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The ADePT Design Manager divides the integrated schedule into ‘work periods’ and used the ‘Workplan Distributor’ function to provide each project participant with a simple list of the activities that they need to focus on and complete or progress in the work period. The designers then simply report progress back via the ‘Workplan Distributor’ at the end of the work period. If, due to poor performance or unforeseen circumstance, work is not completed to schedule, the ADePT Design Manager prompts root cause analysis – all ‘reasons for failure’ are then captured and logged within the application. If an unforeseen circumstance occurs, the detailed understanding within the integrated project schedule means that the impact on future activity and key milestones to be quickly analysed and understood. Only once the true impact is understood is it possible to work collaboratively with all project participants to agree strategy and actions for bringing the schedule back into alignment with the key program milestones – this level of control is critical to the successful delivery of complex projects.
The ADePT Design Manager also incorporates a lookahead planning function – enabling the project team to look ahead into the schedule and identify any potential constraints that may stop them delivering in line with the integrated project schedule. In this way the team is managed to be proactive; to identify and share potential concerns that could result in schedule impacts so that actions can be taken in advance of the problem occurring (thus, moving the team focus to that of being proactive as opposed to being reactive). The process is then monitored on an incremental basis (between work periods) with all performance data made transparent and communicated using visual ‘Performance Dashboards’.
The ADePT Design Manager ensures ‘up to the minute’ understanding of ‘where the project is’ at any given time whilst providing multiple sets of trend data on performance. This workflow management and control approach is maintained throughout the delivery process. The ADePT Design Manager application provides key management data that helps predict future project team performance and allows the Project Manager to take appropriate action to maintain performance to schedule whilst reviewing and ensuring Quality.
Projects using the ADePT Design Manager, in combination with the ADePT Design Builder, have been shown to have achieved and bettered the target schedule when compared with earlier projects that applied more ‘traditional’ approaches to project management. This demonstrates the power of the approach to enhance single projects and also provides invaluable insights into its value for continuous process / performance improvement.