How do you manage project time and avoid delays?

Questions become more expensive as time goes on, so don't be afraid to engage with your stakeholders--right now questions are free.

Not many project managers understand this: whether you are managing a project using traditional approach or Agile, managing schedule starts with managing scope, which actually starts with managing stakeholders! The steps go like this: 1/ Identify key stakeholders that can give you the requirements 2/ Create a process to collect, verify, lock-in, and document requirements and defining scope 3/ Be open to adapt changing requirements (they will!) and a way to include them in project scope with least disruption When you do these, you will bring in predictability to your schedule as well.

💡 In order to determine the relatively precise scope of the project, we need a good understanding of it, which is obtained from our previous experiences. ➕ But if we do not have good knowledge in the field of project industry, we should conduct studies regarding the limitations of similar projects, and not neglect the climatic, cultural, political, etc. ✅ considerations of the region. All engineering and experimental algorithms should be optimized according to the conditions, situation and expectations, and the scope of the project is no exception.

There are so many aspects to monitoring and controlling a project that starts at the beginning (initiating) of a project and continues through the closeout. Every phase has the potential to change your schedule. You should constantly be monitoring all aspects of the schedule, budget, risk, and quality as you move through ALL the phases. You need to understand how each of these items can impact your schedule and know when and how to apply appropriate processes through reporting, and escalating as needed with your stakeholders and project sponsor(s), in order to be able to control the outcome. This is required through the entire project timeline - not in any one phase.

Monitor Progress and Update the Schedule: Continuously monitor the progress of project activities using the EZELOGS delay tracking software. Regularly update the schedule to reflect the actual progress and any changes or deviations from the original plan. This allows for proactive identification of potential delays and facilitates timely adjustments.

Be sure to research past projects and previous project managers within your organization to align on timelines. Every creative, engingeering, and production team has slightly different capacities and capabilities. Be vocal with the team about your estimations and bring them into the conversation early to ensure you will not be running into situations that could be avoided, like PTO, vacations, or other known accomodations.

↪ This is one of the most difficult tasks, as a project manager or coordinator, if we have recorded the experiences of previous projects para metrically, our work will be much easier. ⬇ I always try to query these estimates at three levels: 🔹 Design engineer 🔹 Executive or supervisor 🔹 Individual or group of executive/contractor ☑ This is how I get a reasonable time frame.Of course, there are other issues that must be considered with engineering judgment and also 🔻 managerial insight in estimating time, such as: 🔸 The degree of complexity of performing the activity compared to similar cases 🔸 The effect of climatic conditions on the completion of the work (such as the initial strength of concrete in cold regions)

Estimating durations is super crucial because it enhances judgment and takes skills and proximity into consideration. There are different ways to approach, depending on the situation. The classic approach for this type of case is doing sprints, involving backlogs. To execute sprint strategies perfectly, consider following questions: - Who are associated with sprints or projects? - What are their roles? - What are their levels of expertise? This factor is important since it can affect the gauging of story points, which can impact results. - If previous sprints were learnt, how can one best strategize for next sprints? For story points, one can try classic Fibonacci order aka 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc...

With todays tech like 4D bim time and cost management has become alot easier to manage and reduces the chances of mistakes, Compared to 30 years ago the man hours required, also frees up surveyors to do what they do best pick holes in things lol

When it comes to making schedule or planning tasks, I often consider including bigger tasks instead of minor tasks that are easily completable. Adding big tasks to your book adds greater importance and value to the scope, which can then help us keep track of any possible case scenarios that will happen unexpectedly or negatively.

As a basis of CPM method you could also include EVM methods to be mindful of impact of changes to scope and CPM. The EVM measures will also allow you to monitor the SPI and CPI together as well.

When you have tasks with a significant amount of slack built in, be cautious in letting your contractors or team members know how much slack they have. People procrastinate, and if you allow them to push everything to the last minute and burn all of the slack along a path, you end up creating additional critical paths, which increases risk. It's best to set reasonable deadlines and have the project manager maintain the slack, which they can allocate as needed.

Tracking project progress and maintaining project documentation is vital. Staying organized and tracking project deliverables helps all project stakeholders stay on track. Prepare tracking documentation and conduct regular team review and update documentation with team feedback together. Openly share project documentation with the project team to promote transparency, visibility, and proficiencies.

💡 Even in the best projects, we have undergone changes and corrections. But the management of this process will control the damage to other components and objectives of the project. ⬇ By default, every activity must be done according to the details and technical instructions of the project. ➡ In case of any non-compliance and the need to change levels, it should be reported to the designer or consultant team through automation. ⬆ Designers or consultants should also officially notify the new agenda in the shortest possible time according to the project rules. 🔹 These systems are also known as orders and permits in construction projects. Risks are transformed into opportunities and creative solutions with proper analysis.

Know your team well. How long do they typically take to complete a task? Do they respond well to pressure? What is their typical quality of work? Do they usually turn in work on time? Who are the ones you can count on when things go south quickly? Having a firm grasp of their idiosyncrasies can help you factor in the time and resources you may need to buffer to deliver a project on time.

Communication is almost 90% of the project Manager life, most of the projects have a delay those day the project manager don't do an effective communication and the proper alignment required, for example what if they saw a risk and communicate it early with the proper actions, what if he saw any kind of scope deviation or from the main goal and do the proper communication even escalate it, if it's required, the problem is always communication after already the issue happened, or not taking the proper action and communicate it early before the impact of the scope activities 🤓

Collaborate with all workstreams and functional groups impacted by the project or change. When expectations are clearly defined, communicated, and acknowledged, performance improves.

In my experience, the accurate estimation process is also related to how connected we are with the team in order to understand how they see the task, how they perform and how they estimate it. It’s important caught all features as possible which can impact in the tasks performing. Let's say we start the conversation by asking a question like, "Is it possible to finish the test in a week?" This is a closed-ended question and may yield a simple yes or no answer, which doesn't say much about the task of testing a product or the teammate's work style. This can generate an inaccurate estimate. It's different if we ask "How long does it usually take you to mock up the design of a site like this?" and "which risks are involved in this task "

💡 Time management according to the PMBOK method has a classic process. This process can be modified and improved in different projects ⬇ at the discretion of managers, but its general steps are as follows: 🔹 Scope management planning 🔹 Gathering requirements 🔹 Define range 🔹 Creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) 🔹 Range validation 🔹 Range control I suggest that you try to review the program in several stages from different approaches such as stakeholders, executives, engineering teams, support teams, etc. Improve any parts that don't make sense. Of course, this should not make you obsessed. In my opinion, even the best programs are subject to change due to some unforeseen factors. ⏰ So don't waste time.

By identifying project team roles and responsibilities we are better able to contribute to overall project objectives; complete individual deliverables; provide expertise; and work collaboratively to establish and meet business needs.