Page 294 - The Handbook for Quality Management a Complete Guide to Operational Excellence

280 C o n t i n u o u s I m p r o v e m e n t D e f i n e S t a g e 281

identify “outside forces” as the cause and beg forgiveness. Astute project
managers will anticipate as many such possibilities as possible and pre­
pare contingency plans to deal with them. The PDPC technique is useful
in this endeavor (see Chap. 16). Schedule slippage should also be
addressed rigorously via reviews conducted at intervals frequent enough
to ensure that any unanticipated problems are identified before schedule
slippage becomes a problem.

Resources
Resources are those assets of the firm, including employees’ time, that are
used to accomplish the objectives of the project. The project manager
should define, negotiate, and secure resource commitments for the per­
sonnel, equipment, facilities, and services needed for the project. Resource
commitments should be as specific as possible.
The following items should be defined and negotiated:

• What will be furnished?
• By whom?
• When?
• How will it be delivered?
• How much will it cost?
• Who will pay?
• When will payment be made?

Of course, there are always other opportunities for utilizing resources.
On large projects, conflicts over resource allocation are inevitable. It is best
if resource conflicts can be resolved between those managers directly
involved. However, in some cases, resource conflicts must be addressed by
higher levels of management. Senior managers should view resource con­
flicts as potential indications that the management system for allocating
resources must be modified or redesigned. Often, such conflicts create ill
will among managers and lead to lack of support, or even active resistance
to the project. Too many such conflicts can lead to resentment toward qual­
ity improvement efforts in general.

Cost Considerations in Project Scheduling
Most project schedules can be compressed, if one is willing to pay the
additional costs. For the analysis here, costs are defined to include direct
elements only. Indirect costs (administration, overhead, etc.) will be con­
sidered in the final analysis. Assume that a straight line relationship exists
between the cost of performing an activity on a normal schedule, and the
cost of performing the activity on a crash schedule. Also assume that there
is a crash time beyond which no further time savings are possible, regard­
less of cost. Figure 13.9 illustrates these concepts.

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