Although alliance systems can lead to great cost and time savings, it is important to pay particular attention to internal communications and authorisation systems.

It can take a lot longer to get information circulated or authorisations done properly compared to if everyone was from the one company.

Verification of designs can be particularly time consuming as the designs may need to pass between lots of departments.

It can help to indicate clearly on the communications or forms who is responsible for replying or taking action, when that action is due by, and who they should return it to or pass it on to when they are completed. For other people copied in the communication, make sure it is clear that they are only copied for information only and do not need to act or reply.

Keeping urgent or important labels for truly important communications can speed the process.

If necessary, make a, simple to follow, one page procedure for processing documents (so that people can know what to do easily).

Tagged with: alliance • authorisation • verification

Filed under: Communication • Documentation • Time

Remember in your planning that the costs of materials are often less than the labour costs to install them.

Consider the ease and speed of installation even if the materials may cost more.

For example, laying asphalt may be more expensive in materials than using pavers, but it may work out to take less labour time than laying pavers and so the overall cost may be lower

Tagged with: installation • labour cost • material cost

Filed under: Cost • Planning

When running or coordinating a workshop or a presentation, make sure you have a printout of all the presentation so you can easily track where the presenter is up to.

Also make sure to have a printout of the schedule.

A printout is important as you may not be able to view it on the computer if that is connected to the projector and it is displaying the material to the audience.

Tagged with: coordinate • presentation • printout • schedule • workshops

Filed under: Communication • Planning

When you are making important decisions or preparing designs, get a second opinion on them before acting, because you may be coming from a biased or primed attitude.

(Primed is when you are thinking a certain way because of some previous input. It may cause you to think about the topic in only a certain way, and overlook better alternatives).

It is good to seek out the views of other team members on decisions and designs to get a different perspective.

Tagged with: bias • decisions • primed

Filed under: Design

If you want to get a collection of good ideas from your team, avoid using brainstorming. Brainstorming means everyone puts forward ideas in a group meeting, but people will often focus on the ideas presented so far (herd mentality).

Instead, use the nominal group method.

Each team member writes lots of ideas on paper about the topic (either before the meeting, or at the start). Once everyone is done, the coordinator should list all the ideas on a board so everyone can see them. This means all ideas get shown. Then you can discuss ideas, or vote on the best.

Tagged with: brainstorming • herd mentality • ideas • nominal group method

Filed under: Training

Make sure you allow enough time in your project plan for designs and drawings to be approved, internally as well as by the client.

It is common to need 1-2 weeks for each step of FDR (Final Design Review), IDC (Interdisciplinary Check), Verification, IFC (Issue For Construction) etc reviews and approvals, especially if more than one person must approve these.

It is important to keep track of the approval status of these and follow up on people to review and sign them. I often find that although people get notified, they overlook signing the reviews or it sits on a desk waiting and gets buried.

If all the approvers are collocated, it is often worth having someone walk the documents around personally to each person for their approval, this can dramatically reduce the time taken and stop the documents being buried under other work or being forgotten about.

Tagged with: approval • drawings • review • verification

Filed under: Design • Documentation

Document storage and retrieval is a vital aspect for most projects.

If your company doesn’t have a good file storage system then I would suggest you make your own.

For an electronic system, storage needs to be easy to use and logical.

I suggest you make a system of folders or similar with a standardised approach to their use.

E.g.

1. Correspondence
2. Design
3. Suppliers etc

I find that if there is no system or if it is badly organised I may spend about 25% of my time trying to figure out where to store files I made, or where to find files I am looking for.

Tagged with: documents • files • folders

Filed under: Documentation

Encourage or train team members to use their workspace effectively, safely and more productively by supplying good, comfortable adjustable chairs, wrist supports, etc.

This leads to less sick time, more comfort, higher productivity, and higher concentration.

It may pay for itself very quickly.

Possibly pay a physiotherapist or similar expert to visit and give advice on everyone’s desk or work station use.

Tagged with: comfortable • concentration • ergonomic • productivity • workspace

Filed under: Safety

Make sure your team is skilled and trained in using the basic functions of their computers as efficiently as possible.

Possibly run some short workshops on the use of keyboard shortcuts, quicker ways to do things, etc.

Put together a simple list of commonly used tasks that have easy shortcuts or quicker ways to do it. Such as using the windows + E keys to open a file explorer window.

Some people open many copies of folders or programs whereby their task bar is full of small tabs that are too small to show the title. This is useless. They should only open as many as can still be read.

The increased efficiency accross the entire office based side of a project can by substantial. Individual people can increase their efficiency by up to 30% or more.

Tagged with: computer skills • efficiency • shortcuts

Filed under: Time • Training

Encourage and discipline your team members to use neat writing when making notes on drawings or things which others must read or refer to.

Messy or illegible writing slows the reader down and leads to miscommunication. It can also lead to mistakes as someone may assume a word is different to what was intended.

The project manager should lead by example.

If you, as the project manager, receive unclear hand written correspondence or drawings with unclear writing, you should return it to the writer and ask them to re submit it to you either typed or written clearly.

This is a communication issue and mistakes could lead to costly delays or safety issues.

Tagged with: lead by example • neat • notes • writing

Filed under: Communication • Time

Identify the specialist expertise you will need for the project as early as possible.

This could include designers of specialised equipment or processes that are not normally done by your company or that your company has very few of.

E.g. Traffic signal designers, commissioning engineer for complicated equipment.

Tagged with: expertise • specialist

Filed under: Human Resources • Planning

Microsoft Outlook or similar programs allow you to send meeting requests to people. This is a quick and effective way for meetings to be set without wasting time calling around for available times.

If all members of your team use the calendar function properly, they would have all their meetings and busy times entered into their calendar. When you request a meeting of them, you will be able to see available times in a simple bar chart and book accordingly.

Tagged with: calendar • meeting request • meetings • outlook • schedule

Filed under: Communication • Human Resources • Time • Training

Make sure you put a priority on tasks that other people require to be completed before they can start on their tasks.

Your team members may require you to approve something or send them something before they can proceed with work. It is very important that you put a priority on getting that task done and inform them of its completion. Otherwise you are slowing their work and costing more time and money than just your own time.

It may be necessary to do those tasks before you do tasks that have no dependencies.

Tagged with: dependencies • priorities • tasks

Filed under: Planning • Time

Although this is an organisation issue, not just a project issue, it is important to make sure your team does not send messages to all for something that is specific to one group or one office.

E.g. “A pair of reading glasses have been misplaced. If you have seen these could you please return them to reception.”

This kind of message often gets sent to the whole organisation mail system, which could include thousands of people, when it should be sent just to that local office.

The lost time associated with thousands of people readings a broadly sent email like that and the bandwidth costs could amount to thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

In the above example, approximately 5000 people received the message. 5000 x 30 seconds is about 42 hours wasted time ($5000+ in billable time). Plus the time wasted in people laughing about it and replying with comments. Plus the storage costs and transmittal costs.

Not only does it make the sender look foolish, it wastes your project time, resources, and if from your project, its reputation.

Tagged with: email • local office • wasted time

Filed under: Communication • Cost • Time • Training

If you (or others) are to travel for meetings, confirm that they have been scheduled.

Projects with committees or bureaucracy may overlook setting the times or places and informing everyone of a meeting properly.

Confirm the meeting before leaving for it.

Tagged with: meetings • schedule • travel

Filed under: Communication • Time

Consider seasonal influences on construction.

Wet/dry season, snow, monsoon, etc.

Be prepared for this and plan accordingly, with allowance for unexpected weather.

Tagged with: monsoon • rain • season • snow • weather

Filed under: Construction • Planning • Risk

Check the funding sources of your clients.

Especially local council clients who rely on funding that often changes.

Tagged with: council • funding • funds

Filed under: Client