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Sadly, Dominant Project Management ideology places little emphasis on Project Optimization, the art and science of optimizing project execution resources. Instead, the prevailing thinking is “plan your work and work your plan.” Through this prism, a Project has only one option when it falls behind schedule: take “corrective” action to realign actual project performance with a previously-developed Plan.
Once upon a time, we created and maintained Project Schedules so that they might help the Project Team drive the Project to a successful completion.
Nowadays, those charged with developing and maintaining the Schedule are mainly focused on the Schedule itself, often ignoring or hurting the Project through its blind determination to “maintain the Schedule.” This article reminds us that we have lost sight of the Ends we once had in mind for the Schedule. It asks us to recognize that what we do in our Scheduling world has led us to forget why we should be doing it. A must-read for anyone who participates in the creation or maintenance of the Project Schedule.
In every CPM Schedule there are actually three different types of “relationships” between the Activities that are at play at the same time: Communal, Symbiotic, and Progressive. Most CPM Schedulers are familiar with the latter, the relationship category characterized by Logic Ties that link activities together.
This article encourages Project Managers and Scheduling Professionals to get more familiar with Communal Relationships, which also exist in every CPM schedule and between most Activities in the Schedule. Understanding how to spot Communal Relationships is the first step in managing Communal Relationships to the betterment of the Project.
ICS-Research found a direct correlation between the integrity of a Project Schedule and its ultimate utility: whether Schedule Development began with drawing Schedule Logic. When a Project Schedule’s developers dare to delineate the intricacies of how hundreds or thousands of Activities relate to one another by immediately keying Activity IDs into a table on a computer screen — the resultant Schedule has a 90% probability of containing flawed logic: missing linkages, redundant linkages, conflicting linkages, etc.
If you have been tasked with assisting in the creation of a Critical Path Method (CPM) schedule, and you do not know how to draw schedule logic, then this article is a must read.
An extensive study by ICS-Research found that the conflict among Project Participants, so typical on most construction projects, separates into Intrinsic Conflict and Extrinsic Conflict. Project Owners have full control over Extrinsic Conflict, and most of it can be eliminated. Intrinsic Conflict can also be reduced, with a change in attitudes.
This article is a Must Read for anyone affected by, or responsible to mitigate, Project Conflict.
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