and John Kirsimagi: Increasing Quality, Reducing Costs · Planner, P3, Primavera Expedition,...

PRIMAVERA®

PROJECT SUCCESS = BUSINESS SUCCESS

VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 3 | 2003

20TH ANNIVERSARY • 20TH ANNIVERSARY • 20TH ANNIVERSARY • 20TH ANNIVERSARY

specialconferenceissue

specialconferenceissue

K. Hovnanian’s Robert Hofmann and John Kirsimagi:

K. Hovnanian’s Robert Hofmann and John Kirsimagi:

Increasing Quality,Reducing Costs

with P3e/c

PROJECT SUCCESS = BUSINESS SUCCESS 3

inside

PRIMAVERAPROJECT SUCCESS = BUSINESS SUCCESSVolume 2, Issue 3, 2003

EditorLinda DiBiasio / [email protected] Art DirectorSuzanne M. MorrisEditorial Contributors:Roseann McGrath Brooks, Jim Christopher, Susan Davidson,Phil Dunn, John McCormackCopy SupervisorLinda BarkerProduction ManagerChristi SchofieldOperations ManagerHolly King

Primavera Systems, Inc.Three Bala Plaza WestBala Cynwyd, PA 19004 USAPhone: 1-610-667-8600Fax: 1-610-949-6742www.primavera.comCEO Joel M. KoppelmanPresident Richard K. FarisVP Corporate Marketing Nancy Allen

Published byMedMedia,® Custom PublicationsA Division of K.I. Lipton Inc.Jeffrey S. Berman, President132 Welsh Road, Suite 120Horsham, PA 19044 USAPhone: 1-267-893-5680Fax: 1-267-893-5682www.ki-lipton.com

SubscriptionsSubscriptions are available to qualified readers who complete the form found in each issue, or at www.primavera.com/mag.

ReprintsFor reprints and e-prints, contact Lori Noffz, Reprint ManagementServices, 1-800-494-9051, ext. 104; [email protected].

© 2003 Primavera Systems, Inc. All rightsreserved. No part of this publication maybe reprinted or reproduced without writtenpermission from the editor. Although everyprecaution has been taken in the preparationof this magazine, Primavera Systems, Inc. andK.I. Lipton Inc. assume no responsibility forerrors or omissions.

PRIMAVERA – PROJECT SUCCESS =BUSINESS SUCCESS (ISSN 1543-6128),Primavera Enterprise, Primavera ProjectPlanner, P3, Primavera Expedition,Expedition, PrimeContract, SureTrakProject Manager, SureTrak, TeamPlay, P3eand Primavision are trademarks or registeredtrademarks of Primavera Systems, Inc., andvarious products and services listed hereinmay be trademarks of Primavera Systems,Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Canada Subscriptions: Canada PostAgreement Number 40671075. Sendchange of address information and blocksof undeliverable copies to PO BOX 1051,Fort Erie, ON L2A 6C7.

Features16 We the People …

Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center is dedicated to fostering a better understanding of theU.S. Constitution. Project manager Hill Internationalwas charged with ensuring that the new national treasure would open on time and on budget. By Jim Christopher

25 Change the Culture, Save the OrganizationThe Principal Financial Group revitalized its culture by adopting a project management approach – without losing its successful business unit structure. By John McCormack

29 Inside Stanford’s CIFE CenterDr. John Kunz, director of Stanford University’s Center for Integrated FacilityEngineering, talks about the center’s commitment to the use of the computer in support of civil engineering, as well as the importance of regularly publishing conformance statistics across the organization. By Linda DiBiasio

Column32 Collaboration – The Next Business Imperative

By Phil Dunn

Departments

4 start-to-start 6 PRIMAVERA postings 22 Ask Primavera 38 free float

On the Cover: K. Hovnanian’s Bull’s Ferry Community, West New York, N.J.

Photo: © 2003 Ralph V. Oswald

10

Cover Story10 Centralized Scheduling: The

Foundation for Homebuilding Success

Upgrading from P3 to P3e/c is enablingresidential homebuilders K. HovnanianEnterprises to reduce “empty-house” days and improve customer service.By Roseann McGrath Brooks

16

start-to-start

Recently, construction schedulers havebeen the recipients – and we think unfairly– of some negative press from a popularengineering/construction magazine.

We at Primavera have been creatingscheduling software and supporting sched-ulers in the construction industry for morethan 20 years. (See Ask Primavera, page 22.)We’ve seen and learned a lot about howthese professionals practice the fine art ofscheduling and, with few exceptions, havefound schedulers to be highly analytical,inquisitive, skeptical, and almost annoyinglyhonest. They assemble models of the futureand try to make the world around themcooperate so that their companies can suc-cessfully deliver on project commitments.

During this same 20-year period, otherindustries began to recognize what construc-tion people learned long ago – that projectsand project management matter. Althoughthese industries came later to the game ofproject management than construction,they contributed valuable new insights thatwe at Primavera could turn into capabilitieswithin our solutions – capabilities that havealso benefited construction planners, sched-ulers and project managers.

At Primavera, we are committed to build-ing and supporting the best scheduling capabilities that are so essential to today’sbroader project management applications.Project management applications nowencompass everything – from resourcing tocosting to earned value, from controlling

scope and mitigating risk to tracking scopechanges and contract costs, and from project execution to making sure thatonly the “winningest” projects are initiat-ed in the first place.

We are equally committed to ensuringthat all project-oriented industries recognizeand understand the down-to-earth humanvalues of solid planning, scheduling andcontrol. The combination of smart, well-trained people with the best tools that haveever been available, provides a solid platformfor building the future of project manage-ment and project success.

Our upcoming 20th Annual PrimaveraUser Conference will be the ideal venue forthe most talented and dedicated projectmanagers, project controls professionals,directors of project management offices, andprofessional services executives to gather andshare their own insights with other visionar-ies who are influencing the project- and serv-ice-oriented world.

I invite you all to attend. And for the firsttime this year, we extend a very special invi-tation to our new Primavera Evolve cus-tomers. We welcome you into the Primaveracommunity and hope you'll join us at theconference.

See you in Orlando! •

4 www.primavera.com

Joel M. Koppelman, CEO

See you in Orlando!

postingsPRIMAVERA

6 www.primavera.com

The 2003 Annual Primavera User Conference is not to be missed.This year marks Primavera’s 20th Anniversary, and what betterplace to celebrate than the beautiful Walt Disney World DolphinHotel in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

There's something for everyone in Lake Buena Vista and itsneighboring community, Orlando, home of the world-famousWalt Disney World Resort.

Orlando got its start as a tourist destination with the opening ofCypress Gardens in 1936. Over the following three decades,other theme parks and educational venues took their place inand around the city, including Gatorland, Busch Gardens in near-by Tampa and the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.

Since then, Orlando sites have grown to include the world-famous Disney World, SeaWorld, Disney’sAnimal Kingdom, Universal Orlando’s Island of Adventure and Discovery Cove, bringing the numberof area attractions to nearly a hundred.

Maximize Project Value Primavera invites you to join us and celebrate the infinite possibilities that lie ahead. The theme of thisyear's Conference is “Maximize Project Value.” Withmore than 140 technical and educational sessionsdesigned to provide infinite value for every Primaverauser, there truly will be something for everyone.

Don’t miss this opportunity to share your universe ofideas, your dreams and your future goals with fellowproject professionals from around the world. Markyour calendar, pack up your best ideas, your vision oftomorrow – don’t forget the family – and head toOrlando November 9-12.

General H. NormanSchwarzkopf toGive KeynoteGeneral H. NormanSchwarzkopf (ret.) will give the keynote address at this year’s Annual UserConference.

General Schwarzkopf is a charismatic Americanleader who captured thehearts of people every-where when he led histroops to victory duringOperations Desert Shieldand Desert Storm in thePersian Gulf War. He is anexperienced manager whounderstands people, moti-vation and leadership. Hispresentation, Leadership inDifficult Times, defines theuniversal principles of lead-ership and how they applyto every aspect of one’s life.

General Schwarzkopf will also conduct a briefquestion and answer ses-sion following his address.

Join Us and Celebratethe Infinite PossibilitiesFinal preparations are underway for the 20th Annual PrimaveraUser Conference, scheduled for November 9-12 at the Walt DisneyWorld Dolphin Hotel in sunny Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Photo Courtesy of Orlando/Orange CountyConvention & Visitors Bureau, Inc.

On a pro ject , sav ing t ime means sav ing money.

OnTrak 2.5™ for P3® and SureTrak®

is an affordable software application thatallows Primavera P3® and SureTrak® users todownload project data into a Palm™ handheld,make updates in the field and then uploadthose changes back into their schedule,eliminating time consuming data entry.

OnTrak 2.5™ is guaranteed* to Save you both time and money.

*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.

"We have 35 people updatingour P3 schedule with OnTrakusing a Palm. I estimate we aresaving 3-4 hours per person fora total savings of around 140hours per week. This applica-tion pays for itself."

-Tuan LeSchedule CoordinatorRyland Homes - Tampa Division

"Using OnTrak to update the P3 schedule enabled us to save many man-hours for our clientin a Krotz Springs, La. maintenance turnaround. We now use the OnTrak system on all ourprojects to get faster, more reliable updates at lower cost. This allows us to pass on some ofour savings to the client and win more business."

- J.W. Bones, Lead Turnaround Planner Fishbone Solutions1.877.250.3100 • www.onsyss.com

Available for both the Pocket PC and Palm OS

CO

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HIGHLIGHTSNew Primavera Evolve Track – This year’sConference will feature a new track for Primavera Evolve customers. Sessions include Evolve Tips andTechniques, Integrating Evolve with Web Services,Using Evolve in Your Enterprise, and Secrets toImplementation Success.

In addition, general session presentations will include:“The Project Management Maturity Model (PMMM)” by Kent Crawford, PM Solutions; “Project ProcurementManagement: Buying Project Scope” by QuentinFleming; and “Faster Project – The Heart of GoingFaster in the Enterprise Project ManagementEnvironment” by Dennis Lane, Catalyst.

Second Annual Primavera Excellence Awards – Introduced at last year’sConference, the Awards recognize the outstanding achievements of Primavera customersin eight categories – Aerospace and Defense; Construction; Engineering and Design;Financial Services; High-Tech/Telecom; IT Organizations; Professional Services; andUtilities, Petrochemical and Chemical – and are presented to those companies that showadvanced use of Primavera software to reduce spending, increase efficiencies acrossprojects, and achieve measurable ROI.

Project Management Professionals Earn PDUs – Conference attendees can earn up to 12 Professional Development Units (PDUs) toward maintaining their PMP certification by attending the keynote address and technical program presentations.

Because Primavera Systems is a PMI Registered Education Provider, PDUs earned at the 2003 Conference will be classified as Category 3. The program number for the event is 1492-UC2003.

4

8 www.primavera.com

postingsPRIMAVERA

Primavera a ‘Leader’ in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Project

Portfolio ManagementPrimavera Systems has been positioned in the “Leaders”quadrant in the Magic Quadrant for Project PortfolioManagement, 2003, marking the fourth time thatPrimavera has been listed in the leader quadrant by Gartner.

“We believe our continued placement in the ‘Leaders’quadrant is further confirmation that our software ispoised to meet the needs of a growing project portfoliomanagement market,” says Primavera CEO Joel M.Koppelman, adding that worldwide, organizations areusing Primavera software to improve resource, project andportfolio management.

Gartner releases its Magic Quadrant analysis annually togive an objective evaluation of companies providing proj-ect portfolio and resource management applications.

Primavera Earns Support CenterPractices Certification

For a second time, Primavera has earned the prestigiousSupport Center Practices (SCP) Certification from theService & Support Professionals Association (SSPA).

SCP Certification quantifies the effectiveness of customer support based upon a stringent set of performance stan-dards, and represents best practices in the industry.

“By passing the rigorous requirements necessary to achieveSCP Certification, Primavera has proven that they provideworld-class support to their customers,” said GordyStauffer, SCP Auditor. “During the SCP Certificationaudit, Primavera has demonstrated its commitment towardscustomer satisfaction and continuous improvement.”

Kudos

1

Best PracticesThe September issue of the prestigious Harvard Business Review featured an article co-authored by Primavera CEO

Joel M. Koppelman and Quentin Fleming. “What’s Your Project’s Real Price Tag?” is Reprint F0309C.

To order or for more information, go to www.hbsp.harvard.edu.

23

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The Top FiveReasons to Attendthe 20th Annual Primavera User Conference

Hear about real-life project management solutions and lessonslearned from your colleagues.

Participate in roundtable discussions.

Network with your peers from other companies.

Choose from a multitude of educationaland technical tracks devoted to the project management issues that are most important to you.

Discuss project management solutions with Primavera staff andpartners on the exhibit floor.

Primavera Names Zatcoff COOSoftware industry veteran Roy Zatcoff has joinedPrimavera Systems in the newly created position of COO.

Zatcoff brings a wealth of experience and leadership talent to the company, including 17 years at SCT where he helped propel the growth of its higher education andmanufacturing software businesses. As COO, he willspearhead the next stage of Primavera’s growth, focusingon driving continued sales growth, market awareness andproduct development, along with enhancing customer-facing professional services and customer support.

Zatcoff holds a B.S. in computer science from RensselaerPolytechnic Institute. His appointment as chief operating officer was effective September 1.

even

ts

Look for Primavera at the following events:

October 8-9…2003 Design-Build Expo, Orlando, Fla.

October 21-22…ENR Construction Summit,Washington, D.C.

October 21-23…Gartner IT Expo Fall, Dolphin Hotel,Orlando, Fla.

November 9-12…Primavera Users Conference, Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel, Orlando, Fla.

November 10-12…CURT, Florida

November 13-14…COAA, Scottsdale, Ariz.

For more information, visit www.primavera.com/events.

10 www.primavera.com

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K. Hovnanian’s John Kirsimagi and Robert Hofmannon site at Kingston Pointe, New Jersey.


Building a home can be a complex project.Building thousands of homes in hundreds ofcommunities throughout the United States canbe overwhelming.

K. Hovnanian Enterprises does it daily.Number 9 on Builder magazine’s “Builder 100”– a list of the 100 largest homebuilders in theUnited States – K. Hovnanian practices the

strategies of even flow production, which has asits goal the establishment of a project manage-ment system that is reliable, consistent and pre-dictable. The reduction of “empty-house days,”which are days during the construction processin which no activity occurs on a home beingbuilt, is an expected benefit of this system.

Toward that goal, the Red Bank, N.J.-basedhomebuilder relies on the scheduling and proj-ect management capabilities of Primavera P3e/c.P3e/c lets the company provide a centralizedscheduling database that project planners andprocurement coordinators can access to keep theconstruction of thousands of homes on scheduleand, therefore, on budget.

“Having a centralized scheduling systemhas led to improved efficiencies in the field,”

Scheduling:Scheduling:CentralizedCentralized

The Foundation forHomebuilding Success

By Roseann McGrath Brooks

Upgrading from

P3 to P3e/c is enabling

residential home-

builders K. Hovnanian

Enterprises to

reduce ‘empty-house

days’ and improve

customer service.

says Robert Hofmann, vice presi-dent of Even Flow Production at K.Hovnanian. “We can have a team ofexperts focused solely on scheduling,reducing cycle time and managingjust-in-time procurement, while ourpeople in the field can focus on quali-ty, customer satisfaction and safety.”

STRIVING FOR STANDARDIZATION

In business since 1959, K. Hovnanianhandles the soup-to-nuts activities ofhomebuilding: land acquisition anddevelopment, sales, architecture, andconstruction of homes in subdivisionscalled “communities.” The companybuilds 10,000 to 11,000 homes a year, including single-family andmulti-family homes, condominiums,townhouses and mid-rise buildings.

Such volume demands accuratescheduling to control costs. From thestart of construction until the ownercloses on the home, the builder isresponsible for all costs. Managingscheduling effectively helps avoiddelays and keep those costs in line.

“There are 101 ways to schedule

and we wanted to standardizeours,” says John Kirsimagi,implementation project man-ager with K. Hovnanian.“We had to be able to trackour progress so that we couldfocus on closing homes in atimely manner.”

Ten years ago, K. Hovnanianbegan using an in-house-

developed scheduling product, calledHovSched, that served as a front-endtool on top of Primavera’s projectmanagement software P3. Althoughthis software gave construction man-agers and supervisors a standardizedsystem to track schedules, each of thevarious communities used HovSchedindependent of the others. If a man-ager in one community wanted toshare scheduling information withanother community, he or she wouldneed to print out and fax a hardcopyschedule to the other community.

CLUSTERS OF COMMUNITIES

In 1999, the company created anoperations center to manage schedulesfor clusters of communities – multiplecommunities within a geographic area– rather than for individual communi-ties. Coordinating scheduling amongmultiple communities helped ensurethat there was construction activity on homes in the cluster every day,thus avoiding empty-house days.

After successfully setting up its

third operations center, the companydetermined that it needed one cen-tralized database to coordinate sched-uling from all of its operations centersacross the United States. Although theP3 system was localized in each oper-ations center, to get information fromthe system, a person had to access the PC itself, which made it difficultfor nationwide communications andreporting, as well as technical support.Planners in operations centers stillcouldn’t share data or reports. Theschedule database needed to be net-worked. The company needed toupgrade its system.

“We thought about creating a newscheduling system ourselves, but thatrequired too many resources on ourpart,” explains Kirsimagi. “Fortunately,we found the networking capabilitywe were looking for in P3e/c. It wasthe enterprise tool we needed and itwas geared for use in the constructionindustry.”

“We had a long-standing relation-ship with Primavera,” says Hofmann.“And we knew that P3e/c wouldenable central access to data, genera-tion of all reports from one system,and long-term reporting for just-in-time services.”

RUNNING ON SCHEDULE

In June, 2002, K. Hovnanian began apilot of P3e/c. In the NortheastRegion operations center, project


solutions

“We can have a team of experts focused solely on scheduling, reducing cycle time

and managing just-in-time procurement, while our people in the field can focus on quality,

customer satisfaction and safety.” – Robert Hofmann, vice president,

Even Flow Production

planners managed the same construc-tion schedules on P3 in parallel withP3e/c. As the planners became morecomfortable with, and confident in,the efficiencies of P3e/c, they aban-doned the P3 schedules and transi-tioned to scheduling on P3e/c alone.Full conversion was completed innine months.

Today, almost every community in the Northeast Region and Virginiais using the product. The company iscurrently rolling out the system inMaryland and plans to implement

its scheduling strategy in everycommunity, says Kirsimagi.

A CENTRAL DATABASE

The keystone of K. Hovnanian’sscheduling strategy is its centraldatabase, located in companyheadquarters in New Jersey.Workstations in communitiesand operations centers tap intothat central database.

Because IT services are alsolocated at the headquarters, ITstaff perform backup, support,training and helpdesk functions


For many years at K. Hovnanian Enterprises, field supervisors used project management software to schedule the various tasksof homebuilding. Every supervisor involved in scheduling activities had to learn the software and use it to update schedules. When the homebuilder began transitioning to a more centralized scheduling strategy using Primavera P3e/c, it created specialized planning teams for each operations center, dedicated solely to scheduling activities and procuring materials.Having designated planners meant that those in the field would no longer have to manage the schedules themselves, freeing them to focus on the daily supervision of home construction.

Today, a production planner and a procurement coordinator in each operations center focus exclusively on creating predictable construction schedules. Each team manages 300 to 500 homes per year withPrimavera’s P3e/c.Peter Levine, a production planner involved in piloting P3e/c, explains the daily tasks of the scheduling team:1. In the morning, planners transmit the latest schedule to the field. This includes information about everything

from excavation to material delivery to electrical installation to inspection.2. Supervisors perform their scheduled tasks and communicate with planners throughout the day.3. By mid-afternoon, supervisors return the schedule, now updated.4. Planners input the updated information into the system and contact trade partners, materials suppliers and supervisors,

as necessary, about any changes to the schedule. “Having a centrally located schedule database is a real plus” says Levine. ”If we had an issue with a foundation cycle time last year in one community, for example, the planners for other communities can check the database and determine if theywant to use a different schedule template.”Levine says that the biggest benefit of P3e/c is the ability for the planning team to access the central database from anywhere.“We can go into the field and still have access to the schedules,” he explains. “And if a planner is not available, we can stillaccess that planner’s schedule.” – RMB

“Fortunately, we found the networking capability we were looking for in P3e/c.

… and it was geared for use in the construction industry.”

– John Kirsimagi, implementation project manager

dayA

lifethein

from the central location. Tech sup-port personnel can even shadowworkers virtually to help with train-ing and trouble-shooting.

Two key positions handle schedul-ing: production planners and pro-curement coordinators. As soon as ahome is released – when communi-ty management releases sales con-tract documents to the operationscenter – these planners begin thescheduling process. They call up atemplate on P3e/c and input infor-mation such as model of home,foundation type, options neededand so on. The intuitive projectscreen lets a planner choose fromcustomized codes to describe whateach home needs. Armed with this

information, planners create cus-tomized reports for those in thefield, such as construction man-agers, trade partners and materialssuppliers.

Working as a team, the productionplanner and procurement coordina-tor discover and report on the excep-tions to the schedule and reworkconstruction tasks as necessary.

“Handling these exceptions enablesus to make sure that materials arriveand construction tasks are completedin a just-in-time fashion,” saysKirsimagi. Materials that arrive tooearly run the risk of being stolen ordamaged. Likewise, if materialsarrive too late or a subcontractordoesn’t come on the scheduled date,

the company risks delayand empty-house days.

Under P3, managers,superintendents and othersin the field still scheduledactivities independent ofone another. Coordinatingthis scheduling took timeaway from quality checks,customer interaction andother field-service tasks.Now with P3e/c each clus-ter of communities has onescheduling team solely ded-icated to providing sched-ules for that cluster andcommunicating informa-tion companywide.

For example, if the plan-ners discover a concern witha municipal inspection, theycan let others in the fieldknow about the issue andcan rearrange schedulesimmediately, instead ofright before due dates.

“Having this informationtoday will help us determine

if we can make closings next year,”says Hofmann. “That makes ourproduction system more predictable,and that translates into more accu-rate financial reporting.”

WORK IN PROGRESS

Optimal scheduling is still a workin progress. Because remote clientslog in through a terminal server,and because so many users are eagerto take advantage of centralizedscheduling, access can be slow. Thecompany is looking for ways tospeed access time. In addition, proj-ect managers are just now begin-ning to tap the benefits of the moreadvanced project management andreporting tools of P3e/c.

Today, P3e/c is being used by K. Hovnanian’s construction divi-sion and land development groups.Other divisions within the com-pany, such as the private-homeportfolio group, which developscustomized individual homes, haveseen the efficiencies enabled by cen-tralized scheduling and haveexpressed interest in using P3e/c.This would further integrate proj-ect management activities amongcompany divisions. In the future,K. Hovnanian also plans to inte-grate P3e/c with enterprise resourceplanning tools and create reports onhandheld computers, creating fur-ther economies of scale.

Says Kirsimagi: “If by schedulingaccurately, we reduce empty-housedays, then we can increase quality,reduce costs and improve customersatisfaction.” •

Roseann McGrath Brooks is a business and technology writer basedin Lansdale, Pa. Contact her [email protected].


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PROJECT CONTROL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

PCMS

Come visit us in

booth #107 at the

20th Annual Primavera

User Conference

and plan to attend our

presentation.


living history

WethePeople...Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center is

dedicated to fostering a better understanding

of the United States Constitution. Project manager

Hill International was charged with ensuring

that this new national treasure would open on

time and on budget.

By Jim Christopher


It is difficult to suppress the prideand sense of patriotism you feel asyou enter the National ConstitutionCenter in Philadelphia, Pa. After all,this is the Cradle of Liberty, home toIndependence Hall and the LibertyBell. And now, enshrined at thenorthern edge of IndependenceMall, is a beautiful new building

dedicated to the history – and the future – of the U.S.Constitution, the document that is the basis for the democratic way of life in the United States of America.

While the construction and location of the NationalConstitution Center (NCC) was a national bid thatcould just as well have been placed in Washington, D.C.,Philadelphia was selected because of its historical significance. It was here that the founding fathers signed both the Constitution and theDeclaration of Independence,establishing our unique formof governance. And althoughmany Philadelphians andPennsylvanians had a hand in the design and construction of the NCC, it was indeed anational effort with contribu-tions from individuals acrossthe country. And proudly,Primavera and its software,Expedition, played a majorrole in its construction.

THE TEAM

Hill International Inc., withheadquarters in Marlton,N.J., was charged with over-seeing the project manage-ment for the building and all of its contents, includingthe exhibits, meeting rooms,educational halls and restau-rant. Hill Project Director

David Rupp and his team worked closely with EmilyBittenbender, vice president of Design & Construc-tion for the NCC, to make sure the Center wouldopen on time and on budget.

“It was the NCC’s job to raise the $185 million need-ed to construct the building and endow it,” explainsBittenbender. “There were multiple funding sources:city, state, and federal agencies, along with private con-tributors. The NCC handled spending the money andeverything we spent was reimbursable to one of these‘pots.’ Funding agreements with each grantor had to be broken down into what was being spent for concrete, toilets, parking, exhibit space, etc., depending on whateach grantor was offering as specified in the agreement.”

Assigning the costs was, in some cases, extremely complex, according to Rupp, who is also an architect.For example, the concrete that was poured for the underground parking garage, funded by one organization,

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The American Experience is the Center’s permanent exhibit that brings the story of the Constitution to life through more than 100 interactive and multimediaexhibits, photographs, text, film and artifacts. Photo Courtesy of National Constitution Center.


also served as the basic support for the building, which was fund-ed by another. So the way costs

were assigned was of paramountimportance.

“Because of the complexity of the

project, it would have been extreme-ly difficult, if not impossible, to havemanaged such an undertaking and

meet our deadlines without a toollike Expedition,” says Rupp. “Weinitially set up Expedition with spe-cific cost codes and funding sourcesso that it automatically broke out thecosts and determined who to bill.Each invoice was broken out forevery one of our 19 contracts. Withthe documents approved and resid-ing in Expedition, we could controlany spending issues.”

Rupp says there were a couple ofchallenges when the National ParkService changed the budget by mak-ing additions to the project at bid.“The scope of the work wasincreased and, at the same time,costs came in higher than expected.So we had two things to contendwith without letting the scheduleslip. One, to consolidate and dealwith the increased scope of work.And two, to value engineer thebuilding, all while starting construc-tion. At the same time, we had utili-ty and site [archeology] issues to dealwith. Any one of them could havestopped the job, blown the budgetand thrown us off schedule. So wehad to deal with them individuallyand yet continue construction. Wejust couldn’t afford to stop and waitfor full resolution of utilities issues,expanded archeology, and exhibitredesigns. If we did, we knew wewouldn’t make budget or schedule.

Expedition allowed us to keep thoseballs up in the air and continue onthe mark.”

WEB-BASED SOLUTIONS

Expedition gave everyone easy accessto the database due to its Web-basedability, says Rupp. “We decided at the outset to make Expeditionavailable to everyone connected to the construction of the Center.The initial cost of purchasing theExpedition software and setting upthe server were shared among Hill,the NCC and general contractorTurner Construction.

“We had so many things going on at one time – invoices, issues,

living history

Making history: Emily Bittenbender, vice president, Design & Construction,National Constitution Center, and David Rupp, project director, Hill International, in the Center’s Grand Overlook. Photo Linda DiBiasio

Content andCollaborationThe National Constitution Center (NCC) is a learning experience, not just a place fortourists, and it touches on every walk of life inthe United States. Its theme “Enter as a visitor,leave as a citizen,”is evident throughout itscomprehensive content and presentations.

And the Center doesn’t avoid controversial subject matter.

According to Emily Bittenbender, vice presi-dent, Design & Construction, NCC, “The NCCmade it clear to all the content contributors,which included scholars, historians, writers,and dignitaries, that the Center was notdesigned to be about politics. It was about the Constitution.

“Our job was to tell the story and we didn’tback away from sensitive issues, includingslavery or some of the scandals that haveoccurred over the years. The issues are presented head on because that’s what theConstitution is about, that balance that makesour country what it is.

“We provided the information and it's up to youto interpret it from your own point of view.”

– JC

“We just couldn’t afford to stop and wait forfull resolution of utilities issues, expanded archeology,

and exhibit redesigns. If we did, we knew we wouldn’t make budget or schedule.”

– David Rupp, project director, Hill International


living history

scheduling, change orders andbudget – and Expedition allowed us to lay it all out in real time. No matter where you were, if you were connected to the project, completeaccess to the information you need-ed was available via the Internet.

“Spending the money and know-

ing how it gets spent, having ahands-on of your cash flow, that’sone of the most important thingsyou need to know,” says Rupp.“And, we knew up to the second,where we were with the whole proj-ect, especially with the money.”

MANAGING IT ALL

Because everything connected withthe project was managed throughHill, from the pouring of concrete to signage to content installation and review, Rupp was constantly on the lookout for any slippages.“Slippages, or even a threat of one,

are very seldom caused by one incident because there are always somany different contributing factors.It was our job to analyze issues anddecide where we thought the respon-sibilities lay. The key is that we hadto build trust and develop a relation-ship with everyone on the project.That way, when we laid out theissues, the facts as presented, every-one was on board and shared in thatresponsibility.”

Bittenbender adds that the honorof working on this history-makingproject made life easier. “From thevery beginning, everybody knewthat the opening date was set for the Fourth of July and that we had to meet it. This was something wetalked about over and over witheveryone concerned. This is one ofthe most special projects that any

of us will ever be a part of. And withpublic funding, everyone knew thatthis project was not about us. It wasabout something that is greater thanany one individual. It was aboutdoing something for our country.”

A PERMANENT ARCHIVE

Of course, you can’t just credit thetool with getting the project done,but Expedition certainly was phe-nomenal, especially when it came to budget and document control,Bittenbender says. “We didn’t needto tie the project to an enterprise system like SAP or ORACLE,

or even a separate financial system,because Expedition gave us every-thing we needed to build thisCenter,” she says. “And as we leave,it’s an operating museum and every-thing we’ve done has been archived;agendas, meeting minutes, costs,tracking of issues, so that that infor-mation is always available if neededin the future.”

Hill believes that its investment in Expedition was money well spent.According to Rupp, “It’s now a permanent tool that we sell as part of our services, so we’ve committedourselves to Expedition as our proj-ect management tool.”

POSTSCRIPT

The National Constitution Centeropened on July 4, 2003, on timeand on budget. During construc-

Did You Know?The National Constitution Center was builtwith workers and products from the UnitedStates. Here’s a quick look at the Center:

• Established under the ConstitutionHeritage Act in 1988 during PresidentReagan’s term of office. It is the onlymuseum in the United States dedicated to the Constitution.

• President Bill Clinton presided overgroundbreaking ceremonies onSeptember 17, 2000, 213 years to the daythe U.S. Constitution was signed.

• Dedicated July 4, 2003, opening with thepresentation of the Philadelphia Libertymedal to Supreme Court AssociateJustice Sandra Day O’Connor._________________________________

• Capital Budget: $185 million

• Architect: Harry N. Cobb, Pei Cobb Freed& Partners

• Exhibition Designer: Ralph Appelbaum,Ralph Appelbaum Associates

• Project Manager: Hill International Inc.

• General Contractor: Turner Construction

• Exhibit Fabrication: Maltbie Associates

• Total Public Space: 160,000 square feet

• Exhibit Space: 67,785 square feet

• Building Materials: 85,000 square feet ofIndiana limestone, 2.6 million pounds ofU.S.-made steel, and a half-million cubicfeet of concrete, also made in the U.S.

“[This project] was about something that is greater than any one individual.

It was about doing something for our country.”

– Emily Bittenbender, vice president, Design & Construction, National Constitution Center.

A New Home for the Liberty BellThe Liberty Bell has been a symbol of freedom in Philadelphia since it was purchased by thePennsylvania Assembly in 1751 from Whitechapel Bell Foundry in England, and placed in what isnow Independence Hall to celebrate the 50th anniversary of William Penn’s Charter of Privileges.

For the past 27 years, the Liberty Bell has residedin a pavilion on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall.But in October, the bell will be getting a new home.The three-foot-tall, 2,080-pound bell will be moved200 yards – a daunting task given the bell’s ageand frailty – into the newly constructed LibertyBell Center, part of a $314 million renovation of thehistoric Mall.

Construction of the Liberty Bell Center is beingmanaged by Hill International, Inc., Marlton, N.J.According to Dan Bosin, project manager, the new

museum will have expanded exhibition space and other visitor amenities, and also includesexpanded security measures.

“The new Liberty Bell Center – constructed on the Mall close to the National Constitution Center– is an important part of the renovation,” says Bosin. “In addition to providing a better visitorexperience, it also brings the bell closer to Independence Hall, its original home.” – LD

Photo Linda DiBiasio

tion, the NCC had a cooperativedesign and construction agree-ment with the National ParkService. Ownership has now been turned over to the NationalPark Service, Department of theInterior.

As we go to press, Bittenbendersays the NCC is in the process ofnegotiating an operations agree-ment to run the Center as a non-profit organization dedicated toincreasing awareness and under-standing of the Constitution, itshistory and its role in our lives.

“We the People” is alive and wellin Philadelphia. •

Jim Christopher is a New YorkCity-based business writer. Contact him at [email protected].


ASKPRIMAVERA

?READER: WHAT IS THE REAL STATE OF SCHEDULING? I JUST

READ AN ARTICLE IN A HIGHLY REGARDED CONSTRUCTION

TRADE MAGAZINE SUGGESTING THAT THE ABUSE OF POWER-FUL SOFTWARE BY SCHEDULERS IS PRODUCING FLAWED

SCHEDULES THAT LOOK GOOD, BUT LACK COHERENCE. THE

ARTICLE ALSO RAISES THE ARGUMENT OF WHICH IS BETTER

FOR CPM SCHEDULING: ADM OR PDM. CAN YOU SET THE

RECORD STRAIGHT?

JOEL KOPPELMAN: The war between two differing approaches to CriticalPath Method scheduling has raged in the construction industry for more thantwo decades. But it’s time to declare victory for PDM – and for the schedulerswho have embraced it.

Let’s back up and take a brief lookat where this all began. Critical PathMethod (CPM) scheduling was oneof the first serious uses of the comput-er back in the 1950s. It was developedbecause the people running large,complicated government programsneeded to know how long it wouldtake to get them done. CPM was –and still is – the only way to figure outhow long a project will take given themany overlapping tasks that need tobe performed.

Then the Arrow DiagrammingMethod (ADM) emerged as the firstpictorial approach to CPM schedul-ing. But it was primitive by today’sstandards. Even with the help of acomputer, ADM was time consumingto input, and difficult to maintain asplans evolved and changed. Progresswas hard to report, and the insertionof start-continue-continue-continue-

finish activities to handle lags and parallel tasks wastedtime and exhausted patience. In addition, it was impos-sible to track costs and resources across the whole activ-ity. And unfortunately, neither ADM nor PDM elimi-nated the failed practice of building a bar chart first,and then creating some false logic to justify the pretty and desirable – and wrong – answers displayedin the chart.

TIME FOR PDMWith the introduction of the Precedence DiagrammingMethod (PDM), it became possible for project man-agers to build complex plans, with their overlappingrelationships and conflicting constraints, to accuratelymodel real-world construction project behavior. Asother industries matured in their project schedulingpractices, and as thousands of new project managersswelled the ranks of the Project Management Institute,PDM eventually won out as the preferred CPMmethod. (Primavera eventually discontinued offeringADM when it became apparent that it had lost its

allure in favor of the more flexible PDM alternative.)

CONTROLLING THE SCHEDULE

Today’s more robust CPM modeling tools are beingembraced by professional schedulers who want tounderstand, predict and control the future of theirproject schedules. Nobody wants to return to the daysof single calendars and one relationship type. Some ofyou probably remember what it was like when sched-uling software programs made the very simplisticassumption that all tasks would take place on the samecalendar. We all know that concrete cures on a seven-day-a-week calendar while construction in the USworks a five-day calendar, and engineering hopes towork a four-day week. Today’s software handles allthese calculations with ease – and more.

However, the real issues in scheduling haven’tchanged in 20 years. For schedules to be useful andprojects to succeed, schedulers still need to have theknowledge of and experience in the work that is goingto be performed, as well as an ability to plan at an


ask Primavera

appropriate level of detail – perhaps the single mostimportant decision in the planning process. Moreover,the purpose of the schedule is to improve the manage-ment of the project and accelerate its completion. It isnot about anticipating claims litigation.

As we all know, project management isn’t onlyabout planning. It’s also about project execution and

the ongoing assessment and analysis necessary to determine what is really happening on a project.Project managers and schedulers need the ability to discern who is making progress, who is not, whereproblems are likely to emerge, and how they will ripple

through the rest of the project.

THINKING, ANALYZING, COMMUNICATING

Planning and scheduling isn’t merely about softwarefunctions or user interface issues. It’s about thinking,analyzing and communicating. If you can’t think, youcan’t schedule. If you can think but you can’t plan, you can’t schedule. If you can think and plan, but don’t know how to analyze how and what to commu-nicate to the people doing the work, you are not goingto be a successful scheduler or manager.

It’s time for the construction industry to end thisneedless debate about ADM vs. PDM. Instead, itneeds to find people with the talent and desire to sched-ule, teach them the business of construction from theground up, encourage them to reveal the hard andsometimes ugly truth that they uncover, and rewardthem for their work, dedication and, most of all, theirintegrity. •

Joel M. Koppelman is co-founder and CEO ofPrimavera Systems, Inc., Bala Cynwyd, Pa.

Project management isn’t only about planning. It’s also about project execution and

the ongoing assessment and analysis necessary to determine what is really happening

on a project.


vision

Changethe Culture

Saveth

e

Organization The Principal Financial Group

revitalized its culture by adopting aproject management approach.

By John McCormack

Anthropologists often study the change thatoccurs when new tools are introduced to a culture.These social scientists also are prone to examine howcultures, particularly successful ones, hang on toestablished structures.

Although the study of anthropology is more close-ly associated with primitive cultures, the disciplinesheds light on the modern American corporation as well. Case in point: The cultural evolution at The Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, Iowa.

Cultural change became necessary a few years agowhen executives at The Principal decided to trans-form the company from a mutual insurance holdingcompany, controlled by its policyholders, to a publiccompany. (The company went public in October,2001.)

“We were working toward becoming a public company, and we knew that we would have to changeour culture,” says Scott Cahill, director, BusinessImprovement Services. “We would have to makedecisions much more quickly. We would have tomanage resources more tightly. And, we would needto have the data required to make those decisions.”

But despite the fact that their new business modelwould require a dramatic change in company culture,The Principal didn't want to lose its successful business unit structure.

BALANCING CHANGE

Balancing change with tradition proved to be anessential part of the company’s forward-looking


vision

strategy, says Jed Fisk, vice presidentof Corporate Services. The companyhas always allowed each business unitto be run as a separate enterprise, acompany within a company, if youwill. This “federated” approachenables The Principal to better serveits nearly 15 million customers andnumerous distinct marketplaces.

But The Principal needed to tran-sition from its ad hoc approach to amore structured project managementenvironment that included standardmethodology, resource evaluation,project planning, collaboration, andproject review and analysis.

Toward that end, the companyembraced a project managementapproach to information technology

and other projects. Leaders fromthe individual project offices cametogether to form a Project OfficeWorking Group, making it possiblefor them to share best practices andmethodologies. But even thoughthere was increased project coordina-tion, The Principal continued toallow its individual business units tooperate autonomously, a key tenet ofthe company’s long-standing success.

“We needed a software tool thatwould allow us to take a federatedapproach to our project manage-ment, and at the same time, allow usto coordinate our efforts to betterserve our customers,” says Fisk. “Wewere searching for a software tool

that could support one project, or acouple of projects, and also enter-prise-wide projects.”

DEFINING THE NEEDS

Several of the business units alreadyhad mature project managementoffices in place. So to make sure thecompany purchased the best softwaretool for its requirements corporate-wide, each business unit developed alist of the attributes needed from aproject management software system.After compiling the requirements,The Principal issued a request forinformation to see which vendorshad offerings that could potentiallymatch its needs.

Requests for proposals then were

sent to the vendors that appeared to have compatible products. Afterreceiving the proposals, the top threevendors were invited to demonstratetheir products for one day each. Allof the project offices in the companyhad the opportunity to kick the tireson each system and to score each one based on a matrix of businessrequirements.

The Principal’s search ended withPrimavera TeamPlay enterprise-wideproject management software.

MIGRATION OPTIONAL

In keeping with The Principal’s cul-ture of independently operated busi-ness units, use of the software was notmandated. Individual business units,

most of which had been using otherproject management and spreadsheetsoftware, were allowed to migrate tothe new software at their own pace.

Fisk explains that initially, some ofthe business units resisted making themove to TeamPlay. However, as timewent on, more and more employeesat The Principal became enamoredwith the Primavera offering. “As peo-ple became more familiar with it, theydiscovered that it is a good thing,” Fisksays. “It was just a matter of exposure.”

Now, all business units are usingthe tool to various degrees. And,TeamPlay is always used in enter-prise-wide projects.

REALIZING RESULTS

Even though the software broughtchange – something that is typicallymet with resistance – the company’sproject managers now are singing itspraises.

“With our federation of projectoffices, TeamPlay allows our busi-nesses the autonomy to run the waythey see fit. But it also provides a coordinating function,” Cahill says.“We are no longer just working insilos. Instead, we are setting prioritiesand really working on things that willbring the entire organization forward.”

The company is now experiencingenterprise-wide results, for example:

• Reduced redundancy. Even thoughthe federated business units work onprojects autonomously, TeamPlaystill acts to coordinate work. Inessence, the software will notify busi-ness units if they are duplicating eachother’s work.

• Shared resources. TeamPlay pro-vides a new level of synergy amongthe units. As a result, business unitsare now likely to share neededhuman resources, if possible.

“ We needed a tool that would allow us to take a federated approach to our project management.”

– Jed Fisk, vice president, Corporate Services

• Portfolio management. Instead ofsupporting an array of ad hoc proj-ects, the company now has a clearerpicture of all of its projects across theentire enterprise, and is able to makebetter decisions regarding prioritizingthose projects.

The individual business units arealso reaping benefits, for example:

• Increased success rates. Vice Presidentand CIO of the Life and Disabilitydivision, Bill Workman, says that the use of TeamPlay has enabled his division to increase project successrates, bringing them well above theindustry average.

• Improved data retrieval. PattiKliegl, project management officer in Retirement and Investor Services,

says that the biggest benefit to usingTeamPlay is the ease of data retrieval.“We can run a report on anythingrelated to a project and all of the dataon resources and costs is right there.Before we would have to go to mul-tiple sources to get that information.”

• Better time management. LoriCalhoun, director of financial report-ing for the Global Financial Resourcesdivision, says that her group is suc-cessfully using TeamPlayer, a desk-top time recording and resourceallocation tool, to get a betterhandle on how staff members spendtheir time. “We are finding out how people spend their time andhow it connects to projects,” shesays. “This is helping us understand


the relationships between tasks and what youcan do concurrently and sequentially.”

• More strategic planning. Kim Bolte, projectmanagement director in the Life and HealthProgram Office, says it helps on an advancedlevel to prioritize and justify projects. “Thesoftware helps our organization look at proj-ects from a return on investment view,” Boltesays. “We have to move toward projects thatmake sense from a business standpoint by

determining if they will push us forward andgenerate the revenue we need.

“Primavera TeamPlay allows us to access thenecessary statistics to make better portfoliomanagement decisions within our unit as wellas across the enterprise.”

Although TeamPlay already has resulted insignificant cultural evolution at The Principal,more change is anticipated in the months andyears to come.

“TeamPlay is just such a robust tool. We arenot even tapping a quarter of the power of it,”Cahill says. “We will continue to roll it out –and, I’m sure, continue to see many changesand improvements.” •

John McCormack is a Riverside, Ill.-based business and technology writer.

“Primavera TeamPlay allows us to access the necessary statistics to makebetter portfolio management decisions

within our unit as well as across the enterprise.”

– Kim Bolte, project management director,

Life and Health Program Office

QA&

LD: What is CIFE?

JK: Stanford University has what it calls ‘Centers,’ places atwhich industrial partners and university faculty and studentscome together to provide an opportunity for gifted studentsto work on hard industrial problems.

We as faculty have lots of solutions, but we really don’thave any problems. The real problems in engineering are outin industrial practice. So for us to be able to do meaningfulresearch, we have to understand those problems. The CIFECenter provides a place for different departments within the university to stay in close touch with the problems ofengineering practice. At CIFE, the departments of civil and environmental engineering and computer science cometogether, often with faculty and students from other depart-ments. So our mission is very strongly related to the use ofthe computer in support of civil engineering.

LD: How do you keep abreast of what’s happening in industry?

JK: The CIFE Center has a board of directors that meetsannually. We ask the members to give us guidance about whatthe big issues are. So there’s a formal solicitation of ideas, andthen there is a one-day meeting that is quite intense. In addi-tion, my partner, Martin Fisher [CIFE director], and I bothgo out and visit member companies. We meet with peoplefrom industry regularly throughout the year, either here at


prime mover

By Linda DiBiasio

Dr. John Kunz is

executive director of Stanford

University’s Center for Integrated Facility

Engineering (CIFE). Founded in 1989, the

Center’s mission is to be the world’s premier

academic research center for Virtual Design

and Construction of Architecture, Engineering

and Construction industry projects. CIFE’s

(pronounced sife-ie) focus is both on education

and research, and includes an ongoing

relationship with industry professionals.

In this issue, Dr. Kunz talks about his work

at the Center and gives us a sneak peek into

“Meaningful Metrics to Assess Schedule

Conformance,” which he will present at this

year’s Annual Primavera User Conference

in November.

Inside

CIFECENTER

Stanford’sInside

CIFECENTER

Stanford’s

Stanford, or in their home offices, or in some mutually agreed uponmeeting place.

LD: Scheduling seems to be getting a lot of attention recently. What makesscheduling so critical?

JK: The reason that scheduling issuch a hot topic is the simple fact thatif you are going to do a project, youneed a good schedule. But if you askpeople in industry if their schedule is a good one – in the sense that day-by-day, it’s believable – the answerwill probably be ‘no.’ Then if you ask senior management at the end ofthe project if it was a good schedule,they’ll also say ‘no.’

What usually happens is thatcompanies deliver on time, but theway they do that is to go along until

they hit some sort of problem.Then they go into repair mode toexpedite the schedule. On the cor-porate side, schedules are just notaccurate. On the personal side, theway that the companies deliver ontime is what one of my colleaguescalls ‘heroic management.’ You seeengineers who are working nightand day to meet their commit-ments. They’re professionals so theywill do whatever is necessary tomeet their obligations, but the per-sonal cost is very high.

One of the problems of schedulingis that projects are completed soquickly now. For example, the criticalpath method for scheduling emergedfor military projects in the late 1950s.A project then took about a decade tocomplete. So there was lots of time towork out all the issues.

Today a typical building goes up in about a year. So one of the reasons for new attention to sched-uling is that the theoretical founda-tion and the tradition are morethan forty years old, and are basedon the assumption that you’ve got adecade to do the work.

LD: What’s the answer to this dilem-ma? How can project managers ensurethat all the pieces have been identifiedand placed in the schedule up front?

JK: This is actually one of the bigthings that we have looked at. Let me tell you one part of the answer. It’snot the solution, but it’s a good thing.It’s called ‘extreme collaboration.’This is a method that I happened to find at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab(JPL). With extreme collaboration,you get stakeholders in a room andyou give them a very short period oftime – we use one day, JPL uses threedays – to come up with a completeinitial design and schedule. And thedefinition of the design is that it’s in

the computer. We just used this method in our

CIFE summer program. In the build-ing of our design we described prod-uct, organization and process. In thiscase, the product was a building, theorganization was the people who aregoing to do the work, and the processwas the tasks of the schedule. Wewent from nothing to a productdesign with an organization to do thework, a plan and a schedule – in oneday. From this initial high-leveldesign and schedule, the team thenneeded to plan, schedule and performthe large amount of detailed effort to complete the project. The initialdesigns and schedules preparedfrom this quick, highly collaborativemethod seem to be better than thoseproduced using traditional methods,which take longer and are moredecentralized.

The key is that you have to figureout who all the stakeholders are, andthen get them to talk to each other,which is often difficult because peo-ple tend to hear what they want tohear. So the best way is to get them to write it down in the computertogether. If you do that, it’s staring at you in black and white, and theamount of ambiguity goes down dramatically.

LD: Please discuss the role of symbolic systems.

JK: In addition to civil engineering, I am a member of the SymbolicSystems Program at Stanford.‘Symbolic’ simply means non-numeric, and a classic example ofa symbolic system is a plan. As anengineer, you’ve probably been trainedin numerical methods, but not non-numerical methods. However, manyof the things that must included in aplan – safety factors, cost estimation,risk of destructive weather or fire –


prime mover

‘We went from nothing to

a product design with an organization

to do the work, a plan and

a schedule – in one day.’

are non-numeric. Our Symbolic Systems Program

addresses questions about the rela-tionship between the mind and theworld. For example, ‘What is infor-mation? What is intelligence? How are they related?’ Symbolic Systemsis an interdisciplinary program thatcombines computer science, linguis-tics, psychology and philosophy.

LD: What message will you be pre-senting to attendees of the upcomingPrimavera User Conference?

JK: One of the things that I want to stress is the idea that companiesshould identify the small number of things they want to measure andthen publish the information acrossthe organization. Let’s take a sched-ule, for instance. In a construction

job, a schedule probably has some-where between a thousand and tenthousand activities. My argument isthat if you bother to create thatschedule, then you should track it tosee how well you’re doing. Look atwhen your thousand activities start,one-by-one, and look at when theyfinish. Compare those events withthe schedule and then just post thoseschedule conformance statistics.Regularly check the performance ofyour two- or three-week look-aheadschedule. If you are not meetingyour pre-established schedule per-formance rate, your project is at risk.Only two things can be wrong –either your execution or your plan-ning and scheduling – and you canreassess early in light of the scheduleproblems you are having.

The ideal culture would allow thepurchasing agent, or the contractor,or the IT person, or whoever, to sayeither, ‘I am at risk for meeting myschedule,’ or ‘I’ve been having trou-ble in this particular way,’ and thenfigure out what to do about it as aproject team.

While corporate best practices are a useful guide to eliminate reinvent-ing the wheel, they are generic. I’msuggesting that you be very specificand very time-dependent about yourparticular project. Look at what’sworking right now on your projects.Then publish the information to allinvolved. By tracking and publishingthis information to every stakeholderso that they can see it in a timely fashion, all the stakeholders can participate in fixing the problem. •


By Phil Dunn

Collaboration –The Next Business Imperative

collaboration

➤ When you want to order a pizza, collaboration canbe a bad thing. Actually reconciling pizza topping pref-erences can’t really be called collaboration. That's likegetting five executives to agree on the aesthetic appealof a new corporate logo.

However, from the pizzeria’s perspective, collabora-tion is absolutely essential. Pizzerias perform a combi-nation of tasks and processes – inventory, pricing, ordertaking, pizza creation, delivery and so on – to makeeverything happen. A few guys bustling around a hotoven and some back office folks ordering flour, cheeseand pepperoni can get the job done. If it’s a mom andpop outfit, they have the convenience of all being inone place at the same time.

For most businesses, that’s not an option. Yet, forsome reason, a lot of organizations have ignored theneed for collaboration. They either consider it a botherto implement, or assume that their employees won’tlike or trust the idea.

Without collaboration, however, whole departmentscan go off in strategically ill-advised directions. Creativetalents seal themselves off from the rest of the compa-ny. Countless dollars and hours are wasted on effortsthat have little or nothing to do with the core business.Or, more ominously, pockets of workers have com-pletely different views about what the core businessactually is.

These pitfalls are especially common in contractor/subcontractor partnerships, where the stakeholdersmay be spread out across several different locations.During the enthusiasm and confusion of doing, thereason and purpose of the project can get lost. Theresult is like a pizzeria that ends up delivering a meat-ball sandwich instead of a pizza.

A NEW DAY

On an individual level, a reluctance to collaborate isunderstandable. People don’t like others seeing theirwork until it’s finished. They feel more productive on

their own and are threatened in group situations. However, the days of creative isolation are over. We

need to think and act differently in order to stay com-petitive and meet market needs. Projects are too complexand time frames are too short. Process visibility is essen-tial in order to solve problems now rather than after thefact. Project quality materializes during the process, notin post-production review. Projects are living, breathingecosystems that require nourishment throughout theirlifecycles, not just at the project completion date.

DRIVING ORGANIZATION, ACCOUNTABILITY

AND CREATIVITY

The group input, buy-in, and idea-building inherent tocollaborative environments is highly desirable. Teams

of people often come up with better ideas than indi-viduals working in a vacuum (or a cubicle). A sense ofprogress is very intense within a focused group, andprocess transparency is both organizationally impera-tive and psychologically comforting. Team membersget credit for their contributions and everyone can seethat. Project goals are consistently reinforced and each

individual has a clear view of the target. Process flaws are easily and quickly addressed. In addition, collabora-tion helps organizations utilize resources more efficiently, giving them access to the right people at the right time.

Collaboration initiatives are also being driven by thebottom line. Discipline is the order of the day, and most industries face mounting pressure to trace every dollar back to ROI and specific strategic directives.Collaboration provides the organization, connectivityand audit record to do this.

THE IDEAL SYSTEM

The best collaboration systems place projects into a singlerepository that allows users to review and prioritize thembased on their access privileges and job priorities. Ofcourse, this repository has to be designed with businessrelevance as a top priority. You need structure to moveforward. However, you can’t just place everyone in a virtual room with shared office tools like spreadsheets and word processors.

continued on page 35

The critical importance

ofintegration.

Impress software lets you respondto changes instantly, capitalizeon split-second opportunities andoutper form your competition.You’ll achieve bi-directional real-time synchronization of project data between SAP Systems andPrimavera Project Management –for real-time decision making. Low-cost business process automationhas never been easier, faster andbetter. Choose from three packagesto suit your needs: IMPRESS Engine,™

I.Apps™ for pre-packaged integration,or I.Solutions™ on our integrationplatform. For more information visit www.impress.com

The ideal solution must link specific project work with decision-makers in a meaningful way. Bottom-up viewsshould focus each contributor on clear goals and desired

outcomes. The contributors should know exactly where they are in the process of collaboration. Top-down tools should provide easy-to-use dashboard charts so management canquickly access both specific information and broad trends.

Of course, everything has to be easy to use.

FOUNDATION IN PLACE

Fortunately, the foundation for excellent collaboration hasalready been laid. ERP and project management systemshave led many companies to organize their houses, and avariety of integrated communication tools and business performance management systems are already in place. It’sall part of a natural progression. You eventually need tointegrate people, processes and projects.

One look at the business headlines shows that collab-oration technology is consistently driving productivity, efficiency and competitive advantage among the country’shigh-profile corporations. These companies are improvingstrategy and bottom-line results by collaborating rather thanemploying top-down decrees or bulldozing approaches to business. The old ways are reactive, wasteful and depart-mentally discordant.

With the right technology, collaboration is not only possible but inevitable in your industry. The data is there,the people are ready, and modern networks allow us all to connect on a regular basis and in real-time.

Just like the slices in a pizza, all the pieces are in place. •

Phil Dunn is president of marketing and technology companySynapse Services. Contact him at www.qualitywriter.com.


What is Collaboration?According to Stamford, Conn.-based research and advisory firm Gartner, Inc., effective collaboration is built on four equallyimportant pillars:

1. The participants have embraced a common purpose.

2. Participants are committed to achieving specific goals andobjectives supporting that common purpose.

3. Participants are interdependent in that they rely on each other’sroles, talents, resources, expertise, knowledge and other contri-butions necessary to achieve the specific goals and objectives.

4. Participants are individually and collectively accountable for theresults of the collaboration, yet share a common benefit. – LD

continued from page 33

P M R E S O U R C E S


A D I N D E XAACE International 36 • AniWorld 23 • Assist Global 35 • CBA 36 • Cost Link 19 • The Cram Group 21

Humphreys & Associates 36 • ImageTool 28 • Impress Software 33 • Innovative Management Solutions 36 • Interplan Systems 36

Linkedge Technologies 9 • Onsyss Mobile Computing, Inc. 7 • Pertmaster LTD 28 • PM Solutions 36 • Primavera Australia 24

Primavera US 34, IBC, BC • Project Partners, LLC 37 • Project Logic 27 • ProManagement Systems 5 • RMC Project Management 21

Ron Winter Group 37 • Speedscan 37 • Totally Productive Group 31 • Turnaround Management Co. 15 • TCR IFC • US Cost 37

www.interplansystems.com

• GENERATE CUSTOMIZED PROJECT SCHEDULES

• IMPROVE YOUR PROJECT TEMPLATES

• STANDARDIZE PLANNING AND ESTIMATING

• CAPTURE YOUR COMPANY'S BEST PRACTICES

• BETTER QUALITY ESTIMATES

• EASIER TASK DEVELOPMENT

• FASTER SCHEDULE DEVELOPMENT

InterPlan Systems Inc.P.O. Box 590131Houston,Texas 77259

TOLL FREE: 800 • 487 • 8589OFFICE: 281 • 482 • 7126FAX: 281 • 648 • 1821

PROJECT PLANNING / ESTIMATING SYSTEM

P M R E S O U R C E S

PRIMAVERAonlineVisit us online at www.primavera.com/mag

New Subscriptions? Subscription application can be made at www.primavera.com/mag, or by fillingout and returning the subscription request form located in the magazine.

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Need Reprints? Want to share our articles with your customers? Put them on your Website? Need them for special events and trade shows? Reprints and e-prints are available by contacting Lori Noffz at 1-800-494-9051, ext. 104, or via email, [email protected].

What Do You Think? Letters to the Editor are welcome, and must include the writer’s name and daytime phone number or email address. Send your comments and suggestions to [email protected].

➤ Overworked, stressed out and ready to unplugfrom a fast-paced world? A high-touch natureexperience may be just what the doctor ordered.As life in the 21st century continues to placenew demands on us, the need for “down time”becomes even more essential to our mental andphysical well-being.

One sure way to recharge your batteries is withan intimate human-dolphin experience.

NOSE-TO-NOSE

Imagine yourself nose-to-nose with a nine-foot-long,five hundred pound bottlenose dolphin. The beautyand intelligence of this playful animal can be irresistible, transforming the most overworked execu-tive back into a smiling, wide-eyed kid. In fact, thereare dolphin-assisted therapy programs that promoteall kinds of psychological and physical benefits.Research studies that monitored participants’ brain-waves before and after dolphin interactions conclud-ed that humans were more relaxed after spendingtime in the water with dolphins. Many believe this relaxed state stimulates the immune system and provides an opportunity for the body to heal itself.Another theory focuses on the dolphins’ use ofecholocation. What we hear as fast, clicking soundsare actually strong sound waves that dolphins produce to give themselves a mental image of their surrounding environment. These dolphin-generatedsound waves are significantly stronger than those usedin ultra-sound therapy, and some researchers believethat the waves can modify our body’s cellular structure and provoke the release of beneficialendorphins or T-cells.

In addition to therapy programs, swimming withdolphins has evolved into a worldwide tourism industry. A few operators take guests by boat to

areas frequented by wild dolphins. In their naturalenvironment, it’s the dolphins who control how andwhen human contact occurs. Guests who swim withwild dolphins often refer to it as a spiritual experience.However, in order to guarantee human-dolphininteractions, the majority of programs use captivedolphins kept in pens or lagoons. As with any zoo,there will always be some question about the propriety of removing wild animals from their natural habitat and confining them for entertain-ment and or education.

MEET THE DOLPHINS AT DISCOVERY COVE

In Orlando, Fla., Discovery Cove (www.discov-erycove.com) features a hands-on dolphin experiencein a well-planned, upscale theme park. Eighty percentof their dolphins come from a breeding program thatoriginated next door at Sea World. With a trainer by your side, you’ll meet these intelligent and lively animals. Your initial introduction takes place with a small group in shallow water and progresses to anindividual (or family) encounter in deeper water. Thesmoothness of the dolphins’ skin and the way theyglide or leap are impressions you’ll never forget.But, be warned: Touching, playing and swimmingwith dolphins can be contagious. And, the experiencejust might leave you with a dolphin-sized grin. •

Susan Davidson is a writer and avid sailor docked in Palmetto, Fla.

free

float


Forget the Spa –Try Unwinding

With the DolphinsBy Susan Davidson

Discover the infinite possibilities that lie ahead. Celebrate the

success of your projects — the projects you undertake everyday that

continuously change our universe. This year as we mark our 20th anniversary

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*Registration discount offer expires October 6, 2003

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