Roles decide everything

Project management has long been a management area recognized and proven throughout the world.

There are many national and industry standards for project management, which means that there is a systematic basis for this topic, and there are a large number of researchers studying and implementing various project management tools and methods.

Traditionally, in any scientific direction there are difficulties in implementing the results of theoretical research in practice. It is not always possible and not everywhere to apply what seems to be confirmed and studied by many scientists and researchers. Life makes its own adjustments related to the specifics of the project and the characteristics of the environment in which the methods are applied (its traditions, legislative framework, etc.).

One of the eternal issues of project management in construction (since in such projects management teams are often extensive) is formation of a project role structure and distribution of powers and responsibilities among project team members. Of course, the option is to allocate a separate employee to perform one or another classic management role - project manager, project administrator, planner, cost management manager, risk manager, etc. - is desirable. Indeed, in this case, each employee has one role, and the powers and responsibilities are spelled out in more than one classic textbook on project management. More often, the situation is such that the functionality of the roles is mixed between different project participants: one participant performs several roles, several participants perform the same role, etc.

In addition, a desirable option for any project supervisor is a team that is both proficient in project management tools (trained, certified, experienced) and knowledgeable in the subject area of the project (for example, construction, energy, IT). But in most cases, employees have a "leaning" - either towards management or towards subject matter expertise.

This situation fully concerns planners.

Project planner in construction - main functional responsibilities.

A planner is a specialist who provides the function of planning a project, as well as tracking its implementation and generating reporting. The construction project planner performs the following main activities (the list below is not exhaustive):

1. Formation of a schedule network model:

• development of a hierarchical structure of project work (in accordance with the terms of reference, basic technical solutions, design documentation, etc.);
• assessment of the duration of the project work (in accordance with official documentation; in its absence - a request for examination, information about analogous projects, etc.);
• determining the relationships between works (through an understanding of the technology, as well as the expertise of specialists and information about analogous projects);
• comparison of the resulting schedule with the target deadlines, optimization of the schedule (searching for opportunities to parallelize work, speeding up by attracting resources - preparing draft decisions for the project manager);
• assigning costs for work (based on information from design and estimate documentation, examination and data on analogous projects);
• assignment of resources for work (material, human - if necessary and availability of information).

2. Tracking the schedule network model:

• entering actual data on the execution of work into the model (by requesting reporting information from contractors and work performers);
• deeper detail of the nearest works (the "rolling wave" method);
• searching for reserves and opportunities to optimize the schedule network model;
• forecasting project completion dates and going over budget;
• preparation of regular reports on the status of the project in a form convenient for the project manager (automatic uploading from the schedule network model is configured);
• if necessary, make changes to the schedule network model in agreement with the project manager.

The project planner works in specialized software (currently there are more than a dozen different software on the market for planning and monitoring projects of varying degrees of complexity). To work effectively in such software, it is necessary to undergo in-depth training and acquire skills - otherwise, you will not be able to use the functionality of the software products, which means you will not be able to properly improve the efficiency of project management.