Identifying CAD Project Killers

Identifying CAD Project Killers

There are many stumbling blocks that cause projects to get derailed. There are plenty of design challenges that your team may face. These are specific to your discipline and industry. You may be struggling with a manufactured part or the interaction of systems or the best way to layout a parking lot or the situating of a building on a site plan. Whatever these brain teasers may be, they differ from project to project. Each time you put mouse to monitor, you have to wrestle with the projects design and getting that design into the systems and out to manufacturing, fabrication or construction.

If taken one at a time you will be able to get you project back on track. But if too many of these things happen to the same project it can soon become a full fledged train wreck.
Let’s take a look at some of the things that may influence the progress of your team.

New Users

Users who are new to the software can really do some damage. They do not do it on purpose, it just happens. They do not know how to properly use the tool yet. They do not have the experience to know what to do when they hit a snag. They often get creative in trying to solve problems or use methods that they used in other software. This can soon make you files not work as expected and sometimes not work at all. It is not their fault; they just need more time and oversight than users who have a few projects under their belts.

No Planning

Planning out the approach you will take on a project is critical to making it get started on the right path. What kind of planning is needed is based on the project size, scope and software being used. You may need to discuss the file naming, setup of folders, Project Navigator issues, Model creation issues or more. But so many projects have troubles because team members just start drawing without thinking of the entire project. Take the time to think about what needs to be done first. All the time you take up front will extend the smooth sailing that you achieve later in the project.

New Software

Introducing new software to your firm may cause project problems. It makes everyone on your team a new user. We have discussed New User issues. Now multiply that by your full team and you compound the problems that may occur. Introducing new software or even a software upgrade can make users feel uncomfortable. They may feel unsettled about the process while feeling excited about a new tool. Many lessons will be learned in the first few projects. Keep the conversations going between users and project teams.

Shared between locations

Firms today are sharing projects between offices. They do this to balance workload, share expertise and level out staffing. With this emerging project trend comes challenges related to speed, file sharing, collaboration and archiving. If the communication is not escalated to the level of need, then projects can quickly get tied into knots.

New Team members not up to speed on the project

Project knowledge grows as the project grows. Those that started the design know more about the ins and outs of the model than those who are joining later in the process. This can slow a project down as information transfer is required from person to person.

Adding staff late in the project

Akin to the previous item, adding staff late in a project causes disruptions. The impact of adding people onto a project at any point past a major milestone becomes evident quickly. The late comers have to be brought up to speed, like I mentioned before. If it is really late in the project, then some of these team members don’t even have a chance to get up to speed on project design concepts and issues. They are just snapped onto a project and expected to create, refine and complete the project documents.

Swapping users

Another staffing issue is having people come and go. This happens when people are added to the project during a lull in their workload and then are assigned to another project that needs them more.

Changing project location

Sometimes projects totally move from one office to another. This could be based on project needs, staffing or whatever. When this happens then there is the possibility of total upheaval in a projects work force, talent, planning and execution. Just the technical portion of moving all the files from one place to another can get tough. Reference file attachments can go haywire. Model support files can be lost. Server settings that may not be the same can affect everything.

Change in project scope

When the client changes their mind – your files have to change. This can disrupt the flow of progress. Trying to define what to save and what to get rid of is often tough. Do you copy the files to a new location? Do you delete items after archiving them? Each person may think that one thing is worth saving and another is not.

Project phasing

When the project changes scope it sometimes is changed to be phased construction. These kinds of changes delay the progress of the project. You have to determine when and how to split the files of model into phases. Split it too soon or in the wrong way and your tasks become more difficult.

Project Killers

When you combine several of the above items, you have the definite makings of a project killer. Project killers can be any combination of the above. It may be only two or three, or more. It may only be one, if it is major enough to cause some serious problems.

Make sure that everyone in Project Management knows about the impact of these issues. Just letting them know that each one of these is a concern and that multiple ones on the same project can be a killer for their projects may help avoid them.