Instructor: Phil Perry

Summary: You will create and manage a project schedule using Microsoft Project 2016.

Who should attend:  This course is for any person who has never used Microsoft Project 2016 and would like to use it as a tool to manage their projects.

Prerequisites:

People enrolling in this course should have the following:

• A general understanding of project management concepts
• Basic skills with any Windows operating system.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Create a new project plan file and enter project information.
• Manage tasks by organizing tasks and setting task relationships.
• Determine Critical Path, Total Float and Free Float
• Manage resources for a project such as Labour
• Finalize a project plan.
• Print project schedules to PDF

Instructor: Phil Perry

Summary:  You will get an in-depth look at the features of Microsoft Project 2016 as a project management tool.

Who should attend:  This course is for any person who has used Microsoft Project 2016 at the basic level and would like to improve their skills.

Prerequisites:

People enrolling in this course should have the following:

• A general understanding of project management concepts
• Basic skills with any Windows operating system.
• Basic skills with Microsoft Project (any version)

Course Content:

Changing Scheduling Methods

– Task Type Settings

– Task Constraints

– Task Relationships (Finish-to-Start, Start-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, Lags)

– Identifying Factors Affecting Tasks

– Defining the Critical Path

– Formatting the Critical Path

Change Project Calendars

– Explore Default Calendars (Standard, Night Shift, 24 Hour)

– Create Project Specific Calendars (e.g. 6 day x 10 hour/day)

– Assign a special Calendar to a specific task

– Assign a special Calendar to a specific resource

Tracking Project Progress

– Saving the Baseline

– Tracking Task Progress

– Updating Tasks

– Updating the Remaining Schedule

– Comparing Baseline and Actual Data

Resolving Resource Conflicts

– Assigning Resources

– Editing Resource Assignments

– Resource Overallocations

– Locating Resource Overallocations

– Resolving Resource Overallocations

– Applying Preset Contours to Resources

Sorting, Filtering and Grouping

– Sorting Views

– Filtering Views

– Grouping Tasks and Resources

Formatting the Project Environment

– Formatting Views

– Formatting the Gantt Chart

Instructor: Phil Perry

When it comes to cost and schedule on your construction projects, do you know where you’re at and where you’re going?

Realizing that you’re aimed at an iceberg when you’re 100 meters away isn’t helpful. It’s so much better if you notice the iceberg when you’re 10 kilometers away, so that you can do something about it! This is part of the “construction management” that owners expect from contractors.

Construction project management is a challenge in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Effective project-planning and -control approaches must often be compliant with owners’ contractual requirements. Successful project managers demand that their projects meet the contracted scope of work, and be completed on schedule and within budget. To ensure success, an effective project control system must be designed, developed, and implemented to provide management with timely and accurate information on deviations of cost and time parameters from the target objectives established during the planning cycle of the project.

Earned Value Management (EVM) is a project planning and control approach which provides cost and schedule performance measurements. It compares actual accomplishment of scheduled work and associated cost against an integrated schedule and budget plan. Its benefits include visibility into the true progress of the project work against the budget, projections of anticipated project schedule, and cost trends, and the ability to take timely corrective actions for undesired variances. EVM is one of the most powerful and productive concepts used in managing today’s complex projects in private, commercial, and government environments.

 The fundamentals of EVM will be presented in a down-to-earth, basic approach, along with hands-on exercises and examples that will allow participants to apply the concepts.

Participants will:

Obtain basic knowledge in understanding and using an effective performance management system in managing construction projects effectively.

Detect both positive and negative trends in a timely manner.

Forecast the Projected Final Cost (Estimate at Completion) using several techniques.

Confidently and quickly make project decisions concerning scope, cost, and schedule

Learn to avoid the project-management pitfalls by quickly identifying and mitigating risks

Who Should Attend:

This course is for owner, designer, contractor, and subcontractor personnel who are involved with cost and schedule management.

Instructor: Phil Perry

This is an interactive half-day seminar that will cover the fundamentals of interpreting construction drawings. The seminar will deal with the basics of interpreting information from plans, elevations, sections, details and notes contained in typical drawings.

Course Topics

List the components of a typical construction drawing set

Identify typical drawing types, symbols, notes and scales

Recognize the common types of drawing sets and explain their differences

Extrapolate specific information from a drawing set and cross-reference it to the construction

Instructor: Dr. Perry Daneshgari

The principle role of any project manager is to recognize, predict and prevent project risk in order to achieve the anticipated outcome, profit, of any project. Leveraging the risk reduction capabilities of project managers will enable them to achieve higher system productivity. This seminar gives experienced project managers an opportunity to explore the types of risk they confront each day. Throughout the session, each participant will have an opportunity to collaborate with other experienced project managers and better understand the role of project management in the business process.  Participants will: Understand and recognize the different types of risk they encounter and manage, as well as how these risks impact the business; Perform a self-assessment of their own project management style and technique as it fits into their company’s structure and operations; Become acquainted with the industry practices relating to division of roles and interactions between the field supervision, project managers, and corporate executives; and recommend to their company leaders practical policies and procedures for project management which support reduced variation in labor, material and cash utilization.

Instructor: Blake Wentz

Why are some project managers consistently more successful than the “typical” project manager in our industry? What separates good project managers from great project managers? While age, experience, attitude, and talent are important factors in a project manager’s success, the instructor has identified and will share the best practices skills that can be learned by any project manager who has the attitude, aptitude, and desire to improve and succeed. This session includes an overview and in-depth discussion of the many best practices used by the industry’s best project managers. It also provides a review of the traits and qualities that are the common denominators among excellent project managers. This session will serve as an overview and refresher for many of the topics found in the Fundamentals of Project Management educational program.

Instructor: Blake Wentz

Project managers must have a rudimentary understanding of fundamental legal concepts to effectively and profitably manage their projects and their customers. With this information, they are more likely to be proactive in avoiding potential legal problems on their projects and more confident and effective in successfully documenting, debating, negotiating, and resolving difficult project issues and disagreements while maintaining positive customer relationships. This session will include an overview of the most significant construction law concepts, issues, and principles that are commonly encountered by the mechanical project manager, including: Interpreting the contract, The Uniform Commercial Code and the construction industry, The authority and responsibility of the architect/engineer, Differing site conditions, Unforeseen site conditions, Basic premises of tort law, Basic premises of contract law, What constitutes a contract, Maxims of law, Design specifications vs. performance specifications, Defective construction caused by faulty construction practices, Defective construction caused by defective plans or specifications, patent vs. latent defects in plans or specifications.

Instructor: Blake Wentz

The end of a project is usually a challenging and difficult time for the mechanical project manager and the foreman. Unfortunately there is no magic formula, wand, or pill for eliminating the difficulty of project closeout. There are, however, several tactics and strategies the project manager and foreman can implement to improve end-of-job performance and mitigate the difficulties of project closeout. In addition to a review of innovative methods used by MCAA contractors to help reduce the typical end of project “profit/productivity drain,” this session will include the following project closeout topics: Punch list, Warranties, As-built drawings, O & M manuals, Customer satisfaction, Closeout productivity improvement, Demobilization, Change order finalization, Final payment, Feedback meeting.

Instructor: Blake Wentz

Subcontractors represent a significant portion of most mechanical contracts, and the performance of your subcontractors is a direct reflection of your own performance in the eyes of an owner, construction manager, or general contractor. The project manager’s effective management of subcontractors ensures a successful project that is profitable, completed on time, and completed within budget. When mechanical subcontractors are properly managed by the project manager and foreman, mechanical contractor risk is low, customer satisfaction is high, and strong long-term relationships are developed between the mechanical contractor and their subcontractors. The session will include the following subcontractor management topics: Writing good subcontracts, Thorough review and analysis of subcontractor scope of work, Managing change orders, Proper communication, Developing strong relationships, Managing safety, billing, and payment procedures, Documentation.

Instructor: Blake Wentz

In today’s marketplace, mechanical contractors are likely to find themselves with a customer who has pre-purchased most of the major equipment items on a project and tailored their contract documents to place all of the equipment risk on the mechanical contractor. Projects that include owner furnished equipment (OFE) must be managed differently to help mitigate this risk. This session will have special emphasis on planning, documentation, communication, and claim avoidance. It will include the following topics: Identifying and understanding OFE risk, Managing and controlling OFE risk, Bidding issues and OFE, Contract issues and OFE, OFE documentation issues, OFE and project scheduling issues, OFE short interval scheduling requirements, Understanding the owner’s position regarding OFE, Managing customer relationships on OFE projects.