Practical project management lessons from environmental, demolition, remediation, and industrial work. For project engineers, developing PMs, and field professionals. Delivered every Friday.
Friday Field Notes #13: The Schedule Is a Communication Tool
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Good morning team, This week’s topic: project schedules. 1. From the Field A project schedule is obviously a planning tool, but I’ve found that its real value comes from how well it helps people understand what is supposed to happen next. A schedule can be technically correct and still be difficult to use. If the field team cannot tell what areas should be available, when subcontractors are needed, or what activities are driving the next few weeks of work, the schedule is not doing much to help execution. The best schedule conversations usually connect dates to decisions. What has to happen first? What information or equipment is needed? What could prevent the activity from starting? Once the team starts using the schedule to answer those questions, it becomes much more than something updated for a monthly report. 2. Leadership Perspective Good leaders give people enough information to plan ahead. A schedule helps do that when the team understands the logic behind the dates instead of simply being handed a list of activities. 3. Field Observation I’ve noticed that schedule problems often become visible in normal project conversations before anyone calls them a schedule problem. Material is not arriving when expected, access is still unresolved, a predecessor activity is taking longer, or the crew cannot move into the next area as planned. Those are schedule conversations. Learning to recognize them early is an important part of developing as a PE. 4. Spreadsheet Tip This week’s formula: TEXT If Cell B2 contains a date, this formula displays the day of the week: =TEXT(B2,"dddd") For an abbreviated version: =TEXT(B2,"ddd") This is useful in look-ahead schedules, delivery logs, inspection trackers, and other project spreadsheets where seeing the weekday helps with planning. 5. Question for the Week Does your current project schedule clearly show the field team what needs to happen next? Have a great weekend, Dan |
Friday Field Notes
Practical project management lessons from environmental, demolition, remediation, and industrial work. For project engineers, developing PMs, and field professionals. Delivered every Friday.
Good morning team, This week’s topic: small tools and consumables. 1. From the Field Nobody calls an emergency meeting because the project bought another box of cutting wheels. Small purchases rarely look concerning one at a time. Over several months, though, the job may go through far more blades, filters, hoses, batteries, PPE, and other consumables than the estimate allowed. Some small tools will also disappear into gang boxes, service trucks, and whatever mysterious place tape measures go...
Good morning team, This week’s topic: equipment cost exposure. 1. From the Field Equipment costs don’t wait for someone to notice them. A rented excavator can be fueled, inspected, parked in exactly the right spot, and accomplish absolutely nothing while the rental clock keeps running. Sometimes the delay can’t be avoided. An approval may still be pending, the work area might not be ready, or the sequence may have changed. The trouble starts when “we’ll probably need it later” becomes the...
Good morning team, This week’s topic: labor hours. 1. From the Field Knowing that a project used 500 labor hours does not tell you much by itself. You need to know what those hours accomplished. That is where labor tracking becomes more useful. If 500 hours produced 1,000 units one week and the same 500 hours produced 650 the next, something changed. The reason could be completely legitimate, but the project team should understand it. I’ve found that labor discussions become much more useful...