Engineering Practice

Ten lips For SmartProject ManagersAlfred ChiuS &B Engineers andConstructors Ltd.

Projects have been undertaken bynations, private enterprises andindividuals for more years thanrecorded history. Over the last

three decades, project execution in thechemical process industries (CPI) hasbecome almost standardized, with thegeneral adoption of certain well-knownproject management procedures in-cluding the Front-end Loading (FEDprocess and the "Body of Knowledge."Those who are selected to manage theprojects are generally the winners ofrigorous elimination processes in theircompanies. You would have thoughtthat everyone would get it right bynow. But as every practitioner of thebusiness knows, "war" stories of di-sasters abound; some of them makingit to the business page of the news.What seems to be the problem? In thisarticle, we focus on ten key areas inproject management, where mistakescan have overreaching impact on theoutcome.

Manage the uncertaintyEveryone in the project managementbusiness has heard the phrase, "Planthe work. Work the plan." It seemsso simple. All smart project manag-ers do that. The difficult part is thatin project execution, as in life, thereare uncertainties. The FEL processis a procedural way to control someof those uncertainties and minimizetheir impact on the bottom line. Mostowner-company project departmentsand engineering contractors nowhave similar procedures with check-lists or pass gates. But the missingingredient in doggedly following thisexercise is that there is no room forcontingency planning.

Business economics, which affectproject execution, are never linear due

Some of the less tangible aspects of projectmanagement, such as culture, how to hreak hadnews and acknowledging limitations are just asimportant to success as schedules and hudgets

FIGURE 1. Communication is key to effective project management. A project man-ager should repeat important messages, using different formats of communication,such as meetings, posters, awards and more

to constantly changing global events.Neither are technical traps that existon every project, because each projectis unique. The question that is seldomasked in the FEL process is: "What ifthe plan, for whatever reason, no lon-ger works?" Setting aside the politicalramifications of truthfully asking thisquestion, what must the project man-ager do in this instance?

His or her task must focus on identify-ing the change from the original projectpremise, large or small, and then man-

aging the change that is required. Thetask of managing the uncertainty of lifemeans being prepared to make changesto that "sacred" project-execution planas circumstances dictate. Every plan isbased on a set of facts and assumptions.It is the project manager's responsibilityto recognize when new developmentsshow that the facts need updating or as-sumptions are proven false. In all cases,time is of the essence, and revisions tothe plan must be immediately put intoplace. In the most drastic cases, it may

4 0 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JANUARY 2012

40

35

S? 30

i 25I 20

10

5

Bad news has no shelf life

Effectiveness of intervention or damage control

X

2 3 4 5 6Time elapsed from discovery of problem

FIGURE 2. This sketch demonstrates that prompt action is needed when a projectis confronted by bad news in order for it to be effective. The unit of time is arbitraryin this graph, as it depends on the magnitude of the problem

mean wholesale redirection of the proj-ect in priorities and targets for budgetsand schedules.

Educate the clientPerhaps once upon a time, long longago, there was a place where the own-ers of a project (referred to here as theclient) knew what it took to imple-ment a project. Given the changes indemographics, the outsourcing trendand the involvement of so many in-vestment companies, a project man-ager is often confronted by a clientwho may only be vaguely familiarwith the implementation process. Ata large international engineering andconstruction firm, we once joked that,"What the customer doesn't know willnot hurt us!" Unfortunately, the truthis quite different from that. An igno-rant client will hurt himself, and inthe process, possibly hurt the contrac-tor even worse.

This is indeed the worst case sce-nario come true. And its managementis the most difficult task for a projectmanager. The problems of an igno-rant client have many facets. Amongthem are unrealistic expectations,misplaced skepticism, focusing on thewrong details and making the wrongtechnical decisions. There is no roomin this article to describe in detail howeach type of these can negatively im-pact a project. Suffice it to say thatsince we are not all-knowing and om-nipotent, every one of us will have toadmit to being ignorant of something.It is therefore important for the smartproject manager to recognize thestrengths and weaknesses of a client.The unpublished portion of the projectexecution plan must include a plan to

bring the client on board and include,if necessary, a way to conduct somedegree of education. All this mustbe accomplished early in the projectwithout insulting the client. This is anecessary condition for the success ofa project. If it is not done, or not donein the early part of the project, theconsequences will not be pretty.

Manage the cultureEvery project or task force, whetherit is large or small, develops its ownculture. The smart project manager ig-nores the effects of that culture on theoutcome of the project at his or her ownperil. The management of the cultureis perhaps the second-most-difficultpart of a project manager's job. Engi-neers by training, and in nature, aremost likely to be creatures of the mind.We value hard data and analysis andpredictable procedures. But culture ismore of a manifestation of the heart."Culture is defined by the group'snorms. It is manifested in the group'shabits and symbols," says J. TimothyMcMahon, a professor at Bauer Col-lege, University of Houston. There is nocorrect answer as to which is the "bestculture." One will know it's good whenone feels it; and it will feel different foreach person. There are successful proj-ects that revolve around strictly hier-archal teams and others with egalitar-ian teams. Culture cannot be managedby procedures and forms.

At one company, there is a procedurefor procurement specification that in-volves at least eight signatures andthree internal transmittals to movethe document 100 ft down the hall. Inthe dark history of the procedure, therewere instances of omissions and errors.

Not surprisingly, the undesirable be-havior continued with the implemen-tation of procedures that only servedto provide a shield for the perpetra-tors. Instead of searching for the rightculture, identify those parts that are amanifestation of a bad culture, such aslack of trust, lack of respect, fear, jeal-ousy and isolation. In the most drasticcase, project team members may haveto be removed because they becomepoisonous to the team culture. There isa great deal of truth to th«; saying thatone rotten apple spoils the barrel.

Wealthy corporations that can affordto hire expensive consultants oftenconduct team building exercises. Vastresources are spent to bring the teamto a special location with one or morefacilitators who purport to ferret outthe organizational problems in a fewhours or a couple of days, and of coursediscover procedures to resolve theseissues. In the course of the project, theresults of the team building exerciseare supposed to be implemented sothat everyone lives happily ever after.I have often wondered during the nu-merous exercises that I have attendedwhether everyone would be much bet-ter off if they just got a day off withpay to take care of whatever urgentbusiness is in their lives.

Someone with a true understandingof culture would know that a "vanilla"session of team building can only doharm by raising expectations withouta guarantee of improvements. Culturemust be managed in small incrementsby a project manager. The other way,to bring about quick cultural change,is via life-changing and oñ;en cata-strophic events. The great depressionand the murderous events of 9/11 weretimes when cultural changes were dra-matically brought about.

For the project manager, bring-ing about the desired cultural changemeans action by small increments. Onone taskforce at a petroleum refinery,a discussion on who was a better cookevolved into a potluck lunch for a fewof the contractor team members. Theevent grew to become the theme-of-the-month potluck lunch to celebratedifferent types of cooking. Eventually,it became a taskforce eniieavor thatincluded many of the client personnel.This tradition brought about improved

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHECOM JANUARY 2012 4 1

Engineering Practice

team relationships with the chent,which translated to hetter performanceof the whole team. This was a texthookcase of changing culture hy celehrat-ing small victories (people sitting downat the same tahle to eat) with sharedgains (getting some good food for free).

Acknowledge the limitationsWe live in a world of limited resources.Therefore, it is always a puzzle to mewhy clients and project managers per-sist in making a statement like, "Wehave to meet the schedule. Money isno ohject." Or the evil twin statement,"We have to conserve capital. Sched-ule is not important." A simple analy-sis of either statement would quicklyshow that if either is true, there is nohusiness reason to execute the projectat all. Why would the project he neces-sary if one does not make money fromit or if it does not matter when it is tohe finished?

A smart project manager must ac-knowledge to the team that he or sheunderstands the limitations placed onthe project team. This is also an im-portant aspect of educating the clientif this is one of his hlind spots. It isnot a crime to say that you want "x"while admitting that you only haveresources to get "y". A key part of thisacknowledgement is an executionplan that meshes with the reality. It isin our human nature to reach higherthan where we stand. However, all in-centive to do so is quashed when theproject manager refuses to acknowl-edge that certain ohjectives may hedifficult to reach with the availahleresources at hand. This mistake isthen compounded hy the lack of a re-alistic project execution plan. "Damnthe torpedoes! Full speed ahead!"makes for a good headline. However,the smart project manager must notforego careful analysis and good plan-ning. An open discussion ahout lim-ited resources allows the entire teamto huy-in on confronting the challengeand come up with ways to achieve theproject ohjectives in spite of the lim-ited resources.

Frame the messageA project team and the client are al-ways on the receiving side of mes-sages given hy the project manager.

Whether these messages areconsciously thought out or justcomments tossed off the cuff,they are received and inter-preted. This requires that thesmart project manager mustcarefully gauge what can hesaid in puhlic and what musthe discussed in a limited audi-ence with a long preamhle onwhat the content of the mes-sage means. Without develop-ing an overwhelming sense ofisolation and paranoia, a proj-ect manager must realize thathe or she is to a great extent,the messenger with the claytahlets in the universe of theproject team.

Sound hites of hallway con-versations are easily misin-terpreted and spread with thespeed of the internet. Use of humormay not he well received, especiallywith team memhers from other partsof the world. This is not to say thathumor is to he avoided, hut what issaid in the privacy of one's home orsmall gathering should prohahly heleft there. Rememher that a large partof humor requires a target. Do notmake someone or some group the huttof a joke unless that target is a will-ing participant. Even then, he care-ful of overly sensitive feelings. On atask force where the joke was that theproject manager and his managementteam were all shorter than five feetfour inches, a much taller memher ofthe team was actually concerned formy feelings. I, heing at five feet twoinches, was having a lot of fun. But itwas a lesson in empathy that othersmay not feel the same, even when theyare not the hutt of the joke.

The two tahoo topics of politicsand religion should also he carefullyweighed. The ohjective of the projectmanager is to organize an effectiveteam to execute a project. This ohjec-tive does not include converting othersto your political or religious heliefs.Such discussions, while intellectuallystimulating, risk destroying the teamcohesion instead of uniting the team,and therehy undermine the delivery ofthe message.

The key to the delivery of messagesis that the majority of them should he

THE TEN TIPSProject management invalves much more than thetechnical steps outlined in standardized proce-dures. Even experienced project managers wouldbenefit from keeping the following key points,which are explained in this article, in mind:

Manage the uncertainty

Educate the client

Manage the culture

Acknowledge the limitations

Frame the message

Manage the bad news

Communicate, communicate, communicate

Manage what you know

Finish the job

10. Stay connected to the business objectives

halanced in tone, and always in thecontext of the ohjectives of the proj-ect. This leaves room for those criticaltimes when it is necessary to makesure that the team understands thegravity of the situation and respondsaccordingly, such as when there aremajor changes in project direction orwhen extra effort is required. Balancedmessages also keep the evil extremesof over-optimism or pessimism fromovershadowing the actual informationthat is needed hy the team.

Manage the bad newsIn the course of the execution of aproject, there will he times when wewill he confronted hy had news. As Dr.Brookshire at S&B says, "Bad newshas no shelf life." Thus prompt actionis required. The first rule for handlingthe situation is to not sweep it underthe rug. The second rule on manag-ing the had news is that if you do notmanage it, then someone else will doit for you. Invariahly, that someoneelse is the one controlling the rumormill. A smart project manager will notlet that person hijack the project. Twoother rules in these situations are:"Honesty is the hest policy." and "Badnews is had. Bad news late is worse."

It is a natural reaction, in an un-happy circumstance, to wish it wouldgo away. There is also a strong psycho-logical tendency to deny the full extentof the damage. The project manager

4 2 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JANUARY 2012

must he able to overcome both of thesenatural reflexes in order to analyzethe situation and determine the bestcourse of action. The outcome must bea decision or action plan.

Keeping the mentioned rules inmind, the smart project managercommunicates the had news to theteam and the clients as soon as pos-sible. The number of details dis-seminated may be limited with anexplanation of the justifiable needfor business secrecy, but it is impor-tant to stick to the truth. This com-munication should include the actionplan needed to manage the impactof whatever is not right, or if that isnot immediately available, include apromise issue date.

By being the messenger, the proj-ect manager is ahle to control themessage and avoid the damage fromrampant misinformed gossip, whichserves to undermine the preciousculture of trust and respect that wascarefully nurtured.

CommunicateMy mother used to say, "If I have toldyou once, I have told you a thousandtimes!" The message was then rein-forced with a slap to the back of thehead. Okay, now I have got it. Mayhemy mother read the survey that showsthat our information absorption issomewhere less than 20% of what wastransmitted. So at the risk of soundingrepetitious, the smart project managershould say it again and again. But inorder to limit the number of peoplefalling out of their chairs while asleep(a safety hazard), the message may beput into a different format each time.So put up that safety banner, talkabout it in the monthly project meet-ing, hold a safety award meeting, re-mind the team about working safelybefore they head out to the plant ordrive home, and give the team a freesafety lunch where you remind themabout the joh safety honus. It is all thesame message repeated over and over.

Manage what you knowIt is hard for top performers like proj-ect managers to acknowledge that theydo not know everything that they aretrying manage. But this is somethingthat cannot be hidden from the project

team. Any attempt to gloss over thiswould only highlight the dishonestyof the situation and lead to weaken-ing of the good culture. Instead, theproject manager must assign qualifiedsubordinates who can take over thetask of managing those aspects wherethe project manager is not strong. Atlarge engineering and constructionfirms, there is typically a position of"project engineering manager" thathas the responsihility for the techni-cal integrity of the design. But evenhere, it is unrealistic to believe thata chemical engineer by training hassufficient knowledge to oversee thedetails of electrical design. So it issmart to make more than one seniorlevel assignment to assist the projectmanager in those areas that need ad-ditional knowledge.

By delegating parts of the projectmanagement to qualified individuals,the project manager has more time tofocus on what he or she knows, andthe flexibility to manage the greaterissues of the overall project directionand client relationship. The individualproject team member also has greateraccess to the technical decision makerand so can minimize the delays associ-ated with waiting for a decision.

Finish the johThe successful completion of a proj-ect means taking care of all the smalldetails and pieces of informationthat were generated over a course ofmonths. They must be collated, filedand transmitted to the end user. Un-fortunately, the deluge of informationinvariably comes amid the chaotic de-staffing of the discipline that gener-ated it. For the project manager, thedelivery of the information is a criti-cal part of the project contract — so itmust be done in an orderly and timelyfashion.

The key to the success of this finalphase of the project is to have a clo-sure plan in place and the personnelresponsible for the execution of thatplan should he assigned from the be-ginning of the project. By identifyingspecific items that go into the "jobbooks" or any other transmittal earlyon, and having the specific personnelcommitted to the task of assembly, itcan be carried out throughout the life

of the project. The last minute scram-ble for information should not he leftto the last clerk on the project.

Stay connected to the husinessAsk what are the most important as-pects of project management, and theanswer will be safety, cost and sched-ule. And so indeed, those are the cor-rect answers if the only concern is tomanage the everyday grind of detaildesign and installation. However, fora project to succeed, the project man-ager must make sure that the projectsatisfies the basic business objective.

In several extreme cases, more thanone major international company hasseen projects to successful completiononly to discover that the market nolonger needed its products. The lackof a clear connection to the husinessobjective resulted in the unnecessaryexpenditure of scarce capital. Whilethe retrenchment or even completeshutdown of a project is a drastic mea-sure, it must nonetheless remain onthe table as part of the risk-to-rewardcalculation.

Conversely, it is also important thatif market conditions dictate, the projectmanager must be ready to redirect theproject so that the company is ahle totake advantage of the new economics.In the case of a gas processing company,a pipeline project that was conceived totransport products from one region toanother was completely I'evamped tohe able to reverse the flow directionduring certain times of the year. Theoriginal project schedule v/as still metwith the revision of the project execu-tion plan, which included the judiciousaddition of resources and contributionof the project team working above ex-pectations to accomplish the goal. •

Edited by Dorothy Lozowski

AuthorAlfred Chiu is a project man-ager with S & B Engineersand Constructors Ltd. (7825Park Place Blvd. Houston, TX77087; Phone: 713-845-4156;Email: achiu@thec.com). Chiuis a registered professionalengineer in the state of Texas.He received his B.E.Ch.E. de-gree from the City College ofNew York, and an executiveM.B.A. degree from the Uni-

versity of Houston. Chiu has 33 years of experi-ence in petroleum refining, chemicals and waterprocessing. Before joining S & B, he worked forUnion Carhide Corp., Lummus Co. and Stoneand Webster Engineering Corp.

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JANUARY 2012 4 3

Copyright of Chemical Engineering is the property of Chemical Week Associates and its content may not be

copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written

permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.