:AACE CERTIFICATION 2009-2010:

Learnings
Cost estimation – learning and improvement, mathematical model that explains the phenomenon of increased worker efficiency and improved organizational performance with repetitive production of goods. (Engineering Economy page 110, Chapter 3). This is applicable to our daily work as well as in our team effort to deliver or projects. The mathematical model demonstrates the productivity curve, with assumption that the input resources decreases on a per-output-unit basis. This is very relevant to those activities which are repetitive such as in manufacturing industry. The costs estimation model also applicable to installation works such as cables, racks, cables ladder, rectifier, tower, cabin which is quite standard for telecom and IT industry that involve multiple sites or PoP (point of presence) for cost estimation as well as crunching of schedule as contingency to improve delivery.

Following table is the estimation of time needed for installation and commissioning of 5 PoPs and 10 PoPs for a VoIP project. Learning slope parameter s=90% or 95% as each sit may have condition and dimension which is different from each and other.


Spreadsheet developed by James A. Alloway Jr., Ph.D.
Copyright 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006. Prentice-Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ

This model can provide the estimation that the competence level of the installer or the learning curve needed that affect the progress of the project implementation if time constraint is the main project consideration. This also applicable as improvement measure to our project (assignment) situation where we are behind schedule. The effort or time needed to kick start the project to solve the question will be quite high at the beginning, however time and effort will be reduced as we go along when we have gained momentum in solving the problem/question.


Teaming
Our team seems to be struggling again or in fact the team has not been stabilized or has not been gaining momentum to move forward since the beginning of the project. We kicked-start our program 3 weeks ago after the project plan approved by “the client”. Survey was conducted few weeks ago on teaming situation, I am very much convinced that we have gone through the forming and storming stage, and we need to move on to “norming” stage. With the weekly project report received last week (week 5), some of the team members have been very consistent in working on the assignments and report them accordingly. There are also players struggling to get the ball rolling. The results from the report show that we are behind schedule as much as 3 weeks in all the projects.

There were thoughts to shift the project end date to later date or to change the requirement. However, this will not help much as the same situation will happen again and again. If I were to assess on the situation happen to us today, it has the similarity in other event that I or we failed to achieve the desired target and even defer it to later date but still have the tendency to fail. This implies that the desire and commitment to move forward is not strong enough. This can reflect a lot of things in our daily life.

There are characteristics of leader that we can learn from, characters such as compelling desire, solid belief, effective action and iron will, to do a self check if we are still willing to move forward?

Do I have the compelling desire to move forward?
Do I belief in it?
What is in it for me? (Individual/customer factor as in Chris e-mail)
What is in it for the customer? (Stakeholder)
Am I taking effective action? – Homework, assignment everywhere (Chris alerter)
Do I have the strong determination to move on?
Team work, team players committed to a common vision?
My vision, commitment, promises dictate my action, not my feelings, assessment or evaluations?
I honor my words with my actions?

As for me, this is very much of my personal interest to acquire PM knowledge and methodologies as well as experience sharing together with a team PMs from diverse background and industry. In the long run, it can be beneficial on career development. And also this is my personal value to honor my commitment for myself, the team, sponsor and various stakeholders.


Learnings from paper topic search
Over the last 2 weeks, I have been searching for title for my paper. There have been thoughts to write about leadership which I mentioned in my earlier blog. However, knowing that the topic is too huge to cover in 2500 words, I have to narrow it down to a scope that covers smaller area that relevant to what I am doing at the moment.

There are several things in my mind at this point, they are: leadership, crisis management, cost leadership and business turnaround that I would like to work on. These 4 topics are interrelated as there are the context and strategy defined by the leadership style that manages the situation. After all, still very much leadership and management style that I am interested in. To have interest in writing a paper in these areas has something to do with the current situation of the company that I am in at the moment as my company will be going through major change or revolution in the next two months to improve the situation. We (the company’s employees) had several internal communication sessions with various senior leadership team members of the company to inform us about the situation of the company as well as the changes that we are going to expect. Obviously there were all high level strategy outlined to reorganize the organization and to turnaround the situation of the company.

By looking at the high level plan that outlined to us as well as searching for material on business turnaround, I found some articles in other industry which has turnaround plan which is relevant to the industry that I am working with. These could be common issues faced by all the companies’ disregard to which industry we are in but the action to achieve desired result could be different or similar to certain extend. There are issues such as business growth, low yield product, low labor productivity, high overhead cost, automation and outsourcing, business partnership and coalition that affecting the company.

The article I was reading was on turnaround plan for MAS (Malaysian Airlines System) as well as AirAsia’s business model and analyst report. On the turnaround plan, the MAS leadership demonstrated the key characteristic of a leader with compelling desire to success, solid belief and strong will and determination that “this can be done” to fix the issues.

On effective actions, he and his team has gone through the analysis of the low yield route and to analyze the profitability of the route and the results show that there are routes that need additional passengers than they had capacity for in order to be profitable. In such a situation, he has either to fix it or to close it. This has similarity to engineering economy study to determine breakeven point (Engineering Economy Problem 2-11, page 75) of an aircraft (the particular route) and how to maximize the earnings by evaluating the cost/ASK (Available Seat Kilometer) of the route. The basis of the analysis is first to breakdown the P&L of the organization to P&L per route which resembling each and every route as a project with the entire turnaround plan as the program. As a program manager, the CEO demonstrated strong (autocratic) leadership style, particularly at the beginning stage of the program, to ensure everyone is in the right direction towards the common goal and discipline of action – which means when we commit to doing something, we monitor the results relentlessly and make sure it’s done. Again, for our team, we need this to move forward.

Source:
- Turning around a struggling airline: An interview with the CEO of Malaysia Airlines, The McKinsey Quarterly, Governance, November 2008.
- Airlines 101, www.airasia.com

# posted by Lau @ 11/13/2009 09:42:00 PM