Most recently, we made a presentation “Three software products for construction project management” at a BIM breakfast. The organizers were the guys from BIM.by. During a short 20-minute report, Alexander Koltsov spoke about his personal experience of using programs for managing construction projects.
- Trello for task flow management (procurement, preparation of commercial proposals, management of narrow resources)
- for large and unique projects requiring critical path management.
- , allowing you to control the cost of a construction project and unite the work of departments.
The slides and the presentation itself can be scrolled below.
I want to tell you about three software products that I personally used in application to the construction topic. All of these products are very different, but complement each other perfectly. I'll start with perhaps the simplest and most convenient, in my opinion, Trello.
Trello - Kanban-based task management software
Those of you who have worked in the IT field or have a close relationship with it probably know about Kanban. If not, then I will briefly tell you what it is.
Kanban is a just-in-time task management approach. A kanban board is a plane that is divided into several columns, each of which is a task status. The statuses can be: "Pending", "In progress", "Completed". You can add your own statuses. A control object as applied to Kanban is a card, which can be a ticket, document, question, and project. By looking at the board, you always know which control objects are in which status. Take a look at the screenshots.
In my case, we used Kanban to:
- management of work on the preparation of commercial proposals (fire alarm systems)
- load management of “narrow” specialists: buyer, estimator
- management of the recruitment process
- control of payment of invoices
- control of the decision of organizational issues that do not relate to a specific construction site, but nevertheless require management.
Specifically, Trello is convenient in that:
- allows you to run multiple independent boards;
- create independent teams (only VET, the whole organization, only top managers, etc.)
- allows employees to easily communicate inside the card (comments, notifications, documents, checklists, etc.)
- completely free.
Applicability of Kanban Board:
- tasks require stage management;
- tasks with a large number of communications with related departments
- tasks of a specific employee, who is the “bottleneck” in the company.
Kanban does not work if:
- you need calendar-networking logic. Oracle Primavera, MS Project Server or similar will do.
- you need to evaluate resource loading. Other solutions are also required.
- you need to manage the cost. Choose a different product.
Oracle Primavera for Complex Project Management
I have already talked about this software product in detail many times. In general, a strong platform that allows you to manage resources, deadlines, cost of a complex and unique project. To understand the essence of Oracle Primavera, you need to look at the screenshot.
It is clearly seen that the program allows:
- decompose the project into parts (WBS) and tasks.
- describe each task with additional parameters (labor intensity, predecessors and followers, time limits, etc.)
- build a calendar-network model (critical path method)
- assess the project's need for funding, etc.
Primavera is a strong software product that can solve complex problems, but there are several limitations that I have identified in practice:
- you need to have all the necessary information about the construction object (estimates, drawings, resource production, a list of contractors, etc.). This is often not possible.
- you need to constantly work and maintain the integrity and relevance of the work schedule. This is a titanic work, believe me. If the company does not have qualified network schedulers, then this work will die out in a month or even earlier.
- it is very difficult to get an organization to use the results that Primavera provides. This is not a problem with the product itself, but it nevertheless means that you most likely will not be able to “turn it on and get the result”.
We used Oracle Primavera to work on the following facilities:
- Belarusian nuclear power plant;
- completion of the construction of a residential complex in Sennitsa settlement (Minsk region);
- dismantling of A / V Vostochny
- administrative objects.
Applicability of Oracle Primavera for Construction Project Management:
- a unique object managed by the critical path method;
- or a series of typical large projects with a small number of deviations (typical refineries, for example)
- or you have a staff of engineers who are ready to constantly deal only with engineering training (5-10 people).
Does not apply:
- in projects with a large number of force majeure, changes;
- in projects with multicurrency (revenue in dollars, expenses in rubles and dollars, for example)
- in projects that require synchronization with a warehouse, purchases, financiers, etc.
Getruda is our own development
The code name is "Gertrude". Our product has 2 key features:
- allows you to manage the cost of your construction project;
- integrates the work of departments: warehouse, procurement, finance, PTO.
Now the product is in development and we are looking for a client who is interested in working with us and acting as a “pilot” user.
Gertrude's functionality for managing construction projects:
- calculation of the internal work schedule (managerial)
- calculation of the external work schedule (under the contract)
- collection of information from the site about the scope of work performed
- calculation of the current profitability of the project, building a report
- management of applications for the purchase of materials, equipment, etc.
- accounting for the receipt of money from the client.
Applicability Gertrude:
- a construction project with a large number of changes;
- the success of the object depends on the quality of coordination of the work of related departments;
- no restrictions on the scale of the project;
- projects with different currencies of proceeds and costs;
- suitable for companies with a small automation budget (we offer a cloud solution by subscription)
Inapplicability of our product:
- using the critical path method;
- estimation of resource loading.
Comparison of software products for construction project management
I will briefly compare the proposed products with each other, so that you have the opportunity to evaluate them together. The comparison criteria will not include the cost of the software itself, since it depends on many factors.
When comparing products, I focus on those functions or qualities that the construction industry really needs. In this regard, I have proposed the following set of criteria:
- accounting of supplies of materials, warehouse balances
- work with loading resources (people, materials, mechanisms)
- independent work with revenue and cost
- work with documents
- the ability to enter data directly from the construction site
- licensing of a software product
- interface in Russian
