New Project Manager

Tanveer,

if you will decide to buy Spider Project you will not need anything else. It does everything you may need for project and portfolio management. Demo version may be downloaded from www.spiderproject.com and you may ask any questions at Spider Project forum here.

Best Regards,

Vladimir

Hi, Tanveer.

First, please understand that these three software companies that compute drag are entirely independent of me, so I do not keep close track of what they cost or how they are supported. But the three are:

• Spider Project, one of whose executives is very active PlanningPlanet member Vladimir Liberzon.
• InterPlan Systems, one of whose executives is very active PlanningPlanet member Bernard Ertl and who recently posted this announcement of drag computation functionality in its newest release.
• Sumatra.com's add-on to MS Project 2007, which you should be able to find at the Sumatra.com website. (I tried to access the site just now, but it seems to be down.)

It is very important, before you compute drag, that you and your client arrive at an estimate of the value/cost of time: what is it worth for every week earlier or later that the project finishes. If your client is uncooperative in doing this, I recommend your using a clearly conservative estimate: be able to say "The very LEAST that it could be worth to pull in the schedule and avoid LDs (plus increased cost due to overhead!) is $X per day. Can we agree on that?"

Then:

1. Compute the drag on each CP activity in the CURRENT schedule.
2. Use the conservative estimate to compute drag cost and true cost for each CP activity.
3. Optimize the schedule by both fast tracking and crashing, making sure that if you add resources to any activity to reduce its drag that its true cost is also reduced.
4. When the CP changes, compute the drags again with the new CP. Rinse and repeat.
5. When you have a schedule that is as improved as possible in terms of value-above-cost, save it and show your clients how much more profitable they can be if they implement the plan that your knowledge and skill have engineered.   

Good luck, Tanveer, and please let me know how it goes.

Fraternally in project management,

Steve the Bajan

Hi Tanveer.

Don't give up!

We all get despondent when faced with seemingly impossible problems and it is easy to lose heart.

At the moment you are too close to the problem to see any solution.

My advice is to step back - take a short break - relax and get some sleep.

Do something that you enjoy doing.

Then take another look at the situation with fresh eyes and the way through will be obvious.

You must support your new project manager with best planning practice and then maybe the inbuilt attitude to planners will change.

Good luck

Mike Testro

Hi, Tanveer.

I'd guess your alternatives are these:

1. Learn how to do the computations yourself. I've done drag computations "manually" for networks of about 3,000 activities with the network diagram printed out and taped to the walls of my basement. It included complex dependencies and took me about four hours and was great fun (provided you are the sort of person who finds sudokus or chess problems fun!). The articles to which I linked in the previous post explain how to compute drag in simple (all FS with no lags) networks. Also, here is the drag computation quiz I posted in PlanningPlanet a couple of years ago, and here are the answers and explanation. For complex dependencies, you'll either have to buy my 1999 book Total Project Control or sign up to attend the PMI Scheduling Community of Practice webinar I'm presenting on July 10th.
2. Persuade your company to buy software that computes drag. This includes Spider Project, InterPlan Systems, and the Sumatra.com add-on to MS Project. Ask your company how many minutes (or seconds!) worth of LDs you'd have to save in order to pay for the software. Then point out how the LDs saved by cutting in half the drag of just ONE of your critical path activities (say, from 10D to 5D) would save many, many times the cost of the software!
3. Contact the distributors of the software you are currently using and demand that they implement a drag computation algorithm immediately.

If none of the above solutions is satisfactory, then I'm afraid that what you are looking for is not an easy solution -- it's an effortless solution. And I'm afraid I don't have one of those.

Fraternally in project management,

Steve the Bajan

Hi, Tanveer.

Whenever trying to recover schedule, your steps should be, in order:

1. Compute the drag of all current critical path activities, based on remaining durations.

2. Compute the likely drag cost (based on estimated LDs or forfeited early delivery incentives) of all current critical path activities, based on remaining durations.

3. Present the drag information to the project team, including subcontractors, show them where big drags are costing you the most time, and ask them to suggest schedule changes/alternatives to reduce drag.

4. When the critical path changes, compute the drags of the new CP activities.

5. Rinse and repeat until you have  schedule that either meets your goals or is as compressed as you can get it. And if it is heavily compressed, remember that you are are likely to need anywhere for 10% or 40% additional time as schedule reserve.

If you wnat to know how to compute drag, try reading this article and this article.

Good luck.

Fraternally in project management,

Steve the Bajan

Hi Tanveer

You will notice that I have removed items 5 to 9 on your first list.

You should never put such confidential information in an open forum discussion - it is a complete breach of confidence that will prejudice your EoT claims.

You did not mention the project but you are the named planner so it is easily traced.

Your new manager is doing his best to get a grip on a hopeless situation - so you should support him as best you can.

The fact that he has put the planning function so low on his priorities is self explanatory.

Best regards

Mike Testro