Fed up with adverts from software companies and consultancies that are going to change the world of Planning and solve all your project problems? This series of occasional articles promises nothing but thought provoking questions on how well we understand the basics of our profession from the perspective of a retired planner with 50 years’ experience in the industry whose worked in a variety of UK EPC roles for Clients and Contractors with no axe to grind. We are going to look at PEOPLE, PROCESSES, and PROCEDURES (the old 3P’s – not 4P’s, 5P’s, 6P’s or 7 P’s)that we all have been educated and trained to use in our everyday work (5W’s + 1H) and POKE THEM IN THE EYE / LOOK UNDER THE STONE (the Inverse Universe) and get into trouble with the planning profession because for loads of reasons were not doing so well. If you want to contribute to this soul searching drop me a line with either POSITIVE or NEGATIVE comments (yes, we are PLANNERS that can hold both views at the same time!)
So having looked at some problems with applying CPN and EVM processes in blog 8 and 9 we now move on to written progress reports.
PROCESSES No 10 – Contractors Progress Reports – Does anybody read them, never mind understand them?
Questions?
Is yours 2 pages,100 pages, or both?
Are you just sending information or analysed options for senior management?
Are you just following the contract requirements or actually seeking co-operative management with the Client?
Are they just including status lists or analysis of the top 5 problems/needs/actions?
Are you laying down facts and records for project claims?
Are they just meant to report the past or help in managing the future?
Look, all your reports contain biases and are usually optimistic – are you really interrogating them for best information value?
As projects become more scrutinised, it is important that clear and accurate information is available at all levels of management. This varies from balanced scorecards, Project (Report) on a Page (PoaP or RoaP), Margin Sheets, Cost – Value – Reconciliation (CVR), KPI’s (leading and Lagging), OKR’s, KVI’s, SAV, SHE, EV Reports and Progress reports on a daily, weekly, monthly, period basis.
It is important that the cost of producing, data quality, and timeliness of these reports is assessed as well as their content.
The contractors internal company business reports are generally common across the business to aid senior management review. For a large company, a Red, Amber, Green (RAG) internal project status risk list is usual against major categories. It is not unknown for a PM to massage the numbers presented to the Board to show the project in a better light (glass half full v glass half empty) until it becomes impossible for them to intervene and do anything but firefight!
The information to be sent to the Client will be specified in the contract.
Strap line – PROJECT CONTROLS MUST REPORT THE PROJECT STATUS WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOUR
Daily Report
Construction generally does a brief daily report on site numbers, P&E, weather, key events, achievements, deliveries, HSE incidents etc.
Weekly Report
Each discipline works manager produces a brief standard progress report that highlights weekly progress against plan, key achievements, objectives for next week, information needs, personnel numbers, hours worked etc.
The staff / operatives generally complete a weekly job allocation sheet or timesheet that records work and hours spent.
The period/monthly big one
The contract will specify that, each period/month, you will send a whole series of status reports to the Client. Generally, these are just a snapshot in time of the many lists that are produced by the contractor to control a project. If you run these lists as an interactive open source database (rather than excel spreadsheets) it would be just done by selecting that reporting option so that you can maintain control of the information being passed on. You might even have given the Client read only access!
Status Reports (Typical)
Project Management – Actions, Needs/Decision, meetings, SAV
Engineering – PIL, Line List, System Schedule, P&ID list, HAZOP, Design Review, Vendor Information, load schedule, Instrument list, 3D CAD/BIM, pipe stressing, Isometrics, AFC/IFC
Procurement – PO Schedule, I&E contacts and visits, QC Hold Points, FAT
Construction – P-t-W, RFI, TQ, ITP, RAMS, GRN, Materials on site, PLOW
Documentation – Doc Submitted / Received / Approval,
Project Control – Schedule Update, Risk Register, Delay register, EVM/S Curves, photos
Quality – QP Status, Hold Points, NC list, Audit and Review schedule
HSE – Incidents, workforce statistics,
Commercial – Payment Applications/Schedule, EWN, Change log, Cash Flow, CVR
If we now add the department progress commentaries and a PM overview statement, we arrive at a Progress Report approaching 100 pages!
Don’t get me wrong here. You must send all these because it’s a contract requirement but don’t use it as your PROGRESS REPORT. Call it a what it is – STATUS REPORTING.
So, lets develop a progress report that is actually read, taken apart, written on, argued about and is USEFUL for directing the project in the future specifically for the progress meeting. How about we try a Project–on–a-Page approach specifically for the progress meeting in the conference room by aligning it with the meeting AGENDA and trying to run the meeting as efficiently as possible (see Elon Musk’s take on meetings)
Project on a Page Report (A3 sheet split 3 cols x 4 rows) – order is the same as meeting agenda – for the Client Monthly / Period Progress Meeting. For emphasis BOLD or RAG Status can be used on items. Try to keep to under 2 hours. People are busy!
Pages 1 & 2 Should Include: (content may vary as project progresses). If needed Pages 3 /4 can be used for more detailed graphs, tables and photographs as required to show key points. Keeping the text deliberately short (bullet points are enough) and focus the group on key issues (5 priority issues is usually the maximum)
Attendance Agenda
All 1 Client PM Opening welcome remarks and introductions (can rotate chair with contractor PM!)
All 2 Safety Moment
All 3 Agree last meetings minutes, distribution and review outstanding meeting actions
All 4 Client/Contractor PM Summary with Monthly Progress Key Points and major trends
All 5 Client/Contractor expected Key Progress Points Next Period
All 6 Key Requirements from Client/Contractor - last month review / this month
All 7 Key HSE Statistics (RIDDOR, LTI, hours worked, no of men, inductions, incidents, initiatives, safety cards, PLC’s status etc.)
All 8 Key Quality & Compliance Statistics (Vendor QP’s, Vendors, ITP’s, LTQP’s, NCR’s, defects, audits, Env Incidents etc)
HSEQ team actions reviewed and action sheet handed out
HSEQ team can leave
9 Overall Progress Curve & table (EVM), Milestone movement chart, Project Resource movements etc
10 Individual Discipline Progress (EPIC), Project changes, and key deliverables / milestones next month / 3 months
11 Top 5 Threats, Needs, Risks, and actions / mitigation going forward
12 Documentation Statistics (AFC Packages, Vendor Design Position, Correspondence, Action Status etc)
Disciplines / Project Control team actions reviewed, and action sheet handed out
Discipline / Project Control team can leave
Might want to check commercial confidentiality of some of this data
13 Overall Contract Position, value application, payment next month, cash flow projection etc
14 Commercial Statistics (EWN’s, changes, VO’s, CE’s, Delays, Contract, Risk Monies, Contingency, Subcontracts, Claims etc)
Commercial team actions reviewed, and action sheet handed out
Commercial Team can leave
Client / Contractor PM’s summary, thanks and meeting formally closed
After the progress meeting the full action sheet and minutes are distributed to all attendees. Actions should be put on the Actions Database and sent out each week until closed. The minutes of the Client Progress meeting should be formally agreed (Item 3) as they may constitute a contractual document. They need to be issued formally through the DCS / DDS process when agreed.
Note – every project meeting should issue action sheets which are placed on the Actions Database. Each Wednesday all open actions are sent to the actioner to update status and all open actions reviewed at the end of the week by the PM. Again, it’s best to run a multi-user web based database that does all this for you.
Conclusion - None of these reports or meetings are useful if they ‘fall on deaf ears’ or the system ‘buries’ them.
Does your management system value honesty in reporting or does it make things difficult?
Has management created the conditions where reality can be discussed early enough to actually change things?
Response file - Peter Holroyd via LinkedIn or Planning Planet Blog.
Questions to you all –
- Have you ever considered how much all the reporting and meetings cost the project?
- Are you getting value for money?
- Do you reports go in the filing cabinet or are they on the table being argued over and used?
For my next blog (No 11) in PROCESSES I am taking a look at – Delay and Disruption – Well actually guest author Mike Testro is just going to write on Disruption which rarely gets a mention alongside Delay which everybody and his dog talk and write about.