Heads In Beds

Last week I had the pleasure of presenting alongside Tom Koulouris, co-owner of KFI, a program management firm that works with healthcare owners to define best practices during planning, design, construction, and operations of their capital programs.

I met Tom when he used to work for HCA Healthcare where he utilized e-Builder to manage a project in Florida. He always had a philosophy of keeping things simple and it contributed to the success of our software on his projects.

Since leaving HCA a few years ago, Tom has taken his best practices and implemented them for other Healthcare owners. His practices have proven so effective that he has been commissioned to write a book titled "Heads in Beds" which deals with what healthcare owners can do to speed the time-to-market for new hospitals, and discusses the relationships between project cost, schedule, and scope as they apply to incremental revenue. The book will be out in the fall.

We asked Tom to share his thoughts in during a webinar sponsored by e-Builder a few weeks ago. For those who missed it, it's worth a listen. Click HERE to open the webinar. Enjoy!

ENR Award of Excellence - 2008

There isn't a week that goes by where someone doesn't makes a comment about the longevity of e-Builder.  After all, the track record for software companies who develop web based applications for the construction industry isn't exactly stellar.  Many disappeared only after a few years of service.  In one case, e-Builder was fortunate enough to acquire one of the companies and grow its user base.  Point is, as I look back at all the wonderful experiences, one event sticks out the most - ENR's Annual Award of Excellence Event.

Having been honored as a past Newsmaker, I was fortunate to experience the magnitude of such an event.  Many of the individuals who I seek out each year are considered friends, mentors, and "good people" with strong ethics and integrity.  

This year I was able to grab my fiance's camera before I left for NYC and take a few shots at the event.

Who can forget Judy Schriener.  She discovered me when I was fresh out of Building Construction at the University of Florida.

Hoyt Lowder, one of the executives at FMI Corporation was also instrumental in getting e-Builder noticed.  Although he did not attend, FMI's new CEO Hank Harris did.   Hank has been equally supportive and is always very insightful.  I still remember first meeting Hank at a conference in Hawaii where we were both speaking.  They don't come any hipper than Hank! 

If it wasn't for Norbert Young, President of the McGraw-Hill's Construction Information Group, we never would have partnered up with McGraw-Hill.  It's hard to believe that was way back in 2000.  Seems like yesterday!  Norbert is like a machine.  He never stops and always has the answers.  He has been a wonderful mentor to me.  Thanks Norbert!

Brian Tonry was instrumental during the .boom and .bomb days of the Internet.  He has perspective like no other and continues to be a great resource and friend on many subjects.

Both Jay McGraw, VP Group Publisher for ENR, and Jan Tuchman, Editor-in-Chief of ENR extend such warmth every time we see them.  It's like being around family and it makes all of us feel good.

Lastly, I would not be anywhere without our President, Ron Antevy.  As you can tell from the last name, he also happens to be my brother.  I am so fortunate to work with such a talented individual.  Our skill sets are complimentary.  For one, he is an engineer and I am an architect!  We always have a great time at the event and we make sure to end it off with a slice of NYC Pizza.

Until next year!!!!!

Collaborative Scheduling - Not Always A Fit

So you have a schedule on your project, eh? Is it really being put to good use? I can't tell you how many times I have received a project manager's MS Project schedule to find that none of the activities are linked together. For example, task #3 cannot start until task #2 is completed. The benefit of creating these dependencies is that when the date of a task changes, it automatically reflects the changes in the subsequent tasks thereby creating a new critical path. Done correctly, it allows executives in advance to determine when the project or projects are slated to be completed.

When I used to schedule for a contractor out of Orlando, FL I would chase down those who had responsibility for completing the tasks. In turn, I would then update the schedule to indicate the progress, or lack thereof, that had been made. By the time I collected the updates and generated a PDF view of the schedule, it was already outdated. Frankly, the schedule was eye candy for the owner while the field was using weekly lookaheads on graph paper to truly manage their tasks.

Enter "collaborative scheduling" whereby the project schedule is available online via a web-based project management/scheduling system through a browser.

1. Those responsible for the task can update the task themselves - with management approval if needed.
   
2. When the critical path changes, it instantly notifies everyone downstream of the change via email.


3. The ability to roll-up all the milestones across all the projects is always available without having to chase down multiple project managers.

Here is the problem. Too many users of non-collaborative scheduling tools think that by web-enabling the schedule, it will ensure accurate and timely updates. For one, it is not practical for a contractor's detailed schedule to be posted online. The reason is that many of those who are responsible for the tasks do not have easy or regular access to the Internet.

If I put on my "owners" hat however, the value proposition becomes stronger.

1. First, an owner's schedule is likely comprised of 50 milestones or less.
2. Second, a cross section of managers are likely the ones responsible for updating the schedule. These managers are regular users of web-based systems and have regular access to the Internet.
3. In some cases, the contractor is asked to update their tasks. This is usually done with little resistance because to update 2 or 3 tasks once a week is not considered to be a burden (remember that the contractor has his/her own detailed schedule that is being updated at a greater frequency).

In summary, while there are benefits to collaborative scheduling, be sure to ask the right questions to determine when it is the best fit.

In The Beginning....

When I was little, my brother used to call it the "Time Magazine of the construction industry". Of course, he was talking about Engineering News-Record. A civil engineer, he would always have copies of the publication laying around.

Not until 1995, when I started my company, did I really begin to pay attention to it. I remember reading it every week looking for anything related to web based project management, my passion to this very day. Suddenly, it struck without warning! There it was......the first article in ENR about the web. It was written by Judy Schriener, a person whom I have learned so much from. She tells the story best in her blog called "In the Beginning...."

Excel - A Blessing or a Curse?

Technology has sure come a long way since I started visiting with companies back in 1995. Unfortunately, the process by which projects are managed hasn't changed much.

Let's focus on the owner/developer for a moment. Perhaps the most widely used tool by this group is Microsoft Excel. Name any department, any process, and Excel will usually find its way into the picture. Need to organize projects in your development pipeline, track the open action items during the entitlement process, manage the budget, commitments, and actuals - Excel can facilitate these processes to a certain degree. However, Excel can have its downsides and the most common complaints I hear from Directors of Construction/Program Managers are listed below:

1. Multiple people cannot easily update the Excel file simultaneously.


2. There is no audit trail of numbers that have been changed - this is even more problematic for those have linked spreadsheets.


3. The person who created the semi-automated spreadsheet is no longer there, making it hard to troubleshoot when macros or links become corrupt.


4. Takes too much time to roll-up the spreadsheets from multiple project managers, especially if there are variations in the templates.


5. No ability to easily link backup documents (such as contracts of invoices) to numbers found in the spreadsheet.


6. No real-time visibility into critical information, i.e. Contingency, such that dollars can be moved around more effectively to alleviate the problem.

I have seen these Excel based systems being replaced by Web-Based Project Management and Collaborative Solutions at an increasing pace. Apparently, the word has been getting around. Just recently, I attended a Healthcare Conference where at least 15% of the Directors were using some type of web based system. Not a high number, but compared to 2 years ago, it's a marked increase. Perhaps 2008 will be the banner year?