I was fortunate to have a 30 minutes lively conversation with a French gentleman who was seated besides me while we were on our flight from KLIA to Kota Bharu this morning. He works for a French oil and gas company.
What I could learn from this short conversation is how the French company trains their managers.Many Malaysian companies took the easy way out and took a few short cuts and we ended up with incompetent project managers resulting with many project failures.The French companies took time to train their people in various departments/work areas as well as working in different locations and cultures.This is important if we want our managers to be world class and taking the challenge of globalisation..
During my last visit to Paris in 1997,I observed that they may take years or decades or even centuries to build their cities but they are of objects of beauty.The bridges across River Seine are fine examples.In our case , we wanted to complete everything by yesterday.We may have the Starbucks but do we have cafe' culture?
Another aspect is that they insist on very much higher standard of mathematical knowledge as compared to British and Malaysian universities.Now, I know why my son who is studying at MFi is complaining.
QS in Malaysia are the punching bags whenever Construction Project Managers (CPM) fail to do their "management". From my past experience in private sectors and from what I am doing now, QS are forced to prepare tender documents eventhough we only receive other party's minimal input. We are preparing a document that will decides who gets the job and yet we do not get enough information to satisfy ourselves and from those basic informations we have to make sure that our BQs are perfect. The question is, how do we know what a designer wants if he himself (or she herself) does not know what he/she wants??? And on top of this, our CPMs say "what ever it is the tender must be out immediately". OK... we manage to "create" the info needed and we meet dateline for tender (of course not all are achieved). Then after re reporting our tender evaluation, construction begin. Suddenly my contractor claiming that my BQ does not have this, does not have that, my provisional sums allowed are to small. What the project manager says?.... "Aiyaa.. this QSes ahh.. always like that... never prepare perfect BQs!!!" To make matters worst... drawing issued to the contractor will never be the same with the tender drawings... and yet QS are the guilty party for preparing incomplete documents.
They tend to forget that we "create" the incomplete thing from incomplete supply of what to be done.
This is just an example of how project managements done in Malaysia... we like to cut short our planning just to make sure that the physical works on site start... and almost everytime we only achieve our target on when to start it but seldom achieve the target on when it should finish.
Posted by: Qsdar | Friday, August 15, 2003 at 05:55 PM
The dump everything on the QS as late as possible syndrome is a symptom of the "pre-contract" process not being managed. If there was any sort of plan (even a on a scrap of paper) at the outset of the process it would be clear, even to an imbecile, that there must be something wrong that the architect takes 12 months, the engineers take 12 weeks and the QS is expected to take 12 hours!!!
The QS get dumped with the responsibility is just another sympton of the same problem. Who is responsible for the project in the "pre-contract" phase? Nobody.
Just my two sen.
Posted by: Kura-Kura | Friday, August 15, 2003 at 06:46 PM
Adib
To get an acute accent over the e in cafe, hold down the option key press e, release the option key, press e again. Voilà an é.
Oh I forgot you passed you iBook to your son.
Posted by: Kura-Kura | Friday, August 15, 2003 at 06:49 PM
Qsdar,
The QS will never get the BQ right if the project manager(whoever is in-charge) does not do scope defination and scope planning. Scope management is one of the nine knowledge areas in Project Management Book of Knowledge.(Pls refer to www.pmi.org).
Anybody can start a project,but NOT anybody can complete the project on time. The chinese proverb says :
Anybody can open a shop, but NOT anybody can keep the shop open!
Many project managers in construction industry are engineers,architects,QS's BUT are they competent project managers?They are project managers by defaults or by accidents.That is why many projects met with many 'accidents'.
Posted by: Adib | Friday, August 15, 2003 at 07:15 PM
I think project management (PM) in construction is very easy (jangan marah...) compared to PM in software engineering (SE). We can see the building, bridge, road etc. but in SE, we can see "nothing". project manager in construction may be engineer, architect, qs etc. but YET abedib say most of them are unqualified PM. How about PM in SE?. Who do you think the "qualified" PM?
Posted by: MBA | Sunday, August 17, 2003 at 10:12 PM
In software development life cycle, I have known a few methodologies but when it comes to managing IT project I have seen none. I think PM be it in IT or Non-IT will be the same. The basic principles are the same, what say you Mr. Adib?
Posted by: Nona | Monday, August 18, 2003 at 08:49 AM
Nona,
I agree with you that the basic principles of project management are the same across the industries.
There are three types of knowledge you need to manage the project:
1.Project Management Knowledge(pls refer to PMBOK:http://www.pmi.org),
2.The general management knowledge,
3.The application area knowledge( ex;construction,IT etc).
Only number 3 differs,the rest are the same.
Posted by: Adib | Monday, August 18, 2003 at 11:37 AM