A project management blog for manufacturing and engineering
What’s the difference between MS Project ‘Duration’ and ‘Work’ fields? The image below probably explains it all. It’s a simple task from Microsoft Project that shows both the ‘Duration’ and ‘Work’ columns.
As you can see ‘Duration’ defines the calendar time that the task will be worked on, while ‘Work’ defines the number of man-hours. In this case, Frank is scheduled to work only 40 hours over the next four weeks. That’s only 25% of his scheduled hours.
One of the many factors in project cost overruns is due to setting unreasonable expectations. Whether working as a consultant outside a company or as a project manager within a company, all too often we become “yes” men to secure a deal or please superiors. We may win in the short term by getting the job or by delaying management’s wrath by telling them what they want to hear, but, in the long run, both scenarios are losers. As a consultant you land the gig and wind up with bad word of mouth advertising as being late and over budget. As an internal project manager you develop a reputation of being unreliable and/or overly optimistic. Instead, be real and upfront about duration and costs of expected projects. Give pushback to help set reasonable expectations. Maybe someone else will promise the moon? You should challenge competitors’ unreasonable assertions. You may still wind up losing the deal, but in the long run you will maintain your reputation and eventually land more deals because of it. Short term pain for long term gain is tough in this economy. What is your word worth and where do you go to get your reputation back?
Warren mentions Henry Gantt’s desire to update project schedules daily (see post of Dec 27, 2011 http://www.projectteamblog.com/?p=190). He met with his team daily! I find that refreshingly visionary. Gantt is seeing a hundred years into the future, and doing things the right way. He’s staying on top of things in his own 19th Century way.
Sure, Gantt’s daily meetings were not the same as a Daily Scrum meeting — Scrum is not a warmed-over Gantt chart. Gantt was simply reminding his team of the project schedule and tasks ahead, and updating his new-style chart to reflect the conditions on the ground.
That effort alone — the daily meeting — probably accounts for 75% of the success of any project. Three cheers for Henry Gantt — 1861-1919!
–newshirt
All project managers have used or at least heard of a Gantt chart. The Gantt chart was created by Henry Gantt around 1910 and still widely used today. It was used in major projects like the Hoover Dam. Henry Gantt designed the Gantt chart to help manage project scheduling and work progress. If you read his book, Work, Wages, and Profits (1916), you will note that Gantt believed it was imperative to communicate daily schedules to key players and by not doing so rendered schedules useless. Gantt thought it was important to be a project coordinator, to coordinate activities, and reduce conflicts. I think this is an important and often overlooked part of being a project manager. We often look at the larger picture and fail to identify “Daily” influences that cause project slowdowns. We should have daily expectations and identify barriers to those expectations each and every day.
Reference:
Gantt, H. L. (1916). Work, wages, and profits. San Diego, California: University of California Libraries.
So I got home around 10:30 last night and there already was about four inches of snow on the ground. As I pulled into my garage, I know my truck is packing the snow on the driveway into hard ice. That is nearly impossible to get up. Then I thought…hey this is a job for the Project-team blog. Before I hit the sack I sketched out a rough project plan to start first thing in the morning.
6:00A.M.- emailed the team to begin the day announcing immediate project escalation for driveway snow removal by end of day.
Pete, my lead engineer: The driveway is 25’ x 40’ long and the snow is 6 inches deep. Please determine the cubic feet of snow removal and determine the most cost efficient shovel for the job. Oh, and we may have packed ice under snow. Find a tool for that, too.
John, our labor liaison: Get with Pete and determine the number of man hours needed to remove the snow…will we need one, two…three labor resources to complete on time? Remember, we need the job finished by 5pm today. Please provide estimated labor expense accordingly.
Les, in materials procurement: Please let Pete know if any ice melt is available. Please advise as to whether there are any has mat concerns and what costs are associated with procurement.
To All: I will be on site to assess progress and will be available throughout the morning. The plan is to begin removal by noon…let’s get to work…my wife has Christmas shopping to finish!
9:00AM: received message from Pete. He has located a shovel at Lowes for $15.99 and a tile remover for the ice, $34.99.
Pete: please get a P.O. together and have Dave Johnson and Allison Fields sign off immediately. We need their signatures by 10:30 A.M. because Betty Thomas (CFO) has an 11:00 AM. and is heading straight to the airport for Christmas break. We have to have Betty’s final approval before we can purchase equipment from Lowes.
10:00AM: John sent IM stating we can only get one labor resource because all the others are currently working at 98% capacity. We can only have the one available person from 2-4pm.
10:15AM: Pete: Just ran the numbers and we can have the ice removed utilizing one person in 3.5 hrs.
10:20AM: I replied to Pete…SCOPE CHANGE! I forgot we need to include the front side walk and porch. We are talking an additional 70 square feet! Please get back to me on man hours needed.
10:40AM: Message from Pete: We will need an additional 30 minutes for the sidewalk and porch… almost a 15% increase. I will get with John and see if we can secure additional resources.
11:00AM: Email to Pete…Have you got the P.O. approved…what is your ETA for getting equipment to site?
11:10AM: reply from Pete: We only have Allison’s signature, Dave is out sick. I will need to get Eric Jansen to sign off in place of Dave. Then I still have to catch Betty for her signature…working on it!
11:45 AM: Message from Pete: I have Dave’s signature trying to catch Betty before she leaves the building.
12:20PM: Message from John: I can’t get additional resources. I know we are behind on our project plan, but it looks like we have to go with what we have.
12:27PM: Message from Pete: It looks like I missed Betty, her 11:00 A.M. meeting was cancelled and she took an early flight. Can you get a petty cash disbursement for the equipment? (I don’t know why I didn’t think of that sooner!)
12:30PM: My reply to all:
Project Snow Team,
Due to a minor scope change and lack of funding the snow removal project has been delayed and it looks like I will just have to do it myself. Take the rest of the day off and have a Merry Christmas!
Admittedly, overtime is a clunky feature in Microsoft Project. I like the simplicity of Standard Time better. But here are some steps to help understand and master overtime usage in MSP.
Start by assigning resources to your tasks.
Assign cost rates to resources
Enter overtime hours
You will notice that the ‘Duration’ value shrinks for tasks with overtime hours, and that the ‘Cost’ and ‘Overtime Cost’ values are update accordingly.
–newshirt
I like keeping project tasks really, really short. A week-long task is sometimes too long, but obviously satisfying when finished. I also like keeping product releases very short. A release might have only a few of these short tasks. That ensures that the product is always within a few days of release. Project scheduling is simpler when tasks are short.
Predictive analysis uses historical records to predict future trends or outcomes. That got me thinking; could that be applied to timesheet records? The most common field for predictive analysis is credit reporting, where lenders hope to predict a buyer’s ability to pay.
Do you have a 900 credit score? Me neither…
So, back to timesheet data… What could we possibly learn from predictive analysis of timesheet records? Here are some possibilities:
–newshirt
Does your company do too few meetings? Yeah, you heard me right… too few.
If you’re like most corporate employees, you’ll answer, “Definitely not!”
Most of the scenes in the Dilbert comic are in meeting rooms. That should tell you what Scott Adams thinks of them. Meetings are the first signs of death in a once vibrant company. But beware; lack of meetings may spell the same results.
Meetings done right should get your blood pumping for action. You should go away wanting to try something new, or hoping for change, or at least inspired to follow. Make that the aim of your next meeting!
A project manager has many things to administer…time, scope and cost, to name a few. These items are always considered in the very basics of project planning. It’s second nature.
What about managing all the various documents involved with project planning? Some software will accommodate document management, while many others do not.
It is important to have critical documents available to key resources, or all resources. Standard Time allows you to attach files to tasks. This makes related documents easy to locate and available for viewing when necessary. Many document management companies utilize Standard Time for their time tracking and project management. When considering project planning, make sure you have a solid software system that will help you be more efficient with document management.