Welcome to Adobe GoLive 4

WHERE THERE'S SMOKE, THERE'S FIRE.

When analyzing the aftermath of a disaster job, project directors and managers almost always recall that there were early warning indicators (the "smoke"), but that, unfortunately, their seriousness at the time was underestimated. Weak job cost systems and procedures and staff inexperience provided the kindling. Directors' and Managers' inattention and/or unjustified optimism supplied the oxygen and heat. Before long the wisps of smoke erupted into a roaring inferno claiming as its victims along the way.... the staff on the project, the project's bottom line, maybe the client relationship, maybe the firm's entire annual profit and, maybe the firm itself. If the firm had a FIREMEN'S TEAM ready and standing by, however, chances are that the smoldering, over budget job could have been extinguished early on before the job became a catastrophe.

THE FIREMEN'S TEAM... WHAT IT IS AND WHO IT IS.

At the predetermined tolerance level (which might range from 3% to 5% over budget) the alarm is sounded and the Firemen's Team rushes in. The team's objective is to quickly dissect the job, get a handle on all of the issues, assess the upside and downside, develop a new plan with a new budget for the remainder of the job and, to the extent necessary, meet with the client and/or reassign staff personnel. In other words, no aspect of the job is sacrosanct. All options have to be considered, no matter how tough. The Firemen's Team must be united and act decisively. Daily monitoring may be necessary.

The Firemen's Team should consist of no more than 3-4 individuals and should include those accountable individuals that know the critical particulars and at least one uninvolved Principal. The authority of the Firemen's Team and its decisions are absolute.

WARNING! An out-of-control job should never be expected to be remedied by those that got it into the "out of control" problem in the first place. Partially, maybe. Totally, NO! Don't make matters worse by adding more fuel to the fire.

EARLY WARNING INDICATORS THAT THE JOB IS IN TROUBLE

(Check those that apply to your job or firm)

Work has started and the contract is still being negotiated.
A Principal-In-Charge isn't selected at the out-set.
The scope of services is not precisely clear cut.
The general/specific design objectives are vague.
The client's desires are not clearly understood.
The fee/budget is inadequate going in.
Critical due dates have not been set or are not being met.
Senior design involvement in early stages is inadequate.
Client approvals in early stages are not being obtained.
The job ultimately got staffed with the wrong people at the wrong billing rates.
Legitimate change orders are not immediately obtained from client.
Senior staff are not readily accessible to help solve problems.
Weekly meetings to review jobs in progress are de-emphasized, poorly attended or are being postponed.
Actual percentage of completion is not being input to system or, it is not accurate.
General belief that the job cost reports are not reliable.
Conflicting instructions from senior staff.
No one seems to be taking ownership.

MANAGEMENT BY "EXECUTIVE SUMMARY"

The software systems used by most firms today for tracking jobs-in-progress, if not organized efficiently, can create a love/hate situation for those that need to use it most. The beauty of today's state-of-the-art software is that there is just about nothing that can't be verticalized and horizontalized in its own report but, unfortunately, that's also the problem. Too many columns, too many rows, and too many reports! How many times have you said or heard others say frustratingly, "Why can't I get a single report that tells me everything I need to know?" "I don't have the time to review all of my jobs just so I can isolate the ones that are in trouble!" In order to substantially reduce these and other cries of exasperation, the key is to create your own customized series of Executive Summary Reports (ESR). The Project Manager's ESR might be the example job cost summary on page 4. The P.M. could always look into the detail report for more particulars if necessary. Senior P.M.'s might only review this example report if the projected <write-down> % is in total more than 2% or so. Managing Directors, in turn might just see a single "Totals" line for each project that is projecting a <write-down> % of more than 3% to 4% or so. For Principals, their one-line-per-job-report might include only jobs where a projected <write-down> % is 5% or more, or so. The key technique is to display only the critical information at each managerial level. Most of the popular software used by A E & P firms today have what is referred to as a "report writer feature". Generally sold as a system "add-on", this feature should allow you to customize to your satisfaction the standardized reports. With a little imagination and following the progressive, critical display technique, the executives in your firm should find that they are spending less time while becoming better managers.

TRACKING JOBS IN PROGRESS: THE FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS

In order to be able to know how a job is progressing, your job-cost system should include the following capabilities:

Comparison of time spent to the budget.
Comparison of time spent to the actual amount of work completed.
Calculation of (over) or under budget based on the actual work completed.
Based upon the actual work completed, a projection of the total hours and dollars required to complete the job.
Based upon the actual work completed, a projected write-up or (write-down) at completion of the hours, amount and percentage.

An example of how the above elements might appear in a one-page report as follows:

(A)
The "actual completed %" is provided by the managing Director or Project Manager, following your firm's standardized procedures for making this calculation. This % is the heart & soul of the job cost system and it must be as accurate as possible.
(B)
The "actual completed %" drives the calculation of the earned value and whether the job is (over) or under budget.
(C)
Based on the "(over) under budget" status, the job is projected to completion and the projected write-up or (write-off) and related percentages are calculated.

4 EASY STEPS TO OBTAIN BETTER JOB PERFORMANCE

Plan the job thoroughly top to bottom and inside out. Know the client requirements, identify who's in charge, select the staff, and finalize the budget and scope and critical due dates.
Review the job and all of its requirements with the staff and get them to take ownership of it.
Establish weekly monitoring procedures of all jobs in progress, comparing the actual percentage of work completed to the expenditure of the budget and isolate and prioritize the discussions for jobs that appear to be going over budget or are not meeting critical due dates.
Immediately call in the "Firemen's Team" to investigate and remedy any over budget or past due job that has exceeded your firm's previously determined tolerance level.

DO YOU NEED PROJECT MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE NOW?
If you check any of the boxes below, you need the professional expertise and guidance of Belden Hutchison & Co.

Our job cost meetings are too long, or unorganized, or inefficient, or without focus, or end without results.
Our job cost reports are either incomplete, inaccurate, too hard to read or are not concise enough.
We have no early warning system that allows us to react to slightly over budget jobs before they really get out of control.
Too many of our jobs are going over budget and we can't pinpoint the reasons.
The method for calculating the % of actual work completed is not standardized and is mostly inaccurate.
Our executives spend too much time looking at too much information.

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