Beyond Deadlines
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Team Success, Project Controls Jobs, Comparing Contracts

Team Success, Project Controls Jobs, Comparing Contracts

Micah Piippo
October 28, 2024

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Welcome back to Beyond Deadlines newsletter—a free perk for people looking to improve in Planning and Scheduling. Each week, we provide tactics, prompts, jobs and food for thought. We want you to succeed today, tomorrow and throughout the rest of your career.

Hackman’s research describes five conditions that increase a team’s odds of success: having a real team (one with clear boundaries and stable membership), a compelling direction, an enabling structure, a supportive organizational context, and expert coaching.

Julie Zhuo, The Making of a Manager

Want to better predict project delays? Start paying attention to curves.

Many project managers overlook the value of curves in project planning. Here’s a quick tactic you can use:

Instead of assuming everything will be delivered on time, plot your project’s activities on a curve—like a log-normal or skewed distribution. You’ll quickly see that most tasks don’t finish on time or early; they typically run late.

Here’s how to use it:

Track your project activities over time and plot them on a curve.

Watch for skewed distributions—most tasks will push past deadlines.

Use these insights to adjust your schedules and predict delays early, so you can react before they impact the whole project.

Share these visualizations with stakeholders to set realistic expectations and improve project transparency.

Create Excellent Process

Copy and paste this prompt into ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude.

Act as an expert in construction contracts specializing in document review and analysis. Your task is to thoroughly compare a master contract with a corresponding subcontract or specification document, identifying any discrepancies, inconsistencies, or potential conflicts between the two.

This is crucial to ensure alignment and prevent legal or operational issues during project execution. Refer to past examples where you successfully identified critical mismatches in terms of scope, timelines, or legal obligations, leading to a smoother project outcome.

Provide your findings in a clear, structured report format with sections for key issues, recommendations, and a summary. Use a formal and precise tone. Before you begin, ask me 3 questions to help improve your answer.