Everybody is responsible for Progress!

24 Mar Everybody is responsible for Progress!

Schedule update and progress report (as accurate as possible) is one of the key responsibilities of the Project Control & planning team. To some individuals, the progress reports mean nothing and for them it is either the project is not completed (0%) or Completed (100%). On the contrary, to many, the schedule update and progress provide much more info/insight than a number only about the project. Also, the data could be used on many types of analysis that would be useful to the PM in making appropriate and accurate decisions. Here are some of the practices for schedule and progress reports:

1- The planner requests the team to give progress figures for each activity, as well as the Start and Finish dates. He/she only types the given data into the software. In this practice, generally, the schedule is not resource loaded and the planner uses Duration% complete then reports the calculated overall progress to PM! He/she has no clue what the basis of the summary level progress calculated by software is!

2- In this practice, the planner still relies on the input form the project team but instead of Duration% complete, the Physical% complete get utilized. The planner, might claim the schedule has been resource loaded but a quick review reveals that the resource loading is nothing other than Duration × Working hours. The planner, might try to explain the basis for the summary level progresses but he/she won’t say the weight values are Duration × Working hours.

3- The planner develops a calculation sheet in Excel. He/she uses the cost/man-hour (sometimes quantity! Or contractual figures) to calculate the weight values. But still relies to the team to provide the progress data.

4- The planner develops a quantitative progress measurement system that is integrated with the schedule, resource loading, contract and earning rules. He/she implements a process to collect data, calculate progresses, update the schedule and review it with the team. In this system everybody is responsible for the data collection, updating, and review as a result the team owns the results and strives to improve the output.

Despite all the improvements, certification, many available training, articles, etc., around planning, scheduling and project management still we witness many planners/ schedulers/ PMs not knowing the concept of the PMS, weight value, relationship with the Resource loading and impact of the incorrect practices in the projects. To most of the Planners, as long as a number is reflected as progress, a report with many pages that almost nobody reads, a graph that is called an S-Curve, having some names in the resource tab for resource loading and etc. the planning is functional. The worse of all is that some projects employ consultants to develop a correct / accurate planning system but they do one of the above three incorrect practices.

The PMS development resources is not an easy process, it requires a lot of data, calculations, understanding the concept, knowing the purpose, relationships with other planning system component, understanding the weight value and its effect, etc. So, if you would like to implement it on your project, contact us now. We will implement not only the PMS but will implement the Integrated Planning system that covers a vast variety of the planning components. info@khonopc.com.