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 #15: Float Is Not Free Time
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Good morning team, This week’s topic: schedule float. 1. From the Field When an activity has float, it can be tempting to think of those days as extra time. I think that is a dangerous way to look at it. Float gives the schedule some flexibility, but using it still changes the project’s ability to absorb another problem later. An activity that slips five days without affecting the final completion date may technically be within its available float, but those five days are no longer available if another issue develops downstream. I’ve seen teams get comfortable with small delays because the completion date had not moved yet. The schedule looked fine right up until the remaining flexibility was gone. 2. Leadership Perspective Good leaders understand the difference between having room to adjust and having time to waste. Schedule flexibility should be managed deliberately, not spent without anyone noticing. 3. Field Observation Float becomes much easier to understand when you think about it as capacity for uncertainty. Projects rarely experience only one delay, and the work still ahead may contain risks the team does not know about yet. Using float is not automatically a problem. Using it without understanding why is. 4. Spreadsheet Tip This week’s formula: simple date variance. If Cell C2 contains the planned finish date and Cell D2 contains the current forecast finish date: =D2-C2 A result of 5 means the current forecast finish is five calendar days later than the original planned finish. For a label that makes the result easier to read: =IF(D2>C2,D2-C2&" Days Late","On or Ahead") This is a simple way to identify date movement in milestone, procurement, or activity trackers. 5. Question for the Week Where is your project currently using schedule flexibility that the team may need later? 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...