A Glimpse on Project Management

By ; Syam Tawakkal

The term of project is very familiar for us nowadays. Many kind

of project was established. We can categorize it into many kind
of type using many approaches. By amount of money we can
categorize it into several types such as small, medium and large
project. By discipline, we can find there are many types of
project such as infrastructure (included in this term are
bridge, building, road, real estate, public facilities etc),
facility for special purpose such as milling facilities for
mineral processing, plant for petrochemical, etc.

Chris Hendrickson and Tung Au classified construction project

into:
Residential housing construction
Institutional and commercial building construction
encompasses a great variety of project types and sizes such
as schools and universities, medical clinics and hospitals,
recreational facilities and sport stadiums, retail chain
storages and large shopping centers, warehouse and light
manufacturing plants, and skyscrapers for offices and
hotels.
Specialized industrial construction, involves very large
scale projects with a high degree of technological
complexity, such as oil refineries, steel mills, chemical
processing plants, and coal-fired and nuclear power plants.

For people who not involve in any kind of project the question
that they usually ask is what the project actually means are?
There are many answers that we can get in many books or
publications and almost in all publications expert agreed in
defining Characteristics of a project as follow:

It has a start date and a finish date.

It is not a repetitive activity.
It is special because it is never same in resources, cost
and problem.
A project done only once.

Our understanding in the characteristic allows us easily to

define whether an activity is a project or not. Commonly, a
project always fulfills the above characteristics.

J.M Juran defines a project as a problem scheduled for solution.

This definition forces us to recognize that projects are aimed
at solving problem and that failure to define the problem
properly is what sometimes gets us into trouble.

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PMI define a project as a temporary endeavor undertaken to
create a unique product or service.

Now, we have a clear understanding about the project. The next

question is what do we need to execute a project properly?

Experts have varied explanations about this. The differences

probably come from different approaches. In this paper I tried
to simplify and summarized them into general principles.

Here is a list of general principles:

1. Technical Knowledge
2. Team Members
3. Work Breakdown Structure
4. Schedule
5. Project Control
6. Budget
7. Hard Work

Technical Knowledge
We need a good understanding of the technical details of the
work to be executed. The more detail we can figure it the better
we can execute it. Whatever the project, a clear and good
understanding on it is very helpful. By understanding the
technical details we can predict problems that will arise and
give us a chance to make a preliminary plan to solve them.

Because a project is problems to be managed and solved, good

understanding on technical detail about the project can prevent
rework at any phase of project.

Team members
We need people who able to do the work then we have to pick the
best. Competency base selection must be applied to screen team
member candidates in order to get a good team. Nothing reduces a
chance for excellent project more than a poor project team.

In spite of a good team member, we also need more attention in

building a team because have good members will not automatically
give us a good team. Many things influence a team. Besides good
team members, leadership is very important. Only a good leader
can build a well team, create a good work environment and apply
a good work relationship between team members. Project leaders
must establish a climate of open communication with the team, a
climate in which no one feels to intimidate to speak up.

James P Lewis defined the most popular term for the stages of
team development as follows forming, storming, norming and
performing. In the forming stage, people are concerned with how
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they will fit in. During this stage they look to the leader to
give them some structure, to give them a sense of direction and
to help them get started.

In the storming stage people begin to question their goals. Are

they on the right track? Is the leader really leading them? They
sometimes play shoot-the leader during this stage?

In the norming stage, people begin to resolve their conflict and

to settle down to work. They have developed norms (unwritten
rules) about how they will work together, and they feel more
comfortable each other.

When the team member reach performing stage, the leader’s job is
easier. Team member generally work well together and tend to
produce high quality result.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

WBS has important rule in a project. A good WBS can give us very
detail activity of a project. It means we can establish a good
cost estimate, schedule and control.

In another side, a poor WBS can lead us to a poor project

execution because it can drive a poor cost estimate, schedule
and control.

The idea behind the WBS is simple: a complicated task is

subdivided into several smaller tasks. This process can be
continued until the task can no longer be subdivided, at which
time you will probably find it easier to estimate how long each
small task will take and how much it will cost to perform.

One important question to ask when constructing a WBS is when to

stop breaking down the work. The general guideline is to stop
when reach a point at which we can estimate to the desired
degree of accuracy or at which the work will take an amount of
time equal to the smallest unit we want to schedule.

Schedule
Schedule is a powerful tool in managing and controlling a
project. It provides us important information to arrange and
control project activities.

There are three commonly used methodologies in scheduling, the

simple is Gant chart which developed by Henry Gantt. Others
methods are Critical Path method (CPM) and Performance
evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). The PERT method uses
probably techniques whereas CPM does not. In other words, using

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PERT allows us to calculate the probability that an activity
will be completed by a certain time, whereas CPM does not.

The primary reason for scheduling a project is to ensure that an

imposed deadline can be met. Because the critical path method
helps identify the activities that will determine the end date,
it also offers guidance on how the project should be managed.

There are many software are available in market nowadays. One of

them is Microsoft project. It is good enough for small and
medium scale project but not really powerful for a large and
sophisticated project. Another one that is used broadly around
the globe for large scale and sophisticated project is
Primavera.

But please note that, the software is just a tool. In fact, it

is nearly impossible to use the software effectively unless we
understand scheduling methodology.

Project Control
Two things that we have to control in a project, they are:
Activity (schedule) and Cost. Using schedule that we have
established in the beginning of the project, we can control each
activity day by day. The simple question is does every activity
meet the schedule? If not, what is the corrective action to be
taken? We can achieve project goals by achieving day by day
target for each activity.

Special attention must be paid on tasks that do not have

floating time. These tasks are critical, and delay a critical
task can influence a project goal (particularly the time
completion goal).

The second thing to be controlled is Cost. Traditional method in

controlling the project cost is comparing ‘cost to date’ with
‘estimate cost’. The cost to date can be derived from financial
record.

The latest method to control project is Earned value Management

(EVM)/Earned Value Analysis. EVM has the unique ability to
combine measurements of technical performance (i.e.,
accomplishment of planned work), schedule performance (i.e.,
behind/ahead of schedule), and cost performance (i.e.,
under/over budget) within a single integrated methodology.

James P Lewis stated the characteristic of good project control

system as follows:
A focus on what is important.
A system for taking corrective action.
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 An emphasis on timely responses.

Budget
Budget is a sensitive issue in a project. Commonly it is used as
one of parameter to measure whether a project is successful or
not. There are two issues in budgeting they are over and under
budget.

As I mention before, WBS has a close relationship with budget.

Detail WBS gives us a chance to develop a precise cost estimate,
but we have to highlight that Detail WBS is not the one factor
influencing the accuracy level of cost estimate.

Below are tips in budgeting:

a. Be realistic, every place is not same in setting a cost
frame because cost frame is influenced by many factors such
as labor productivity, work environment etc. To be
realistic means apply actual condition where the project
will be run.
b. Be carefully in spelling out the work to be done. It will
give us a possibility to define the out of scope items and
to assign additional budget.

Below are the steps in budgeting:

Cost estimation.
Cost estimation start with taking quantity from an
approved scope of work then tabulated using WBS. Cost
estimation encompasses all things that can derive a cost
such as quantity of particular job, man hours, equipment
hours and material cost. A cost estimate also includes
contingency cost.
Set up cost Code.
The term of cost code probably not same in every company,
it is used as a part of cost controlling. Some company
using hierarchical cost code following the WBS. The last
code is Job number for an activity. A job number will be
used to paid man power, equipment or material.

Hard Work
The last principle is hard work. We have to work hard to keep
the project on track. Have a good team, and have a good project
instrument doesn’t mean a good performance.

All parties who involved in a project must do their best,

because a project like another system, one unit not running on
track can influence another. The responsible not only on the
project manager shoulder but distributed to all parties
involved.
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Closing
Project and project management have many subject to explore in
order to get clear understanding on it. This paper is just a
glimpse on it but can be used as a guide to dig deeper in each
subject presented.

Refrences :
1. Chris Hendrickson and Tung Au, Project Management for
Construction, Fundamental concept for owners, Engineers,
architects, and Builders. Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburgh, 2000.
2. James P Lewis, Fundamental of Project management, amacom,
American management Association.
3. PMI Standard Committee, A guide to the project management
body of knowledge. Project Management Institute.
4. Jack Caldwell, State of the art review project management,
Infomine 2006.

Syam Tawakkal, completed his BSC in Mechanical Engineering at Hasanuddin

University in December 2001. Now he is working at Construction Department PT.
Freeport Indonesia. Before He joined PT. Freeport Indonesia He served as
Mechanical / Piping inspector at PT. Rekayasa Industry for VICO Indonesia
project. He is a member of AACEI (The association of Advancement Cost
Engineering International).

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