The “3-Legged Stool” of Successful Project Management

The “triangle” is the most stable geometric shape - If you apply force on any link or joint, the net force is distributed evenly over all sides and joints, making it a rigid and stable structure. In the same way, the “3-legged-stool” is the most efficient seating device – it uses the least amount of material to provide a rigid and stable place to sit. However, remove one side, or joint from the triangle, or remove one leg from the “3-legged stool”, and the structure is no longer stable, and it fails.

What can we learn from the humble “triangle”, or “3-legged stool” about Project Management in construction? Firstly, that good project management, and project success is never just “one thing”, although ironically, it may very well be “one thing that’s missing”, that causes a project to be unstable, or fail.

It is quite interesting to watch how project teams sometime “focus” their attention almost entirely on “one thing”, to the detriment of others, without trying to understand how they work and function together, assuming that if you overcompensate and focus on “one thing” it will somehow make up for the deficiencies in other important aspects of a “balanced” project. “Balance” or “stability”, and the ultimate success of the project (however that is defined) is what we are looking for afterall. If you focus more of your weight onto 2 legs, when sitting on a 3-legged stool, it will likely topple over, just like removing a side from a triangle, will make the shape unstable.

So what are the 3 important aspects to get right, to help ensure project success? It has been said time and again, by many, “People”, “Process” and “Information”. Without good “people”, willing to follow a good and clearly defined “process”, and produce and deliver good “information”, to support the project goals and objectives, then something will very likely go wrong. A simple statement, but there is a lot to unpack in there.

1. What does “good people” mean? People who are willing to participate, collaborate, contribute to the overall objectives. People who are respectful of others, and don’t abuse, or misuse others, or inadvertently cause undue burden or pressure on others by their actions, even if unintended. The working relationship between parties can make or break a project. And the “contractual” relationships established, will profoundly determine people’s attitude, and actions, by whether they feel fairly treated in those contractual arrangements. IPD (Integrated Project Delivery), Alliancing or Collaborative forms of Contract, or Agreements, including early contractor engagement, provide the best “framework” for enhanced “relationships” amongst project team members. Adversarial forms of contract will always “strain” or “inhibit” good relationships. And yet, despite all evidence to the contrary, in general, the industry still perpetuates and persists in using “old school” adversarial “deign-bid-build” contracts.
2. What does a “good process” mean? Planning with “the end in mind”. Setting clear objectives. Defined outcomes. Regular milestones and checks. Measuring key performance indicators. Clearly documented tasks, actions and deliverables. Finding and removing constraints. Taking the “long-term” view (no short-term-fixes and firefighting). Strong and robust management. Dealing with issues early and swiftly, rather than avoiding the inevitable. Lean construction theory and “last planner” approaches to project management provide the best “framework” for crafting and managing efficient and effective projects, backed up by robust “industry standards” (agreed tried and tested approaches) for design management (ISO7000), project management (ISO21500), environmental management (ISO14000), safety management (ISO18000), and operational management (ISO9000), asset management (ISO55000) and facilities Management (ISO41000).
3. What does “good information” mean? No matter what your role is on a project, you probably need some information to do your job, or you are producing information that other people will need to do their job. “Good Information” is accurate, appropriate, timely, accessible, searchable and presented in a format that can be used, re-used, filtered or re-purposed for many applications. While “paper-based” information works at some basic level for communication, it is slow to produce, slow to manage or update, difficult to process, and in it’s “static” format, is impossible to use, re-use, filter or re-purpose. We have been living in the ICT (Information Communication Technology) age for over 2 decades now. “Paper-based” documentation is “out-dated” and problematic, for our fast-paced modern society. Well organised and structured “digital data” is far more useful, far quicker to produce, far easy to manage. ISO19650 is the international and European accepted standard for “organising and digitising information about buildings & civil engineering works”, or what is commonly know as BIM (building information modelling). It provides a well-managed central repository of graphical data, non-graphical data, and digital documents, in a “Common Data Environment”, as an “information” resource to support good project management.

The big question is “can we successfully manage projects without one, or any of these 3 elements”?

The answer depends on what “success” means to you. If success means “completing” a building project, no matter how long it takes, or how much it costs, or how much the quality has been compromised, or how badly the environment has been impacted, or how many people have been financially impacted, hurt, or even killed, then “Yes”, we have proved over thousands of years, that we can successfully complete construction without any of these 3 key elements. Many building projects have been constructed under poor contractual relationships, without clearly defined processes, and without good quality information. Yes, they are eventually delivered, BUT, there is a cost to this traditional approach. There is an impact, on people, and their businesses, on their relationship. There is an impact on “outcomes” whether on programme, or budget, or reduced quality and performance of the asset. There is a cost to the environment, and a cost of human lives.

On the other hand, if “success” means delivering projects, within programme and budget, to the quality and performance outcomes expected (or even better), without detrimentally impacting on people’s businesses, safety, or the environment, then the answer is “No”, I don’t believe it is possible to deliver “success” without carefully considering all 3 of these elements, which are closely intertwined in a balanced and stable relationship. Of course, that’s an opinion, and it would be interesting to know what others think about this subject.