10 Minute Guide to Project Management Part 6

Lesson 14. Learning from Your Experience. In this lesson, you learn how to keep your role as project manager in perspective, the value of mastering project management software, why it pays to keep your eyes and ears open, and how to get ready for what is next.
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10 Minute Guide to Project Management Part 6Lesson 13. A Construction Mini-CaseIn this lesson, you learn how a thorough initial research phase can pay off handsomely for yourproject, that open and easy communication is critical to your projects success, the differencebetween getting by and excelling, and that simple solutions often are best.Helping Construction Site Managers to Be More EffectiveBob works for a large metropolitan construction firm that handles anywhere from 20 to 40 projectsin a given year ranging from new home construction, office buildings, and parking lots, to assortedpublic works projects. Each project is headed by a project foreman who has various assistants andhas anywhere from 5 to 25 crew members who perform the heavy labor.Much like any company in the construction field, the company has had its ups and downs over thepast several years. Regional weather patterns, shrinking municipal budgets, new competition inthe market place, and a host of other factors keep upper management on their toes.One of the biggest bug-a-boos in the business, as noted by the owner, is due to decliningprofitability per job even as the company matures. It was the owners belief that as a cadre ofhighly experienced, well-trained foremen were established, the profit potential on jobs shouldimprove somewhat. TIP A good plan executed by a knowledgeable foreman with sufficient labor should add up to overall corporate profitability.Yet, things didnt seem to be working. Even on construction jobs that represented fourth or fifthjobs for a regular client, where all parties involved were relatively old hands at various processes,profits were down.A thorough audit of the companys practices revealed that the critical issue was high turnoveramong labor crews. All other factors, such as slight increases in cost of materials, increases inwages, licenses, permits, bonding, insurance, and the dozens of other issues that go hand in handwith initiating new constructions were handled relatively well. In fact, compared to othercomparably sized companies in the field, this particular company was above average in manycategories.Lets Assign It to a Project ManagerBob was put in charge of a project authorized directly by the owner to determine why the companywas experiencing higher than normal turnover rates among its construction crews, and then, mostimportantly, to develop a strategy that would lower turnover rates to that of the industry andregional standards.Using the very same software that the company employed to manage individual constructionprojects, Bob initiated a project of his own, called Overturning Turnover, or OT for short. Bobwas the solo staff person on the project, no one reported to him; all responsibilities were up to him.On top of that, the owner had precious little time to spend with Bob, as he was often up to the statecapitol to lobby on certain issues and was the chief marketer for the company as well as the chiefpurchasing officer.So, Bob laid out a plan on his own, based on his experience in the industry. He knew that hewould need to talk to each of the foremen to get their views, several of their assistants, and theonsite crew chief and vocal leaders. TIP Bob chose to eyeball each of the construction sites and talk to all the players involved face to face, as opposed to using the telephone, even though many of the foremen would have opened up to him over the phone.Bob felt certain that the key to successfully completing this project and devising a strategy thatwould overturn turnover would be found largely at the sites themselves. In the days that followed,Bob made the rounds, carved out some time with all of the participants he thought to be importantto speak to, and carefully logged in his notes.Arm Chair Analysis Versus Onsite ObservationAfter just his third visit to a construction site, Bob had what he thought was a breakthrough, butwanted to confirm his findings and continued to maintain his visitation schedule. Bobs majorobservation was that the project foremen were largely white, Anglo-Saxon, English-speakingmales (this was no surprise to Bob), whereas over the years, there were increasing numbers offoreign-born workers who comprised the construction crews.The companys far-flung empire stretched out over several counties and included projects in majorurban and suburban areas from which the company recruited its labor. In past years, there hadbeen many Spanish-speaking laborers, many of whom knew sufficient English to get by.Moreover, among any crew with five or more Spanish-speaking laborers, at least one of themspoke fluent English. So, the language barrier did not seem to be a problem among Hispanics,even between the foreman and a non-English–speaking worker, because there was always aliaison person nearby.As the entire ...