Fulfilling the different project control system functions requires the formation of the project control team through either utilizing in-house human resources or recruiting outsiders when suitable personnel is not available within the entity managing the project. To start with, the entity needs to have a single repository of all the resources that could have a role in managing their construction projects. Those also include resources who are part of the project control team.
The PMWeb resource module captures the details of each resource the entity who is either currently employed by the entity or worked with previously. The data that is captured for each resource includes the resource contact details, skills, categories, hiring, and termination date, among many others using the custom fields option. The resource module also captures the rates for regular, overtime, weekend, and holiday pay types. The attachment tab allows attaching passport copies, certificates, professional certifications and memberships, and other important documents related to the resource.
The project’s organization chart should detail all roles needed to manage the delivery of a construction project including those for the project control team. The organization chart helps in creating buy-in for securing resources including those for project controls and building clarity around who does what on the team. For each position created in the organization chart, an individual from the PMWeb human resources repository will be assigned.
For each role identified in the organization chart, there should be a detailed job description that lists specific responsibilities associated with the role, skills, experience, qualifications required, and measurable performance criteria of that role. PMWeb helps to create a job description template for each project control role as well as other roles needed to deliver the project. All the tables included in this job description custom form have a score field to assess, using a 5-point scale, how the selected resources for that role can fulfill these requirements. This ensures that the right resources are selected for the project management as well as the project control team.
To ensure that the right project control team members are recruited and assigned to a project, a formal and detailed interview of the proposed project control team individuals needs to be done. It is highly recommended to have these interview questions pre-established for each contract management role to ensure that the interviews are comprehensive, transparent, and unbiased.
The PMWeb form for the candidate interview includes details on when and where the interview took place and who conducted the interview. The form also includes the final comments made by the interviewer for the interviewed candidate. The form has a table listing all interview questions, with a score achieved out of 5, where five is “Perfect” and one is for “No Knowledge,” and the comments made by the interviewer against each question if any. Similar to other PMWeb forms, the attachment tab allows attaching all supporting documents shared during the interview. As well, a workflow can be assigned to the form to formalize the interviewer’s submission of the interview assessment.
To ensure that the project control team is committed to the project, there should be a formal template that details the duration that those resources will be appointed to the project and whether they are appointed as full-time or part-time. In case the level of effort for the project control team varies depending on the project stages, then this varying requirement should be also captured. The PMWeb resources requirement module helps capture the project control team requirements as well as the resource requirements for the other project management functions.
For an organization to have visibility on whether the booked project control resources’ level of effort is in line with the actual level of effort expended by these resources in managing the project control system (PCS) functions, the PMWeb timesheet module can be used. This module helps detail the exact activities performed by each resource and the hours spent in performing these tasks. These hours could be regular working hours, overtime hours, weekend hours, or holiday hours.
A formal performance appraisal is a must to ensure continuous improvement of the assigned project control team. Using PMWeb custom form builder, creating a performance appraisal template can help capture the points that each resource’s performance needs to be measured against. This helps the project control manager and the project control team members identify performance areas that need to be addressed and improved to ensure successful project delivery. A final resources appraisal is required before the resources are released from the project.
The PMWeb visual custom form builder allows creating the template for the project control team members’ appraisal. The ‘Construction Management Staff Appraisal’ template is an example of a customized appraisal template. This template includes all items that need to be considered when appraising the performance skills of the project team members. Each item could be scored as Unsatisfactory, Fair, Satisfactory, Competent, Excellent, and Outstanding. The total sum of the scoring for these items determines the overall appraisal score for each project team member.
The ‘Construction Management Staff Appraisal’ report displays and summarizes the performance scoring for each project team member. The contents of this report will be extracted from the Construction Management Staff Appraisal template. It includes visuals to summarize the score achieved for each category covered in the appraisal.
Reference
The content of this article was extracted from the book titled “Let’s Transform: Enabling Digital Transformation of Capital Construction Projects Using the PMWeb Project Management Information System – 2nd Edition”. The book was written by the author of the posted article, Bassam Samman.
The book provides project owners with oversight on how technology available today can support their efforts to digitally transform the management of their projects’ portfolios. For each capital project life cycle stage, PMWeb is used to detail how the relevant project management business processes can be digitalized to enforce transparency and accountability in delivering projects. In addition, MS Power BI was used to show how the real-time, trustworthy data captured in PMWeb can be aggregated, modeled, monitored, evaluated, analyzed, and reported at anytime, anywhere using any device.
