Novig had asked:
Virtually all 'construction management' software is simply scheduling software... while scheduling is a necessary function of project managment, it is perhaps one of the least relevant aspects when it comes to getting a job done on schedule and within budget.
Scheduling software simply does not have the capability of running a job, making decisions or interfacing with or dealing with vendors, contractors and owners... it provides only the illusion of that.
Those that depend on scheduling software to *manage a project on any complex project are going to create more problems by use of such software than they solve.
I use such software though on occasion, larger projects, as a way to keep notes and visualize the scheduling issues. I do not run a project however to meet the targets this software defines...why? Because one is GUESSING right from the start on how long each aspect of the work will take, and one is GUESSING on materials delivery across 20 different trades...and one is GUESSING on the inevitable changes the client comes up with, often major, in the middle of the project.... and one is GUESSING on the weather and labor union conditions.
Thats a lot of GUESSING across 20 different trades and contractors and calling that sufficient to define a project schedule. Then try to enforce it on the vendors and contractors and calling that *management. That is not management...it is destruction by idiots.
Over the last 40 years on hundreds projects, from a few thousand dollars to billions of dollars I have seen this sort of 'managment' proliferate and typically double or triple project costs and extend project completion by 100 to 500%... that is pervasively comon. Not an exception.
The bottom line is that one cannot manage what he or she does not fully understand... these typically resort to use of force and threats to get the job done, and that ruins the project as these loose the good will and cooperation of the contractors.
What does it take to manage a project well? It takes involving by legal, social and ownership means all of the players, the contractors and vendors etc...right from the start. At the planning table. Not after its too late and the foundations have been poured.
And it involves elimination of an adversarial relationship between contractors, engineers, project management and owners. No small feat, but entirely possible. The rewards are numerous. A project usually completed on a reasonable schedule on budget, with no hair pulling, or law suits... or as Ive seen in many cases a failed project.
Can a magna cum laude ME from Harvard with 2 whole years of experience pull such a project off? No. Such a person does not have the requisite experience in life as a human being, much less the developed and mature engineering, construction and management skills to pull it off. It takes a studious and contientious person 20 years to become half way competent in any of these areas... and 30 or 40 years to gain wisdom.
Wisdom comes with age... not to any great degree by any other means.
It takes mature experience across this wide range to get a large scale industrial construction job done within reasonable cost and time parameters, and thats true also, but to a slightly less extent on large scale commercial construction,
Currently in the US there are 70 million of us with a life time of skills in business and industry. Almost half of the work force in the US.
(168 million jobs in the US) ... 3/4 of which or low or minimum wage jobs.. leaving roughly 45 million highly skilled positions.
This class of talent is now staged to leave the US work force over the next 5 years.
Page 1 of my web site includes articles on how to manage a project successfully.
These ruin all they touch... including the project. They ruin themselves in the end as well...they do this by lying in attempts to justify their own error and the disaster they create... it takes about 20 years.... meantime ruining the lives of anyone unlucky enough to be on the recieving end of their psychosis.
This is the most prevalent condition today. One must have a self defense in order to survive this environment. A few of the articles on the web site address those issues.
Note to the vicious young turks coming up: I was one, for 20 years. Trust me, what you see as workable today, abject ruthlessness and lying, and arrogance etc. is vastly more destructive than you realize. It will ruin YOU first. And it will ruin you utterly, completely and to the core of your being. Leaving your brain toast, unable to learn or lead a decent life. Your marriage and relationships will go to utter ruin. Those are the rewards of such ignorance, arrogance and error. It is a natural human condition to think that all he or she knows, is all there is to know...and thus that one knows the correct thing to do.
Nothing could be farther from the truth... Humans are virtual idiots, especially before they have gained some wisdom with age...and for most of us that can take a life time...some of us die without becoming wise.
I don't recall now if I included a way to cure some of these for yourself and for the back stabbing members of your management and owners team. I have written on that subject often, and given that seminar to several of my industrial clients ... some of the articles have been published in CE Weekly. various trade journals and Business Weeks e-zine in the early 90's... before I put the web site up.
Phil Scott