aflac`s aflac`s - Integrated Project Management Solutions

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VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 4 | 2002
PRIMAVERA
®
PROJECT SUCCES S = BUSINES S SUCCES S
AFLAC’S
Taking
PROJECT
JOE WEIDER & MANAGEMENT
DAVID WALLS: to new heights
HINA’S
C
COLOSSUS:
The
A
Three Gorges Dam
Conversation with
The
Standish Group’s
Jim Johnson
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PRIMAVERA
PROJECT SUCCESS = BUSINESS SUCCESS
Volume 1, Issue 4, 2002
Cover Story
Editor
Linda DiBiasio / editor@primavera.com
Senior Art Director
Josh Beatty
Editorial Contributors:
Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin,
Judd Howard, Janet Kreiling,
Jennifer Pittman, Madhavi Swamy
Copy Supervisor
Linda Barker
Production Manager
Christi Schofield
Operations Manager
Holly King
Primavera Systems, Inc.
Three Bala Plaza West
Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004 USA
Phone: 1-610-667-8600
Fax: 1-610-949-6742
www.primavera.com
CEO Joel M. Koppelman
President Richard K. Faris
VP Corporate Marketing
Nancy Allen
Published by
MedMedia,® Custom Publications
A Division of K.I. Lipton Inc.
Jeffrey S. Berman, President
350 S. Main St., Suite 101
Doylestown, PA 18901 USA
Phone: 1-267-893-5680
Fax: 1-215-345-4069
www.ki-lipton.com
Subscriptions
Subscriptions are available to
qualified readers who complete
the form found in each issue,
or at www.primavera.com/mag.
10 From a Bicycle
to a Fighter Jet
10
inside
Features
16 Project Management for an Auto Giant
Primavera Expedition and P3e are helping to rein
in the costs of one U.S. automaker’s massive
construction projects.
By Janet Kreiling
21 Jim Johnson on the Changing Face
of Project Management
The Standish Group, best known for its annual CHAOS Report, conducts
primary research on mission-critical technologies. In this issue, we talk with
Founder and Chairman Jim Johnson.
By Judd Howard
Reprints
For reprints and e-prints, contact
Lori Noffz, Reprint Management
Services, 1-800-494-9051, ext. 104;
primavera@reprintbuyer.com.
© 2002 Primavera Systems, Inc. All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may
be reprinted or reproduced without written
permission from the editor. Although every
precaution has been taken in the preparation
of this magazine, Primavera Systems, Inc. and
K.I. Lipton Inc. assume no responsibility for
errors or omissions.
PRIMAVERA – PROJECT SUCCESS =
BUSINESS SUCCESS, Primavera
Enterprise, Primavera Project Planner, P3,
Primavera Expedition, Expedition,
PrimeContract, SureTrak Project Manager,
SureTrak, TeamPlay, P3e and Primavision
are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Primavera Systems, Inc., and various
products and services listed herein may be
trademarks of Primavera Systems, Inc.
All other trademarks are the property
of their respective owners.
Canada Subscriptions: Canada Post
Agreement Number 40671075. Send
change of address information and blocks
of undeliverable copies to PO BOX 1051,
Fort Erie, ON L2A 6C7.
Joe Weider and David Walls of
AFLAC’s Project Management
Office are using Primavera TeamPlay
to integrate their business practices.
And they’re doing it at warp speed.
By Linda DiBiasio
16
24 China’s Colossus
Primavera software solutions are proving vital to the
construction of the Three Gorges Dam, China's massive
project to harness the power of the ancient Yangtze River.
By Madhavi Swamy
24
Columns
27 The Balanced Portfolio
In Part Two of this four-part series on The Project Portfolio, the author explores
the selection and prioritization scorecard for projects.
By Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin
6
Departments
4 start-to-start
6 PRIMAVERA postings
23 business reader
30 free float
Cover Photo: © 2002 Frank Rogozienski
PROJECT SUCCESS
=
BUSINESS SUCCESS
3
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start-to-start
Across Four Continents, A Wonderful Year
Since August, I’ve had the opportunity
to meet with about 2,000 Primavera
customers at user meetings across four
continents – Australia, Asia, Europe and
North America. My most recent trips to
China and London came on the heels
of our international user conference
in San Diego where 1,300 Primavera
customers participated in more than 100
presentations, including real-world case
studies, technical presentations and
roundtable discussions.
Participating in user conferences like
this is a win-win for both you and
Primavera. Those of us at Primavera get
to hear firsthand about your project
successes in which Primavera software
plays a part. We are able to increase our
understanding of your evolving project
management needs so we make the
best product decisions for the future.
Similarly, you are introduced to new
ideas, experiences and perspectives
from users in different companies and
industries. You also get a first look at
new capabilities that are being added to
our products.
One of the highlights of this year’s
conference was the launch of a new
Primavera product, P3e/c for Construction.
It was exhilarating for me to witness the
enthusiasm of our construction and
engineering customers after they saw the
4
www.primavera.com
new product that had been created
specifically for managing construction
projects. Even the most avid P3 3.1 users
– here and abroad – were swayed by
some new P3e/c features that will simplify
their planning and scheduling efforts.
During my opening session conference
presentation I mentioned my favorite
features in P3e/c. For those of you who
were not able to attend the conference,
allow me to reiterate “Dick’s Picks”: long
IDs, project codes, Trace Logic at the
bottom of the Bar Chart view, lots of
baselines, security on layouts, milestones
and descriptions on roll-up (summary)
bars, strong WBS orientation, and
something completely new – Steps. No
doubt one or more of these features has
been on your own “wish list” as well.
In closing, let me thank you for your
business during the past year. Joel and
I, along with the entire Primavera family,
wish you a pleasant holiday season and
successful new year. •
Richard K. Faris, President
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Vision
Critical.
What does it take to turn an obstacle into a benchmark
victory? Most executives answer “Vision.”
A powerful enterprise project management
solution can deliver dashboard visibility into
all of your projects: giving you the power and
the wisdom to align projects with business
strategy and mitigate risk.
ENTERPRISE PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
Vision. Focus. Insight.
With proven enterprise project management solutions from Primavera, executives, managers and all team members
have valuable insights into performance
and resource priorities at every stage of
the project life cycle.
Primavera provides the clearest realtime project portfolio management and
analysis solutions ever developed. Now
you can have the vision to see what’s coming,
the focus to ensure accountability, and the
insight to analyze your R.O.I.
With Primavera, you can have
the 20/20 foresight necessary to
G
ACHIEVIN
bring your business strategies–
YOUR
and your company’s success–
:
VISION
IT
g
in
into sharp focus.
n
g
li
A
Investment s
with Busines
Strategy
OUR KNOWLEDGE
IS YOUR POWER.
Get your FREE copy of “Achieving Your Vision:
Aligning IT Investment with Business Strategy.” Learn how
to integrate the most effective project management system ever
developed with this compilation of dynamic theory and real-life practical applications as reported by industry experts.
Sharpen your competitive edge now at
www.primavera.com/vision
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PRIMAVERA
postings
People, Projects and Collaboration Key at
2002 Primavera Users Conference
More than 1,300 professional project
managers came together to Visualize
Tomorrow’s Project Successes Today
at the 19th Annual Primavera Users
Conference held October 20-23, at the
San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina.
Primavera CEO Joel Koppelman welcomed
more than 1,300 professionals to the
19th Annual Users Conference.
Attendees traveled from across the
U.S. and 21 countries to participate in
more than 100 educational sessions,
and to share their ideas, experiences,
and hopes for the future of project
management.
In addition, attendees were able to
see first-hand what new products and
services are available from the nearly
40 Primavera partners represented in
the Exhibit Hall.
In his General Session address, CEO
Joel Koppelman told the gathering that
the browser interface is the future, adding
that Primavera is currently working on
6
www.primavera.com
developing a common portal for all
Primavera products. This single, collaborative environment will allow executives and project managers alike to use
a simple, customizable interface that
allows access to project information
based on individual roles.
Koppelman also announced the
roll-out of P3e/c for Construction,
a new product designed specifically
for engineering and construction
companies, and TeamPlay 3.5,
which enables corporate IT organizations to improve resource management by having the right people
work on the right projects.
More technology ahead
President Dick Faris also gave conferencegoers a look at more of the technology
ahead. Technologies to watch include:
• Lightweight Directory Access
Protocol (LDAP) – With LDAP,
user administration of Primavera
software is greatly simplified. All
Primavera products will be using
LDAP sometime next year.
• Wireless Fidelity (WIFI) – Handhelds will offer wireless access to
the Web, giving project managers
instant access to databases while
walking around.
• Grid Computing – The ability to take
computers with excess availability
and exploit their processing power
as needed.
• Business Intelligence – Building data
warehouses and employing data
mining – the type of granular information that allows project managers to
discover new patterns of information
held within large amounts of data.
Use it to uncover project trends, make
predictions and forecasts about the
project. It’s also useful for budgeting
and planning, and analytics about
the project.
• Rich Media – Video and audio can
be stored on a computer and played
back in accelerated time and at your
convenience – have a virtual meeting
and capture it as part of the project
for future reference.
In addition, Faris announced that
Primavera is building an integration
server for connecting with industryspecific solutions based on Web services.
The first generation of the integration
server uses an XML-based protocol that
defines a framework for passing messages between systems over the Internet.
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Tom Peters
Wows the Crowd
Users Conference attendees were treated
to a Keynote Address from the dynamic
business leader and speaker Tom Peters.
As entertaining as it was inspiring,
Peters’ presentation, “A Brawl with No
Rules,” offered thought-provoking ideas
on how to make sense of the increasing
pace of our rapidly changing business environment, focusing on what he calls
the “soft side of project management – the 90 percent that trips us up.”
Following his presentation, Peters graciously met with well-wishers and fans,
who came away with a new look at the path to personal and professional success.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
The 2003 Primavera
User Conference
will be held
November 9 - 12, 2003,
at the
Walt Disney World
Swan & Dolphin,
Orlando, Fla.
Excellence in Project Management Awards Launched at Conference
Primavera launched a new Excellence in Project Management
Awards program designed to recognize companies that show
advanced use of Primavera software to reduce spending,
increase efficiencies across projects, and achieve measurable ROI.
G UARDIAN L IFE I NSURANCE C OMPANY was recognized
in the Insurance & Financial Services area. The results
from its project management initiatives saved the company
$4 million in the first year after implementing its PMO
and TeamPlay.
This year’s winners are:
HEWLETT-PACKARD (HP) received
JOHNSON & JOHNSON received
the award for High-Tech & Telethe Construction award for its use of
communications companies. HP’s
PrimeContract in managing its $2.6
implementation of TeamPlay
billion capital budget. J&J reduced
includes more than 3,000 projects
RFI turnaround time from seven to
and 80,000 activities assigned at
less than two days, and has calculatmore than 100 locations worlded ROI for PrimeContract to be
wide. The company’s Global PMO
283 percent.
achieved a $15 million cost savings
In the Engineering & Design
in the first three business quarters
category, B OEING C OMMERCIAL
following roll-out.
AIRPLANE COMPANY took home the
And in the Maintenance &
award. Boeing’s Engineering OperTurnaround category, the award
Tom Kowalyk, manager, Product Controls, accepts
the award for Johnson & Johnson.
ations was an early adopter of
went to T HE C HEVRON T EXACO
CORPORATION, for its use of the
Primavera Enterprise, and has used
the global resource pool, project hierarchies, earned value, Primavera Enterprise Suite. ChevronTexaco estimates that
coding structures and integration with other software to it has reduced overall turnaround costs by 15 percent by
enable engineers to deliver “one time and on time” for 99 accurately determining when resources can and should be
deployed, and by capturing and reusing best practices.
percent of all drawing releases.
PROJECT SUCCESS
=
BUSINESS SUCCESS
7
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Posting from China
Primavera President Dick Faris was on hand for the Primavera China
User 2002 Meeting held in November at the Three Gorges Dam. More than
180 people, most of whom manage engineering and construction projects,
attended the two-and-a-half day meeting. Conference attendees were also
given a tour of the Dam (see page 24 for more on the Three Gorges Dam).
Pictured, from left, are
Brian Bao of Shanghai
Power, a Primavera PAR;
Primavera’s Dick Faris;
and Li Min, deputy
division chief, Beijing
Organizing Committee
for the Games of the
XXIX Olympiad.
Education Advantage
In a unique program, Primavera
provides teachers in the areas of civil
engineering, construction management, computer science and business,
to name a few, with project management software products for educational use. In addition to providing
students experience with utilizing
Primavera products in an academic
setting, the program helps them to
understand their practical application
in the workplace.
Software products for educational
use include Primavera Project Planner,
SureTrak, Expedition contract control
software for engineering and construction, and P3e/c for Construction.
Primavera Joins UMTS Forum
• NAVFAC, Belk Choose PrimeContract •
Project management recognized as
key to success of 3G roll-out
Primavera announces that the Naval Facilities Engineering Command in
Washington (NAVFAC) has chosen PrimeContract for the planning, design and
construction of U.S. Navy facilities around the world.
“We anticipate 11,000 worldwide projects annually,” says Joel Koppelman,
CEO, Primavera. “NAVFAC's design firms, contractors and subcontractors also
will be able to collaborate easily, quickly and efficiently to speed project delivery
and reduce project costs.”
NAVFAC awarded Primavera the five-year, $8.5 million contract for consulting
and subscription services to manage projects that include facility acquisition,
public works support, support of SEABEES, design and construction, and naval
base reconstruction and closings.
Primavera has been invited to join The
Universal Mobile Telecommunications
Systems (UMTS) Forum, the world’s
largest not-for-profit meeting place for
those driving forward the production,
implementation and regulation of
third-generation mobile technology.
“Telecom companies have invested
heavily in 3G projects and will only
see a return on this investment when
the services become operational. …
A scaleable, simple-to-use project
management tool is essential to
achieving this goal, and Primavera’s
invitation to join the UMTS Forum
confirms that operators have recognized the place of enterprise project
management in the telecom area,”
says Primavera President Dick Faris.
Several global telecom companies
have already adopted Primavera software, and are using it to identify and
solve scheduling problems, streamline resource management, and take
interdependencies among projects
into account.
Belk saving hours
Primavera also announces that private retailer Belk, Inc. has chosen
PrimeContract as its online collaboration and project execution solution for
the design and construction of new stores, renovations and expansion.
“Using PrimeContract, we’ll save thousands of hours by not having to copy,
fax and mail documents and designs. In addition, by saving and accessing all
of our documents online, we ensure that the entire project team is working
from the same, most up-to-date information,” says Roger Henry, vice president
of store planning for Belk.
Belk, Inc., headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is the largest privately-owned
department store company in the nation, operating 210 stores in 13
Southeastern and Middle Atlantic states.
8
www.primavera.com
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Program Aids Tomorrow’s Project Managers
To receive Primavera software for your
class, please provide the following:
• Program application;
• Brief letter from the department
chair on university stationery,
stating “software will be used for
academic purposes only”;
• Course syllabus;
• Tax exempt certificate.
Upon approval, your institution will
receive:
• Free single-user software for the
instructor and manual (one product
per year);
• Free laboratory software and
manual (software can only be used
in a closed lab);
• Free software training for the
instructor;
• And free technical support,
software upgrades, on-line news
service, and a subscription to our
exclusive magazine, Primavera –
Project Success=Business Success.
Student versions of Primavera Project
Planner and SureTrak Project Manager
are also available for $50 via school
bookstores.
For more information or to request
a program application, contact Tracey
Brown, Primavera marketing programs
coordinator, at 1-610-949-6939, or
visit www.primavera.com/services/
educadvprog.html.
O n a p ro j e c t , s av i n g t i m e
m e a n s s av i n g m o n e y.
OnTrak 2.5™ for P3® and SureTrak®
is an affordable software application that
allows Primavera P3® and SureTrak® users to
download project data into a Palm™ handheld,
make updates in the field and then upload
those changes back into their schedule,
eliminating time consuming data entry.
events
Jan. 19-22
Oracle AppsWorld
San Diego, Calif.
May 15-16
Project World Boston
Hynes Convention Center
Boston, Mass.
May 18-21
ASUG
New Orleans, La.
May 20-23
NPRA Maintenance
Salt Lake City, Utah
June 3-5
AEC Systems
Convention Center
Washington, DC
"We have 35 people updating
our P3 schedule with OnTrak
using a Palm. I estimate we are
saving 3-4 hours per person for
a total savings of around 140
hours per week. This application pays for itself."
-Tuan Le
Schedule Coordinator
Ryland Homes - Tampa Division
OnTrak 2.5™ is guaranteed* to
Save you both time and money.
Available for both the Pocket PC and Palm OS
"Using OnTrak to update the P3 schedule enabled us to save many man-hours for our client
in a Krotz Springs, La. maintenance turnaround. We now use the OnTrak system on all our
projects to get faster, more reliable updates at lower cost. This allows us to pass on some of
our savings to the client and win more business."
- J.W. Bones, Lead Turnaround
Planner Fishbone Solutions
1.877.250.3100 • www.onsyss.com
*Onsyss, Inc. offers a 30 day money back guarantee on all products. If the customer is not satisfied with their purchase for any
reason and returns the software no later than 30 days after the purchase date, a full refund will be provided.
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project office
Joe Weider and David Walls are
integrating AFLAC’s business
processes with TeamPlay.
FROM
Bicycl
| BY LINDA DIBIASIO | PHOTOGRAPHS BY FRANK ROGOZIENSKI |
10
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A F L AC ’ S P RO J E C T M A N AG E M E N T O F F I C E I S U S I N G
P R I M AV E R A T E A M P L AY TO TA K E P RO J E C T M A N AG E M E N T
TO N E W H E I G H T S – A N D AT WA R P S PE E D .
Replace a bicycle with a lean, mean
A
e
fighter jet. That was the mandate
of the project management team at
AFLAC, the leading provider of
supplemental insurance sold at
worksites across the U.S. and Japan.
Headquartered in Columbus, Ga.,
AFLAC (NYSE:AFL) insures more
than 40 million people worldwide,
and at its current growth rate, the
company could double every four
years. Pretty challenging stuff for
project managers who, just two years
ago, were struggling with the lack
of a formal project management
infrastructure, complex methodologies, a project backlog and an overloaded IT group.
If AFLAC was to continue to
outpace its competitors and hold
its leadership position in the
insurance industry – at year-end
TO A
$9.6 billion – it would have to get its
projects under control.
A new software tool
At any given time, there are about
150 active efforts, and 100 more
in the planning stage that support
the AFLAC enterprise. “When I
came to the company nearly two
years ago, I looked at the state of the
project infrastructure and realized
that we had to make some changes,”
says Joe Weider, PMP, director of
the Center of Excellence, Project
Management Office, “and our software
tool was one of them.” Recognizing
that upgrading their current tool
wouldn’t give them what they needed,
he and David Walls, project manager
with the Center for Excellence, set
about the task of finding a new
project management software tool
that would allow them to better
integrate their business processes. “We
wanted to manage projects with
us,” says Walls.
In mid-summer of 2001, they
turned to the Gartner advisory firm
and began exploring some of the
project management tools that had
been awarded a place in the upperright “Leaders” quadrant of Gartner’s
Project and Resource Management
Magic Quadrant Report. One of those
tools was Primavera TeamPlay.
Weider explains that, from the
start, Primavera was high on their
radar screen. “Primavera’s many years
of being a leader in project management matched up with AFLAC.
So from the perspective of growth
strategy, Primavera was a key player
in its market segment, and we started
looking at project management capability from an enterprise perspective.
“Even though we had a relatively
low level of maturity and capability, we
wanted to go forward and strengthen
our enterprise project management
alignment with governance and
resource management
utilization. TeamPlay
had that capability; it
was a vehicle that
would continue to
grow, and we saw that
we would be the benefactor of that growth.”
Fighter Jet
2001, the corporation reported
total assets of $37 billion, with
annual revenues of more than
innovative tools – to marry process
with technology to better capitalize
on the resources that are available to
TeamPlay – at warp speed
One of the things that made TeamPlay
PROJECT SUCCESS
=
BUSINESS SUCCESS
11
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project office
HALF
AT
CENTURY
AFLAC
A
1955 – American Family Life
Assurance Company began
operations under the direction
of brothers John, Paul and Bill
Amos.
a logical choice is its enterprise
capability. In an industry that is
heavily regulated, unplanned
activity is a fact of life. As
1973 – Company incorporated.
Walls explains, in the past,
AFLAC, Inc. is the holding
they would go “pretty fast”
company for the American Family
on a certain project, and
Life Assurance Company of
then pull the resources off to
Columbus ( AFLAC), the
fight a fire, get that fire
extinguished, and there’s
company’s operations in Japan
another fire. “The main issue
(AFLAC Japan) and in the United
was resource constraint
States ( AFLAC U.S.).
combined with the number
of projects that were com1974 – Became the second foreign
peting for those resources.
company in history licensed to sell
Too many people were
insurance in Japan. Today, Japan
working one-off, locally
operations represent three quarters of
on projects that nobody
the company’s business.
else had insight into.
We needed a tool that
would allow us to see the
1990 – Upon the death of John Amos,
universe,” says Walls.
nephew Dan Amos is named CEO.
So Weider and Walls
set about selling their
1995 – Pledged $3 million to establish
decision to adopt Teamthe AFLAC Cancer Center at Egleston
Play to the executive
Children’s Hospital. (In 1999, Egleston
management. Using
Children’s Hospital merged with
Primavera’s methodolScottish Rite Children’s Hospital to
ogy for implementing
become Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.)
TeamPlay, the company could be up and
running on its new
2000 – The now-famous duck quacked
tool in six months.
its way into the company’s ad campaigns,
They apparently
making AFLAC a household word in the
made their case too
U.S. The duck was introduced in Japan a
well. Management
year later.
would buy in to
TeamPlay, but the
2002 – Fortune magazine names AFLAC to
implementation
its list of “The 100 Best Companies to Work
would have to be
for in America” for the fourth consecutive
completed in just
three months.
year. Company also makes Fortune’s list of
Once AFLAC’s
“The 50 Best Companies for Minorities.”
12
www.primavera.com
senior management saw that TeamPlay would be critical to the company’s
success, they didn’t want to go six
more months without it.
Crashing the schedule
In September, 2001, with the help of
Primavera and Premier Solution
Provider Innovative Management
Solutions (IMS), Weider, Walls and
their team crashed the schedule and
began the process of implementing
TeamPlay version 2.1. It was up and
running by the end of December. By
April 15, 2002, they had closed out
that implementation and immediately
began upgrading to version 3.0. By
July 1, they were implementing
Primavision, which they completed
in August. And, today, they are in the
process of going to TeamPlay version
3.5, which will add, among other
things, increased resource management
and forecasting capability.
A hybrid approach
The team opted for a hybrid
approach, deciding to have a closed
implementation and run it in parallel
with their current product. Walls
credits the Primavera implementation
team’s experience in identifying risk
for keeping management behind the
project. “Once you identify and
assume the risks, you know what
kind of alternative actions you're
going to have to take,” explains
Walls. “Management accepted the
risk and bought into the plan.”
Their decision to run parallel with
their current system had an added
bonus. “Everybody could see the
same project in the former system
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"We wanted to manage projects
with innovative tools – to marry
process with technology."
–David Walls, project manager, Center of Excellence
and then see what you could do
with Primavera TeamPlay. That got
everybody on board,” Walls says.
It's a new world
TeamPlay is now enabling Weider and
his team to identify where problems
may arise and take corrective action.
“Before, there were no metrics,”
says Walls. “Now, our executive
management has the metrics to make
the best decisions. Previously, we had
to spend days generating reports and
looking at various sides of the project
before we could make a decision.
Now with just the point and click of
a mouse, we can see everything, from
the enterprise down to a segment of
the portfolio, down to an individual
resource – what the constraints are,
what everybody’s working on, the
forecast and the trade-offs. We can
put all that together quickly and
make decisions right on the spot.”
In addition, the role definition
capability in TeamPlay allows Weider
and Walls to assess skill sets and
levels of expertise. “TeamPlay’s role
definition allows us to show primary
and secondary roles, and within each
role, we can assign a level of expertise.
It’s an incredibly powerful tool,”
says Weider.
“Many of the team members
actually fulfill multiple roles,” adds
Walls. “But the trade-off is ‘what is
the greater?’ We can now measure
our strength load early on and make
better decisions instead of kicking off
three or four projects simultaneously
that were competing for the same
resources. We can make the decision
to hold a project or to go outside
for contract resources, for example.
Previously, we were making those
decisions as we went along. You don’t
want to have to back off of a project
that’s already begun. You’ve already
spent that money. You want to catch
that up front.”
Integration is key
According to Weider, one of the
things that AFLAC has taken full
advantage of is the integration of the
company’s software development
methodology and its artifacts into
TeamPlay. “At the beginning of a
new project, the Project Manager
module launches a rough project
plan, and all the artifacts required for
that project – to initiate it, to change
the scope of it, to close it out – come
across as one package.”
In addition, Weider and Walls were
able to work with AFLAC’s software
development and technology governance team, which was developing
an internal release management
process at the same time that the
project management team was
implementing TeamPlay. The result
is that they were able to integrate
the release management system
into TeamPlay.
Crawl, walk, run
But even the best tools and best
practices are meaningless without the
ability to execute. When AFLAC’s
executive management gave the goahead to implement TeamPlay, there
was a caveat: The company would
grow its talent internally. They would
have to retrain employees from other
parts of the company to be part of
the project management team.
“We looked at our employees and
our project teams, and we realized
that we had them all over the board.
We knew we would have to get
everybody on the same page,” says
Walls. “If one group is far ahead of
the other, there’s a disconnect. We
needed a crawl, walk, run approach.
The key was moving everybody along
that path, so that we could see where
we were, identify the deficiencies,
take corrective action and move
forward. And, we’re making those
strides now.”
New accountability
Walls says the biggest change
to the corporate culture is that
PROJECT SUCCESS
=
BUSINESS SUCCESS
13
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Page 14
project office
"We know so much more about
what we're doing; we have insight
into things we really didn't even
understand before."
–Joe Weider, PMP, director, Center of Excellence
BEST PRACTICES
1. Know your:
• Power brokers
• Stakeholders
• Culture
• Mission/purpose
2. Conduct readiness assessment
and build risk plan.
3. Reassess your governance. If you
don't have one, stop and build one.
4. Reassess your methods.
5. Integrate governance and methods
into the design.
6. Utilize risk from readiness
assessment.
7. Train, train, train.
8. Communicate, communicate,
communicate.
9. Market continually with IT and
business units.
10. Be bold. Be proactive. Be a leader.
– David Walls, project manager, AFLAC
Center of Excellence
14
www.primavera.com
everybody is now more accountable.
Because of the visibility of project
information and resource plans,
and the way they are married
together, everyone can see how
well their plans are performing:
“You made a commitment, you
sold a project idea, you’ve got your
scope of work, you know what
your requirements are, what
your deliverables are, and now
you can go in and see how well
you are performing against that
baseline.”
Today, executive management
is more interested in, sensitive
to, and aware of project activity
than ever before. “TeamPlay
has made visible all of the work
we’re doing that, for so long,
had gone undocumented or
unnoticed,” says Weider.
The bottom line
Weider says it’s too soon
to determine the company’s
return on investment in hard
dollars. But in soft dollar
savings, he says, “Primavera
TeamPlay paid for itself a
month after we installed it. We were
able to see a train wreck headed our
way and TeamPlay kept us in the
black on that.
“Another piece of our return is
portfolio management. We know so
much more about what we’re doing;
we have insight into things we really
didn’t even understand before. There
are so many dependencies among
projects, that without the portfolio
management, we would have had
some real difficulty.”
Mission accomplished
Weider says that, today, his team
is using TeamPlay at only about 40
percent of its capability. “We went
from TeamPlay 2.1 to 3.0, to
Primavision and now, TeamPlay 3.5
in such a short time, that we need
to get comfortable before going to
the next step.”
But even at less than full capacity,
it’s mission accomplished: All projects
and resources are now in the tool. All
projects are resource loaded and all
projects follow a methodology.
Looks like AFLAC’s got a project
management fighter jet. •
600-9345 #4 all pages
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Page 15
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Page 16
solutions
Primavera Expedition
and P3e are helping to
rein in schedules and
costs, and even improve
Project
Management
front-end planning for
one U.S. automaker with
for an Auto
massive – and small –
construction projects all
over the world.
Giant
By Janet Kreiling
A new two-million-plus square-foot
plant in Michigan ... Hundreds of
thousands of square feet of renovation
in a downtown office towers ... These
are just two of the roughly 65 construction projects that one giant U.S.
automaker has in hand this year.
But although many of its projects
are massive, for this member of the
Big Three, typical projects range
anywhere from adding new offices to
remodeling existing parts plants. On
every site, according to John Bantel,
senior manager in charge of capital
projects, “our project managers are
running at 100 mph into a 120-mph
wind.”
Bantel’s charge is to incorporate
technology into the project delivery
process, supporting the capital projects’
project managers with tools that help
them do their jobs faster and more
efficiently. He heads up the effort
to standardize all of the company’s
massive construction programs to a
common project management system.
According to Bantel, this is essential. The automotive world has
always been one of cost-paring.
“Every dollar saved in our construction process has a direct impact on
16
www.primavera.com
the bottom line,”
he says. “Especially
with economic conditions and competition both vying
for the title of
‘toughest,’ our company is committed
to track project costs
more tightly than
ever before.”
The company also
wants to improve time
to market – and given
that the complexity of
moving a new product from design to
showroom has traditionally eaten up years – ramping
up production can be like pushing a
five-ton backhoe.
Fluidity is critical
What happens, for example, when
sales reports indicate that the latest
model is outselling earlier forecasts?
The decision to shift production in
the engine plants to accommodate
this engine’s assembly line may
mean remodeling the building itself.
Will that new pick-up scheduled
for production in eighteen months
entail new metal stamping operations
and powertrain and vehicle assembly
lines? Because of the time-to-market
push, the production line layout may
not yet be final when construction
begins on the plant that’s housing it.
On one project, Bantel says, “when
the production process engineers had
their final line mapped out, we realized
that we needed to add production
bays in order to keep production out
of the south parking lot.”
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But, despite the necessary design
fluidity – and all the other glitches
that always accompany a project –
the completion date must be met,
no excuses.
Scalability and integration
Because of the continuous changes
and often the massiveness of scale, an
automaker’s projects require especially
reliable change management and
document control, as well as best-ofclass tracking, reporting, and flexibil-
Page 17
ity. This led Bantel’s
group, which supports construction
projects for his company’s metal fabrication, powertrain,
transmission, and
vehicle manufacturing
divisions as well as
non-manufacturing
areas, to choose Primavera Expedition for
contract management and tracking
and Primavera P3e
for scheduling.
Bantel says both
were chosen, in part,
because of their enterprise scale and level
of integration – some
of his projects may
have ten thousand
activities to record
and track.
“The biggest challenge any large corporation has is getting all the right
players to look at the
same information,”
he explains. “Now
we are creating two
central, interlinked databases that
will allow all the people involved to
see the same information at the same
time. And each level of management
can get the critical project information
it needs.” For example, executives
can check major milestones in P3e
and keep tabs on the scheduled
completion dates for construction,
while a project manager can access
the software to verify the percentage
of the structural steel that is supposed
to have been delivered and make
sure that the correct amount has
been received.
Expedition, P3e
interlinked
Because Expedition and P3e can
be interlinked, both schedulers and
project managers can see the others’
information. “PMs should never be
schedulers. But they need access to
schedules,” Bantel says. “Now when
a change order comes in, they have
the ability to see the P3e schedule to
note what impact the change will
have on the overall schedule.” When
those inevitable changes come in,
P3e tracks where the schedule is supposed to be, what the critical paths
are, and what other milestones will
be affected. Currently, Bantel’s group
is moving to incorporate suppliers’
schedules into the database as well,
so project managers can have an
integrated schedule to understand
the relationships of various activities
within the project.
Data served to order
Expedition, of course, maintains
innumerable data, sliced and diced
to order. One feature Bantel finds
immensely useful on large projects is
the “ball-in-court” feature, which tracks
where documents are in the review
cycle. “Formerly, we’d get the ‘I don’t
have it’ or the ‘But I faxed it to you’
routine with documents falling through
cracks,” he says. “Now, we know exactly who has them and how long they’ve
been there. We can push people to
move on approvals, which is important
when we’ve got a crew of workers and
heavy equipment sitting around idle.”
The Expedition database also
becomes a project history. “In the
past, when we handed a building
PROJECT SUCCESS
=
BUSINESS SUCCESS
17
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Page 18
solutions
over to our facilities management
group, we typically would deliver
the as-built drawings,” Bantel says.
“Now we give them a repository of
detailed construction history. If any
facility components were to fail after
two years, for example, the facilities
manager can look up just who
installed them and when.”
And, Bantel adds, project managers don’t have to do any more
entering of data than they did before.
Naturally, this is a big selling point.
PMs still do their reports on financials, changes, bid packages, submittals, daily reports, and safety, only
now they put the information into
Expedition. When they need to roll
up reports to their managers, the
content is already there. “No more
last minute fire drills,” he says.
Web access and mobility
Two recent innovations are
Before You Start
getting project managers excited,
For managers of other large building
even impatient. One is the
programs, Senior Manager John Bantel
Web access provision in both
offers some advice:
P3e and Expedition. Now,
suppliers tap directly into
1. Be sure you understand your project
schedules or can submit project
management process before even looking at
data directly into the system
any software. You don’t want to reinvent
via the Web. This enables much
your process to fit the software. Our group
shorter turnaround for docurolled out our manual process to the project
ment clarification requests
management teams before bringing in the
(DCRs, the company’s equivaPrimavera software, which enabled us to
lent of requests for information)
map the software to the process, customizand submittals. A supplier
ing to adapt the software where necessary.
encountering, say, a partial
foundation where a new one
2. Make sure you have a clear underis supposed to be poured
standing of how big the job of impletransmits the DCR to the PM
menting the software is. In order for any
staff via the Web rather than by fax or
implementation to be successful, you need
hardcopy. As a result, the response
to get buy-in from all those who will be
cycle time that in the past would
affected – from the people in the field to
have taken anywhere up to two
the project managers. Get all the players
weeks, has been reduced to days or
together up front; this group should
even hours.
include representatives from purchasing
Going mobile is the other, courtesy
and program managers from each of the
of Expedition. “On some of our sites,
business areas that will be impacted. It’s
it can take the PM half an hour to
critical to learning about their needs and
get from one area to another,”
for getting their buy-in.
says Bantel. “Now the PM can
3. Conduct training
enter data into a PDA on the
for the project managers
run, and then sync it with the
in the classroom; menPC back at the office later.”
tor them on-site, and
This has been a real asset for
continue to support the
maintaining and checking the
team throughout the
life of the project.
18
www.primavera.com
“punch list,” the list of open items.
Each morning, the PM can load an
updated punch list into the PDA,
check items off around the site as
they’re cleared during the day, and
then update the central database at
day’s end.
Bantel’s group is phasing in
Expedition and P3e as new projects
are begun. One of the first major
sites to employ the software was a
new plant. The metal fabricating
center is now complete; next on tap
are a paint shop, body shop, and
general assembly facility.
Primavera Expedition’s customizable
fields and functions are also helping
the company with its business requirements. Using customizable fields in
the daily report form, Bantel’s group
has created a safety tracking module,
which is now in use at the site, to
record any reportable safety incidents
on the premises, the number of hours
worked, and other pertinent information. The module generates reports
on success and trends, according
to Bantel. “It supports our goal of
having zero safety incidents.” The
module was so successful that
Primavera has since incorporated it
into Expedition 8.5.
Establishing best
practices
Bantel expects Expedition to improve
planning of projects as well as their
management. “We didn’t have a
good way to link our planners into
the actual construction of a project,
so they haven’t been getting much
feedback,” he says. “Now, we can
compare our original estimates vs.
actual costs. With coding we are able
to track and identify the cause of the
changes and costs associated.”
600-9345 #4 all pages
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This type of project data will also
create a list of changes that recur on
different projects, for example,
boosting the air handling capacity in
engine plants. This is fed back to
planners, and may indicate they need
to design more in from the start.
In addition, Bantel says, “We’re
planning to develop a list of what
causes overruns and what practices
or building components usually
Page 19
come in under
budget and ahead
of schedule. The
Expedition and
P3e databases will
help us identify
best practices that
we can employ across all construction
projects.”
Streamlining for the PM
The ultimate goal, though, is “to
streamline the job of the PM, who is
responsible for every aspect of the
project,” Bantel says. And the PMs
are beginning to take notice. “After we
began using the Primavera software
on a new facility for our powertrain
division, the powertrain process
team, one of our customers, began
asking us to use it in their process
installation – they could easily see
its value in tracking information.
When a customer sees the value of
the process and supporting tools
that we are able to provide, and
subsequently wants to incorporate
them into their installation process, it
validates that we are having a positive
effect within the corporation. That’s
the kind of reward that makes you
feel pretty good.” •
Janet Kreiling is a Dexter, Michiganbased business and technology writer.
Contact her at jkreiling@ameritech.net.
600-9345 #4 all pages
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Page 20
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600-9345 #4 all pages
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Page 21
prime mover
Jim Johnson on the
Changing Face of
Project Management
By Judd Howard
James H. “Jim” Johnson is founder and
chairman of The Standish Group
International, Inc., a research and
consulting group based in Yarmouth,
Mass. The Standish Group conducts
primary research on mission-critical
technologies and provides clients with risk
assessment services on a consulting basis.
Each year, the Standish Group publishes
a summary of its latest research into the
evolving state of project management in
The CHAOS Report. Their annual
forum, CHAOS University, draws
project management professionals from
across the nation.
PRIMAVERA: In 1994, The
CHAOS Report included disturbing statistics about project
management in America. Six
years later, the outlook had
improved significantly. Is this
trend continuing?
JOHNSON: Yes, generally speaking, project management and project
outcomes continue to improve,
though the rate has slowed somewhat
after an initial dramatic period of
improvement. This isn’t surprising,
though, when you consider that
in 1994 we didn’t even know we
had a problem. Back then, complet-
ed projects were considered successful and canceled projects were
deemed failures.
Our research sought to better
define success and failure and the
factors that affect each outcome.
Our findings indicated that outcomes can be classified as successful,
challenged, or impaired or failed.
Successful projects are completed
on time, on budget, and include all
features called for in the plan.
Challenged projects finish late,
run over budget, and deliver fewer
features than originally planned.
Failed or impaired projects are
those projects that are canceled prior
to completion.
Using these criteria, project outcomes improved markedly between
1994 and 2000. In 1994, only 16
percent of all projects studied met
our criteria for success, 53 percent
fell into the challenged category,
and 31 percent
were canceled before completion.
By 2000, 28 percent of all projects
studied were successful, 49 percent
were challenged,
and only 23 percent
actually failed – a
significant improvement when you
consider that the aggregate investment ranged into the hundreds of
billions of dollars.
In general, projects today have a
better waste-to-value ratio than the
projects we looked at a decade ago.
This ratio provides a rough gauge
of how well a project is managed
because successful projects have a low
waste to value ratio, while projects
with higher waste-to-value ratios
are most likely flawed in design
or execution.
PRIMAVERA: What determines
the waste-to-value ratio of a given
project?
JOHNSON: The computation
itself is rather complicated, however
the concept isn’t hard to follow.
Waste occurs when resources such
as employee talent,
finances, materials,
subcontractors, and
time are selected,
assigned or used
ineffectively. Waste
also occurs when
the project design
calls for features
that really aren’t
needed. The value
of the project to
PROJECT SUCCESS
=
BUSINESS SUCCESS
21
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Page 22
prime mover
the company is relatively static, but
waste can vary substantially. The
ratio between the two reflects the
relative performance of the project
management team.
PRIMAVERA: Early on, you
developed a Top Ten list of factors
that influence project success. What’s
on the list these days?
JOHNSON: The ten most influential factors, in descending order of
importance, are:
• Executive support
characterize a good project manager?
JOHNSON: Good project
managers know and apply basic
principles of sound business, such as
sound planning, effective execution
of the plan, and maintaining control
of all resources, tasks and activities
necessary to complete the project.
The project manager must have
in-depth knowledge of his company,
his customers, and the dynamics
of his industry, and he’s got to put
resources such as time, finances,
personnel, and project management
with tools and technology. It has
more to do with the emotions,
politics and level of reason exhibited
by the parties involved. I think tools
are useful only to the degree that
they’re given to people who use
them effectively.
PRIMAVERA: What trends
do you see developing in project
management?
JOHNSON: I think we’ll see
smaller, more tightly focused projects
requiring fewer staff, budgets under
Without the active participation and advocacy
of a member of senior management, a project’s
chances of success are slim.
• User involvement
• Project manager experience
• Clear business objectives
• Minimized scope
• Standard infrastructure
• Well-defined basic requirements
• Formal methodology
• Reliable estimates
• Skilled staff
Projects don’t have to have all of
these to succeed, but the risk of
failure drops as the number of
factors increases.
Inside an organization, executive
support is key. Without the active
participation and advocacy of a
member of senior management, a
project’s chances of success are slim.
The project manager’s level of skill is
crucial as well, as this is the person
responsible for driving the project
forward on a daily basis.
PRIMAVERA: How would you
22
www.primavera.com
tools to their best strategic use.
The best managers have discipline,
exceptional decision-making skills,
and the ability to communicate and
negotiate with all interested parties,
including staff, senior management,
customers, consultants and suppliers.
PRIMAVERA: In the matrix of
your Top Ten influential factors,
what role do you assign tools such as
project management software?
JOHNSON: Underestimating
project complexity and ignoring or
overlooking changing requirements
are basic reasons why projects fail.
Good project management software
imposes the kind of discipline that
should be inherent in every project.
A well-designed application can help
the manager maintain this discipline
for the duration of the endeavor.
Failure, however, has little to do
$1 million, and timeframes of less
than a year. Projects with these
characteristics are more likely to
succeed than larger projects.
In addition, due to the explosion
in available information, a growing
number of executives rely on wisdom
circles – informal get-togethers where
professionals can exchange experiences
– to stay abreast of developments in
the project management field.
Finally, business is getting better at
failing. How we fail is often the key
to future success. Thomas Edison
said that the secret of his success was
learning to fail quickly. The ability to
recognize a failing project early, and
to pull the plug in order to conserve
resources for more deserving projects
is the mark of a truly savvy manager. •
Judd Howard is a business writer
and editor based in Doylestown, Pa.
Contact him at jlh18@comcast.net.
600-9345 #4 all pages
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Page 23
business reader
Building a Project-Driven Enterprise:
How to Slash Waste and Boost Profits
Through Lean Project Management
by Ronald Mascitelli
Technology Perspectives, 2002. 368 pages.
➤ In his self-published book, Ronald
Mascitelli devotes one chapter to
best organizational schemes for projectdriven companies, how to prioritize
projects and human resources issues.
However, the great majority of
the book focuses on how to slash
waste and increase value in project
management work. Mascitelli, through
his company Technology Perspectives,
offers workshops in lean project
management and much of this book
reads like those sessions.
Mascitelli outlines the principles of
lean thinking. He curses “time batches,”
events that act like dams in the flow of
a schedule, and advocates “just-intime” information. He takes on
wasteful meetings and even more
wasteful long e-mail exchanges. And
he applies lessons from information
theory to information exchanged
during the planning and execution
of a project.
He then provides 12 methods to
slay the demons of project waste and
maximize value for the customer.
A separate chapter is devoted to the
PRIMAVERA
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welcome, and must include the writer's name and
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your comments and suggestions to
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special case of new
product development.
Although Mascitelli doesn’t advise
how to change cultures, he provides
excellent arguments about why lean
works better. •
600-9345 #4 all pages
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Page 24
vision
HINA’S
C
COLOSSUS
Primavera solutions prove vital to construction
of the Three Gorges Dam
By Madhavi Swamy
I t was by this stream that the master said –
“T hus do things flow away!”
Sails move with the wind.
T ortoise and S nake are still.
G reat plans are afoot:
~ Mao Zedong 1893-1976
E
ver since Chairman Mao
penned these lines about the Three
Gorges Dam, China’s leaders have
been single minded about bringing
his dreams to fruition. But revolutions,
famines and great leaps forward
impeded any serious effort at planning
and implementation.
Public works behemoths are in the
24
www.primavera.com
Chinese tradition: The Grand Canal
of Imperial China connected the
political center of the empire in
the north with the economic and
agricultural center in the south.
That project took seven centuries
to complete. Dynasties came and
went; the legacy of the canals
remained. In the context of a five-
thousand-year history, the interruptions posed by a few turbulent
decades are insignificant.
The $25 billion Three Gorges
Dam, aimed at harnessing the
awesome power of the ancient
Yangtze River, was finally begun in
1993. At the current pace, all 26
generators under construction should
600-9345 #4 all pages
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be running by 2009.
With a power generation capacity
of 18.2 million kilowatts – as much
as 18 nuclear power stations – the dam
is the most ambitious undertaking of
its kind in the world. At completion,
it will be over one mile wide and
more than a third of a mile high. The
entire structure will require almost
26 million tons of concrete, and
requires erecting 281,000 tons of
metal structures, and the making
and erecting of 354,000 tons of reinforcing bars. In all, 250,000 people
will have worked on the project.
Page 25
who live by fishing or farming along
the Yangtze.
Human rights groups contend that
a number of small and medium-sized
dams would be a less costly alternative
and would eliminate the need to
resettle almost one million people.
Archeologists point out that an
important part of China’s heritage will
be lost once the reservoir is flooded,
and this could affect tourism to the
region, an important revenue earner.
impact on the region’s climate.
The project will bring much needed
economic development into the
interior rural areas by increasing
the navigable areas of the Yangtze,
allowing river traffic and trade to
penetrate the interior southwest.
Further, government experts say that
the dam’s energy output will generate
up to $65 billion in industrial activity
per year and millions of desperately
needed jobs.
–Baihua Yang, planner, China
Three Gorges Project
Development Corporation.
In a nation whose energy needs are
largely met by burning coal, the
switch to cleaner hydroelectric power
will cut 100 million tons of carbon
dioxide and 10,000 tons of carbon
monoxide from the atmosphere
annually. Breathtaking figures indeed.
NOT WITHOUT CONTROVERSY
As with any public undertaking
of this scale, there is a downside.
Environmental groups are concerned
that by changing the hydrology of
the river, the dam could threaten the
environment and adversely affect
the livelihoods of 75 million people
Photo Dennis Cox
“The Three Gorges
Dam is so large that
coordinating the
bidding and
procurement could
have been a nightmare.”
BENEFITS ABOUND
But, the benefits promised by the
project are manifold. Aside from
being practically emission-free, hydroelectricity is one of the cheapest renewable fuel sources known to man. Dam
defenders emphasize its contribution
to flood control, averring that the
reservoir’s massive flood storage
capacity will lessen the frequency of big
downstream floods from once every
10 years to once every 100 years. The
reservoir could even have a moderating
Planning the construction of a
dam is a complex task in the best
of circumstances. Imagine, then, the
challenge posed by a dam that makes
the Hoover look like a Tinkertoy.
PRIMAVERA FOR THE TASK
Enter Primavera: the company’s
software for project management was
the ideal tool for Chinese planners.
Baihua Yang, a planner at the China
Three Gorges Project Development
Corporation, says that it has been
PROJECT SUCCESS
=
BUSINESS SUCCESS
25
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vision
indispensable since the inception
of the project. “It was especially
handy in three aspects: design, scheduling, and budgeting.”
Yang explains that the software
allows users access to a supplier
database of designers, construction
managers and consultants. It then
matches a given design with estimates
for pricing, technical viability and
scheduling from its database.
“The Three Gorges Dam is so
large that coordinating the bidding
and procurement could have been a
nightmare,” says Yang. “But although
we were inundated with proposals
from contractors, Primavera enabled
us to systematically analyze and
eliminate uncompetitive bids.”
Dam Hits
Final Stage
Editor’s Note: As we go
to press, China announced
that damming of the diversion
channel is now complete,
allowing the Yangtze's natural
flow to pass through the flood
discharging holes of the
partially completed dam. The
damming, which was carried
live on Chinese television,
launches the final phase of the
enormous project.
Now that actual construction has
begun, the software is continuing to
play an important role in managing
field reports and synchronizing information among various team members.
THE WORLD WATCHES
In this project, there is no room
for mistakes. Next year, the permanent ship lock and first four generators
are scheduled to begin operation.
The prestige of a nation is at
stake. And as the world watches,
China’s current generation is beginning to realize the ambitions of
generations past. •
Madhavi Swamy is a freelance
journalist based in China.
–LD
Impress software lets you respond
The critical
importance
of
integration.
to changes instantly, capitalize
on split-second opportunities and
outper form your competition.
You’ll achieve bi-directional realtime synchronization of project
data between SAP Systems and
Primavera Project Management –
for real-time decision making. Lowcost business process automation
has never been easier, faster and
better. Choose from three packages
to suit your needs: IMPRESS Engine,™
I.Apps™ for pre-packaged integration,
or I.Solutions™ on our integration
platform. For more information
visit www.impress.com
600-9345 #4 all pages
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project portfolio
The Balanced Portfolio
By Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin
In Part One of this fourpart series, we examined the
rationale behind portfolio
management and the connection between project management and strategic focus.
Part Two explores the
selection and prioritization
scorecard for projects.
➤ In the first article of this series, I posed the riddle
“When is a business enterprise like a tree?” This article
provides another answer to that question: When it’s
well-balanced.
“Balance” is a word that we are familiar with in the
context of portfolio management, whether we are
speaking of stocks and bonds or projects. In both
cases, it refers to the same strategy: reducing risk
in organizational life. Instead of tweaking the parts
– individual projects, departments, or processes –
systems theory encourages us to look first at the whole:
the enterprise.
Take inventory
What’s in the portfolio? Most companies are very far
from being able to balance or prioritize projects
because they don’t know. In fact, their “portfolio”
resembles more closely the forest floor in autumn: a
random jumble of projects scattered about, the ones
on top obscuring the ones on the bottom … and
many in a state of decay.
Thus, the first step in developing a holistic view of
the organization is to take inventory, not just in IT,
but across the organization. Pretty basic? Yes, but it’s
a foundation sadly lacking in many companies’
attempts to implement portfolio management. Before
you can even begin to answer questions about fit,
utility or balance, you’ll need a good bit of precise
The first step in developing a holistic view of the organization is to
take inventory, not just in IT, but across the organization.
and maximizing potential return by diversifying
investments – in this case, the investment of resources
in a project.
But balance has also entered the corporate lexicon
in another context – the Balanced Scorecard, a
measure of organizational health devised by Kaplan
and Norton. In a nutshell, the Balanced Scorecard
creates a holistic view of organizational progress by
examining not only financial measures, but also “soft”
measures of organizational health such as employee
and customer satisfaction.
Like project portfolio management, the scorecard
approach is part of a trend toward systems thinking
information about what projects are under way.
The good news is that even this most basic step
reveals redundancies and dead issues, allowing a
portfolio management initiative to create value for the
company almost immediately. The inventory has to
include all projects, since resources are working on all
projects – not just on the high-profile ones. And it
should include projects that are being carried out by
outsource providers and consultants as well, since
even those projects have at least someone within the
company who is a liaison, contract manager and/or
project manager. These hours often get lost in the
decision-making process, only to show up later as a
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=
BUSINESS SUCCESS
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project portfolio
cost or schedule overrun.
A second part of the inventory process should
be, literally, counting heads. Who are the project
managers, and what additional resources are available?
Surprisingly, many large companies are only beginning
to get a handle on who their project resources are and
where they reside on the org chart. For some companies,
the scarcest resource isn’t money but project managers.
A critical question in project selection thus becomes:
“Do we have a PM who can manage it?”
Gather information
Essentially, portfolio management is what Albert
Einstein called “a thought experiment.” Many
questions must be answered in detail before you can
begin to select and prioritize the projects in the
inventory, and some of the answers won’t come easy.
Which projects make the most money? Which have
the lowest risk? Which have subjective value in terms
of community image or internal morale? Which are
not optional, projects dictated by regulatory requirements, for example? In the information gathering
process, a second level of shakedown will naturally
come about. Some projects will be backburnered
because human resources aren’t available, some
because the technology is immature, some due
to looming external risks. Information gathering
addresses the questions of a project’s fit and utility.
But it’s in the balancing act that the real value of
portfolio management is created.
The process used to balance the portfolio must be
designed to optimize the portfolio, not just the
individual projects, and must take into account the
PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT RESOURCES
Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, The
Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into
Action, Harvard Business School, 1996.
James S. Pennypacker and Lowell D. Dye,
eds., Project Portfolio Management: Selecting
and Prioritizing Projects for Competitive
Advantage, CBP, 1999.
Robert G. Cooper, Scott J. Edgett, and Elko
J. Kleinschmidt, Portfolio Management for
New Products, Perseus Publishing, 1998.
28
www.primavera.com
interrelationships among projects. In order to make
relative comparisons, some intellectual framework is
required. Why not a Balanced Scorecard-type framework? If the Balanced Scorecard measures the health
of the organization by looking at what’s already in
place, doesn’t it make sense to use it also as a framework for selecting what will be done? A Scorecard for
Selection might therefore include:
1. Resource Availability: Do we have the people,
the funds, and the technology to carry out this
project? If not, is it worth it to us to develop them?
2. Profitability: What are the short-term benefits,
usually measured in financial metrics?
3. Social Value: What will this project add in terms
of image, morale, intellectual capital and “social
equity?” Are there intangible benefits internally,
for employees and shareholders, or externally, for
customers and the community at large?
4. Strategic Value: What long-term good do we
hope to gain from this project? How does it feed
into the vision of the company?
And, in each quadrant of the scorecard, another two
questions should be asked: What are the risks associated
with this project (measured in terms of resources,
profit, social value, and strategy)? And, what is the
learning value of the project in each area?
A Balanced Scorecard and Primavera
Complement a Balanced Scorecard approach to
portfolio management with Primavera software for
project portfolio status, resource availability analysis,
top-down budgeting and risk management.
Viewing projects by means of this scorecard and the
portfolio view in Primavision, a company can more
simply make relative judgments. A project with
short-term profits that carries a high risk of alienating
personnel, and not much learning value, may find
itself outranked by a project with lesser short-term
profitability but great learning value. Using a Balanced
Scorecard approach for portfolio selection, in short, is
one way to teach your company how to see the forest
– not just the trees. •
Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin is editor-in-chief of the
Center for Business Practices, the publishing and
research arm of Project Management Solutions, Inc.,
www.cbponline.com
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R E S O U R C E S
the Professional Association for
Project Controls and Cost Engineering
www.aacei.org
visit
and see how we can help you
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Mentoring
for Renewal
By Jennifer Pittman
➤ No one knows better than a seasoned professional
is much more than simply sharing wisdom from
that years of experience can dull the daily challenges hard-earned experience. To mentor is to affirm one’s
of a long career, and that sometimes it takes a place in the world, to make professional success
new perspective – someone else’s – to renew the mean something beyond a personal victory. It renews
old achievements, and for the light-hearted, it even
shine and enthusiasm of success.
provides the chance to
For Sally Pera, a Silicon
To mentor is to affirm
laugh at past mistakes.
Valley business consultant
Mentoring has always
with a company called one’s place in the world.
had its place in the business
PRConnect, one of the
best ways to renew herself is to connect with and world, but in the current work environment where
mentor budding entrepreneurs who are trying to people change employers and careers with remarkable
regularity, the task of mentoring often falls to those
make their way in the world of business.
She has mentored young people through formal who simply accept an informal and spontaneous
university career programs where she’s taught, and via bond with an enthusiastic newcomer in their field.
professional organizations, but these days, more often When the teacher is ready, the student appears.
“Students ask the darndest questions,” says David
than not, the relationship just happens. It’s a phone
conversation or a Sunday breakfast with someone she Hodgins, founder and chairman of the Pathfinder
Companies, a small consultthinks is “a superstar.”
ing firm in Scotts Valley,
“I’m 54 years old,” Pera says.
Calif. “By going through that
“I’ve started five businesses
process you often learn a
and raised two children so I
tremendous amount.”
have experience to share. It’s
For Janice Scanlon, the
soul energy. I get more from it
principal of Performance
than I give.”
Foundations in Susanland,
Unlike professional coachTexas, mentoring equally
ing, mentoring is more about
benefits both parties.
being part of the community
“I am very choosy about
you work in, she says.
whom I work with, and if
“It’s part of giving back, of
I don’t get something back,
being grateful for who you are
it’s not a good relationship,”
and what you have. You’re
she says. What makes the
trying to share it with the rest
relationship work for the
of the world. I absolutely
mentor, Scanlon says, is the
know my well-being is
enthusiasm and openness of the student. “You have
contingent on giving back a great deal.”
to open yourself and be willing to not be perfect.”
And, as all good mentors know, “There has to
Affirming one’s place
Mentoring is one of the most direct ways to measure come a point when they outgrow you. Otherwise,
how far one has come. For the people who dedicate you’re not doing a good job.” •
a little time each month to a telephone conversation
with a corporate newcomer or for coffee at the corner Jennifer Pittman is a Santa Cruz, Calif.-based
deli to discuss project management skills, mentoring business and technology writer.
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“ Delays at LAX?
Not on my watch.”
“A 40 million dollar job, with 600 submittals, plus RFIs,
plus everything else. With Expedition®, I was able to keep
everyone in the loop...the bottom line is that we were
able to work smarter and faster.”
Ralph Taber PE, Project Manager
Swinerton Management & Consulting
Download the Swinerton/LAX case study now and start controlling
every aspect of your engineering and construction projects.
You can’t shut down LAX for a
day, or even an hour. Primavera
Expedition helped Ralph keep his
eyes on the big picture, keep his
grip on the details and keep his
cool despite traffic in the air and
on the ground. Expedition helps
you minimize delays and cost
exposure by streamlining the
review, approval and distribution
of critical project information.
Expedition’s browser-based
interface provides anytime, anywhere access — even in the field.
All this plus Primavera’s legendary
customer support.
Discover how Expedition can help
you improve performance
on the job.
Take control now at:
www.primavera.com/LAX or call 1-800-423-0245.
600-9345 #4 all pages
12/20/02
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It’s a project-based world.
Conquer it.
The good news is, project management is booming. How could there possibly be any bad news?
Well, consider this. As projects achieve greater importance and visibility in the corporate world, executives
will demand even more from you than they do already.
Projects will have to be on time, within budget and meet their business objectives. And since as many as
79% of projects fail against one or more of these yardsticks, the pressure is decidedly on.
At Primavera, we saw the project-based world coming. Which is why we have the software to help you deal
with it now that it’s here.
Our software solutions provide you with a truly integrated enterprise platform for project, process and
resource management. Giving everybody from team members to C-level executives the information and functionality they need. While letting you focus on completing projects and meeting project objectives.
Since Primavera software is web-enabled, it also lets you manage distributed teams.
It helps your company decide which projects to initiate, showing their risk, projected success level, cost and
even projected payback. Helping you avoid failures before they’ve begun.
And embedded knowledge management features let your company repeat best practices that work and
avoid methods that don’t.
We can’t claim to have the perfect solution for everyone. But for project-oriented companies that demand
an enterprise-wide perspective, we do have a solution to help you successfully meet the increasing demands of
a project-based world.
Call 1-800-423-0245 (U.S.) or +44-20-8563-5500 (U.K.) for information. Or visit www.primavera.com.
Because nothing succeeds like project success.
project success = business success™
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