Effective CMMS Project Planning

Jim Cullen

Principles

CMMS implementation project obstacles can be overcome. By following five key principles of project management, the CMMS Project Manager can, in fact, avoid all of the obstacles listed below. The Project Manager must be reliable, responsive, have empathy, and be willing to help and provide quick service and submit deliverables on schedule. These factors will succumb to never having to resort to making excuses.

The rules of CMMS Project Management are:

Manage Work Scope and Objectives

Never allow a project to become unmanageable due to a work scope that is too broad, or objectives that are ambiguous.

Manage Communication and Technical Expertise

Never allow a project to get off course due to poor communication among project members, or lack of well-rounded technical expertise

Manage Target Dates and Accountability

Never allow a project to fall behind schedule due to unrealistic target dates, or lack of accountability for meeting target dates.

Manage Commitment and Budgets

Never allow a project's objectives to be compromised by lack of commitment or inadequate funding.

Manage Testing and Maintenance

Never allow a project to produce a plan that may not work due to inadequate testing or poor maintenance.

The key word in each of the above principles is ¡° manage ¡±.

Manage Scope & Objectives

A project with too broad a scope, or ambiguous objectives, will be out of control even before it begins. The CMMS Project Manager can prevent this from happening by taking the following actions.

a) Limit Initial Scope:

Don't take on a project to develop CMMS plans for the entire corporation at once. Start with one area of the company, and make that project a success before moving on to the next area.

b) Document Limitations and Assumptions:

Ensure that there is no confusion or disagreement about what will, or will not, be included within the project's scope

c) Break the Project into Phases :

Even with a limited scope, a CMMS Planning project can be a large undertaking. To keep it manageable, the project should be broken down into discrete phases, such as assessment, impact analysis, strategy selection, plan development, implementation and testing, etc.

d) Define Explicit Deliverables:

Before beginning each phase of the project, be sure that the anticipated deliverables of that phase are defined explicitly. In other words, make it absolutely clear to management, sponsors, and participants what the end product of each phase will be, to avoid any misunderstandings during the course of the project.

e) Don't Allow Unapproved Deviations:

Once the project has started, there may be pressure to modify the scope or objectives. This should be resisted if at all possible. If not possible, ensure that the deviations are explicitly approved by management, and that any implications to the project schedule or requirements are understood and accepted.

Manage Communication & Technical Expertise

On a typical CMMS Planning project, team members will come from a variety of different disciplines, and will have their own areas of specialized expertise. This diversity of backgrounds can cause communication problems within the team, and present difficulties in channeling everyone's efforts in the same direction. If communication and technical expertise are not managed effectively, team members may begin working at cross purposes, and the project can get dangerously off track. To avoid this happening, the following strategies can be employed.

a) Do Your Homework:

A project manager does not need to be an expert in any particular discipline (other than project management, of course). However, he or she must have a working knowledge in all the disciplines involved in the project, in order to communicate effectively with each of the team members, and to direct their individual efforts. There is no magic solution to this requirement: it is simply a matter of doing your homework. Each of the disciplines must be researched and studied in sufficient detail to attain a level of comfort in your dealings with each of the team members.

b) Facilitate ¡°Structured Brainstorming¡±:

During the project, there will likely be the need to hold frequent brainstorming sessions with team members, to work out strategies, solutions to technical problems, etc. Given the diversity of expertise on the project, it is essential that the CMMS Project Manager facilitate these sessions in a structured fashion to ensure everyone's participation, and their understanding of the relevant technical concepts. Don't allow individual members to take off on abstruse technical tangents that no one else can follow. Make them slow down and express their ideas in laymen's terms so that everyone can participate in the discussions.

c) Translate technical information into English:

It may seem, at times, as if everyone on the team is speaking a different language. The CMMS Project Manager must be able to recognize when a team member is spouting ¡°technical information, and ensure that it is translated into common English.

d) Use the CMMS System to Issue Work Orders for Technical Tasks:

Some technical people, when presented with a specific task, become absorbed in the fine details and lose sight of the original goal. As a result, a considerable amount of time may be spent on irrelevant, or even counterproductive, activities.

e) Insist Upon Written Documentation:

No technical assignment should be considered complete until the results of that assignment have been documented in writing. While many technical people seem to abhor documentation, this requirement must be insisted upon for several reasons. Firstly, it enables the CMMS Project Manager to verify successful completion of the task. Secondly, it makes it easier to communicate the results to the other team members. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, it ensures that the assignment has been thought through in sufficient detail to withstand scrutiny.

Manage Target Dates & Accountability

CMMS Planning projects are sometimes viewed as having a relatively low priority. In competing with other projects for scarce resources, it is all too easy for target dates to be missed, and for participants to resist accountability for completing their activities on time. This can doom a CMMS Planning project to failure, and must be avoided at all costs. Following are some of the tactics that can be employed to ensure that the project remains on schedule.

a) Develop Critical Path Methodology:

Each phase of the project will consist of many key activities, all requiring varying amounts of time to complete. Some activities can be scheduled concurrently; others can only be scheduled consecutively. By mapping out the interdependencies of these activities, a ¡®critical path' can be developed which identifies those activities that must be completed on time in order to remain on schedule. While all activities are ultimately critical, those on the critical path are the ones that will require the closest attention by the CMMS Project Manager.

b) Break Activities into Measurable Tasks:

To complete each key activity, specific tasks will need to be assigned to individual members of the project team. These tasks should be explicit, unambiguous, and measurable. In other words, it must be possible for the project leader to ¡®measure' successful completion through some verifiable end product of the task. Never assume a task has been completed successfully simply because it is reported as complete.

c) Get Agreement on Target Dates:

When assigning tasks to team members, it is unwise to simply state ¡°I need this task completed by such-and-such a date.¡± Without any input to the scheduling process, the team member may not accept accountability for meeting the target. Instead, ask ¡°How soon can you complete this task?¡± Negotiate if necessary, but be sure to get agreement, and to hold the team member accountable for meeting the agreed-upon date.

d) Conduct Regular Status Meetings:

Frequent meetings of the entire project team may seem counterproductive. However, holding team meetings every two to three weeks to review the status of the various tasks and activities is the most effective way of ensuring that the project remains on schedule. Firstly, the meetings will provide an opportunity to identify and resolve problems, and, secondly, they will help keep the pressure on team members to meet target dates. Issuing minutes of the status meetings to team members' management or supervision can reinforce this pressure.

e) Resolve Delays Immediately:

Typically, projects fall behind schedule in small increments: a week here, a week there. Suddenly, the project is months behind schedule. Always make every effort to resolve delays as soon as possible. This is particularly important during the early stages of the project, when the perceived urgency is less. It is important to remember, however, that a week lost at the beginning of a project is the same length as a week lost at the end of a project.

Manage Commitment & Budgets

A project with no real management commitment, or an inadequate budget, will be compromised from the start. If the project ever gets off the ground, it is unlikely to be completed, or to produce a viable CMMS plan. The following actions can ensure this doesn't happen.

a) Request a Policy Statement:

Before starting the project, ask senior management to issue, or endorse, a policy directive, stating their commitment to CMMS planning in general, and this project in particular. If they agree to this request, the project will have gained a great deal of credibility. If they won't agree, you will at least have been forewarned that senior management's support for the project is lukewarm at best, and that you should proceed cautiously.

b) Present the Business Case to Sponsors:

As important as senior management's commitment is, it is even more important to have the full support of the project's sponsors. These are the individuals in middle management or front line supervision whose support, or lack thereof, can make or break the project. Identify these sponsors and get them on board early by presenting a solid business case for the project, in terms they can relate to. Such as the ¡°Standard¡± business case below:

c) Obtain Formal Project Approval:

Insist upon formal approval for the project. Prepare a written project proposal, including estimated costs and staffing requirements, and request that management of all affected areas sign it. Do not rely upon verbal approval alone (as the saying goes, ¡°a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on¡±).

d) Issue Recommendations After Each Phase:

Breaking a project into phases, in addition to helping keep the project manageable provides an opportunity to gain management commitment incrementally. After completing one phase, recommendations can be issued on how to proceed with the next phase. Since the ability to produce results will already have been demonstrated, management should be predisposed to endorse the recommendations. As each phase builds upon another, management's comfort level in making project commitments will increase.

e) Work Within the Budget Cycle:

Budgetary constraints can stop a project dead in its tracks. No matter how convincing the business case, the required expenditures may not be approved if there is no allocation of funds for the project in the relevant department budgets. It is paramount, therefore, that the CMMS Project Manager lobby the various departments, during the annual budgeting process, to include appropriate funding for CMMS Planning in the upcoming year's budget.

Manage Testing and Maintenance

Effective project management can ensure that a CMMS Plan is completed on time and within budget. But will it work if and when it is needed? This can only be assured if it is tested and exercised on a regular basis, and if it is kept up to date. Unfortunately, many CMMS Project Managers find that ensuring their plans are tested and maintained adequately is like fighting a losing battle. To avoid losing this battle, the following actions should be taken.

a ) Identify Requirements:

On-going testing and maintenance typically requires changes and additions to the organization. Staff may have to assume new duties, departmental procedures may have to be modified, support systems may have to be developed, and so on. None of these can be expected to happen on their own after the project is complete. The requirements must be clearly identified, and explicitly approved, during the early stages of the project, and must be implemented before the project is considered complete, not after.

b) Formal Test Plan:

Testing of a CMMS Plan does not end with the first successful test. The plan must continue to be tested, or exercised, on a regular basis to validate any changes or enhancements to the plan, and to ensure that CMMS personnel remain proficient in their assigned roles. The CMMS Project Manager should develop a detailed testing plan on an annual basis, outlining the testing schedule, the types of tests to be conducted, the testing objectives, and the areas of the organization that will need to participate in the testing. The CMMS Project Manager must then obtain formal approval for the testing plan from all of the affected areas.

c) Present Test Results in a Real Life Context :

The results of every test should be documented and distributed, not only to the participants, but also to each area of the organization that would be impacted in a real disaster. The primary goal of distributing the results is to maintain awareness, particularly awareness of the need for continued testing. Presenting the results within the context of specific disaster scenarios can facilitate this. The closer that testing approximates real life, the greater the likelihood that the significance of the testing process will be fully appreciated.

d) Institute Audits:

Each component of the CMMS plan should be audited regularly to ensure it remains current. These audits should be scheduled semi-annually, or whenever there are significant organizational or technological changes. While the CMMS Project Manager may provide guidance or if possible, the Internal Audit department, the audits should be performed by those departments that would be directly involved in an actual CMMS effort. In addition to identifying any updates that must be made to the plan, regular audits will ensure that the various areas of the organization maintain their familiarity with the detailed CMMS procedures.

e) Integrate CMMS Planning into the Change Management Process:

While regular plan audits are essential, a plan that is only updated every six months may be six months out of date when a disaster strikes. Every effort must be made to ensure the plan is updated immediately when organizational or technological changes occur, even minor ones. Given the rate of change in most organizations, this can be a challenging proposition to say the least. It can only be accomplished by ensuring that CMMS Planning is fully integrated into the various processes used to manage changes within the organization. The CMMS Project Manager must continually insist that no change be initiated without assessing the possible implications to the CMMS plan, and that no change be considered complete until the plan has been updated accordingly.

Successful management of a CMMS Planning project, like any other complex, multidisciplinary project, is not an easy undertaking. Unexpected complications are inevitable, and the CMMS Project Manager must react quickly and decisively. However, the critical success factor is the Planner's ability to be proactive, in anticipating potential obstacles and taking appropriate preventive or corrective actions. By following the five key principles of project management described in this article, the CMMS Project Manager may not manage to avoid the unexpected, but should always be able to manage to meet expectations.

Jim Cullen

Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC)

www.saic.com