Nickie,

I couldn’t agree more with your statement "...knowledge of software without skills pretty much takes you nowhere..." as I am a huge advocate of producing quality planning engineers and not just ’computer jockeys’.

I think Zanudin’s statement is absolutely correct of participating in the various project disciplines to gain the experience as experience cannot be bought or learnt from training or reading. These only provide a foundation for the practitioner to build upon and your juniors will only grow through their exposure to project management together with your guidance.

Thanks Phil for the advice... I’ll try to talk to my bosses about the training... Actually my junior planners have undergone the 102 course, in fact we are already in the midst of registering them for the 106 as well, just that I guess knowledge of software without skills pretty much takes you nowhere...


Best Regards

Hi All,

Been sometime since I come back and check this thread! I forgot about it’s existence (Sorry, I know I shouldn’t) until today, my bad... you guys have some nice discussions going on here...

Dear Zanudin,

I especially like your 1-2-3 of Project Management and your A-B-C of Project Control. Any reading material available.

I have just started serving a new company after my previous company decide to relocate it’s office to China, and I have now 3 very young and very fresh planners reporting to me, I am not a teacher material, I was just thinking if you have good reading material, it might benefit everyone...

I have also started using P6 which is another hair pulling exercise... any advise on how to make the software work for me without me losing more hair?

Best Regards...

Hi Lot,

What would you like to know about project controls? If you would like you can contact me directly and discuss your requirements at support@pcss.com.my

Phil

Osman, saya di Jubail

Yes, you are absolutely correct. The lookahead schedules are being monitored using spreadsheet, simply because it’s easier to use.

I have requested for the same level to be put into the schedule so that whatever calculation can be done automatically and not manually, but usually these are the sub-schedules, not directly linked to the overall schedule, but rather a separate schedule for different workshop. These schedules are updated on a weekly basis, and once a month, the master schedule is being updated.

I do believe in Primavera the sub-schedules can be directly linked to the master schedule, but in MSProject, to do the links in between separate project files is very troublesome.

Dear Zanudin,

Do you have an e-book of the documents that you mentioned? I’ll be interested to spend some time reading and understanding the list of things that I am supposed to do.

Dear Othman,

Already bald, no need for the shaver anymore, lol...


Best Regards.

Dear Nickie,
Just to make you pull off some hair from their roots, here are some more list of things to do for you (taken from Table 1 of BS 6079-1-2002).

p/s no need to thanks nor any token of appreciation

General
1 Foreword
2 Contents, distribution and amendment record
3 Introduction
3.1 Project diary
3.2 Project history

The Why
4 Project aims and objectives
4.1 Business case

The What
5 General description
5.1 Scope
5.2 Project requirement
5.3 Project security and privacy
5.4 Project management philosophy
5.5 Management reporting system

The When
6 Programme management
6.1 Programme method
6.2 Program software
6.3 Project life cycle
6.4 Key dates
6.5 Milestones and milestone slip chart
6.6 Bar chart and network if available

The Who
7 Project organization
8 Project resource management
9 Project team organization
9.1 Project staff directory
9.2 Organizational chart
9.3 Terms of reference (TOR)
(a) for staff
(b) for the project manager
(c) for the committees and working group

The Where
10 Delivery requirements
10.1 Site requirements and conditions
10.2 Shipping requirements
10.3 Major restrictions

The How
11 Project approvals required and authorization limits
12 Project harmonization
13 Project implementation strategy
13.1 Implementation plans
13.2 System integration
13.3 Completed project work
14 Acceptance procedure
15 Procurement strategy
15.1 Cultural and environmental restraints
15.2 Political restraints
16 Contract management
17 Communications management
18 Configuration management
18.1 Configuration control requirements
18.2 Configuration management system
19 Financial management
20 Risk management
20.1 Major perceived risks
21 Technical management
22 Tests and evaluations
22.1 Warranties and guarantees
23 Reliability management (see also BS 5760: Part 1)
23.1 Availability, reliability and maintainability (ARM)
23.2 Quality management
24 Health and safety management
25 Environmental issues
26 Integrated logistic support (ILS) management
27 Close-out procedure

Dear Nickie, cannot help noticing your statement that
"At the start of every project (my 4th with this company) we struggle to get things into place. This happen everywhere, when you have a set of guidelines it’s often easier, but when you don’t it could take months to get a running operable system up"

It cannot be further from the truth that "this happen everywhere" as you’ve said.
And just like everything else, getting things to start is the hardest thing to do.
As a Project Controller (Schedulers, Planners too), it’s your role to make the ’Project Start’ chain of activities as smooth as possible.
You can do this by drawing from your previous experience to compile a checklist (the most primitive form) or rather (as a professional planner) a template schedule to represent the typical ’Project Start’ work/deliverables listing, duration estimating, resourcing and sequencing.
Attaching company templates to this programme will surely help.

You shall bear in mind that nowadays, you may as well turn out to be the most familiar with the company’s project set-up than any other members.

Typically, your list of deliverables when working for an Owner organisation would be
1. to plan for a Project Charter statement to record the Project Team’s project objectives whereby the mission of every team members shall be aligned with.
2. Work Scope review, definitions and clarification
3. Project Risks assessments to be conducted involving all memebers
4. Sharing of Lessons Learnt from previous projects.
5. Project Costing i.e. Owner’s Cost items (derived from cost elements such as Contracts values, mobilisation, overhead costs, contingencies) and Owner’s Budget (fitting your Accountant’s requirements).
6. A set of simplified flowchart, procedures essential to start up a Project e.g. Communications & Reporting procedure, Document Controls system, filing system etc.
7. A mobilisation plan suitable for the project scope, work location and budget.

You can achieve #1, #2, #3, #4 swiftly by conducting a Team Building.
You can achieve #5, #6, #7 quickly if you have developed a Reliable, Replicable templates from your previous projects.

Good Luck.

Which company are u now? Client? Fabricator? Deepwater?