Here’s the first part of the next series of five abstracts from articles about the Top 10 Obstacles to Project Success from the MüTō Performance Corp. survey many of you participated in a few weeks ago. To read the Full Article click here!
And now, we bring you the most recently disquieting subject of a Challenging Schedule!
One of the interesting changes between last year’s survey and this year’s, is the movement in the obstacle we know as the challenging schedule. In 2008, our respondents claimed it as obstacle #8, this year over 78% of our respondents voted it obstacle #2!
There may be many reasons why this obstacle is critical for most of our respondents, and some may seem obvious. Project managers are feeling the pressure to finish projects on-time, but by and large, they feel the time allotted is insufficient.
There’s only one true definition to this obstacle and that is that the date for delivery of the project’s solution makes it difficult to deliver on time. By definition however, according to any reasonable project process, the date of delivery of a project is a function of the project’s planning process.
Sounds good. This may have been the case last year, but this year, our respondents are claiming that the date of a delivery of a project is actually a requirement instead!
Comment away!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
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2 comments:
Sure: Time (delivery time) is a requirement as much as all other requirements and it often is the most important requirement!
Every day a project is late (because it was started a day later or because it took a day more) the revenues of that day are missed. The revenues are usually way more than the cost of the project, otherwise we shouldn’t even do the project.
Because requirements are always conflicting (e.g. performance vs time or cost), it’s up to the project to find the best compromise between the conflicting requirements.
Fortunately, there is a lot time to be saved in any project, so spending less time is not difficult, once we take time seriously. I found 6 ways to speed up projects, of which 4 are frequently employed, but deceptive: they don’t work (hoping, going for it, working overtime, moving the deadline). One is dangerous (adding people) and mostly goes wrong as well. The 6th, actively saving time, is low hanging fruit, however hardly used. See booklet Evolutionary Planning - How to Achieve the Most Important Requirement (www.malotaux.nl/Booklets - booklet#7).
If the requirements aren’t clear (which mostly is the case), any schedule will do. A Project Manager complaining about schedule pressure probably needs some education.
Niels Malotaux, Project Coach.
Lou:
One potential aid in this problem is software developed by ClearTrial. This software allows users to plan clinical trials so that adequate resources are applied to the trial including an adequate number of sites to deliver specified enrollment targets. This is the only true bottom up planning software that is specific to clinical trials. It can provided the front end to other software tools such as generic Project Management software like MS Project and other management tools like CTMS. Study plans can be rolled up into a Portfolio and the studies can then be managed through to completion. This software allows users to develop the most appropriate and optimal operational plan for their clinical trails and then use those plans to manage the costs and schedule as well as any changes in the plan that crop up along the way. There are nearly 40 Pharmaceutical. Biotech and CROs currently using this software to help them properly plan and manage their global clinical trials.
Interested parties should go to www.cleartrial.com for more information
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