BASIC PROJECT

MANAGEMENT
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Dennis Randolph, P.E.

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What We Will Be Talking
About
 Managing Expectations
 On Time, On Budget, High Quality
 Multi-Project Management
 Picking Project Managers

2
Learning Objectives
At the end of this presentation, you
should be able to:
1. Describe ways to organize to deliver projects
2. Describe characteristics of a good PM
3. Explain how to manage project changes
4. Describe how to reduce project duration
5. Describe the cost control cycle
6. Describe how to achieve a quality project

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What’s a Project?

 Series of tasks/activities
 Single objective
 Defined start
 Defined finish

4
What’s a Manager?

A person who uses resources to get

things done through others

5
Why Project Management?
 Deliver projects
 Single point of responsibility
 Single Customer contact

6
1. How Do You Organize
to Deliver Projects?

 Traditional/Functional
 Project Team
 Matrix Management

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Traditional/Functional

Engineering

Design Construction Administration

Each group may assign Project
Management/Project Coordination responsibility
to a single individual.

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 Project Team
Project Manager

Design Construction Administrative

Engineer Manager Support
 All resources necessary to complete project are set up as
a self contained unit
 Usually a very important project
 Separated/isolated from functional organization
 High management support

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Matrix Management
Engineering

Project
Design Construction Administration
Management

Project Design Construction Administrative

Manager Engineer Manager Assistant

 Horizontal project structure superimposed on functional

organization
 Attempts to get best of Functional Organization and
Project Team

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Which Form Gets Used?
Consider:
 Importance of Project
 Duration
 Size
 Uniqueness
 Location
 Political considerations

11
2. Role of Project Manager

PROJECT
MANAGER

PROJECT CONSTRUCTION OTHER

ENGINEER MANAGER SERVICES

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Project Manager’s
Responsibilities
 Deliver the project
 Satisfy the Customer
 Span boundaries
 Manage the Team
 Be a Cheerleader

13
Picking Project Managers

 Practical Exercise – list 5 attributes of a

successful Project Manager

14
PM’s Personal Characteristics
 Flexibility and adaptability
 Honesty and integrity
 Alertness and quickness
 Energy and toughness
 Preference for initiative and leadership
 Aggressiveness, confidence,
persuasiveness, verbal fluency
 Ambition, activity, forcefulness

15
PM’s Personal Characteristics (cont.)
 Effective as communicator and
integrator
 Broad scope of personal interests
 Poise, enthusiasm, imagination,
spontaneity
 Ability to balance technical solutions
with time, cost and human factors
 Well organized and disciplined
 Ability to leap tall buildings at a single
bound
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What Does the Customer
Want?
Project completed
 On time

 Within budget

 With high level of quality

17
 3. Defining Scope of Work
Project Plan/Charter/MOU
 Objective(s)
 Scope
 Schedule
 Budget
 Authority and Responsibilities
 Project Director
 Project Manager
 Communications
 Change Control Process

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 Change Control Process
 Change request initiated by:
 Project Director (Customer)
 Speaking for Customer Agency
 Project Manager
 Speaking for PM Organization
 Change request evaluated by PM for impact
on:
 Schedule
 Budget
 Other
 PM provides recommendation in writing
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Change Control Process
(cont.)
 Project Director approves change
 Depending on size of change, others
(Commission, Council, City Attorney,
Controller, etc.) approve change
 PM revises schedule and budget
 PM implements change

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Managing Your Customer
 Honest, open, frequent (weekly?)
discussions
 Periodic (monthly?) written reports
 No surprises
 Understanding of external influences on
Customer
 Learning to say no, nicely
 Awards and celebration
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Managing Expectations
Stages of a Project
 Wild enthusiasm
 Project initiation
 Initial obstacles
 Changes and delays
 Questioning and resistance
 Abandonment
 Punishment of the innocent
 Reward of the uninvolved
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Promising and Delivering
 Under-promise and over-deliver
 Initial estimates – don’t “hold their feet
to the fire”
 A little pain for a long time? Or a lot of
pain for a short time?
 Build in contingencies
 Time
 Money
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Lower Expectations - Explain
 Not everything goes as planned
 Changes will happen
 Unforeseen site conditions
 Misunderstandings
 Human error
 Public reaction
 Inflation
 New regulations
 Labor strife
 Acts of God
 Some things are beyond anyone’s control

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Lower Expectations –
Explain More
 Contingencies belong to the project
 Slow decision making costs money –
delegate as much decision making
authority as possible.
 Push to simplify processes
 Claims are frequently a part of the low
bid protest
 “This is the most difficult project I’ve
ever worked on.”
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Managing Perception
 Report progress
 Periodic
 Understandable
 Common theme; repeated often
 Celebrate success
 Groundbreaking
 “Topping off”
 Completion
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Managing Perception
(cont.)
 Make friends with the neighbors
 Site tours (neighbors, schools, businesses)
 Accessible project office
 Newsletters
 Web site
 Periodic meetings
 Make it personal
 “Concierge”

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Managing Perception
(cont.)
 Make Friends with the Press
 Tours
 Human interest stories
 Press releases
 Keep elected officials comfortable
 Get and give awards

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4. Managing Time

Practical Exercise:
Preparing for a camping trip

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Scheduling Ground Rules
 Always have a schedule
 A schedule is a plan
 Who should estimate durations?
 Include contingencies
 Be conservative

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Multi-Project Management
 Adopting a Baseline Schedule
 Using an Oversight Committee
 Progress Monitoring
 Shading in the bars
 “Percent completion” dangers
 Reporting
 Days behind schedule? or
 Projected completion date?
 Change Control
 When to change?
 Who approves change?
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Catching Up
 Recovery Plan/Schedule
 Saving Time
 More resources (cost)
 Softening specifications (quality)
 Changing logic (risk)

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5. Managing Money:
The First Question…
 Are you designing to a budget?
or
 Will you be creating a budget after
design?

33
Next Questions
 How much money do you have?
 Is it all available now?
 Are there any restraints on spending?
 Are there special Grant Requirements?

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What Will You Spend Money On?
 Project/Program/Construction Management
 Planning, design, design services during
construction
 Environmental review/permits
 Right-of-Way (incl. encroachments)
 Utility relocation
 Construction (incl. contingency)
 Testing and inspection
 Startup/maintenance period
 Contingencies (incl. inflation)

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Estimating
 Order of magnitude – SWAG (+/-50%)
 Feasibility – go/no go (+/- 30%)
 Preliminary/budget – max. detail w/o
design (+/- 20%)
 Check estimates – during design
 (Final) Engineer’s estimate – based on
plans and specs (+/- 10%)

36
Budgeting
 At some point the estimate becomes a budget
 Always have a budget
 Be conservative
 Use the work breakdown structure
 Control budget changes
 Budget for inflation
 Budget for contingencies
 Consider use of Cost Loaded CPM’s

37
The earlier a decision is made,
the more it can influence costs
100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
Planning Design Bid/Awrd Construction

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Cost Control Cycle
ESTIMATE BUDGET

CONTROL RELEASE

ANALYZE SPEND

REPORT MEASURE

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 “Cost to Complete” Analysis
Original Revised Exp. To Cost to Cost at Varianc
Budget Budget Date Compl. Compl. e
(A) (B) (C) (D)
Floor 10 10 12 0 12 (E) +2

Walls 30 35 20 14 34 -1

Roof 20 20 0 22 22 +2

TOTALS 60 65 32 36 68 +3

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How Much Will You Spend
on “Soft Costs”?
 California Multi-Agency Benchmarking
Study, Update 2004 (595 projects)
Range Average
 Planning and Design 8 - 47% 18%
 Construction Mgmnt 7 - 41% 16%
 Total Project Delivery 5 - 82% 34%
 Varies by dollar value and type of
project (Municipal Facilities, Streets,
Pipes, Parks)
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“Figures don’t lie, but…”

“Soft Costs” = 25
Construction = 75
TOTAL = 100

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 6. Managing Quality:
What is “Quality”?
 Ensuring the project will satisfy the needs
for which it was undertaken

and/or

 Whatever the Customer says it is

(perception).

43
Achieving a Quality Product
 “The primary benefit of meeting quality
requirements is less rework, which
means higher productivity, lower costs,
and increased stakeholder satisfaction.”
(PMI)
or
 “Why is there never time to do it right,
but always time to do it over?”
(Anonymous) 44
Achieving a Quality Product (cont.)
 “Quality is planned in, not inspected in.”
(PMI)
 Qualified designers
 Knowledge of existing conditions (no surprises)
 Contract plans and specifications
 Standard plans and specifications
 Standardized design procedures/checklists
 Coordination among disciplines
 Peer review/checking
 Constructability review
 Qualified construction contractor

45
Quality Assurance
Systematically assuring projects are designed
and constructed in accordance with
established procedures (keeping errors out of
the process).
 Procedures manual(s) prepared based on lessons
learned
 Checklists to monitor compliance with procedures
manual(s)
 Quality audits to identify “lessons learned”
 “Lessons learned” to update procedures and
retrain staff

46
Quality Control
Monitoring project activities to maximize
the extent to which they comply with
plans and specifications:
 Inspection (keeping errors out of the hands
of the Customer)
 Testing
 Statistical quality control
 Sampling
 Charting
 Understanding variation
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Lessons Learned the Hard Way
 Project delays are a one day story.
 Project cost overruns are a one day
story.
 A quality project is something you can
be proud of for the rest of your life.

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SIX KEYS TO SURVIVING AS A
PROJECT MANAGER
1. Under-promise and over-deliver - understand
that everything will take longer/cost more
than you think – be conservative
2. Recheck assumptions constantly
 Re-estimate when taking over
 Re-estimate at key milestones
3. MBWA
 Touch the document
 Make friends with bureaucrats

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SIX KEYS TO SURVIVING…
(CONT.)
4. Preserve the Team
 “We”, not “They”
 Trumpet success
 Get there first with the bad news
 Praise the Team; take the blame
5. Make friends with the public
 Be honest
 Responsibility/face time
 Respond/empathize
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SIX KEYS TO SURVIVING…
(cont.)
6. Keep learning
 Project Management Institute
 American Management Association
 Successful Project Managers

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REFERENCES
 A Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge, Project Management Institute, 1996
 Kerzner, Harold; PROJECT MANAGEMENT, a Systems
Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling,
Ninth Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2006
 APWA RED BOOK on Qualifications-Based Selection,
APWA, August 2006
 California Multi-Agency Benchmarking Study, Update
2004
 Fisk, Edward R., Construction Project Administration,
John Wiley & Sons

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Dennis Randolph, P.E.
Director of Public Works
City of Grandview
drandolph@ci.grandview.mo.us

THANK YOU!

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