Project Time Management Workshops for Planners & Schedulers

We are pleased to be part of the team launching the Project Time Management Certificate (PTMC) in Australasia. Mosaic’s Project Time Management Workshops are designed to:
- Offer a practical one-day scheduling and planning course.
- Underpin studies for the CIOB PTMC examination.
- Start a Blended training course for the PMI-SP credential.

In cooperation with the Chartered Institute of Building, Mosaic will be running a series of practical 1 Day Project Time Management Workshops that will be followed by a PTMC examination conducted by CIOB in the same city a few weeks later. Our first workshop will be held in Canberra as part of the Project Governance and Controls Symposium on the 9th & 10th April:
- Project Time Management Workshop – 9th April
- Free Controls Professional networking evening – 9th April (follows workshop)
- Project Governance and Controls Symposium – 10th April
- PTMC Examination – 4th May

These events are designed to re-frame project controls in Australia and provide an on-going forum for cross-industry, cross-association, cross-discipline discussions to advance the status and understanding of project controls. 2013 is the foundation year for what is planned to be a regular annual event.

The PTM Workshop is a valuable 1 Day course as well as providing a foundation leading to professional credentials.

Unlike the PMI-SP credential which requires formal training and a minimum of 3 years of experience for a candidate to be eligible for the examination, the PTMC is designed as a rigorous knowledge test that is open to anyone. Potential candidates can choose to self-study or take a course or any combination that works for them:

The PTMC is designed to provide experienced schedulers with proof they understand their discipline and offer graduates and others wishing to become a scheduler an opportunity to learn the art and skills associated with being a professional planner and scheduler – there is far more to the profession than simply using software!

More information:
- The PTMC Credential.
- PTM workshops (full schedule of dates).
- Book into the Canberra PTM workshop.
- Book into the free networking evening  (scroll down page – cash bar)
- Join us at the Project Governance and Controls Symposium.

The Symposium and networking events are underwritten by the not-for-profit PM Global Foundation and apart from physical costs, all of the income from the PTM workshop will be used to help develop this important initiative. We look forward to your support.

Launch of the Project Time Management Qualification (PTMQ) Framework in Australia

The free CIOB event scheduled for the 15th November in Melbourne will be the de facto launch of the CIOB PTMQ Framework in Australia covering the various routes to the Project Time Management Certificate (PTMC) examination. Depending on interest, training courses and examinations can be organised wherever there are sufficient numbers.

The PTMC has no prerequisites – whist the examination is rigorous, formal training courses are optional, experienced schedulers in particular may choose the self-study option.

The PTMQ framework is part of an overall strategy developed by the CIOB to improve project outcomes and address widely held misconceptions about the role of effective time management within project management.

As a starting point, effective time management, the courses and the credentials have nothing to do with tools. In exactly the same way a car is a means for a skilled driver to implement his/her objective, scheduling software is a means for a skilled scheduler to implement effective time management. Unfortunately most schedulers are taught how to run tools and virtually nothing about what planning and scheduling is supposed to achieve.

We all know a significant proportion of projects run late and many that finish on time have been de-scoped. The process led by the CIOB has been focused on defining the problem and building practical solutions to address these issues that cause $billions to be wasted on projects every year. The overall solution that is nearing completion includes:

• Publication in 2011 of the CIOB Guide to the management of time in complex projects.
• Development of a new form of contract for complex projects due for publication later this year.
• Development of the PTMQ framework, officially launched on the 1st November
• Running a sustained campaign to raise awareness of the importance of effective time management in achieving value from an investment in a project.

PTMC fills a major void in the publicly available project management qualifications. The certification tests a persons understanding of effective time management and is designed for people entering a project scheduling role. For the first time project managers, PMO managers and HR departments can require an impartial assessment of a job candidates understanding of the role of project scheduling in the successful delivery of projects!

Existing ‘time management’ qualifications either require years of experience prior to the candidate being eligible to sit the examination or are tools focused and simply certify the person knows how to ‘push buttons’ to make the designated software ‘go’.

PTMC complements these existing qualifications at the entry level, focusing on the objectives of good scheduling practice to support tools focused skills (you cannot do effective scheduling without the tools). Additionally, PTMC provides a stepping stone towards the more advanced certifications either within the CIOB framework or others such as the PMI-SP.

If you are based in Melbourne we look forward to seeing you on Thursday 15th November, to register and anyone else interested in this exciting development see: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-CIOB-TM_Credential.html

CIOB launches Project Time Management Certificate

The Chartered Institute of Building has launched its Project Time Management Qualification (PTMQ) framework upon which the CIOB will assess and accredit Project Time Management professionals placing CIOB at the forefront of establishing the premier industry standard in planning, scheduling and project control.

The first element of the framework, the Project Time Management Certificate (PTMC) was launched at a gala function in London, by the CIOB President last week. Unlike existing certifications, this qualification is focused on assessing the candidates knowledge of practical project time management.   It is designed for new entrants to planning and scheduling as well as those who are already engaged in the management of time on projects. Holders of the PTMC will have demonstrated a rigorous understanding of the practice that underpins project planning and scheduling.

The launch of the PTMQ framework moves CIOB one step close to completing a five year strategy to provide standard education, training and accreditation in time management.

Back in 2008 CIOB research found that 67% of complex building projects were late. Of those delayed 13% were more than 3 months and 18% over 6 months. This finding prompted the CIOB to embark upon the development and publication in 2011 of the CIOB Guide to Good Practice in the Management of Time in Complex Projects which sets down the process and standards to be achieved in preparing and managing a time model.

The Guide underpins the new CIOB contract for the management of complex projects due for publication later this year, and the PTMQ framework for assessing and accrediting the Project Time Management professionals required as part of the CIOB contract.

The PTMC examination is open to CIOB members and non-members, those who have gone through Project Time Management training or those who have self-studied. It will appeal to anyone looking for a relevant and credible qualification in project time management. And in combination with the forthcoming Practitioner (PTMP) and Specialist (PTMS) credentials, it will offer a project time management qualification structure that will provide a progressive development path based on assessment of skills, knowledge and experience in planning, scheduling and project controls.

Mosaic is the exclusive CIOB partner for delivery of training in Australia and New Zealand, with rights to deliver training throughout the wider region. We are currently working on a planned series of public workshops and examinations commencing in Q1 of 2013. Courses and/or examinations can also be arranged for organised groups. For more information on this exciting development see: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-CIOB-TM_Credential.html

UK and European readers contact: http://www.athenaprojectservices.com/

Congratulations to the 2012 Planning & Scheduling Award winners

The 2012 The Planning & Scheduling Awards held at The Brewery, London were a great success (who said you can’t organise a party at a brewery…?).

Supported by a symposium and gala dinner it’s great to see our profession being willing to recognise excellence within our own area of expertise. To read a synopsis of the winners and see some pictures of the event: http://www.athenaprojectservices.com/home/awards-2012

These awards were very much the initiative of David Tyerman, Managing Director of Athena Project Services, he deserves congratulations for the initiative and here’s looking forward to the 2nd annual awards in 2013. Maybe in 2013 the awards will start to become international??

Great job, great outcome, congratulations to the supporting organisations and every participant – we need more of this type of event world-wide. Whilst the UK is a long way from Australia, I’m starting to think it may be well worth the travel to attend the next event in 2013.

Planning Engineers Organisation Re-Launched

The Planning Engineers Organisation (PEO) has re-launched under the sponsorship of Athena Project Services Ltd.

The PEO is focused on recognising and promoting expertise in planning, scheduling and project controls whilst also encouraging and facilitating the development of new entrants, whether old or young! As such, the PEO offers a membership scheme that provides enhanced levels of access and facilities with the PEO in return for advancement in the knowledge base, levels and length of experience and general standing within our industries.

The PEO is looking to promote expertise in planning, scheduling and project controls, and encourage participation from all levels of ability, including those that are associated with our discipline by way of providing support services, software and employment opportunities. Consequently, membership is open to all planners, schedulers and project controllers, or those associated with project time management, from across the world at the following grades:

• Fellows: Restricted for those individuals with greater than 15 years experience in planning/scheduling or those, who in the opinion of the Organisation, have made a major significant contribution to the field of project time management. This grade of membership carries the designation FPEO.
• Members: This grade is for full time planners/schedulers and project controllers who have at least 5 years project time management experience, and entitles the designation MPEO to be used.
• Associate Members: For those planners/schedulers and project controllers with less than 5 years experience in project time management, or for those whose work or business is associated with products and/or services that are related to project time management. This entitles the designation APEO to be used.
• Student Members: For those studying planning/scheduling and project controllers who would benefit from access to the Organisation’s information and website.

For more information and to join see: http://planningengineers.org

Planning Planet Guild Update

After two years of development, the basic framework of the Planning Planet ‘International Guild of Project Controls’ (GPC) is in place to develop a career framework and accreditation system for project controls professionals. The mission of the GPC is to develop a centre of excellence for developing the skills, expertise and capability of professionals in the field of project controls.

The Planning Planet, GPC announcement on the 11/11/11 confirms the Guild’s aims, objectives, governance processes, controls and initial management team are all in place.

The professional development teams are working to establish a framework of ‘standards of practice’ to support project controls professionals in their careers. The current status of this vital work is:

These standards have been mapped to a proposed career framework, and levels of membership, that recognises the different streams of expertise within the overall project controls framework.

With Phase 1 now officially launched, project controls professionals world-wide are invited to become part of the process to define our profession. The first four steps of the process are available now, for you to sign up and support this important development.

Additionally, the schedule leading to the launch of Phase 2 in March 2012 is set out below – if you want to influence this process, now is the time to be involved!!

The launch of Phase 2 will mark the start of formal accreditation to the GPC the intended framework for accreditation has to be finalised but is expected to include the following:

Personally I would like to congratulate James, Theo and the GPC committees on a massive effort and wish them every success as they move forward. If you want to be part of this process or simply find out more, download the GPC Launch presentation and sign up to help at: http://www.planningplanet.com/guild

Project Planning and Scheduling

The Guide to Good Practice in the Management of Time in Complex Projects (The Guide)  will be published at the end of this year. One of he key messages in The Guide is the need to separate planning from scheduling.

Project planning focuses on creating the project development strategy. It requires experience, vocabulary, communication and imagination and, at its highest level, provides the formula for the logistic strategy for the project construction. Project planning involves decisions concerning:

• the overall strategy of how the work process is to be broken down for control;
• how the control is to be managed;
• what methods are to be used for design, procurement and delivery;
• the strategy for subcontracting and procurement;
• the interface between the various participants;
• the zones of operation and their interface;
• maximising efficiency of the project strategy with respect to cost and time;
• risk and opportunity management;
• the design for the schedule and its reports/communication plan.

Scheduling is a mixture of art and science to create the project manager’s time-allocation tool within the chosen software. It involves the interpretation of the results of project planning to ascertain, amongst other things, the start and finish dates of activities, their sequence and the required resources.

It is not good practice to plan the work whilst attempting to schedule it. Starting to develop the schedule before planning the project is unlikely to produce a satisfactory project-planning solution or an effective schedule.

This is not a new idea! James Kelley and Morgan Walker, the inventors of the Critical Path Method of scheduling in the very first paper published on the subject had the following to say:

A characteristic of contemporary project scheduling is the over-simplification which stems from the inability of unaided human beings to cope with sheer complexity. Even though we know that a detailed plan is necessary, we also know that management need only act when deviations from the plan occur. To resolve this situation we undertook to develop a technique that would be very simple but yet rigorous in application. One of the difficulties in the traditional approach is that planning and scheduling are carried on simultaneously. Our first step was to separate the functions of planning from scheduling.

This is an extract from the paper entitled Critical Path Planning and Scheduling delivered to the Eastern Joint Computer Conference in March 1959, by Kelley and Walker less then 2 years after they had invented CPM. Why is it 50 years later so many planners continue to ignore the wisdom learned from past projects and focus on entering data into computers before they have worked out the optimum way to deliver the project?

For more on the history of scheduling and an abstract of the Kelley and Walker paper see: A Brief History of Scheduling

PM History papers updated

Working on my paper for PMOZ 2010, Seeing the Road Ahead – the challenge of communicating schedule data  has required me to re-visit two key papers and augment them with new information and materials discovered in the last few years.

A Brief History of Scheduling – Back to the Future has had quite a lot of new materials incorporated. I am now confident this paper accurately lays out the development of scheduling and in particular, the origins of PERT and CPM.

The Origins of Modern Project Management  has had a few new footnotes included an links the development of modern project management to its roots the the spread of scheduling in the early 1960s.

Both updated papers are available for downloading and I have most of the reference materials available for anyone interested in further research into these topics.

The PMOZ paper will be available after publication in a couple of weeks. For more on the PMOZ conference see: http://www.pmoz.com.au/

Scheduling Tools

Has Microsoft overcooked the price and performance of Microsoft Project (MSP)? With the impending release of Project 2010 most organisations should be re-evaluating their scheduling tools. Blindly following the Microsoft upgrade path should not be an option.

The trigger for this post is a number of emails I have received plus comments in a number of published articles and on Planning Planet.  Some users criticise MSP for flawed analytical performance, poor data handling and lack of real power in analysis. Other users criticise MSP for being too complex and too hard to use (you could almost feel sympathy for the MSP development teams dilemma). These criticisms have not changed much since the release of Project 2003 and Project Server. What has changed dramatically is the scheduling software market.

Through to the early 2000s Microsoft virtually gave MSP away, almost anyone could access a ‘competitive upgrade’ for under US$100. The very low cost of MSP effectively destroyed 90%+ of the mid to low end competition, TimeLine, CA SuperProject and a host of other businesses closed merged or changed focus.

Today most people outside of major corporations pay around US$1000 for a set of MSP. This tenfold increase in the ‘real price’ of the tool, primarily caused by the elimination of heavy discounts has opened the window for a host of new players in the mid to low end scheduling market place. Many with free options.

Asta PowerProject seems to be a complete replacement for MSP with equivalent levels of capability and sophistication and better presentation and analytical capabilities.

Other graphical tools include CASCAD-e and NetPoint™

Some of the tools that are completely free, or have free entry level options include: jxProject, Gantter.com, PlanningForce and OpenProj™

This is not a comprehensive list by any means more tools are documented on our ‘scheduling home page’. And I have not ventured into discussion of the high end products such as ACOS, Micro Planner, Primavera, Spider and the Deltek range.

The purpose of this blog is to challenge every organisation to really evaluate their scheduling requirements and test the market before letting their IT department blindly follow the Microsoft upgrade path.

Project 2010 may still be the best answer, but this needs to be an informed decision based on a proper review of the available alternatives. Simply paying the cost of upgrading to project 2010 (including licence fees, retraining and data conversion costs) without re-testing the market should be seen as being totally unacceptable because in 2010 there is a real choice of tools available!

We’ve got it wrong………

Apparently weather forecasters don’t need satellites and schedulers are redundant (or should that be rodent…?). Based on the following announcement “Catch all of the show at Gobblers Knob on Groundhog Day this year as Punxsutawney Phil and the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club predict the end to winter weather” (see: http://www.groundhog.org/) and the resulting answer of 6 weeks all we need is a well trained rat or two (maybe a Capybara for really big problems).

If you don’t know what a Capybara is see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capybara