Stop & Plan Early to Avoid Painful Surprises Later
Get a new Program or Phase off to a great start, ensuring internal policies & best practices are understood. We realize that each Program will have PMs, CAMs, EV Analysts or Planner / Schedulers with varying skills, so we can tailor our workshops from the very basics of defining a WBS through more advanced levels depending on the Program skills or data maturity.
AzTech’s approach to developing the IMP / IMS is to conduct planning workshops (some call them “Boot Camps”) with the Project team including key staff, such as the Project Manager, Integrated Product Team (IPT) leads, Project Engineers, Control Account Managers, & Planners / Schedulers. During these workshops, we help to collect scheduling data & document assumptions, risks, basis of estimates, & other key data. We then help build the schedule for Government customer or for the Prime Contractor or Major Contractor. As applicable, we work with the Customer team and key subcontractors (or vendors) to either build the subcontractor schedule or to incorporate the subcontractor schedule into the Project IMS.
During these workshops, we help your Project team develop three key components of the schedule:
1) an Integrated Master Plan (IMP) that defines the major program milestones & events, accomplishments, and criteria;
2) a detailed Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) that contains all major tasks; &
3) integrating items 1 & 2 with proper schedule logic (relationships), durations, & resources.
Note: For those who are at very early stages of Project definition, we can help create the WBS, OBS, Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM), Basis of Estimates (BOEs), Earned Value Worksheets (for claiming Earned Value for % Complete or Milestone EV Methods), etc.
During the workshops, we provide basic & intermediate training on scheduling & project management concepts required to develop & maintain the IMS. The IMS can be built using any scheduling tool (e.g., Primavera, Microsoft Project, Open Plan, etc.). For MS Project users, we employ Run!AzTech, our Template for MS Project, to facilitate developing & managing complex schedules.
Throughout the IMP / IMS development process, AzTech International provides training for the Program’s internal staff to facilitate handing over the schedules for routine maintenance. We provide the necessary documentation to use Run!AzTech & to maintain the schedule, including how to conduct routine progress & forecast updates & make revisions to the schedule baseline.