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To Go Four for Four, Firms Must Hit Whatever
Clients Throw Their Way
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by David Siegel, Associate Editor
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At HNTB Corp., the Kansas City, Missouri-based design and planning firm, employees call it "Four for Four"—quality work, on time, within budget, and to the client's satisfaction. It's a strategic objective that all the company's project managers are assigned to carry out. But whether it's an HNTB project or any other engineering project, going four for four in today's A/E/C industry may be more difficult than ever.
What are the folks on the project management front saying about today's challenges? Here are some thoughts from around the profession.
A Few Good PMs
Professional engineer David Burstein, a consultant for PSMJ Resources, Inc., is frequently asked by project managers, Where are all the good, quality people? His answer: It's all in the way firms recruit and hire.
The A/E/C industry, Burstein contends, is one of the worst industries when it comes to recruiting. "They wait until they need people, then go out in a mad, desperate search to find somebody in time to get the projects done," he says. "The projects usually last only a few months, and [the companies] are frustrated by not being able to get good quality people so they lower their standards and hire anybody they can get. Then they can't afford to let anybody go because they're so busy, and even the poor performers are at least getting something done."
PM Training
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| HNTB Corp.'s online project management training modules serves as a prerequisite for traditional seminars. |
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To be a successful project manager, it's necessary to combine everyday experience with training.
HNTB, like many large firms, offers in-house training for its project managers, but the company is taking it one step further by developing a project management certification program. HNTB plans to have the program in place by next year. According to Shelley Wolff, HNTB's director of project management operations, the company offers a series of eight training courses that cover everything from the basics, such as work flow diagrams and cost control systems, to senior-level courses on contracting, negotiations, and client relations. Computer-based training modules on the company's Intranet help prepare employees for the seminars.
If an employee and supervisor determine that project management training is necessary, the employee must complete the prerequisite computer-based training modules and outside reading before the seminars. At the end of each module, the employee must answer questions, which are reviewed by the supervisor. The supervisor then fills out an application of sponsorship to verify why the employee should be attending the seminar. Within a week after the seminar, the employee has to come up with an action plan for implementing their new skills.
Why the certification? "You can attend all the seminars in the world you want to, but unless you actively work to improve, you haven't gained anything," says Wolff. "I think that's what makes our program unique."
Successful project management training programs, like project management itself, require an emphasis on the human side of the business. Too often, firms focus on project administration and the inner workings of their financial or project reporting system, says Novacek, rather than teaching leadership qualities and overall management skills. Emphasis should be on work planning, how to delegate, supervise, and develop employees.
"They need to teach a business acumen, a business approach, and get off how the software works," says Novacek. "There's not enough emphasis on the people part of this. Seventy percent-plus of our business is people business, and project managers are supposed to be leading the group."
Or as Crittenden puts it, "People build these projects, not companies."
Copyright © 1999 National Society of Professional Engineers
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