All projects that need to be managed in the Project Control System (PCS) must be added to the PCS applications, mainly the PMWeb Project Management Information System and Primavera P6 or MS Project. It is highly recommended to standardize the project number and description across all PCS applications, although this is not a must requirement.
Regardless of the project planning and scheduling used on a project, PMWeb provides a single repository of all construction projects that an organization has. These could be projects either in progress, completed, being considered, on hold, or others. For each project, it is recommended to assign the Project Breakdown Structure (PBS) component it relates to. PBS is a hierarchy that represents the breakdown of projects in the organization. PBS nodes at the higher level might represent divisions within an organization, project stages, site locations, or other major groupings based on each organization’s business needs.
In addition to the many already defined fields in the project module, PMWeb allows each organization to define its additional fields. These could be text, date, currency, boolean, numeric, memo, and a list where the data may be selected from a pre-defined list of values or dictionary defined by the organization. For example, in addition to the project name, it is important to capture the project’s scope of work, status, type, size, a currency for cost and financial transactions, project address, geospatial coordinates of latitude and longitude, key stakeholder entities, planned start and finish dates, and total built-up area. In addition, user-defined fields can be defined to capture the geospatial coordinates for the project boundaries. For example, in the Middle East, organizations might require a data field to capture the project name in another language.
In addition, the attachment tab allows attaching all supportive documents to each created project. These could include pictures, drawings, the scope of work, project request form, and other documents needed to support the project. For attached records that are of Picture and PDF file types, there is the option of displaying these files on the main project page to give a better understanding for the reader.
The project register report automatically updates with all added projects. The report usually includes a map to show the location of each project. The map can be configured to show different colors for each project’s location depending on project type or status. In addition, the project point size can be configured to display the project size. The project register includes filters to enable selecting the projects to be displayed.
In addition, there is the option to display the boundaries of each project if those were added to the project’s template. A user-defined field is added to the project’s template to capture the project’s boundary polygon’s latitude and longitude points. This applies to all types of projects including linear projects like highways, pipelines, transmission lines, and others.
For some projects, they could be part of a larger construction program. For example, there could be a program for the expansion of a university campus where there are many projects to be released for construction. Those projects can release on different dates and can be managed and supervised by different entities. The PMWeb program module allows adding and linking those projects to the program, being the university campus program. Similar to the project template, additional user-defined fields can be defined, and all supporting documents can be attached.
One of the key advantages of using a Project Management Information System (PMIS) like PMWeb is that it comes with a link to the planning and scheduling applications whether those were Primavera P6 of MS Project. The link allows importing the schedule data in an XML file format thus eliminating the issues associated with importing data from different Primavera P6 software versions. The PMWeb scheduling module allows maintaining all imported project schedule versions and revisions.
One of the best practices in initiating projects is creating a project charter. By definition, the project charter is the formal document that confirms that the project has been formally authorized for execution. It is a statement of the scope, objectives, budget, critical milestone dates, and participants in the project. It aligns the project with the organization’s strategic objectives and identifies the major stakeholders, main constraints, assumptions, and risks that could impact the project. This project charter acts as a contract between the project sponsor, key stakeholders, and the project team.
The PMWeb custom form builder helps to create the Project Charter template. This enables capturing the information needed to produce the project charter in the final desired output format. The form can include sections for the project brief, its technical, schedule dates, cost information, major stakeholders, and major risks.
All supporting documents used to prepare the project charter or needed to support the submission are uploaded to the PMWeb document management repository. They can then be attached to the project charter. In addition, all relevant records link to this project charter.
A workflow may be assigned to the project charter to formalize the submission, review, and approval process. The workflow identifies the various individuals involved in the review and approval process, the duration allotted for each, and the sequence followed in this process.
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.
