to explain variances, produce a record to initiate a schedule change, and to document the expected results from implementing the changes in the baseline schedule.   

This blog will cover sections of Excellence In Engineering by W.H. Roadstrum, 1967, and relate them to Project Management Institute’s Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK).

In Chapter 4 of Excellence In Engineering, Roadstrum identifies Project Controls as three elements – Scheduling, Monitoring and Controlling.   As discussed in Part 5, the first of three elements of Project Controls was presented – Scheduling.   In this Part, the Monitoring practices will be highlighted.   

As I have learned through a career in project management, keeping the team focused on the project vision, mission, objective, and benefits, which are identified and committed to through the Project Charter, is an essential function of the project leader.   But an equally important part of the business of project management is to advise the team on performance to project metrics. 

 Roadstrum builds on the work flow and scheduling practices to define the practices for monitoring the baseline schedule within established milestones, dates and goals.

Good Engineering Practices for Monitoring

1. Follow and monitor performance (time, cost, technical progress) on a regular basis.

2. Include all contributors in the monitoring process so they are also “self-monitoring”.

3. Plan at least general alternatives for each principal contingency.

4. Keep the goal and its broad alternatives clearly in mind.

Poor Engineering Practices for Monitoring

1. Because of preoccupation with novel and challenging areas of the project, allow unmonitored tasks to run far off schedule.

2. Because of failure to identify critical items, do not follow these or provide alternatives.

3. Wait for other people or the turn of events.Raise no questions on schedule progress until critical deadlines have been missed.

4. Mistake proper rate of expenditures for adherence to technical schedule.

5. Allow an old schedule to become so outdated as to be useless.

PMBOK – Fifth Edition Chapter 6, regarding Project Time Management, covers scheduling and schedule control tools and techniques common for monitoring of the project schedule, and the respective performance indicator (s), which are shared across schedules and estimates under the project controls function.

Section 6.6.2 identifies tools and techniques for monitoring and updating project schedules using subject matter expertise and software.    The project team can make improvements in achieving scheduled dates, planned progress goals, and in creating recovery plans for projects with poor performance indicators.    The actions may be created by several means:

• Network Analysis – This involves showing where various activities converge or diverge with dependent activities.

• Critical Path Method - This involves using the predecessor and successor connections with activities where the estimated duration has fixed start and end dates and contingency in scheduled duration with other activities.  

• Critical Chain Method - This involves using buffers in activity durations to account for limited resources.

• Resource Optimization – This involves using resource leveling and resource smoothing to adjust the duration of activities and align with available resources.

• Modeling  - This involves  conducting trial and error changes to the baseline to detect potential schedule risks and to improve schedule efficiency and production effectiveness.

• Leads and Lags - This involves adjusting the activity relations, such as start-to-start, finish-to- start, and finish-to-finish, to establish modified connections in the predecessor/successor relationship, such as start Task B 60 days prior to finish of Task A.

• Schedule Compression - This involves  Crashing - shortening activity duration with corresponding increases in resources, and Fast Tracking - re-sequencing work activities to increase overall progress rate and to shorten the project duration.

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.

This is Part 4 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 design and construction project experience covered a full-spectrum of scope in the transportation industry including diesel locomotive procurement, rolling stock retrofits, abatement and remediation, control centers, signal and communications systems, power systems, and joint projects with Amtrak and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.   

In Excellence In Engineering Chapter 6, Roadstrum writes about engineers solving problems as a standard process of engineering work.   Whether to ensure compliance with standards and codes or to create an extra-ordinary design to accommodate unique requirements, the engineer develops a standard approach for his work.

His approach can be conveniently broken down into six steps:

1. Define the problem.

2. List assumptions.

3. Consider available solution methods and select one or more.

4. Solve.

5. Check carefully, particularly the effect on assumptions on solution and vice versa.

6. Generalize and extend results.

In his book, Roadstrum  describes the Problem Solving process and the skills needed by engineers to succeed on projects and in their profession.    After “Be sure that your computer is your slave and not your master.” – the Chapter ends with the attributes for Problem Solving Practices:

Good Engineering Problem- Solving Practices

1. Recognize that the biggest part of an engineering problem situation is to decide what the problem, if any, is.

2. Look for the problem or problems involved in any situation that is out of the ordinary or disturbing.

3. By good judgment discover and attack problems at the right time-not before a solution is possible or useful, and not too late to reap maximum benefits from the solution.

4. Attack problems with a systematic approach.

5. Check problems to include a careful consideration of the effect of assumptions on the usefulness of the answer and the effect of the answer on the validity of the assumptions.

6. Solve problems by an iterative process which starts with an estimate and continues with successively more sophisticated solutions until the results required are obtained.

Poor Engineering Problem-Solving Practices

1. Confuse the scholastic examples used in teaching technology with real engineering problems, thus failing to recognize and attack a problem when it comes along.

2. Expect the boss to lay out the problem to be solved and to be satisfied with an academic answer.

3. Attack problems piecemeal, seeking only such information as is essential at the moment.

4. Neglect to make clear the assumptions under which the problem is solved, and to consider the effect of the assumptions in checking.

5. Fail to extend and generalize on the solution.

6. Assume that there is only one solution to a given engineering problem or one set method to attack it.

7. Use solution methods with far greater accuracy than is required or than is justified by the kind of data available.

8. Assume that an engineering career consists of looking for the types of problems that one has been trained to solve.

PMBOK -Fifth Edition also provided some guidance on decision making.

PMBOK Section 2.2.2:  Project Governance framework provides the project manager and team with structure, processes, decision making models and tools for managing the project, while supporting and controlling the project for successful delivery.

PMBOK Section 9.4.2.4:  Effective Decision Making.  This involves the ability to negotiate and influence the organization and the project management team.  Some of the guidelines for decision making include:

• Focus on goals to be served,
• Follow a decision-making process,
• Study the environmental factors,
• Analyze available information,
• Develop personal qualities of the team members,
• Stimulate team creativity, and
• Manage risk.

In PMBOK Appendix A1.6- Executing Process  Group, references the process for monitoring project metrics, developing corrective actions for variances, and for analyzing and implementing changes to improve project results.    During project execution, results may require planning and updates and rebaselining.   This can include changes to expected activity durations, changes in resource productivity and availability, and unanticipated risks.  Such variances may affect the project management plan or project documents and may require detailed analysis and development of appropriate project management responses.

PMBOK Appendix A1.6.5 regarding the process for managing the Project Team.    Manage Project Team is the process of tracking team member performance, providing feedback, resolving issues, and managing team changes to optimize project performance.    The inputs and outputs are: