Interface Management (IM) is a critical aspect of delivering significant capital projects, particularly those involving multiple project stakeholders (as referenced in the PMI-CP Interface Management e-learning course). Can you share any success stories from your experience with interface management and any lessons learned? Saving Changes...
In very large scale capital projects such as heavy manufacturing where there is very significant tooling involved, I have found that people often focus too much on the physical interfaces of the things being built. Successful plans also consider things like the timing of critical information exchanges including electrical and structural loads.
I have had some big wins by working with a few very knowledgeable people to identify all the major interfaces we can, using that to plan a set of structured meetings with the various stakeholders for identifying others. Once we have a detailed master list of team-to-team interfaces, we facilitated negotiating the timing for the detailed information exchanges, and then entered all of those into our project scheduling system for tracking. That provided a better early indicator if teams were working with insufficient information at the risk of significant rework. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Aung, I worked on mega construction projects were there were multiple interface points and two things I would recommend:
1) Assigning an Interface Coordinator. 2) Establishing an Interface Matrix.
Both are very much worth the investment, time and effort!
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1 reply by Evelyn Davila, PMP, PMI-CP
Apr 08, 2024 6:06 PM
Evelyn Davila, PMP, PMI-CP
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This is great, Rami. This is one of my favorite courses. So much thought went into preparing for handoffs! I did wonder who would be 'monitoring' them all. A coordinator makes sense!
The interface matrix Rami mentions is a very useful tool. You get a significantly more complete list of interfaces when you evaluate systematically group by group, than if you think of what interfaces come to mind.
It can even be used as a heat map and progress visualization. Every interface between groups gets a number. Red is identified but not negotiated and scheduled and perhaps scheduled but late.. Amber/Yellow is when the deliverable is scheduled. Green is deliverable complete. Clusters of color show areas of many interfaces. General color trends of the matrix shows progress.
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1 reply by Evelyn Davila, PMP, PMI-CP
Apr 08, 2024 6:09 PM
Evelyn Davila, PMP, PMI-CP
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Great ideas, Keith! I like the idea of numbering the interfaces and applying the Red/Yellow/Green. Very organized and who doesn't love a good visual?!
Aung, I worked on mega construction projects were there were multiple interface points and two things I would recommend:
1) Assigning an Interface Coordinator. 2) Establishing an Interface Matrix.
Both are very much worth the investment, time and effort!
This is great, Rami. This is one of my favorite courses. So much thought went into preparing for handoffs! I did wonder who would be 'monitoring' them all. A coordinator makes sense! Saving Changes...
The interface matrix Rami mentions is a very useful tool. You get a significantly more complete list of interfaces when you evaluate systematically group by group, than if you think of what interfaces come to mind.
It can even be used as a heat map and progress visualization. Every interface between groups gets a number. Red is identified but not negotiated and scheduled and perhaps scheduled but late.. Amber/Yellow is when the deliverable is scheduled. Green is deliverable complete. Clusters of color show areas of many interfaces. General color trends of the matrix shows progress.
Great ideas, Keith! I like the idea of numbering the interfaces and applying the Red/Yellow/Green. Very organized and who doesn't love a good visual?! Saving Changes...
Thanks, Keith and Rami, for your responses; I couldn't agree more.
Based on my personal experience, I have noticed that when there are multiple interfaces in a project, it can be challenging to keep everything under control. To manage all the interface issues, it would be beneficial to have an interface coordinator from each project or a centralized interface manager. This will help to ensure that everything is at least under control.
Thanks again for your contributions! Saving Changes...
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