Real Time Progress with DOCUMENTS
Document Based Progress?
Recently this topic has been bouncing around my head and I don't have a clear picture of exactly what I want to say on the topic, or even how to clearly define the topic.
My thoughts are as such - why do we often feel unsure what the progress or status of a job is? Why do we feel obligated to wait and use information contained in a subcontractors weekly report. Progress occurs in real time. But how can we automatically monitor it without having to wait for a report?
This is where perhaps we already have the knowledge, its just in the wrong form - specifically DOCUMENTS.
I first ran into this when someone asked me to audit an engineering progress report. I had to query the document control system and extract the status of several drawings and determine if indeed the progress aligned to the project controls progress listing. So, wait, if the status is live being recorded in the document control system, why was this other project controls mandated list/report being filled out too with a duplicate of the information?
But, see, that is just one small example. When we move into actual construction, all aspects of construction are controlled by testing documents. You can't place concrete until compaction and soil and inspected, you can't actually pour concrete until rebar and formwork has been inspected. You really can't do anything in the field without some sort of DOCUMENT indicating what has happened when. And that is the rub. If all this information is being tracked, why does it not "talk" with the project controls datasets. WHy doesn't the real live progress data flow to project managers in proper formats (as opposed to manually entered daily reports or weekly reports).
Lets get out of this and be able to directly source and compile reports from the underlying documents that give us real time status. Of course, I will get slammed, because everyone will say "we already do that" - but you don't. This fits into earlier discussions about strategy and integration. Do you have a strategy to source live status from documents? Do you have an tactical implementation of that strategy that will allow your project controls team to report live status? NOPE!
I don't propose to know exactly how to achieve this, but it is an idea that is bouncing around my head and trying to think of test cases to try to develop a proof of concept. Time will tell
Darrin - You nicely enunciate the folly of having a parallel team of progress measurement, when we have sign-offs and checklists and other document-based evidence of the progress! And using these removes the need for a separate, often blue-sky, estimate of progress. As in: progress races to 90% and stays there or creeps forward. My guess as to why this continues? A lack of a driving strategy by a knowledgeable team leader. And a lack of a viable end-to-end project management platform, for the entire team, that keeps current project information, including KPIs, visible to the right people in the team.
Have you build a protoype? I have one in Development The rational is the same as you describe in your article: metadata of a technical system as a proxy measure for progress.
darrin kinney great question! 15yr ago the answer that the technology wasn't capable was legitimate, today not the case anymore. If you watch Share Traders, they tend use real-time dashboards that show you the live status of a vast array of transactions. Whilst a project might not be as dynamic, there's nothing to stop the transactional level of detail being part of an integrated project control system.