It has been 12 months since I started this blog “project” and 6 months since my last blog progress review
How’s it going?
My project management blog is 12 months old
Interpreting legal advice
One of my most challenging tasks was interpreting legal advice. It often fell to the project manager to decide what recommendations were included
Legal advice was usually requested when setting up contracts for engineering services and construction management, when purchasing property and land, and resolving queries relating to equipment supply terms and conditions
The advice was so thorough, especially regarding liabilities, that sometimes wading through the detail in order to set priorities for decision making and negotiation was not easy
If one was not careful, special conditions to model forms of contract would start to become disproportionately large and take an age agreeing
Fortunately project managers are equipped with the the risk analysis and stakeholder management skills to usually establish proportionality
The above opinion is made without prejudice
Purchase requisitions good practice
Raising purchase requisitions is a key procurement skill for project engineers and others making commitments to project budgets
I reviewed and approved many and suggest the following good practice to anyone raising a capital purchase requisitions
Keep project tasks simple if possible
Looking back at my posts, I see quite a few of them recommending simple ways of carrying out some project management tasks
This begs the question are we inadvertently making some areas of project management too complicated? Effectively using “hammers to crack nuts” and time consuming for project resources
The posts I refer to are as follows:
- A simple way to store project data
- Capital budgets do not need micromanaging
- Minimise change control classification
- Simple risk matrix using project objectives
The trend is probably due to the push for and availability of modern computing and business systems. The phrase “more resources measuring the pig than fattening it” comes to mind
A simple way to store project data
Project data needs to be electronically stored in a simple way to ensure easy access for members of the project team and encourage ownership and good housekeeping of the data
Design standards provided by Clients
Design standards are needed to carry out engineering on capital projects and some of these can only be provided by Clients
Images of Capital Assets
Generic images of capital assets from the wide range of industries I had the pleasure to be be involved with (to make use of my image licence subscription)
Very high level of engineering specification
Big equipment
Capital Budgets do not need micro managing
To control capital plans, regular forecasting of capital budgets is necessary but needn’t be micro managed like revenue budgets
CDM Regulations are sometimes interpreted in different ways
The UK’s Construction (Design and Management) Regulations came into force during my career
Sometimes my interpretation of the latest Regulations (CDM 2015) seemed to be different to that held by EPCM contractors. Six examples that come to mind are:
Ten Interview Questions for Project Managers and Engineers
I found the following ten interview questions useful when recruiting Project Managers and Project Engineers