(1) Explain your problem, don't simply post "This isn't working". What were you doing when you faced the problem? What have you tried to resolve - did you look for a solution using "Search" ? Has it happened just once or several times?
(2) It's also good to get feedback when a solution is found, return to the original post to explain how it was resolved so that more people can also use the results.
Printer-friendly version
Send to friend
>Hey All, Trying to determine a useful set of statistics to collect on a broad range of schedules:
No of Planned Activities vs Actual Activities to determine the number of changes to a schedule to determine the stability of schedules
Average time in a percentage and range that schedules go over their original planned dates in a large range of schedules - how many as built schedules are within 10 percent range of original baseline date for example.
Project events which cause the most delays
Risk Events with no contingency added, which have caused delays, patterns in uncertainty and risk that keep occuring but where no contingency or allowance is added to schedule
Any thoughts on useful data, statistics to collect on schedules?
Cheers,
Mark
Mark,
contingency plans shall be incorporated into the project model, risks are changing during project execution, some risks will be missed, etc. That is why we recommend to use risk simulation for analysing and managing trends of success probabilities. Even if initial estimates of project risks are not correct trends of probabilities to achieve project targets help to apply necessary corrective actions when needed.
Look at the presentation http://www.spiderproject.com/images/img/pdf/Construction%20CPM%20Conference%202019/Risk%20simulation%20problems%20and%20advantages.pdf where Success Driven Project Management is briefly discussed.
Mark,
now you suggest to examine applied risk management techniques that was not mentioned in your initial post.
This topic is very interesting but few planners aplly quantitative risk analysis in day by day management.
Risk analysis technique does not provide an accurate schedule, but suggests contingency reserves that shall be added to the project schedule, project budget and other parameters that were analyzed.
You could look at what risks and uncertainty they identified before, how were these managed in the schedule, what risks occurred, and did the actual risk management techniques give you an accurate schedule?
A simple approach would be to just look at many baseline plans vs as built plans, to find out the difference between planned finish date and actual finish, and assuming there is differences between the two then question why the date was not achieved, or was it achieved before planned finish, and how different the as built activity list is compared with the planned, what occured during the project to make the logic or activities different from first planned.
Yes, Mark, it looks like few plans are created for resource and cost management. Most are used for management of project contracts. An answer to one simple question "if he/she uses resource leveling" explains the purpose of the project plan.
One concern I have is interviewing Planners, In my experience Planners will never admit there is anything wrong with the plans they submit, for example does the plan drive the work or is it driven by changes on the project. For example often plans are just a progress reporting tool that is sent off to a client, they are not used in anyway to manage the work.
I have just done my MSc dissertation on Delay Analysis and was so frustrated because only AFTER my inteviews did I realise one or two questions I should have asked after i had finsihed my literature portion (and didnt) and it was too late to change course......
Agree with the above comments. As complicated as we want to be, ironically it gets too hard to analyse when it comes to the analysis part.
I would also stay away from software because there will be too many variables and you want to avoid commercial critiques of software......
BIM is a huge thing in the industry, personally very exciting HOWEVER you will find limited research on the topic (during my coursework it was shown to be limited with actual case history and precedences). I do think its an interesting topic though and if you can get a case study on a large BIM project that is integrating with planning that would be amazing, but you would need months and months...probably more a PHD from a timing point of view. You would also need permissions and to actually be on the project or have access to those working on it. All quite complex unless arranged in advance. However, think of the end result could be incredible and you could get a project spotlight to be taken seriously in the industry. Lots of scope for follow on papers to be written based on this case study.
I would start from first principles. Ask yourself what problem you have identified in your career and perhaps pick it as a research topic to see if its a genuine issue in the market. At the end of the day, you want something you can get data from and that will be easy to analyse in a statistical format. Thats where most ppl go wrong.
Good luck. Breathe and if you come up against issues, you can usually figure your way out of the rut, thats the beneift of planning skills ;)
Hi Mark,
all topics are interesting if to dig deep enough.
Hi All, I am now thinking of focusing on Risk Management with planning and scheduling, plus I think its a more interesting topic.
Mark.
.
All interesting topics.
Having had recent experience of completing a similar MSc myself - don't go for anything too avant garde because you may struggle to find enough research to back anything up. 4D planning could well fall in to this category.
I agree with Santosh Pick one
Hi Mark, I fear it may be too broad to cover all those topics and perhaps you should focus on one in particular. Especially as you will really be required to research across multiple projects, multiple organisations etc to really understand patterns rather than a one-off project as the bassis for your assessment.
I would also, in additiont o the techniques you've listed, inlcude Linear Scheduling into the mix.
Email: PPadmin@planningplanet.com
Replies