Procept - Lessons Learned: Project Management Case Study
Summary
TLDRThe transcript recounts a construction project in Northern Ontario's boreal forest, highlighting critical project management missteps. Initial underestimations led to escalating costs and delays. Key lessons include the importance of thorough planning, early budget monitoring, proactive reporting of issues, and strict scope control. The project's overshoot served as a catalyst for the organization to enhance its project management practices.
Takeaways
- π Comprehensive Planning: The importance of thorough planning and site visits before project commencement was highlighted, as initial assumptions were proven incorrect upon the first site visit.
- π Identifying Requirements: The need to gather and understand all requirements from the start, including those from internal customers, was emphasized to prevent scope creep and budget overruns.
- π° Budget Overruns: The story illustrates the risk of not identifying budget overruns early, with the project reaching 80% of its budget before a reassessment was mandated.
- ποΈ Reporting Regularly: The value of regular reporting on project progress, budget, and timeline was stressed to identify issues early and take corrective actions.
- π« Scope Control: The necessity of a scope control process to manage changes and additional requirements was underscored to maintain project cost and schedule integrity.
- π Adapting to Changes: The project team's adaptability to include additional requirements from another internal customer was noted, although it led to increased costs and delays.
- π Quality Focus: Despite challenges, the organization's commitment to quality was evident as they ensured the product met the customers' requirements, even if it meant going over budget.
- π Stakeholder Management: The need to identify and manage all stakeholders, including internal ones with potentially conflicting or additional requirements, was a key learning point.
- π Cost Curve Awareness: The cumulative cost curve was used to track spending, which should have been monitored more closely to prevent significant budget overruns.
- π Early Intervention: The story suggests that early intervention when issues are identified is crucial for project success, rather than waiting until financial constraints are hit.
- π Lessons Learned: The organization used this project as a catalyst for improving their project management practices, demonstrating a commitment to learning from past experiences.
Q & A
What was the location of the construction project described in the story?
-The project was located in the boreal woods of Northern Ontario.
Why did the project team initially believe the project would be straightforward?
-The conceptual engineering, project planning, and business case were all prepared in the big city, and it seemed clear to those people preparing those documents.
What was the first indication that the project would be more expensive than planned?
-When the engineers in the Design Group visited the site for the first time, they realized that the site conditions were different from what they had expected.
How did the organization's quality orientation affect the project's cost?
-The organization was quality-oriented, so they continued with the project, ensuring that the product met the requirements of their customers, which led to increased costs.
What was the nature of the customers for this project?
-The customers were internal customers, not external clients.
Why did the project scope grow beyond the original plan?
-The project scope grew because additional requirements from another internal customer came to light during the design and site preparation phase.
At what point in the project did the team realize they needed to revisit the budget?
-The team realized they needed to revisit the budget when they reached 80% of the initial budget, which triggered a mandated requirement by the Board of Directors.
What was the final outcome of the project in terms of budget and schedule?
-The project was completed significantly over-budget and behind schedule.
What are some project management lessons that can be learned from this story?
-Lessons include the importance of more time and planning, early identification of budget overruns, reporting bad news early, and proper scope control.
What principle of project management is suggested for reporting on project progress and potential issues?
-The principle suggested is to report not only on progress against the plan but also on the expected time and cost at every reporting period.
How should the project team have handled the additional requirements from internal customers?
-The team should have followed a scope control process, identifying the requirements as proposed changes, assessing their impact on cost and schedule, documenting them, and getting them approved or rejected based on a justified business case.
What did the organization do after learning from this project?
-The organization used this project as a catalyst for significant improvements in their project management practices.
Outlines
ποΈ Project Planning and Execution Challenges
This paragraph narrates the story of a construction project in Northern Ontario, highlighting the importance of thorough planning and stakeholder engagement in project management. The project, initially deemed straightforward, encountered unexpected challenges and costs upon the engineers' first site visit. The organization, committed to quality, adapted to additional requirements from internal customers, leading to a project that significantly exceeded the original budget and timeline. Key lessons include the necessity for comprehensive planning, early identification of budget overruns, and the importance of stakeholder involvement from the outset.
π Scope Control and Project Management Improvements
The second paragraph delves into the consequences of poor scope control and the need for a structured approach to managing project changes. It emphasizes the importance of documenting and evaluating the impact of proposed changes on cost, schedule, and other project aspects. The organization learned from this experience, using it as a catalyst for improving their project management practices. The narrative suggests that early and regular reporting on project status, including potential overruns, is crucial for timely corrective action and maintaining project integrity.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Construction Project
π‘Conceptual Engineering
π‘Project Planning
π‘Business Case
π‘Quality Oriented Organization
π‘Internal Customers
π‘Cumulative Cost Curve
π‘Scope Creep
π‘Budget Overrun
π‘Reporting Bad News
π‘Scope Control
π‘Project Management Practices
Highlights
The construction project was located in the boreal woods of Northern Ontario.
Conceptual engineering, project planning, and business case were prepared in a big city far from the actual site.
Engineers visited the site for the first time after project approval, realizing it would be more expensive than planned.
The organization prioritized quality, ensuring the product met customer requirements despite increased costs.
The project had internal customers with additional, unanticipated requirements.
The project scope grew due to new requirements, impacting the budget and schedule.
The project reached 80% of the budget, triggering a mandated reassessment by the Board of Directors.
A budget increase was approved, but the project still exceeded the revised budget and schedule.
The project completed significantly over-budget and behind schedule.
Lesson learned: More time and planning could have helped gather more requirements and stakeholders.
Identifying budget overruns at 80% is too late; monthly reporting should include future cost and time estimates.
Reporting bad news early allows for timely action and is considered good practice.
Scope control is crucial; each new requirement should be treated as a change request with an impact assessment.
The organization used this project as a catalyst for improving project management practices.
The importance of justifying additional requirements with a business case before integrating them into the project.
The project's challenges highlighted the need for better stakeholder engagement and requirement gathering.
The story emphasizes the value of early identification of project issues and the proactive management of scope changes.
Transcripts
I'm going to tell you a story it's a
story of a construction project but I
think the lessons applied pretty broadly
to all other kinds of projects it was a
project to be built in fir Northern
Ontario up in the boreal woods of
Northern Ontario the conceptual
engineering the project planning and the
business case were all prepared here in
the big city and it was a pretty
straightforward project it seemed pretty
clear to those people preparing those
documents so not very much time had to
be spent on planning the project was
approved and the project went ahead and
right away the engineers in the Design
Group immediately went to site for the
very first time this was the first time
anybody here had been up to the site
what did they say when they got there
yes exactly they said well we didn't
know it looked like that so right here
right away they knew it was going to be
more expensive than they had planned but
this is a quality oriented organization
they plunged into it they made sure that
they delivered a product that would be
appropriate to meet the requirements of
their customers now their customers were
internal customers this was not for an
external client it was for internal
operating customers and they realized
also after they started the project that
there was not just the one internal
customer that they had done the planning
for there was actually another internal
customer that had additional
requirements and those requirements grew
and they made a point of building those
requirements into the project because
they wanted a quality result for this
project so they were spending money I'm
showing a cumulative cost curve here and
as they were doing the design and site
preparation they were learning about
other requirements other requirements
came to light that had not been in the
original plan or business case or in the
early conceptual engineering was not
included in the price and
this slowly added to the scope this had
been the budget and this had been the
intent of schedule and the intended
completion date but because the scope
had grown they continued to spend money
until they reached 80% of the budget
where there was a mandated requirement
by the Board of Directors that they had
to revisit the project forecast to the
end and forecast how much money they
actually would need if it was going to
go over budget well the budget increase
was approved and they continued to spend
the money until they reached the limit
that they had asked for and they had to
go back to the board for more money and
the project eventually completed over
here significantly over-budget and
significantly behind schedule now what
would you say are several project
management lessons that were broken here
what would you say about this in terms
of project management good practice yes
I think you're right more time and
planning more time and planning could
have helped them gather more
requirements could have have helped them
gather more stakeholders like the other
internal customer so that more could
have been included in the original plan
and therefore could have been justified
in the business case or not justified in
the business case in fact a principle of
project management is more time and
planning is usually good something else
please yes 80% is too late to identify a
budget overrun it's a principle of mine
that in any project that spans over
several reporting periods or months that
at every month I report not only on how
are we doing against the plan but I also
report
how much longer it's going to take and
how much more it's going to cost and if
they had done that it would have been
identified much earlier that they were
going to go over budget and they were
gonna go over schedule then they
actually did report and reveal that
reporting bad news early is good news at
least it's good news that we can
identify it early so we're more likely
to be able to take action what else yes
scope control at each one of each one of
the times where an internal stakeholder
or internal customer came up with an
additional requirement something to be
built into the scope they had just built
it into the scope and of course if you
lose control of your scope you lose
control of your cost and you lose
control of your time so upon these
requirements coming evident what they
really ought to have done is follow some
scope control process identify it as a
proposed change identify what the impact
is on cost and schedule and possibly
other things like risk or performance
identify it documented get it approved
or rejected and in order for it to be
approved it will have to set it'll have
to be a business case for it it would
have to be justified that yes it does
make sense to build this into the
project given the impact particularly on
cost or time several good lessons were
learned by this this organization use
this particular project as the
precipitating factor for them to make a
significant improvement in their project
management practices thank you very much
you
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