Need Help with Project Organization. 1

[4jacks]

Ello People,

I’ve only been working as a civil engineer for a little over a year. I’m coming from a Home Depot background, which is a whole different world. I’m having trouble keeping track of tasks that I need to complete related to the different jobs. I find myself having up to 10 different jobs going on at a time, and it gets hard juggle them.

I think I have an Okay system for storing Plans, and an Okay system for storing project documents in an 8.5x11 folder. And I’m meticulous about keeping electronic files organized on the computer.

But I’m having trouble keeping track of older jobs, that I may need to come back to in like a month or two. Very often someone will come up to me and ask about a Job that I haven’t worked on in Months, and I will find myself saying… Gee I have no Clue… I can’t remember even if the project has been approved or if it’s on hold because of the client, or if we’re awaiting documents or what…. I just can’t remember.

I tried to create an excel spread sheet with just a list of my current projects, and like every week, just write in the current status.. “In for review”, “Awaiting Client” something like that, so I had one source to view the status of all my projects. But that quickly fell through.

I also have trouble keeping track of when to call people if I’m waiting for a response from them. Example, I have a few projects that a contractor is to go out on the site and finish the job, and call me so I can complete the asbuilt. Well I’m finding out that contractors just don’t want to do what they have to do. So I have nothing that POPs up and tells me to remind them… I just find myself going through my files and saying to myself… oh yeah what ever happened with that.

So if anyone could chime in with your methods and systems to organize this type of work. I am particularly hearing from other Civil Engineers or fields that have a similar time frame of a job taking years to complete. I think my job would be a whole lot better If I could just bang out a job a week.

Thanks

Patrick

 

[waskillywabbit]

Print out the excel spreadsheet first thing each day and put it on the wall in a very prominent place, on top of the previous day's sheet, and update it by hand each day right then when the status of a project changes and then copy the handwritten changes to the computer hard copy at the end of each day before you shut down the computer. Clean up the handwritten copies at the end/beginning of the month. Simple, but effective and takes little time to keep up to date.

Out of sight...out of mind, so keep it in sight!

Good luck.

Brian
Pressure Vessels and Autoclave Systems

http://www.mcabeeconstruction.com

The above comments/opinions are solely my own and not those of McAbee Construction.

 

[BJC]

Are you working with larger general contractors?
If so find out what program they use. If they are using Primavera project maanagement software call the vendor and have them give you the sales pitch. It's a very expensive program. If the generals you work with use it ( and a lot of them do ) it may be worth while to get your own copy. I can't tell you everthing it can do. I have used it and it's pretty good, not cheap but good. There's a point where it pays to have it.

 

[MintJulep]

Primavera is the big dog in software for keeping track of the interrelatedness of all things on a project. Their stuff is very good, very expensive, and not easy and time-consuming to use correctly.

MS Project is a far second (there may be others out there that I don't know about), but may be more than sufficient for your needs at the moment.

A spreadsheet would be my last choice.

 

[GregLocock]

I use a card index.





Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Years ago, I used Lotus Agenda, which could help you track projects, manage deadlines, and organize information by linking stuff automagically as you entered blocks of text. It kept a list of things it knew, like people's names and the companies they worked for, so if you entered "Meet Bob of XYZ Co. at Ted's shop on the second Tuesday of next month", it would set up a reminder for the correct date, and link it to the correct place and the correct Bob. It was buggy, crashed occasionally, and would beat on your hard drive all night long maintaining the linkages, but it was a hell of a hack.

IBM bought Lotus and transformed Agenda into Notes, or so they said. I didn't see the resemblance. Then again, I never saw a Notes demo actually work.

If there's a real functional replacement for Agenda, I haven't found it, and I've been looking for ~ten years. It was good enough that I'd even pay my own money for a new release.

But then, I'd buy a new Corvair, too. ;-)

;---

Now, I keep a simple chronological text file for each and every project. Who called whom, what time, what they said, stuff like that, and more, updated as it happens. Mostly I use Notepad, which runs out of steam at about 33k of text, not coincidentally the point where a project becomes unmanageable by humans anyway. These are of inestimable value, at least to me, when my own recollection diverges from other people's, as often happens. I work on three or four hundred projects a year, and move the project files from the big 'active' folder on my computer desktop to the bigger 'inactive' folder as they age, and back when they come in for warranty work.

I also keep a Word file with a short summary of each day's activities, a new file for every month, again updated as it happens. This serves as an informal index to the Notepad files, and answers the inevitable question about "Where the hell did that entire day go?"

I've tried using a spreadsheet on several occasions, and could never arrange things so it was readable and coherent. The date math allows you to do cool stuff like measure the time you spent on a task, or track the average man-days per project, etc., but keeping up with the data entry steals too much time from what you're actually trying to do, so after a week or a month I just stop maintaining it and give up.

I've used index cards in my pocket, years ago. They were effective and compact. Now I keep a couple of letter size sheets folded to pocket size, and keep refolding them to get a clean face out for writing. They're just for jotting down numbers and stuff I want to look at later. Thanks to arthritis and a car crash, my handwriting is now indecipherable even by me, so I don't keep notes that way.

I also carry a PDA, mostly to beep at a given time, so I know to take my pills or to wake up and go home. I can tap/scratch text into it fairly fast, but not as fast as I can type. I've got a folding keyboard for it, but setting that up and using it at a meeting distracts the participants.

A friend bought cases of pocket size spiral bound notebooks, which he would replace every quarter with one of a different color. He'd have to spend a day transferring the valuable stuff from one notebook to another when he changed them. He was a technology junkie, but never replaced them with a PDA. His handwriting was legible to most people.

;--

Software, or any kind of 'system', to help an individual keep track of multiple tasks, etc. is one of those unlimited opportunities that come disguised as insoluble problems. Some of the disguises are very good...





Mike Halloran
NOT speaking for
DeAngelo Marine Exhaust Inc.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA

 

[4jacks]

Thank you, everyone for the great replies.

I’m going to ask around the office and see if anyone is using any project management software. Maybe the VP’s or some of the project managers are using something or other. I’ll ask my IT guy whether or not we own any software that I can use. I really rather doubt that the company would be willing to purchase an expensive program for such things because of my suggestion, everyone here is kind of set in there own ways.

I really like the idea about “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” and to keep my spread sheet within sight. I might play with that a bit and see if I can neatly reorganize my spreadsheet to fit on an 8.5x11 and see if I can find something of a clear holder, to hang on the wall and just keep updated and hanging up a new one. When I first started the spread sheet, I kept them in my filing cabinet, so perhaps because it was out of sight, I stopped using it effectively.

I think some of the software mentioned would be great, as long as It could remind me about those projects that sit for months. It is really the projects that sit for a long time that really give me trouble. Really every project sits for a long time at some point in the process.

I think the best thing would be If I could get a program that pops up Every day, and asks me the status of all my projects, and it was easy to type in, or chose from a list standard statuses. And I could add and delete projects easily.

Is there anyway to get Microsoft Excel to pop up my spread sheet everyday ???

I also use Mike’s idea of just keeping a word file, where I log all my phone calls and such, but I keep that inside each project folder. That is extremely helpful. And Mikes idea of keeping track of what I do each day is kinda forced upon me by having to fill out my company time sheet. I have to log my time to each of my projects, and jot down a description of what I worked on. I keep that meticulously accurate. I’ve actually used my timesheets to figure out what is going on with projects, but that is such a poor method for me, to route through 9 weeks of time sheets to see what was the last thing I did on a project was.

Maybe, I’m missing something, but I don’t see how index cards or such will help me out, because I need something to pop up and hit me in the face and say… Take care of this.



All the replies are greatly appreciated… I’m going to ask around and play with a few things, and I’ll keep you updated.

Thanks Again,
Patrick

PS... Hearing from other Civil Engineers would be great

 

[sns777]

Hi Patrick,

I am a civil engineer too. In the past,I have used the Calendar function in Microsoft Outlook. You can "make an appointment" with yourself, say two weeks from now to follow up a phone call or whatever. Then you can program "reminders" to pop up on your computer screen at any interval you wish. I had an "appointment" every day at 4:00 pm to remember to do my daily timesheet. Hope that helps ya.

 

[ejc]

Microsoft Outlook has quite a few reminder functions. Instead of using the Calendar function, I use the Task area for these types of things. You can program the tasks much like appointments, and have it pop up to remind you of old tasks. This way, I am not clogging up my calendar with fictional meetings.

 

[4jacks]

LOL... That's funny, i went to ask my IT guy and he also recommended to use microsoft Outlook, we just switch over our email client to it. I'm going to look into it some more, I think it'll work, I just need something to pop up and smack me in the face.

Thanks guys

 

[GregLocock]

Put a shortcut to your spreadsheet in the "Startup" folder in your Start menu, that way it'll launch every time you log in.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Outlook works just well enough to piss me off that it doesn't do more, better, and especially, easier.

It's handy for setting up meetings and for passing information around, provided that everyone in your group uses it, and bothers to keep their schedule updated in it.

It's useful for managing information if you never, ever, allow it to 'archive' stuff for you.



Mike Halloran
NOT speaking for
DeAngelo Marine Exhaust Inc.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA

 

[debodine]

MikeHalloran:

Had to give you a star, your evaluation of Outlook would have been word for word the same as my evaluation, if I had ever put it into words.

I use it for EXACTLY the tasks you state and I never, ever allow it to archive.

 

[SolderingGunslinger]

I use the calendaring application in the FirstClass(r) e-mail client we use in the office. It interfaces with my PDA just fine, plus it will page me with meeting reminders both to my pager and to my cell phone's text messaging.

If I miss a deadline, I either have lost feeling, hearing or am dead...or have allowed myself to procrastinate :-o

I also have the grand advantage of a wonderful engineering facilitator (to call her a secretary would be to damn her with faint praise). She keeps all of us AD/HD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) engineers in the office on point and on time. She handles the expense accounts and acts as the most wonderful Bull Sh!t filter (both ways) for the Engineering Staff.

Her Husband is an EE and works for a local Electric Utility, so she understands Engineers (sometimes far better than we think she does).

So, get a good calendaring software application which will intereface with the real world via the PDA, Pager and Cell Phone, And get a good secretary. Either/Or will suffice, but both is pure Nirvana!

I remain,

The Old Soldering Gunslinger

 

[heieup]

Sorry to ignore all the technology on this one but I use a big whiteboard !

I have various jobs and then boxes for status and comments. Coloured pens are a godsend so things that I have to action are in red, and things that are awaiting someone else I have in green.

Very simple and there is no getting away from it as it is right opposite my desk, guilting me into doing jobs I don't want to do ! but solves the problem of 'out of sight out of mind' which is a definite difficulty otherwise.

Hope you find something to help.

 

[4jacks]

Greg,
Yeah, I have to put it in my start up, some reason I put it in there and it dissappeared. I think my IT guy locked me out from altering the start up folder. I'll Have to ask him to do it.

Soldering,
Well I'm definitely not important enough for a secretary and if everyone in the office asked our current secretary staff to do all this, they'd all quit, the office is too big for that. And my IT guy just switched over to outlook, so I'll have to make the best out of that, that I can.

heieup,
That actually doesn't sound to bad, I did notice my landscape architect uses a big white billboard with color markers, I could try to find room for it, but some of my projects that takes years to complete worry me. If you stare at the name of this project all year long, what prompts you to do something with it today? I think the nature of the job just takes to long.

Thanks everyone for the great responses