Modern Construction Project Management, Second Edition

S.L. Tang Francis K.W. Wong S.W. Poon Syed M. Ahmed

Published by Hong Kong University Press, HKU

For additional information about this book

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http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9789882202245

18 COMMON

PROGRAMMING uSOFTWARE

A number o f computer packages for planning and programming are available in the market place . A brief introduction o f these packages is given below.

1. Powerprojec t Teampla n

Powerproject Teampla n (http://www.astadev.com ) addresse s real-tim e programming an d resource management issue s across the company. I t can help manage all projects, resources and costs, and is a scalable solution suitable for individual , departmental and enterprise level planning.

It is an easy-to-use software application that helps reduce costs, meet deadlines and speed up completion date s in the house building business.

The software i s popular because it:

is easy to use provides total visibility across all projects plans resource requirements accuratel y speeds up completion rate s keeps people informe d

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• i s supported by people who know the industr y • i s used by leading house builders, both large and small

2. Planvie w

Planview (http://www.planview.com/planview.html ) i s used t o plan wor k and workforce, manage the complexity of contracts, budgets, resource pools, projects, service departments, risks and changes. The staff, contractors, time and expense s statu s ca n be tracke d t o improve managemen t skill s and t o drive billings . Thi s software ha s been prove n a t many Fortun e 100 0 an d Global 500 companies and other leading organizations worldwide .

'Manage Work' is the scheduling tool in Planview for both projects and service work. Resourc e and projects manager s ca n use thi s software t o view, filte r and sort work and resources. Planview can help check the resource availability — projects, recurring work, service and administrative before finalizin g th e schedules.

2.1 Quer y and Grouping Feature s Manage Work is designed fo r scheduling , assigning resources, authorizin g resources to service work and tracking project progress. It uses the powerfu l and flexibl e structure s o f the repository t o filte r an d displa y information . These structure s suppor t automati c workflow , suc h a s re-adjustin g responsibility whe n th e wor k statu s changes . Planview' s web-base d collaboration the n notifies th e appropriate managers of the change in work or resource availability. Work can be grouped by work breakdown structure , customer, work type , location, o r any additional hierarchica l structure s o r attributes. Resources can be grouped by organization breakdown structure , skill/role, grade, location o r additional hierarchical structures o r attributes . Structures can be shared between work and resources and can include multiple entries such as skill sets. Using these features, information ca n be displayed by department, customer , skills required, current status or a variety of other techniques that one might define, for a management view or a detailed view.

2.2 Interactiv e Gantts With Profile s Planview ha s th e firs t interactiv e We b Gantt . Th e users have accesse d t o Work Detail, Find Qualified Resources and Assign Resources. Once an activity has been scheduled, the schedule bars can be moved with the drag and drop

COMMON PROGRAMMING SOFTWARE 2 2 9

functionality, o r the y ca n b e re-size d t o chang e date s and/o r durations . Milestones can also be viewed and moved from within th e Gantt View.

Planview's Collaborative CPA Planview enterpris e planning , collaboratio n an d schedulin g function s ar e executed on the server and based on organization-wide workforce availabilit y and schedules . Havin g th e enterpris e plannin g engine s proces s o n th e application server provides a functionality neve r before available. The engines hold a 'schedule dat a model ' in memory , so schedule change s tha t impac t other department s o r othe r project s ar e identifie d an d notificatio n i s automatically sent to the appropriate managers. Planview's collaborative CPA (critical path analysis) alert s managers of changes in schedules, and allow s the managers the final decision to revise their resource schedules .

Primavera

Primavera Project Planner (http://www.primavera.com/products/index/html ) is a choice for high-performance projec t management software. I t is designed to handle large-scale , highly sophisticated an d multifaceted projects . Thi s software is able to organize projects with up to 100,000 activities and provides unlimited resources and an unlimited number of target plans. It offers a single database solution that provides simultaneous access to project files by multiple users throughou t th e project . We b features als o make i t easy t o keep th e whole team informed .

The softwar e offer s impressiv e capabilit y fo r integratin g it s dat a wit h information throughou t th e organization. I t supports a wide variety of data exchange formats . Th e use r ca n cu t an d past e wit h othe r Window s applications, or use Object Linking and Embedding to link information fro m other applications .

Microsoft Projec t

Microsoft Projec t (http://www.microsoft.com/office/project/default.asp ) provides knowledge workers with the flexibility t o plan collaboratively and track project s an d delive r th e result s accordin g t o busines s demands . Introduced to work closely with Microsoft Project , a new companion product, Microsoft Projec t Central , is a web-based collaboratio n too l allowing two-

2 3 0 MODER N CONSTRUCTION PROJECT MANAGEMENT

way communication between everyone involved in a project and also allowing data access to anyone, even without Microsoft Projec t o n their desktops .

The benefits o f Microsoft Projec t ar e its ability to:

• Improv e tea m productivit y b y involvin g tea m member s an d othe r stakeholders in project managemen t

• Increas e the usefulness o f Microsoft Projec t dat a for user s • Exten d project managemen t acros s the organizatio n

4.1 Ne w Features

Personal Gantt chart This renders Gant t views such as those in Microsoft Projec t t o outline each team member's own tasks across multiple projects .

New task Team members can create tasks; the project manager can approve those new tasks before adding them to the project plan .

Task delegation Once assigned by the project manager , tasks may be delegated from leads to team members or form peer to peer. Delegation can be disabled .

4.2 Improve d Features

Scaling and printing Users ca n prin t document s mor e efficientl y an d easil y with ne w printin g and scaling options and improved behaviour o f existing options.

Workgroup Project manager s ca n assign tas k responsibilitie s an d trac k projec t statu s across workgroups t o keep the project o n track. Users can use email alone, or with Microsoft Projec t Central , they can exchange project information a t a web site on their intranet or the internet .

Timesheet This is where team members can see their assignments across projects, enter updates and easily send them to the project manager .