Planning ahead: Do you have the right tools to stay on track?

In other words, it allows project managers to have a good understanding of what materials they need to order next, what tasks must be completed and/or checked, and whether there are any nonconformities that require attention. Each of these actions is a workflow in itself and must be carefully tied into the overall plan to ensure everything goes as expected.

In this sense, the anticipated schedules are closely linked to the master plan and each change to them can have a direct impact on the progress of the entire project.

For example, the slightest delay in a single on-site activity can leave subcontractors roaming the field for weeks, unable to complete the work assigned to them. Therefore, construction projects can suffer serious delays, opening the door to legal disputes and budget overruns.

That's why ongoing collaboration across the supply chain is critical. All stakeholders must be able to connect with each other in real time and rely on accurate data to make smart decisions quickly.

To achieve this, they need access to the live program and the right tools. This is where the problem begins for many project managers and directors around the world.

In an attempt to clarify how project teams can keep their advance planning on track, below we present three crucial questions that all project managers need to consider to ensure the success of their projects.

3 questions all project managers should ask themselves

Digitizing your systems and processes to keep your teams connected is not a cure in and of itself. There are certain steps that need to be followed and certain questions that need to be asked so that you can better manage outages, avoid errors, and spend less time on administrative tasks. More specifically, here are the three main questions you should always ask yourself when you start working on your advance planning:

Many construction stakeholders waste nearly 40% of their time chasing updates, writing endless reports, or just attending meetings. The worst part? They seem to believe that endless meetings and excessive administrative workload are just part of the job.

But the truth is that it should never be like this. Firstly, you shouldn't spend your time generating reports that could be automated with 3 clicks or searching for critical data from multiple sources instead of a single, always up-to-date source of truth.

Furthermore, there's no reason for project teams to get stuck in meetings that take much longer than necessary just because many of the participants don't have visibility into the project. This only creates even more distrust among employees and feeds a culture of blame throughout the supply chain.

Under such circumstances, micromanagement becomes part of daily operations, leading to even more administrative work and poor relations between stakeholders.

And that's why the next time you start thinking about your advance planning, you need to take a moment and see if you could spend less time on your administrative tasks. The answer to this question will probably be “yes” and it could pave the way for a new way of working and managing your projects. After all, you didn't get into construction to attend meetings all day, but to give back to society.

Are my tools specific to construction?

This is the second question you need to consider if you want to increase your project productivity and ensure the successful completion of your anticipated plan.

Project managers tend to believe that the tools they use are fit for purpose and designed to collaborate with different stakeholders on their construction projects. In many cases, the truth is very different.

Especially when it comes to tools like WhatsApp, Email and Excel that are not built with construction as the main focus. These tools can be great to use in your personal life, but they are not industry specific. More analytically:

• They don't force people in real time to work with outdated information.
• The data shared through them has no connection to the master plan. In other words, the data is static.
• Information is dispersed across many different platforms, making the reporting process a nightmare.
• They don't allow for collaboration between internal and external stakeholders, which makes your effort to connect all teams in the field much more challenging.

It becomes evident that using the wrong tools can really impact your advance planning. Your teams will not have a real-time view of the project and there will be no clarity on who is responsible for what, leading to slow and dysfunctional decision-making.

So next time at the venue, be sure to ask yourself this question. Otherwise, you will quickly feel out of control and become the bottleneck on your own project.

Could you standardize more?

The next big bet is standardization. You might think that construction projects vary in terms of both purpose and size, so standardization is not always an option. But the truth is very different.

Regardless of the type of your project, 80% of the process is always the same. Therefore, standardizing the way you design, collaborate, and eventually build is a valid option. Most importantly, this will take a lot of pressure off your shoulders and help you avoid mistakes before they appear or flag critical issues at an early stage.

Because there are a large number of subbies and different specialists on site, it is extremely important that each one follows a well-defined context rather than having their own way of doing things.

Of course, adopting a new system and a new process is also a challenge at this stage, but it is no reason to back down from your standardization initiative. If your teams can use a smartphone and mobile banking, then they should be able to handle a digital tool that will add more clarity to the way they work and eliminate some of their daily frustrations.

But they first need to understand the value they get from changing their on-site habits. This is where the initial question “could we standardize more?” arises. will take you next. Don't standardize for the sake of technology, but for the sake of your teams, so you can protect your advance planning and, by extension, your entire project.

Your tools shouldn’t just be “good enough”

After asking yourself the three questions presented above, you are already ahead of the competition. But you shouldn't stop there. Being “good enough” should not be the desired state.

Yes, you will eventually be able to complete your project using a “good enough” tool like WhatsApp and Excel. However, you need to take into consideration the true cost that comes with such a decision. Because in the long run, it will probably be a pretty expensive choice.

That said, here are some things you'll want to look for in the tools you'll implement to manage your advance planning and master schedule:

• They must enable seamless collaboration and connect all project updates to the overall plan in real time.
• They must be connected to one source of truth, keeping everyone on the same page and making it easier to automate the reporting process.
• They should provide a detailed and always up-to-date audit trail that will allow project stakeholders to see what happened in the past. This will also protect you from any legal disputes that could endanger the progress of your project.
• All applications must be linked to the same platform. No need to chase the latest progress reports across the field.
• They must be easy to use so that on-site adoption is easy.
• Last but not least, they must be construction specific. Choose tools that were built with the real needs of the people who actually work in construction in mind.