The competitiveness and efficiency of the design organization - the ideas of many articles published in this journal and related publications on the topic are subordinated to this super task. This article is no exception in this sense. Let us make just one introductory remark: everyone understands that success is achieved by the organization in which the management system operates effectively.
This time, the experience of using technology is examined on the example of an industry design institute, the main products of which are complex projects of industrial process plants and related infrastructure. The subject of consideration is project management tools.
Among information systems for various purposes, without which it is impossible to imagine the work of a modern design institute, the project management system belongs to the main role. We believe that only a design organization that provides maximum opportunities to the customer works effectively. And the customer, as is well known, evaluates the work of the designer in the context of his investment projects.
Investment project and its implementation
By investment project we mean an action taken, initiated by the customer-investor and aimed at achieving a certain economic effect through modernization, expansion or new construction of production facilities. The investment project is implemented under time and budget restrictions arising from the feasibility study underlying it. Each investment project is a set of coordinated activities carried out by both contractors and the customer himself in several areas of activity
- , namely:
- administrative and legal support of the project;
- preparation of design technical and economic documentation;
- organization of supplies of equipment and components;
- execution of construction, installation and commissioning works;
acceptance and delivery activities, commissioning, installation of fixed assets.
- the initial data will be provided by the customer not immediately and not in full, but in parts, already in the background design work;
- customer without waiting complete completion design work will require the release of certain parts project documentation.
An even more complex situation arises when several institutes are involved in design work and, accordingly, it is necessary to organize information exchange not only with the customer, but also with related partners. The investment project is implemented within the specified time limits, subject to clear coordination of the actions of all participants, based on the general calendar plan for the implementation of work and the private calendar plans of each of the partners.
Interested in the successful implementation of their projects, the customer sooner or later comes to the understanding that he needs source information for his own information systems financial planning and budgeting, logistics. As a result, the customer places specific requirements on design documentation: estimates and equipment specifications must be issued by the designer not just in electronic format, but in relational format, that is, immediately as a database.
Design as part of an investment project
It is clear that information Technology- DBMS, CAD, EDMS (electronic document management) - increase the efficiency of individual operations, but the progress of project development as a whole depends on the availability of automation tools much less than on interaction with the customer and related organizations.
An industry design institute, whose products are technical documentation for new industrial facilities, always works in the context of an external investment project. Therefore, the designer must prepare his own internal plan of coordinated activities aimed at satisfying the requests of the external investment project under the conditions of the given financing and the established deadlines for issuing parts of the project documentation.
From the point of view of the project organization, the following project management tasks are relevant:
- planning external information exchange events;
- planning internal information exchange events;
- planning of design work;
- planning the workload of engineering personnel;
- planning the physical development of project documentation;
- periodic recording of the actual progress of design work, both in terms of documentation and information exchange, with subsequent re-planning of the remaining part until completion.
Scheduling of project work and events
Here and below are stated practical solutions, applied by the authors at the Lengiproneftekhim Institute for work on the deep oil refining complex for the Kirishinefteorgsintez Production Association. Project management system - Open Plan.
Let's consider the planning procedure. Breakdown of work (simplified diagram):
1. External events of the project.
1.1. Incoming information from the customer and subcontractors.
1.1.1. Project sections.
1.2. Outgoing information.
1.2.1. Project sections.
2. Divisions of the institute.
2.1. Project sections.
2.1.1. Incoming internal information exchange events.
2.1.2. Design work.
2.1.3. Outgoing events of internal information exchange.
External events of the project are included in the calendar plan according to bilateral documents and official correspondence, where the dates of these events are assigned. This section should include all events that involve both the receipt by the institute of initial data and the issuance of intermediate and final results of work.
Internal information exchange is initially planned on the basis of the current regulations for design work, and then specified in accordance with the characteristics of each designed facility.
All information exchange events (both external and internal) are treated as project milestones, have no duration, and no resources are attached to them.
The scope of design work is determined individually for each section of the project in such a way as to meet the following requirements:
- the number of works should be minimal, but at the same time reflect various technological stages, if any (calculations, modeling, selection of equipment, development of circuits, etc.);
- the titles of the works should, if possible, reflect the content of the project documents that will subsequently be linked to them;
- work must have predecessors among incoming events and successors among outgoing events.
It is advisable to avoid specifying direct connections between works in a section, adhering to the following scheme: incoming event of the section and project work and outgoing event of the section.
If two project works in the calendar plan have an “end-to-beginning” connection and there are no outgoing events between them, then the structure at this node is unreasonably complicated and such a pair of works should be combined.
The duration of individual design work is determined by two independent approaches:
- resource - in terms of the number and qualifications of performers;
- calendar - when a period of time can be allotted for work, determined by preceding and subsequent events.
Project Resources
There are two types of resources, the movement of which can be taken into account by the calendar plan: “the resource involved in performing work is engineering personnel”; “the resource produced is the cost.” We say "may be taken into account" by that reason that working with resources complicates tasks by an order of magnitude work planning and reflecting actual progress. For a design organization starting to implement project management tools, it makes sense to initially fine-tune the work with the actual calendar plans.
Before assigning performers to project work, a resource structure should be prepared that reflects organizational structure the institute itself, namely: the composition of departments and specialized groups, the number of specialists by qualification level (chief, leading, senior, ordinary). The qualification composition of performers for each work is determined simultaneously with the scope of work. As a result, information should be generated about the project’s need for specialists distributed over time, about the distributed and total labor intensity of the project. If the design institute establishes practice scheduling
of all design work taking into account the need for resources, then such an organization will receive a powerful management tool based on resource planning. An even more difficult task is to reflect the dynamics of development of project documentation in the calendar plan. The assignment of a cost resource or output to design work reflects the fact that the customer expects from the designer, first of all, design documentation. The cost of the project can be expressed in abstract units (for example, in mastered labor intensity), if the investor and the management of the institute are only interested in relative indicators, but it is also possible to plan the development of the real cost of the project, which gives the project organization the opportunity to carry out economic analysis
of its activities.
- In practice, such a state of affairs may also occur when, in the terms of the contract, the customer, as a means of monitoring the progress of project development, provides for the monthly provision by the institute of reports on the actual development of project documentation in comparison with the planned one (as well as the provision of data on actual labor costs for the project in comparison with the planned ones).
- the structure of project sections issued by the institute;
- a list of documents included in each section, indicating the share of the cost of each document in the cost of the section;
- a list of stages of document readiness (ready conceptually, ready for viewing, released by the contractor, released by the department, approved by the GIP, ready to be sent to the customer);
- comparison of the percentage of readiness of each type of document to the specified stages;
- composition of documentation for a specific project, distribution of costs among documents;
- table of links between documents and work schedule.
Documents are associated with schedule work in a many-to-many relationship, indicating the degree of readiness that any document reaches upon completion of the project work. Thus, we determine the increase in the cost of the project for each job and, by assigning this value to the work as a cost resource, we obtain the dynamics of the increase in the cost of the developed documentation.
This approach is based on the ability provided by the Open Plan system to save all project data in tables of a user-selected DBMS with an open and well-documented data structure.
Accounting for the actual development of project documentation is a special case of a problem in which it is necessary to obtain the planned and actual distribution over time of indicators that do not have their own connection to the time axis. This problem arises in any subject area at the intersection of technological planning and economics. We also use a similar approach to determine planned development indicators and costs in capital construction when planning the same investment projects.
Accounting for actual progress of design work
Project management is just beginning with the development of calendar and resource plans. Throughout the entire period of implementation of design work, the institute must carry out a monthly procedure for collecting and processing data on the actual progress of design work. Its value is determined by the progress of related documents, which, in turn, is revealed by filling out by superiors design departments
Experience has shown that scheduled communications events progress (or do not progress) quite independently of design work and that data on the actual status of scheduled events should be updated.
When performing the above actions, the picture of the project’s state will develop quite objectively, both in terms of actual output and in terms of the remaining time of work.
Integration of project management tools into the information infrastructure of the design institute
The project management system must interact with other information systems operating in the project organization, primarily with the document flow system. From a management perspective electronic document management (sometimes called project data management) a project document is characterized by a path and a life cycle. The route reflects the movement of the document through the departments of the institute, and life cycle
- - change of document status. Now it becomes clear how much the tasks of document flow and project management have in common and how significantly these systems enrich each other:
- route is the movement of a document through the works and events of the calendar plan;
life cycle - a reflection of the stages of document readiness.
The project management system provides the document flow system with data on the planned timing of moving a document or changing its status, and the document flow, in turn, reports actual data that is reflected in the calculation of progress indicators. If such interaction is based on a common DBMS, then the institute’s work on the project can be analyzed based on the relationship between the planned and actual state of affairs.
Preparing the institute to participate in the tender for the development of the next project
A particularly important moment for a design organization is when it decides to participate in a project or receives an order to develop a new project. If the institute has introduced the practice of calendar and resource planning of work, then it becomes possible to analyze a new project from the point of view of its feasibility in terms of deadlines and performers. In order for this analysis to be carried out quickly and without distraction from the work of specialists in departments, it is advisable to have pre-developed templates design of standard objects. Of course, design work of such a template must contain data on the need for engineering and technical resources - then combining a new project with ongoing ones will show what type of resources and in what calendar period overload is possible.
Conclusion
To summarize, we note the benefits received by a design institute that has implemented project management methodology and tools:
- mutual understanding with the customer, the ability to provide him with quality new service- not just technical documentation, but an information basis for managing an investment project;
- an approach to participation in a tender for the implementation of a project based on reliable assessments of one’s own capabilities;
- readiness to provide engineering services for any customer, even in cases where the designer’s availability of project management technologies is an essential condition.
"CAD and Graphics" 11"2002
Alexey, hello.
So, what does working with design organizations look like? At first glance, everything is simple. We are looking for design institutes, departments of design institutes that are interested in your products. We call, get to know each other, make an appointment, pass on information. It’s worth noting right away that there’s never enough information for designers. Often, more than one person is working on a project. Therefore, the task is to convey the most complete information to all people about your product. It is advisable to transmit information about the product in the form of paper catalogs. In general, the guys are working, the estimators are counting, the customer is contacting you :). I told you about a spherical horse in a vacuum.
In practice, things are different. Here you can often encounter many that come directly from institute workers. There may be a certain bias here, and a reluctance to change the current supplier due to the fact that it will be necessary to use human resources(designers, technologists; the benefits may seem mythical), and so on.
In any case, if your information is in many design institutes, then it obviously won’t get any worse.
About finding clients, I think this is not a problem, and you know where to look for them. Also, IMHO, it is worth paying attention to those companies that have their own design bureaus. I don’t know how relevant this is for your product, but it works for me. In particular, this is how I met the Moscow RVS (or rather its structural unit RM-Energos...s).
If a company takes part in specialized exhibitions, then it is mandatory to invite employees of institutes. Also, it is necessary to intensify work with institutions before the new year.
Among other things, design institutes (provided that you are in good relations with performers) is possible understand what trends are in the market, find out about some new clients.
And now a little of mine practical experience work (with the amendment that I am in another country :)). As I already wrote above, you often come across the interest of designers. Many people want to work under a marketing contract.
Also, if your product is unknown to a wide range of end consumers, then problems may also arise. Typical words from designers: our clients want to see equipment from SchE, ABB, Moeller, Siemens, etc. We don’t know what you offer, and neither do our clients. And we’re not even talking about the cost of my solution.
Obstacles created by the owner in physically sending catalogs. The toad is just strangling him. For example, sending 2 catalogs (~ 250 pages each) to Almaty costs about $35. In general, he counts money and wants exports to grow by leaps and bounds (lol). In general, it is easier for a designer to work with local companies than with us (there is only an electronic version from us, and there is no personal contact, and a product with weak marketing in a specific area of the country).
That's it briefly. If you have any questions, we can discuss it in more detail/specifically.
We always have a large number of fresh products on our website. current vacancies. Use filters to quickly search by parameters.
For successful employment, it is desirable to have a specialized education, as well as possess necessary qualities and work skills. First of all, you need to carefully study the requirements of employers in your chosen specialty, then start writing a resume.
You should not send your resume to all companies at the same time. Choose suitable vacancies based on your qualifications and work experience. We list the most important skills for employers that you need to successfully work as a specialist in working with design organizations in Moscow:
Top 7 key skills you need to have to get hired
Also quite often in vacancies there are the following requirements: conclusion of contracts, B2B Sales and sales development.
As you prepare for your interview, use this information as a checklist. This will help you not only please the recruiter, but also get the job you want!
Analysis of vacancies in Moscow
Based on the results of the analysis of vacancies published on our website, the indicated starting salary, on average, is 63,511. The average maximum income level (indicated “salary up to”) is 93,186. It must be borne in mind that the figures given are statistics. The actual salary during employment can vary greatly depending on many factors:- Your previous work experience, education
- Type of employment, work schedule
- Company size, industry, brand, etc.
Salary level depending on the applicant’s work experience
Planning of project work is a clear action plan for the entire company and each individual employee for a certain period, which sets the development and expansion of the business as the goal. Design is a series of activities and accompanying documentation that provides clear definitions of each industry segment under consideration: temporary reserves, material costs, efficiency and liquidity of the entire business area.
Goals, essence and definition
Implementation of the project at literally all stages will require clear actions, a coordinated and consistent plan. The project management planning system in the first stages is developed (in a conceptual sense) by the manager, the owner of the company/business. At the stage of developing the development concept, the project manager (or the development plans department) takes into account the basic concepts and goals of the direction:
- the duration of the entire project implementation plan;
- the length of each element;
- volume necessary resources to achieve goals: financial capabilities, labor reserves, time reserve;
- volumes of involved construction or design organizations;
- delivery times for materials, components, equipment;
- liquidity of ongoing activities.
The main task and fundamental goal of planning process design in management is to compile a model for implementing a business idea in the desired concept.
Each procedure in the activity being carried out has its own responsible person, who is responsible for completing the assigned tasks in the required time frame. In most cases, it is temporary standards and their compliance that play a fundamental role in the implementation of all the most profitable ideas over a given period of time. Therefore, the main role is given to studying the time frame for implementation and forecasting the liquidity of the industry in the future.
The main stages of implementation of project activity planning
Any project activity is designed to be implemented within a certain time period. Thus, the most important factor for implementing the plan is taking into account the liquidity of the direction in the future, its profitability and even unprofitability.
Goals and objectives of planning in mandatory must be clear, since only in this case can we begin to implement next stage– formation of project characteristics.
However, the entire process of implementing the plan can be divided into several stages for convenience:
- building a concept and its goals;
- the sequence of work is determined;
- the resources that will need to be used are determined;
- description of the project, its composition;
- determination of the sequence of work;
- the basis of the project budget (estimate) is drawn up;
- arrangement of all results into one document (business/plan);
- implementation, implementation of the plan;
- calculation of profitability based on the results of the implemented plan.
Planning results are presented in the form of graphs, comparative analyzes, which carry a pyramidal structure with clear actions at each stage of its implementation.
7 principles for planning project activities
In order for the result to be effective, it is important to take into account 7 basic principles when developing and planning project activities.
Principle #1: Focus
The basis for planning a specific plan should be the main objective: why it is necessary to implement each of the planning stages, what is its task, essence and necessity.
Principle No. 2: Systematicity
Systemic codependency of each segment of the implemented stage. Since planning is a collection of individual stages, it is important to determine not only the tasks for each of them, but also to ensure systematic effective interaction of each element. It is important to understand that failure in one element entails “problems” in the entire planning organization.
Principle #3: Comprehensiveness
Application different methods in design should not affect the connection of each of the elements. When considering this principle, it is important to consider individual characteristics each direction, introducing it over the required period of time.
Principle #4: Security
Of course, the fundamental principle for the implementation of any ideas is the availability of the necessary material resources. Without funding, it will not be possible to implement any, even the most modest project. Therefore, before deciding to implement certain plans, it is worth initially calculating the material support and, if necessary, attracting an investor.
Principle #5: Priority
As a rule, such a principle is considered in the case where there is the possibility of implementing several different specific directions. Thus, priority goals determine the most important points that correspond to the principles of the concept of development of an industry or an entire business.
Principle #6: Safety
First of all, this principle is based on material security, that is, on calculating the risks that will not make it possible to bring all the ideas to life. Not only financial analytical studies are taken into account, but also market forecasts and analysis of the effectiveness of the expert department.
Principle #7: Time
The implementation of specific ideas is most profitable if there is a demand for the supply. To implement the plan, it is worth considering the approximate time that may be required to implement the planning principles.
Management Process Planning: Structure
The structure for the implementation of planning ideas is a hierarchical chain of interchangeable disciplines that allow solving various organizational matters. The purpose of structuring project planning processes is:
- formation of stages of work being implemented (schedule);
- show the results of the implemented stages (effective, ineffective);
- establishing control points for the development and implementation of the project;
- providing all employees and project management with an objective understanding of what needs to be done right now;
- distribution of areas of responsibility;
- drawing up an understanding of all resources used: labor, material, financial.
The design structure is largely determined by the goal. For example, goals may have completely different requirements: one company sets a goal to build 10 houses of 15 floors each, while another company sets a goal to build 10 houses of 10 floors each in 5 years. The goals of both companies are different, and therefore the structure will be different and significantly different from each other.
Another scheme Brief dictionary concepts characterizing the project planning process:
- SSO – structural diagram of the organization;
- SPP – structure of work breakdown (distribution);
- WBS – work breakdown structure.
Structure in standard format project of planned works:
- goal setting;
- planning;
- Creation;
- control and possible correction of action at different stages;
- presentation;
- reflection.
The planned result of project activity can be of a personal, regulatory, cognitive, communicative, or material nature.
Types of planning project activities
Project activity, planning technology and its structuring are also determined by the type of activity. So, by scale they distinguish:
- microprojects (a narrow form of implementation of an individual initiative project, the scope of which may vary);
- small projects (implementation tools with small labor and monetary resource, do not require large financing);
- megaprojects (targeted programs that are fundamentally interconnected with several small or medium-sized projects).
Types of project activities by implementation time:
- short-term;
- mid-term;
- long-term.
The duration of a short-term project can be from six months to two years, while long-term plans are implemented for up to 15 years. A project that has achieved its goal is considered implemented; until this point, the project plan can be adjusted and the implementation concept revised.
Kinds project planning by type of financing (budgeted basis):
- sponsorship;
- credit or investment;
- budgetary;
- charitable.
conclusions
Planning and control of project management in any of these types is carried out by those responsible officials. In its general understanding, planning project activities is an obligatory component of both a developing company and a business from scratch. Without this package of documentation, it is not possible to implement the business at the proper level.
This note will discuss design organizations whose main activity is the design of objects or products. First of all, these are design institutes or design bureaus that carry out design and survey work (D&R). They may also be R&D organizations, although their activities may be planned less predictably due to a more creative work process, the success of which depends on the talent of individual employees.
Over time, design management has become increasingly important as modern industrial production(as well as construction, installation, etc.), which uses the results of the work of designers, becomes more automated and high-tech. The management of design institutes is trying to improve management efficiency by introducing modern software products, such as Microsoft Project. Let us list the main features of using an MS Project-based management system in design organizations.
Focus on labor management
Since the main contribution to the result of a project in a design institute is made by many highly qualified design specialists, the main cost in such an organization is their wage fund. This makes their projects similar to IT projects.
Therefore, one of the main features of using Project in such projects is the “MacLeod rule”:
Only one resource should be assigned to a task. If the work is performed by several performers, it is divided into several tasks.
Compliance with this rule allows you to unambiguously link the task and purpose, and thereby simplify the accounting and analysis of labor costs for the project, as well as facilitate the solution with the help of Project to the next important problem that arises in design institutes.
This is a loading optimization problem labor resources(maximizing it within the allotted working time, and eliminating overloads, leveling). To solve this, there is the Visual Resource Optimizer (also known as Team Scheduling view) in Project Professional. It is worth noting that although optimizing a large graph is a mathematically very difficult task, even its ideal mathematical solution may be far from ideal in practice. For example, because when leveling, interruptions in work on some tasks and switching to others are inevitable, which leads to a loss of productivity, and Project does not take this into account.
The basis for assessing the labor productivity of designers, its subsequent standardization and planning is the collection of actual labor costs of performers. This process can be automated even with such a simple tool as, distributing exchange documents with a request for actual labor costs to the performers of project tasks.
There is also a more functional solution using Project Server - reporting on labor costs through timesheets. Although using a server is much more expensive and more complex in terms of IT infrastructure than a simple Project, it has tangible advantages:
- The ability to optimize the labor costs of performers within all projects of the organization in which they participate.
- Distribution of resources among hierarchy levels based on SDRs, granting different levels different rights. More privileged resources can delegate tasks and effort reporting capabilities to less privileged ones.
- Possibility of accounting for non-project (administrative) labor costs of resources.
- With a centralized database that stores information about design labor, you can conduct in-depth analysis of labor productivity reports using Microsoft Reporting Services or Analysis Services reports.
- Integration of the project management system with SharePoint, which provides document storage and workflow system, as well as many other useful features.
Therefore, for a large design institute we can recommend this version of an enterprise-level project management system based on Project Server.
Joint formation of the scope of work in calendar and network diagrams by participants of several departments
The difference between R&D/R&D projects and such a popular industry as IT is big size CSG projects - a lot of work and an extensive structure of WBS. A common approach is where each department head is responsible for his own section of the project schedule. This is justified, since the manager of a large project cannot know all the details of the scope of work and the qualifications of the performers who will be assigned to these works. With such an organization of planning, the head of the department independently forms a block of WBS, carried out by his department (performs the detailing of the summary task). Project Server supports this scenario only through the subproject mechanism, but it has a number of disadvantages that we will not dwell on now. Only an additional PMIS component, such as ours, can detail tasks within one project.
How to get expert help during implementation
The practical implementation of an MSIS implementation based on Microsoft Project in a design organization is a very broad topic that cannot be covered in one note.
We recommend that interested readers study the business processes of managing R&D/R&D projects and their implementation in MS Project in the article by Alexey Prosnitsky “Microsoft Project in design organizations. Scripts and Tools."
You can assist in setting up Project Server and its additional components for the needs of the project organization.
