PLSO The Oregon Surveyor July/August 2021

13 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org Featured Article continues T projects. This occurs when those involved in the project begin tomake small changes to the statement of work, either through their lack of knowledge of the original statement of work, or through client re- quests. At times, a client may request a minor changeor some additional work, and project staffmembers in their willingness to provide client service will make these changes to the original work statement. I am not advocating that no changes be made at the behest of the client. What I do encourage, however, is that all project staff should be familiar with the original scope of work so that they can notify the client that his requestmay represent a change to the contracted work and an extra charge may or may not be required. This decision must be taken by the project manager or the principal in charge and a subsequent communication sent to the client. In this manner, there will be no questions as to the quality of the deliverable. Another major reason for the detailed statement of work is that of personnel change. In our mobile and changing so- ciety, people leave firms, both consultant and client. When new people are added to the project team, especially the proj- ect manager, this detailed and current statement of work will be of great value to the newmembers of the project team. This also applies to the client. Many times in my career, I have had changes on the client side of long duration projects. The detailed work plan has been invaluable in bringing the new client project manager up to speed and addresses his concerns and expectations for the consultants’ work. Schedules, Budgets & Milestone Points Every project delivery plan should include a work schedule and a budget broken down by milestone points. It is essential to set the project budget to milestone points for two reasons. First, milestones are critical to track the progress of the project, and second, budget milestones are necessary to determine the cost to complete for a project. When a new project begins, everyone is excited and eager to start work. Project surveyors begin their research and field survey teams are dispatched to the proj- ect site. The project manager has to know if things are going according to plan. This is one of the functions of the milestones. Was the research completed on time?Was the fieldwork completed on themilestone date? These questions will give the proj- ect manager the information to report to the client and make any adjustments early in the project cycle. Budget milestones tell the manager if the project is financially on track. Let’s say for example that the budget set for the completion of the fieldwork is fifty percent of the total project. When this milestone point is reached and the actu- al cost of the work exceeds the budget amount, the manager should be able to run a cost to complete to see where he can possibly save some dollars or go back to the client and request additional funds. This is very difficult when the proj - ect is completed and the manager gets a project financial report from his account - ing department. Remember that a cost to complete does not equal budget mi- nus costs expended to date. You must look at it in terms of an earned value re- port where the actual cost expended is measured against the estimated cost to complete. The estimated cost to complete is determined by reviewing all pending project tasks with your staff and setting a realistic budget for those tasks. This will give the manager a better understanding of the true cost at completion. Microsoft Project is a very useful tool for determining the earned value of a project. The total project can be budgeted in MS Project and milestones set. The manager can then use this tool to track costs and revise budgets for pending tasks. I have been using MS Project for many years and have found it to be a very valuable tool for project management and client reporting. [Please view the original PDF, linked in the editor’s note at the begin- ning of this article for an example Gantt chart prepared from Microsoft Project representing a typical project plan with milestone and an earned value report coinciding with the Gantt chart.] Precise Definition of Required Deliverables, Contract Standards, Client Imposed Standards and/or Industry Standards This is a critical quality assurance and cli- ent service element of the project delivery plan. Everyone working on the project and the client should clearly understand what the deliverable items at the completion of the project will be, and to what stan- dards the work will be carried out. Do not assume that if you say the survey work will be carried out to second order stan- dards that everyone is on the same page. Make sure that you define the source of your technical standards and there are no possible ambiguities in the interpretation of these standards. Every member of the project team and the client should be in agreement so there are no surprises at the end of the project. I strongly recom- mend that the technical standards and methods to achieve those standards be incorporated into both the plan and your contract with the client. Furthermore, the project delivery plan should be reviewed with the client prior to the commence- ment of any work on the project. Advanced Technology Advanced technology is great if every- one on the project teams understands the technology and knows how to use it. If the project manager is planning to use some advanced technology such as GPS or digital photogrammetry for the proj- ect, this should be stated in the project delivery plan so that all members of the project team will understand what is ex- pected of them and the client will know how the results of the survey were ob- tained. When using advanced technology, the advantages derived from this tech- nology and its value to the project should be spelled out in some detail in the plan. Tasks & Responsibilities Every project delivery plan should contain a narrative of the tasks and responsibili- ties for eachmember of the project team. This is a very important quality assur- ance measure. While the project team members will be an integral part of the project schedule and budget showing their participation in tasks and the hours allocated to them, it is still necessary to provide a narrative of what is expected of each member of the team and when it is due. Again, this is invaluable when project personnel changes. It also pre- vents duplication of effort and the old saw of “I thought Joe or Mary was doing that.” Deming’s “14 Points” [see Part 1 of this series, March/April 2021] is clear on this issue. At this point, I would like to recall three of those points that I be- lieve apply here: