How to avoid losing control when implementing a project?

The article offers a practical perspective on how an owner can retain control of a large-scale construction project, regardless of the contracting strategy: multiple separate contractors, an EPC contract, or a general contractor. The author identifies four essential conditions: 1) assemble a qualified, cohesive team of experienced practitioners, with a reserve pool for peak workloads, minimizing the risk that the team becomes effective too late; 2) use proven management methods, including TsORP, Big Picture, tracing critical paths, and establishing interdepartmental problem-solving commissions; 3) use automated solutions such as Periscope for timely analysis, particularly with schedule network models containing tens of thousands of activities, where manual data preparation is not feasible; and 4) give management integration priority over technical integration, especially when resolving conflicts. The key takeaway is that maintaining control of a large-scale project requires simultaneous attention to people, methodology, automation, and the right hierarchy of integration processes.

Construction work is present in all industries. According to McKinsey & Company, the cost of infrastructure work alone in the world in the period from 2018 to 2023 amounted to about $77 trillion.

In any large and megaproject there are mandatory processes:

· design,

· delivery,

· construction,

· commissioning and commissioning.

Responsible persons performing the following roles participate in the management of these processes:

· customer responsible for making decisions;

· technical customer responsible for technology integration;

· project manager responsible for management integration.

There are many steps that need to be completed before serious work can begin on a project site. One of them is the timely development and approval of a contract strategy. The main strategies for contractual relations between the customer and contractors, which are used in Russia when implementing large-scale projects and megaprojects:

· contracts with and management of multiple individual contractors (the customer acts as a general contractor);

· full cycle contractor (EPC contract);

· work through a general designer and a general contractor (the customer is responsible for the supply of equipment).

When implementing any contract strategy, the main thing for the customer is not to lose control over project management. A reasonable question arises: how to do this?

It is extremely important, regardless of the chosen contract strategy, to ensure timely management and technological integration. To do this you need the following:

1. Qualified and well-worked team of practitioners, aimed and motivated to obtain project results. Availability of a personnel reserve for the prompt mobilization of the necessary personnel. This is very important during peak loads, especially when the project is in the active phase of implementation and there is no reserve for personnel search, hiring, entry, etc. Thus, we minimize the risk of late team performance, which often becomes a problem.

2.Usage project management technologies, such as proven technologies from PM Excellence: TsORP, Big picture, allocation of IPC, unwinding of critical paths, which have proven their effectiveness on many large-scale projects and megaprojects.

3. Application of automated solutions, for example, from PM Excellence partner - the company Periscope. On small projects, of course, a lot can be done manually, but if you are managing a large or mega-project, where several tens of thousands of tasks are included in KSM (schedule network model), preparing analytical and reporting information without automation for making prompt and objective decisions will be very labor-intensive. It is always necessary to remember that the speed and quality of information provided for making management decisions are the most important aspects in managing large-scale projects and megaprojects.

4. Managerial integration should be higher than technological integration; this is very important to observe, especially when resolving conflicts.

In this article, I answered the most important question about how not to lose control of a large-scale project. For more detailed information and solutions to questions and difficulties with the implementation of your projects, please contact the company PM Excellence. We will try to overcome them and will not allow loss of control during the implementation of your project.