Facing Down the System
Getting control of our projects is going to be a challenge. The alternative is to continue suffering with the stress and poor performance. I need to gather my strength and do the work. Make the change happen. Never give up.
We have so many people who work hard and try to do their best each day. But, I can see many of them are burnt out and make only the smallest efforts. It pains me to see this because it’s the system I helped create; the system I supported for so long. But, no longer. I may not like the medicine I’m about to take, but it looks to be the only thing that is going to make us well.
However, the system we have imposed on our folks is disrespectful. We ignore the work load we place on our people. We throw the work over the fence and expect them to pick it up. Not only pick it up, but do a good job with it––be on time, quality is job one, and be efficient. We must stop launching projects without knowing the impact on our resources.
Everyone knows task durations are padded, but they are only a compromise which has degraded to lose––lose situation. They employees lose because they have tried to meet all their project commitments and failed.
The company has done its best to secure work for everyone. But, then it allow its employees to squander these opportunities by allowing them to miss on our commitments. That may seem harsh, but everyone complains about missing due date, or going over budget, and the unique ways we trim content from the project. But, nothing changes.
How long can this go on? Especially since I now know there might be a better way. I can not keep it from them or fail in convincing my company to go along with these changes. The time has come to do something different. I’m going to aim high. Like Bruce Lee said, “Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.”
The Non-Software Salesman Returns
Gary came back the next day. We reviewed the new elements of the solution he proposed when planning, or re-panning existing, projects:
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- Determine the touch time and estimate the task durations.
Calculate the critical chain of the project. - Place a buffer at the end of the critical chain and at the end of each feeding leg.
- Determine the touch time and estimate the task durations.
He promised to give us a demo of the software, but there were three more areas of the solution he wants to cover. What happens after the planning stage and the differences in managing a critical chain project. And, what the new solution elements are in a multi-project environment.
Gary says, “has it happened that the start of major project phases is often delayed due to missing necessary things, e.g., site surveys, network design, equipment specifications, quotations, approvals, etc?”
“Sure, I say, “it happens all the time. We start work without all the required items. We are forced to. It results in rework. We talked about this earlier.”
Gary says, “during the first few weeks of the change you are considering, the number of open projects will come down. That’s because we will start to see the work load on your resource pool. Some resources will be overloaded and some will be underutilized. The underutilized resources can be re-assigned to the open projects, further reducing multi-tasking, reducing the project lead times, and thus finishing more projects on-time.”
The Full Kit Solution Element
“When the necessary thing needed to start a project are not available, some of the re-assigned folks can be focused on ensuring all major pieces, e.g., site surveys, network design, equipment specifications, quotations, approvals, etc., are in place. By doing so, you do not delay the project once it starts and rework goes down.”
“I’ll be in charge of that group since that’s all I seem to be dealing with these days anyway,” Jim says.
“Thank you, Jim,” I say, “I’ll make sure you don’t get overloaded with your regular work.”
Gary says, “one of the best features of managing a critical chain project is that the tasks along the critical chain do not change thought the life of the project. That’s assuming, of course, that nothing major happens which required the project to be re-planned.”
Re-Plan vs. Don’t Re-Plan
“That’s a good point, when do we re-plan and when don’t we re-plan,” I say. “I realize we were re-planning every time we made an update to our critical path based project plans. But, I’m not sure when we need to re-plan using critical chain.”
“The urge to re-plan comes from the need to address the variabilities which occur during the execution of a project,” Gary says. “But, be careful when you decide to re-plan since the progress on the project work stops. Why? Who is doing the work of the re-planning? Usually the same folks that are working on the project. These folks must stop what they are doing, check the potential change to the project, determine its impact on scope, budget and due date. And, then re-schedule the project and get back to work. This could take hours, or days, and usually is enough of a disruption to cause a loss of momentum.”
“See what I mean? Re-planning a project is an important decision which I would rather not make if I didn’t have to,” I say.
“I agree. You need to account for the variability and you need to maintain momentum to complete the project,” Gary says. “During the management of a project there will always be differences between what was planned and what actually happens. It’s also a good assumption that project success is enabled by constant movement toward to project goal.”
I’m growing impatient, this is common sense. I say, “True, but what about re-planning to account for the task, resource and duration variations?”
“This is what the shock absorbers, or project and feeding buffers, are for. When the variability exceeds the time of the task duration estimates, buffer is consumed. It’s like the shock absorber being depressed when your car goes over a bump. The project buffer is able to handle the accumulated bumps throughout the life of the project. In some cases, when tasks finish sooner than planned the project buffer can spring back. The same goes for the tasks of the feeling legs and the feeding buffers.”
“So, under normal conditions, there shouldn’t be a need to re-plan, right?” I ask.
“That’s correct. But, there is an important way to use the project buffer which project managers find helpful. When I show you the software, you will see that the project buffer is divided into three, equal zones––green, yellow, and red. At the beginning of the project, the project buffer consumption will be in the green zone; no consumption. There is nothing for the project manager to do other than help the team move through the initial tasks of the project.”
Stop Issuing Task Due Dates
“By the way, the project tasks will be listed in priority order, the critical chain and non-critical chain tasks identified, and about when they need to start so that the project stays on track. What you may miss are the due dates usually associated to each task. Since we are not interested in each task finishing on time, there is one change folks like Jim need to make when assigning tasks.”
Jim says, “I expected something like that, but what do you mean exactly.”
Gary says, “it’s a minor, but important change. There is no difference in how you assign tasks, but I won’t make any assumptions. If I was you, I would meeting the resources assigned to the tasks you want to start. I’ll use the information used to plan the tasks, e.g., task description, success criteria, and estimated duration. And then make sure the resources assigned to the task understand what needs to be done.”
“Yes, that what I usually do, when I have time. And, as you know that doesn’t always happen,” Jim says.
I say with a smirk, “tell me when you did have time, I can’t remember it ever happening.”
Gary interrupts and says, “the key difference is not to mention the task’s due date. Actually, the software does not make it easy to use a date associated with the tasks. Instead, remind the resource the task was estimated to take three days and to do their best to try to finish the task around the same time.”
“Remind them that due to the nature of variability, you don’t expect the task to be finished three days from now. If it does finish in about three days, fine, but if they uncover work that needs to be done to meet the success criteria, do it. This is far more important that meeting the task due date. And, finally remind them that there is a buffer to absorb these differences.”
Actively Managing the Shock Absorbers
“You can also remind them that managing the buffers is something the project manager handles. The project manager will take the appropriate actions, if necessary, to meet the project’s due date. This leaves the resource with nothing to do but focusing on doing good work.”
“I’ll help Jim and the other project managers get the message out. This should reduce our stress and and improve on their feelings of security,” I say.
Gary smiles and continues to say, “over time, the variances may accumulate to the point that the green zone of the buffer is consumed. Now the project buffer is in the yellow zone. The yellow zone of the buffer means the accumulated variability has consumed one third of the available buffer. This is considered to be well within the tolerance of the expected variability.”
“Even when the buffer is in the yellow zone, there is little for the project manager to do. It may behoove you to check on making the necessary and sufficient actions if all the yellow zone is consumed.”
“There may come a time to take action. When the project buffer turns red. Wherever you are along the completing of the project, when this happens, two thirds of your buffer has been consumed. If this happens near the end of the project, it may not be too bad. But, if this happen early in the project, it may be more stressful. The red zone indicator means action must be taken or jeopardize the promised due date.”
Jim says, “This seems like a great way to manage. There isn’t much for me to do as long and the project stays on track. As long as the project buffer is in the green zone. I may finally have time for all the other non-project things that have been aside for far too long.”
“As long as you can plan ahead of time for what the action(s) may be, it should be less stressful. That way we make decisions before our backs are against the wall and customer is breathing down our throats,” I say.
Looking at Gary, I say, “let’s get back to why we planned this meeting. You were going to tell us what happens after the planning stage and the differences in managing a critical chain project.”
“We’ve already covered them. Let’s me summarize:
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- Put someone in charge of full kitting projects and run a full kit meeting before a major project phase starts. The sole goal of this meeting it to ensuring all major pieces are in place so there are no significant delays.
- Project Managers provides resources with activity durations and estimated start times. Task due date are not mentioned.
- Project Managers uses buffer management to control the plan.
That’s it,” Gary says.
One More Nagging Issue
Once again it seems too good to be true. And, I can’t find any other issues to ask about. All my issues and concerns seem to have been addressed so far.
But, there is something bothering me. So far we’ve only focused on a single project, not how to manage the multitude of projects we have running in our portfolio throughout the year. I hope my lucky streak continues.