Most colleagues in the project management profession are familiar with what is often referred to as the Cost Influence Curve. Put briefly it documents the decreasing level of control to influence project costs as the project evolves in time. The best description of this concept was written by the late Stanford professor Boyd C. Paulson, … Continue reading Influence Curve — or Inverted Complacency Curve?
Category: Project Controls
The Case for a Real Project Management System
Abstract This white paper is designed to give project management practitioners, major project decision makers and stakeholders an overview of the challenges in managing major projects and the high-level mechanisms needed to be best possible equipped to handle them. It does not address all features needed by a project management system, but rather focuses on … Continue reading The Case for a Real Project Management System
Work Breakdown Structure and Functional Elements
It is widely recognized in various literature that the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) should focus on the “What” of the project and be deliverable-oriented. However, in my experience every WBS for a major construction project will contain functional elements on higher levels, but get deliverable-oriented as you get into lower levels. I have also had … Continue reading Work Breakdown Structure and Functional Elements
The Compounding Effect of Project Management
Project Managers and Project Controls Professionals sometimes have an unappreciated job. Battling inefficiencies, lack of transparency and sometimes near-anarchy conditions, we burn the midnight oil establishing processes to increase transparency, accountability and predictability — all to make sure that our organizations have the necessary information to make informed decisions. As with politics where some say “a trillion … Continue reading The Compounding Effect of Project Management
How Will You Measure Project Progress?
- How many project controls engineers does it take to determine the progress of a work activity? - Nine. One to determine the number, and eight to talk about how much better they would have done it…. Measuring progress is one of the challenging areas of Project Management and since it is challenging it is … Continue reading How Will You Measure Project Progress?
Starting the Wrong Projects
Your project is approved, and you are happy as a clam. A year later your project is behind schedule, way over budget, and you wonder why. Did you not have sufficient project controls procedures in place? A frequently overlooked root-cause of project failure is a flawed project selection methodology. Many companies rely on immature and incomplete selection methods and … Continue reading Starting the Wrong Projects
Vik Bulletin 