Dear Planning Planet Member,

Please find below this weeks newsletter. We hope that you find it adds value to your day. Please visit our sponsors as they keep our servers running and without them, we will cease to exist...

Peter Drucker, arguably the father of modern management, said "What gets measured, gets managed.”  As we manage projects, the activities that we measure need to be carefully selected in order to achieve our organisational goals. One of the issues of only focusing on traditional activity measures is that we are guiding ourselves with purely historical data. This is like driving only using our rear-view mirror.  Read the full blog...

Improving predictability in the construction industry can mitigate cost and schedule overruns, ultimately having a huge impact on returns and margins.

Project predictability is simply knowing the outcome variance of a project as early as possible, i.e. how early in the project lifecycle is the outcome first known? Improving predictability requires...  Read the full Ecosys blog...

A great way to see all your resource assignment levels comparatively over time is to use a Stacked Histogram in Primavera P6.  It’s a feature that is available in the Resource Usage Profile charting facility.

The process to get this all working is a bit convoluted, so we’re going to show you step-by-step the process.   

Read the full blog / watch the video...

Apologizing at work can take a lot of guts and humility but is also a sign of professionalism and maturity that can be a very positive sign of good leadership. Knowing how to apologize at work isn’t easy but doing it right is a skill that every manager (and professional in general) needs to be able to master.  

Read the Clarizen Blog...

UPDATE: We are now well on the way to building that core of PMP holders so thanks for your support and encouraging words.  Thanks for your interesting messages and discussions - james.williams@planningplanet.com  

If you have a PMP and a SOLID EXPERIENCE profile contact me to get on the list to claim your Planning & Scheduling Professional Certification (PSPC) and Cost Management Professional Certification (CMPC) from the Guild of Project Controls in regognition of what you learned in your PMP. 

Half of all new PMOs fail within the first two years. A majority of projects fail to meet their success criteria. But why? What factors can help you beat the odds?  Through a combination of academic research and real-world experience with numerous organizations, Clarizen prepared this...

Regardless of which industry you work in, you should always be forward-looking. Trends that are appearing in your industry today will likely have a drastic impact on the future of your career.

A recent webcast with Laurie Bowman, talked about “How to Future-Proof Your Career in Project Planning & Scheduling.”  

Here’s what Laurie had to say about the impacts of these megatrends on future project planning & scheduling workforce - read full article...

Do you seek PROMOTION or do you want to better UNDERSTAND YOUR Stengths and SKILLS (in private) or do you seek that NEW ROLE?

Proven Practitioner provides ALL THE TOOLS YOU NEED

Go to Premium and sign up!  

A new charter lies ahead for the SchedulerReaderTM team.

The recent rebranding announcement of their viewer for XER and XML project schedules also announces the release of new software project utility solutions in near future.

Read the full announcement

Just because work has always been done a certain way doesn’t necessarily make it the right way. In fact, bad habits in the workplace might be far more common than you think, and they could be costing your project time, productivity and even final success. If you want to know how to improve habits around your organization, then here are some of the things you need to be looking out for.  Read the Blog...

Drive Project Success with Disruptive Innovation

In the era of digital disruption, delivering project success requires putting in place the right project cost management tool with intensive integration capabilities.

‘Digital technologies, when applied comprehensively and efficiently, can reduce overall project costs by as much as 45 percent.' as a recent McKinsey analysis suggests. 

However, 64 percent of technical projects still face cost overruns. Despite many challenges, companies applying integrated project controls complete their projects within time and budget and drive project success.Cleopatra Enterprise LLC will meet with various companies through the USA & Canada and Australia, showcase our state-of-the-art software Cleopatra, and discuss:

• How to drive project success in today’s challenging environment
• The value of using a project controls software that integrates the disciplines cost estimating, scheduling, cost management and benchmarking
• Best practices in project controls, which bring continuous improvement with Cleopatra Enterprise

Australia

Date: 19 – 23 November 2018
Location: Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth - Schedule a meeting in Australia

After exporting activity table data from Primavera P6 to Excel, it’s very hard to distinguish the vaious WBS levels.  

This post will show you how to color WBS level automatically so we can have report like in P6.

Read the full blog...

Prioritization refers to ranking or scoring projects, based on certain criteria, to determine the order of execution. However, the terms “prioritization” and “selection” are often used interchangeably, as the two processes are intertwined.  Selection and prioritization are important elements of project portfolio management (PPM), an approach that connects the execution of projects with high-level business strategy. Read the full blog...

Whether this is your first, or fifty-first report there are always ways you can hone and improve your report writing so look at these eight ways you can make an ok report into a great one.

Show your boss, your team and yourself that you really understand exactly what it takes to create that professional finish..  

Read the full blog...

Our Project Controls Gatherings are a great opportunity for our members to discuss industry issues, share ideas and form new connections. Here is a list of our upcoming gatherings...

• Bangkok, Thailand - Saturday 17th November 2018
• Motherwell, Scotland - Saturday 8th December 2018

These meetings may just form the beginning of lasting professional relationships. Don’t miss out! Follow the links above to sign up.

What should I do if I can't see a meeting near me?

If you don’t see an event near you listed above, why not create your own? Just email james.williams@planningplanet.com to get started.

To make sure these events can be as successful as possible, please forward this to your friends and colleagues so they can also get involved.      

San Diego, California - January 20 – 23, 2019

For 2019 the Construction CPM Conference returns to San Diego

We have booked six meeting rooms over three full days.

Two keynotes – Seventy-Seven breakouts – Five networking events – One conference

Our Best Rates for Speakers & Exhibitors is open to all – REGISTER NOW

Have you taken a look at the Guild of Project Controls' Role Descriptors yet?  - This is the perfect tool for those who want to find out the baseline knowledge required for their role and level of seniority - think of it as a job descriptor for all roles and levels of competence.  Give it a try here, find out more here. 

Contact PPAdmin@planningplanet.com if you would like to learn about getting our Project Controls Toolbox for...

• YOUrself,
• your TEAM,
• your PROJECT, or
• your COMPANY

What is needed to come up with a production rate?

A duration of time, the manhours involved, and an amount of work produced this section of Planning Planet is here to document this. 

What information do you have that you can share?

A superior alternative to the "most popular" software for us as planners?  Today it is used in 34 countries though most Spider Project customers are in Russia.  Spider Project offers numerous unique functional features and is the only PM software that optimizes resource, cost, and material constrained schedules and budgets for projects and portfolios. Check it out here...

It would be nice if everything was always perfect: in other words, getting to focus on a single, well-organized and strongly supported project with a proactive and enthusiastic team.

The reality however is often very different, for one reason or another, not only may the project have issues, but you might have to manage several of them at once.  Read the full blog...

Opportunities await you.  We are working on some of the most exciting, iconic projects around the world.

Jacobs has recently won a major contract, known as the Programme Delivery Partner (PDP) – for the provision of project management, project controls and integrated logistics support - with the Ministry of Defence's (MOD's) Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) Agency, based in Bristol. DE&S is seeking our support at their offices across the UK and we are, therefore, keen to identify people who are interested in working for Jacobs, and being involved in PDP, across the UK.

Join our team and say “Hello” to a whole new future.

Let's get social!

Build your network and keep up to date by following us on social media, just click the icons to get started.

The Compendium and Reference (CaR) is a document which forms The Guild Standards.

We have where possible offered advice as to previously written material which is in the public domain and proven to be of such quality that it can be used as a reliable reference of "best tested and proven practice".

The CaR is a living document being continually improved, supplemented and updated by the Guild community to reflect improvements to practices, opinions and methods in our chosen profession. The Guild is ready to receive suggestions at any time for updates to the CaR Standards.

Take a look here.

Have you tried the Guild of Project Controls' Assessment Centre? 

From this tool you will be able to ascertain your strengths and weaknesses against the many years of research that the Guild has ascertained are the Standards required for your role.

Further, for the first time you will know how you stack up in terms of skills in the Project Controls industry whatever your role.

Give it a try here!

We will be attending Project Controls events at these locations this year, if anyone wishes to attend or sponsor or speak or simply to come help us please do email james.williams@planningplanet.com and he will put you in touch with the relevant people.  We look forward to meeting you throughout the year.

• Melbourne, AU – Nov 28
• Kuwait city, Kuwait – Nov 30
• Rio, Brazil – Dec 06
• Porto, Portugal – Mar 19

MEMBERS

See who you know from within our 150,000+ membership pool!

GUILD

Take a look at the worlds first and only competence based credentials supported by a career path, role descriptors, self-assessment tools and online compendium desk reference of best tested and proven tools and techniques for project controls practitioners.

BLOG

Join other members who share their thoughts and ideas in the form of blog posts.

FORUM

100,000+ questions and answers to the topics we struggle with (mostly software!) on a day to day basis.

WIKI

A knowledge-base that can be contributed to or utilized by anyone with skills and/or interest in planning, scheduling or project controls. No Wiki page or article is owned by its creator or any other editor, and its content relies upon collaboration and teamwork. How can you contribute?

BUILD TIMES

What is needed to come up with a production rate? A duration of time, the manhours involved, and an amount of work produced? Take a look and get involved.

JOBS

This has been dusty and quiet place for some time now. We have been liaising with recruiters, headhunters and talent managers plus a ream of corporate leaders and very soon we will have the largest live repository of project controls jobs in the world. Check back soon.

ADVERTISERS

Check out our Silver and Gold partners and see if you'd like to be included there also.

If you got this far please email us to tell us - we will include your profile in the next newsletter as our "Validated Super-Readers" :)

The quickest two members to come back to us were:

• Juan Marcel van Aswegen in Thailand
• Muhammad Zahid in the United Arab Emirates