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industry toward changing to survive. Internally, the new fixed-price contracts were consistently late with payments delayed and reduced profitability. Our reputation was being seriously damaged, and there was too much firefighting by the senior managers. |
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The opportunity to change came when different divisions were combined as part of the industry rationalization with the project managers using vastly different systems to control the business. To compound this problem, the various functional heads within the organization, who controlled the staff, also tried to control the project progress without the responsibility for achievement. As they were only really concerned with ensuring that their own staff was successful, the projects reeled from one functional baron's whims to the next. This was great in the cost-plus days but not when we had to make a profit on fixed price contracts. |
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B.
Knowing What to Aim For |
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The projects were assessed to see which problem areas really existed. It soon became clear that there was little or no control and that the major problem areas were |
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no ability to measure spending vs. achievement or cost to completion |
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No mechanisms to use the program to |
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control the schedule |
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predict schedule problems (rather than when they are fait accompli) |
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replan when changes occur |
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no processes to ensure that only one person is accountable for spending and achievement, to give all staff access to the program, or to create a team spirit that looks upon achievement as the norm rather than the exception. |
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This gave rise to a number of primary issues that had to be resolved if we were to remain in business. In summary they were |
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to break the work into manageable packages |
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to give accountability, responsibility, and authority to members of a project team reporting to the project manager |
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to have a resourced PERT network with each package of work linked together |
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to have good communication of changing program priorities |
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to report variances to plan and the appropriate actions to recover |
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to ensure that all staff had clear roles and responsibilities |
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