Managing Projects Flashcards
Designed/advised on project execution plan
I have made and provided multiple project execution plans. Typically, I gather the background information on my projects, review the systems I am using to pull out key dates, risks and cost information.
I then typically include the required processes around change control, quality control, H&S, handover, risk management, issue management and other project functions and write them into the PEP to demonstrate the methodology by which the project will be delivered.
How have I designed management report systems
I developed and implemented a reporting system on my Studies and Investigations projects. I gathered the requirements of the leadership team, conducted an analysis of what was working and what wasn’t, and created a high level blueprint. This was then refined until it achieved exactly what the leadership team required with room to grow.
How have I advised client on procurement routes
I have not done this, but if I was to do it I would consider the following points:
- Client experience of procurement routes
- Client attitude towards design risk/responsibility
- Importance of cost certainty
- Importance of early start on site
How have I interpreted results on a whole lifecycle assessment
On my medina project, I led an assessment of the whole life cost of the options as part of concept design. This involved looking at the capex and opex elements over a 25 year period. The outcomes of this showed that a slightly higher capex spend lead to a significantly lower opex spend over that period, which factored into the final option choice
How have I assessed design changes to improved a projects viability
It’s important to note that, for all design aspects, I act within my scope of competence. What I have done on my Ventnor scheme was to work wtih the engineering department to ensure that any proposed changes would not impact the final product. However, on this project, the team proposed a change in design and I assessed it’s impact on cost/programme, and gave a recommendation following that
Lessons Learnt on projects
I very recently conducted a lessons learned workshop for my Level 34 Refurbishment project. This project had a design and build contractor, but there was a separate contractor on the project to do the food and beverage area. This resulted in several items being completely missed from the project, and had to be rectified close to completion. Although this did not impact the completion dates, but it was incredibly close.
How would I handle the situation if the Contractor was being commercially aggressive towards variations
I would advise the client to abide by the contract. Items that are reasonable variations or compensation events, would need to be treated as such. I believe that there should be an element of collaboration on projects in order to achieve the best results, so I would remind all parties of this. Specifically if it was an NEC contract, I would remind them that this is stated in the Contract.
How do I communicate and agree risk transfer with clients
Firstly, I do this as early as possible. I work with the project team to ensure all items are captured, and then discuss this with the client. I identify items that will need be client risk, and I often use the contract to do this, and items that belong to the Contractor
First 10 days on a project
- Familiarise myself with the project - background, rationale, progress to date
2-4: Work through the key project documents - project brief, programme, risk register if existing. If not, I would start to pull together those throughout the 10 days.
5-7: set up sessions with project team members to discuss either progress to date/status of key activities, or understand their positions should this be the start of a project.
7-10: Start to set up weekly project meetings, establish action trackers, start to manage the project actively.
Chain of communication on Level 34 and what could be improved
D&B Main Contractor, but separate Contract with a specialist F&B contractor. Chain of communication was F&B Contractor -> client food/beverage team -> me -> D&B Contractor. Despite multiple directions to simplify and either com straight to myself or to the D&B contractor, the F&B contractor did not.
I recommended to the client that in future, this should not take place and it should have all been a contract with the D&B contractor.
How did I determine there was insufficient information on leakage schemes
I have a kick off and planning session for each project I work on. When I conducted this session for a few of these, when discussing with the wider team they were very confused about the directions that the client had provided.
I fed this back to the client as feedback, that I believe there needs to be more investigation into these projects. The main feedback was:
- Unclear benefit
- Unclear instructions (location, scope etc) that could not be developed
how do you apply the principles of the project life-cycle process
Weekly project meetings are a key way to ensure a smooth running of a project life cycle.
Personally, I have a set of templates that I like to use that include workstream updates, action trackers, cost/schedule trackers and others. I use this and it creates a dashboard that I can use to report.
How do I carry out whole life costing and risk assessment
On my medina project, I chaired a workshop where a whole life costing was done for each of the proposed design options.
These were options regarding specific types of eel screens. The process focused on understanding the capex cost as well as the different expected operational cost of each over a fixed period (in this case, 25 years). This had to be considered when choosing the option.
What techniques are associated with project controls?
Definition: processes for gathering and analyzing project data to keep costs and schedules on track.
Acitivies may include:
- reporting
- risk management plan
- forecasting
- monitoring of project costs
I have used earned value management to assess planned performance against actual performance.
Document Control
I have used systems such as ProjectPlace, Sharepoint and Projectwise. Each of these contained a few key provisions:
- Consistent naming structure
- Version control
- Folder separation - usually into stage dates
- Different levels of read/write access
