INEIGHT PROJECT CONTROLS
MASTERING EFFICIENCY: EXPERT STRATEGIES FOR CENTRALIZED PROJECT CONTROLS
LEARN TO SCALE AND SHARE KNOWLEDGE
Standardization plays a key role in enabling scalability and knowledge sharing across teams and projects. As projects grow in size and complexity, particularly with mega projects involving multi-billion-dollar budgets, having standardized systems and processes becomes crucial to expanding operations and improving communications.
SCALE BUSINESS PROCESSES ACROSS PROJECTS
For mega projects, where multiple divisions and teams are involved, the risk of systems breaking down increases if processes and software are not scalable. Standardization ensures that business processes can handle larger volumes of information and complexity without falling apart. Whether managing larger teams, coordinating across various disciplines, or handling more intricate project data, standardized processes provide the backbone for scalability.
For Ledcor, standardizing on the robust, scalable solution from InEight has been key. “We have to be able to keep a system running. It can’t fall apart every time if it gets too much information in it,” Wales said. “And we’re not scalable when everybody’s got their own system either, whether that’s a spreadsheet or a quick base program that they’ve developed themselves.”
SHARE KNOWLEDGE AND BEST PRACTICES
Standardization also enhances knowledge transfer between teams, allowing for best practices and lessons learned to be captured, documented, and applied consistently across multiple projects. Organizations should create a knowledge repository that can be accessed by project teams at any stage of the project lifecycle. It can include everything from lessons learned on previous projects to templates for risk management, cost estimation, and scheduling.
Managing and sharing knowledge also requires discernment. “We can give them lots of information, but if it’s not useful to them, it’s of little value,” Wales said. “We try to filter out what information does this business need and find that appropriate level of detail, because if you’re overwhelmed with data, it’s not much good to you. And that information that you get out of the system is vital in making a proper decision at the right time.”
Shared knowledge helps teams avoid making the same mistakes, improves efficiency, and fosters a culture of continuous improvement. “It’s important to not make the same mistakes you’re making today on new jobs,” Terminella said, adding that the risk is higher “on these multi-complex type of projects when you’ve got multiple projects going on.”
IMPROVE COMMUNICATION WITH CLIENTS
Clear communication with clients builds trust and manages expectations on large projects. Standardized systems ensure consistent reporting, using templates, dashboards, and tools to present key metrics like progress, budget, and risks. This transparency keeps clients informed and improves collaboration by aligning teams and clients with the same performance metrics, identifying challenges early, ensuring smoother project execution, and strengthening client relationships.
Terminella recalled a situation in which a client expectations weren’t clear to the project team at Kiewit. But with complete, consistent data available in the project controls system, Terminella said, “we had the ability and the information to show the client what was remaining on the project, although doing so wasn’t part of the contract structure. You could tell the appreciation from the client of getting the information they were really after, even though the contract type wasn’t as such that we were responsible for the additional scope. But just giving them that answer was a huge benefit in their eyes.”