Why Record Lessons Learned?

In projects, it is a good practice to document 'lessons learned'. These are things we have discovered to do - or not do - to make our projects stronger. For example, we may have learned to order supplies earlier, to have team meetings in the mornings, or to print reports to give to the sponsor.

According to the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge), lessons learned are: "The knowledge gained during a project which shows how project events were addressed or should be addressed in the future with the purpose of improving future performance."

Documenting lessons learned benefits our current project, and ours and other's future projects.

Lessons learned are often gathered by teams in end-of-phase or project closing meetings. Like any facilitated meeting, it is useful to have a meeting leader and someone who records the discussion for these meetings.

Another way to gather these lessons is through a shared document, for example, a Google document. Using such a document allows team members to input the lessons learned as they occur. I can say this is one lesson I have learned: to not leave documentation to the end of the week or the month, but to record things as closely to their occurrence as possible.

It’s not just the fact of having the lessons learned for later use that makes them so important; it’s not even just the getting together of the team to record them, or the ability of team members to provide input to project processes. It is the positive outlook generated in the team by knowing the project is continuously looking for improvements - looking 'on the bright side', you might say.

After all, projects are for learning.

Deficiencies: The Achilles’ Heel of Construction Projects

This week, please welcome Paul Behner, an accomplished project manager in the construction industry, as my guest writer.

Deficiencies are a standard line item on most, if not all, construction projects.

Construction project deficiency is defined as a characteristic or condition that fails to meet a standard, or is not in compliance with a requirement or specification, and is sometimes referred to as defective work.

Frequently, the term deficiency is confused or misinterpreted as incomplete work and, more times than not, it's used under lien act legislation to delay substantial completion milestones which trigger holdback releases. In reality, a deficiency is not the same as incomplete work. From a legal perspective, only incomplete work affecting the beneficial use of the facility or asset intended from the project performance determines substantial completion.

Without evaluating the global issues surrounding the interpretation of substantial completion, it is fair to say that both deficiencies and incomplete work are routinely misunderstood.

There is inherent ongoing risk to the general contractor who is responsible for contract performance of all trade subcontractors and suppliers. This includes all work until project close-out, with the exception of warranty work. The ongoing issue of ineffective deficiency management cannot be improved without first breaking down the problem. Until then never-ending deficiencies will inevitably remain the Achilles' heel of successful project delivery and, in turn, erode profitability and customer satisfaction.

Deficiencies are commonly cited as the barrier to successful project completion. To get to the core issue, it is more effective to consider a deeper understanding of project management which goes beyond the deficiency issue. The General Contracting business is as much about time sensitive delivery of a specified product or facility, as it is about operating a business. The business strategy ought to be focused on exceptional project delivery, therefore requiring exceptional project management proficiency.

Without question, deficiencies are an anticipated task and risk of every project and should be managed holistically within the project management plan. Whether deficiencies are the catch-all reference for incomplete or defective work being a chronic issue plaguing success, a project management plan that includes the five phases will greatly improve project close-out and overall performance. There is only one solution to effectively manage construction deficiencies and that is by way of a project management plan with improved guidelines on project close-out.

Paul Behner has spent 30 years in the construction sector. He provides strategic consulting on the full-cycle management of a project from planning to execution to close out. Visit his website at greentreepm.ca.

Where's the Project Manager?

Yesterday a friend told me the story of a house under construction. The carpenter arrived to install kitchen cabinets but discovered the drywallers' work wasn’t complete. She also learned the electrician hadn’t completed his job either, so she left the site frustrated. She had not been notified and her crews were already tight with the schedule. Subsequently, she heard a few days later the painters showed up (likely on schedule) but, because the drywallers hadn’t been able to work, they also had to leave.

This experience - poor coordination, planning and communication - left her asking, "Where is the project manager?"

What could have been done to avoid this situation? A schedule outlining who was doing what work would have helped. Maybe this was done but clearly it was not communicated to all of those involved. A communications plan - showing what needs to be communicated to whom, when, and how - would also have been useful.

And what could be done at the point where the project was going off the rails, possibly due to lack of communications and planning? In this example, there was obviously a lack of monitoring and controlling. The carpenter could have let the person who hired her know what was happening, hopefully prompting them to get a grip on the project. Without this prompt, who knows how long the project manager would be unaware of what was happening (or not happening in this case)?

Let’s say the project manager decided a few days later to check in on the site to see how the work was going. Upon inspection they see no one is working as expected and, of course, no progress has been made. At that point, it is easy to see that the project is prone to disorder and delays. A review of the situation and plan, along with some risk analysis, then timely communications with the various trades, would help mitigate time loss.

Schedules not coordinated and communicated can result in extra costs and time for a project. In this example, it also leaves the tradespeople in a position to possibly lose money on a job when their scheduled work can’t be completed in the timeframe they allotted for in their estimate. On top of this, the lack of communication in this case caused some of them declare they would not work for this builder again.

Project management prepares a leader and tradespeople with the skills required to successfully manage projects and navigate through inevitable disruptions.

Good luck to you in all of your projects!

On "The Way"

I just got back from walking part of "The Camino" in Spain with three of my grown-up children. On our route, we stopped in a few towns. There, we would check in at an information office or store to see how to get out of town and back on the trail. When we asked where the Camino was, the answer was always, "You are on it!" We thought it was pretty amazing that we were still "on the way" without realizing it.

Were we guided? Probably - it felt like it.

It got me thinking that, with a route to follow in our projects (a project plan), we are also on the way to a destination. If we check in every now and then (often enough), we can know what we need to do to "stay the path" and achieve our goal.

Happy trails!

Big Data and Project Estimates

March Madness is due to hit in full force soon. I try to ignore this fact but my husband warns me every year when the season is approaching (so I can know why he is hibernating).

For those who aren’t basketball fans, March Madness is the American (United States) National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments.

This year it is especially big news because Warren Buffett, together with his company, Berkshire Hathaway, are offering $1 billion to any person who can correctly pick the winners of all 63 games in this year’s NCAA men’s college basketball tournament. The odds, without tools, are 1 in 9.2 quintillion.

To add to your chances of winning, Paul Bessire has created an application called The Predictalator. He says this software has been incredibly accurate in predicting outcomes of sports games. If you want to spend time on going for the billion, there’s a tool.

The Predictalator analyzes multitudes of factors and converts them into probable outcomes.

Let’s apply these estimates to projects. If we had a project with 64 team members (just like there are 64 teams in the Men’s NCAA tournament), and asked each team member for an estimate on an activity, we would have 1 in 9.2 quintillion odds that all of the estimates would be correct; correct meaning exactly equal to the actual outcome. If we had only 64 activities in a project – which would be a pretty small project – and had one estimate for duration for each activity, again the odds would be 1 in 9.2 quintillion that the total estimate would be on target.

Which leads me to think – why do project managers, sponsors, team members and clients (okay, project stakeholders in general) often expect projects to be “on” their estimates? Certainly the odds are wildly against that.

Of course, as we get closer to the end, our estimates for the project budget and duration are much more accurate – just like when we get down to the final game in a basketball tournament.

While The Predictalator teaches us there is no safe bet on games or projects, perhaps a good webinar for basketball bettors would be on Rolling Wave Planning, to continuously update their estimates.

Nagging, Tracking, Monitoring and Control

Next week I am giving a session on Managing Multiple Projects. Tracking is a major part, so I have been researching this topic. As well, as these things go, I have had a few conversations with project managers on the topic of “nagging” (ahem... “tracking”).

Do project managers like to nag? Of course not. Do they? Very often.

The Harvard Business School and Northwestern University did a study on “managerial nagging”. They tracked project managers in 6 companies across 3 industries. What they found:

The researchers shadowed these managers at meetings, followed them around the office as they dropped in on subordinates, and sat for hours at their desks looking over their shoulders, recording their phone calls and e-mails. (Hey, talk about nagging!) They ultimately collected 256 hours’ worth of observations.

Their findings, published recently in the journal Organization Science, show that in a typical 4½-hour stretch, 14% of all communication was redundant. In other words, managers spent a fair chunk of time following up with employees to reiterate information they had already explained.

Frequency mattered more in convincing employees to get working, and managers who were deliberately repetitive from the start tended to move their projects along faster and received less resistance from their teams.

This all makes sense to me and agrees with the concept of weekly team meetings - of which I am a big fan - and daily contact, if possible, either through meetings or walk-abouts. After all, the project manager’s job is to manage. Helping the team get there is a huge part of that.

Of course, other project management practices, such as having team members define their work and provide estimates, creating a Communications Plan that identifies when, how and what to communicate with stakeholders (including team members), and creating a Roles and Responsibility matrix, also help with reducing the need to nag.

(Credit for some of this article goes directly to canadianbusiness.com/business-strategy/how-to-profit-from-strategic-nagging/. Go there for more information on the study.)