What are Essentials for Successful Project Directors?

The role of Project Director (PD) is very important on any project. The capable and high performing PDs guarantee success of projects.

Following aspects need to be taken into account by every PD, if he/she wants to deliver the project to the desired standards.

Building a good team

A PD needs to build a good team. For this, the selection and recruitment of quality staff is essential. The training needs of staff members should be identified, and adequate funding should be allocated for it. Mentoring of junior staff by the seniors is important for professional grooming. The PD should perform as a good leader and endeavour to produce more leaders in his team.   

Defining roles and responsibilities clearly

A PD should make sure that the roles and responsibilities of all staff members are clear and candid from the day one. Any potential grey areas should be done away with as early as possible.

Preparation of realistic programme and updating it periodically

The programme should be prepared without setting unrealistic and unachievable targets, key dates and milestones. The programme is used to measure the progress and there should be a reasonable float on some activities to cover any delay. It is worth adding that that programme is a live document and needs to be reviewed and updated periodically.

Setting contingency for cost, tolerance for quality

Like float in the programme, contingencies should be added to the cost and tolerance level needs to be defined in the context of quality at the earliest.

Risks identification at early stages and proposing risk mitigation

Every projects have lots of risks and opportunities. The risks form substantial part of total capital cost. The risks should be identified, and mitigation measures should be proposed as early as possible. There are five basic options for addressing potential risks and are known as the 5 “T’s” (treat, transfer, tolerate, terminate and take the opportunity). Some of the risk management tools are:

• Early Warning Notices
• Risk Register
• Programme
• Target cost (pain and gain mechanism)
• KPIs
• Monthly reporting
• Supply chain management

Dealing with Health, Safety, Welfare and Security Issues

The health and safety issues relating to construction, maintenance, operation phases should be looked into right from the outset. In the initial phases of project, there is huge scope for terminating or treating the risks and cost of it is comparatively low. As the project progresses, the scope for eliminating or managing the risks becomes low and its cost is multiplied.

Ensuring proper coordination between the team members

One of the main responsibilities of PD is to make sure that the team members have good coordination and collaboration. A teamwork can deliver the things better and efficiently. The differences between the team members should be got sorted out promptly.

Adequate stakeholders’ management

Liaising with the stakeholders and keeping them on board on all important issues is quite important for a PD. It will help maintain mutual trust and encourages spirit of partnering.

Good communications internally and externally

Communication is about keeping the necessary information flowing between people concerned for achieving the common objectives. Maintaining a good communication is one of important functions of any management, as effective and open communication bring a number of benefits for the whole team.

Holding regular meeting sessions

Regular meetings with the team members and with the individuals are important for discussing the outstanding issues and finding out their solutions. Brainstorming sessions are quite handy in this regard. Similarly, one to one meeting can provide the chance to the individuals to discuss their personal concerns and to give them the assurance that the management is sensitive and serious to resolve their issues.

Monitoring quality and effecting quality assurance system

The PD needs to make sure delivery of quality product. The quality products cannot be produced without establishing a robust quality assurance process. The reputation of the organisation gets severe blow if quality of deliverables is not maintained.

Controlling time and cost

Controlling time and cost is one of fundamental requirements of any project. Some potential measures for controlling time and cost are:

• Suitable contract strategy
• Float in time and contingency in the cost
• Realistic programming
• Buildability advice
• Risk assessment and risk management
• Selection of suitable designer/contractor
• Value engineering
• Incentives (e.g., pain/gain)
• Learning lessons from previous experience

Motivating staff

Motivating the staff is one of the soft techniques, a PD needs to employ. A few of the measures to motivate the team members are:

• Meetings with individuals to discuss their issues
• Regular briefing sessions with the team
• Discussion about the time scale for a task with individuals
• Leading by example
• Monitoring but not looking over the shoulder frequently
• Recognition - Appreciation and criticism
• Considering training needs
• Stick and carrot policy

Collaborative working and integrated teams

A PD has to deal with different disciplines. Collaborating between the teams is imperative for delivering the project successfully.

Continuous improvement

Continuous improvement is one of the best practices to be considered throughout the life of the project.

Process improvement

Processes and procedures should be improved to accelerate the delivery of project.

Sustainable solutions and consideration of environmental impacts

The golden rule of three R’s approach should be adopted for ensuring sustainable development. It consists of reduce (the use of material), reuse (of dismantled/demolished materials), recycle (of dismantled material after due processing) and recover (the energy). Similarly environmental impacts of design solutions should be assessed, and their potential mitigation measures given due importance right from the early design stages.

Innovative design solutions

The development and updating of standards cannot keep pace with the rapid advancement in the technology, new materials, new methods of construction etc. The over adherence to the standards stifles the spirit of innovation. The innovative ideas could prove to be economical and comparatively less time consuming. The process for approval of departure from Standards should be streamlined and complied with at the time of adopting innovative ideas.

Lessons learnt

Lessons learnt workshops should be organised on regular basis. This helps to do away with the future problems and stumbling blocks.

Recognition of good performances and celebrating success

Last but not the least, recognition of good performances and celebration of success are important to motivate the staff to deliver the goods.