New Planning Bluff-Masters in UAE

Right... where’s my Passport?

I look dead old, I could get a VP’s job :oD

yup Sunley


Very true. People expect planners to be magicians here in UAE. They donot like to coordinate or give proper inputs yet want them to be there so they can say " Planners have no work".

There are yet other managers who want their schedules to be later put into excel where the timescales are like crazy to arrange to get a print out.

Then there are others who donot even know what milestones are for and give milestones like they are peanuts in the way and some even like to leave project finish not linked properly so the project completion date shows some date and the actual completion is some other milestone ..hehehe

But what to do ......thats all that they want.

Yet another funny thing in the project I recently got on is for the last 1 month I have been collecting only procurement information from some procurement person here and he things this is it."thts planning"....I mean when work is really going on in the site. Crazy man. I dont know how long b4 I get my brain washed out here........lol

Mathew

Not new trend in UAE. Old one where your age always counts over your experience without specifying your relevant field. Don’t need to be panic...just relax.......

Ya you said it correct. Once on a new assignement, I recieved a progress updated Programme in P3 and was shocked to find that the electronic copy of it had only a few relationships. All the contractual milestones were fixed into the date by ’Constraints’. Since it was before my time, I digged into the past correspondences and documents and found that the contractor had submitted the Clause 4.14 Baseline Programme also like that. So there was a big ’WAR’ between me and the contractors team and my senior managers who approved the Cl.14 Programme. Initially when I requested the electronic copy these people gave me the programme printed in PDF format and said that is the electronic copy. This is the pitiable state of Project Management in UAE.

Sunley

Just like what Shazad said.. "just relax"... and also "Good Luck"... you will need it badly!

Planning or Scheduling or Project Management In U.A.E.......Ha, Ha, Ha !!!

HI

Yes, I agree with you, in fact my experience says its more of an attitude issue. Senior management like to hire at position of Planning and Scheduling without proper support. There is big gap between the people at site and in office in terms of technology awareness and latest trends in the industry, then comes the synergy. Yes, management thinks that Primavera is a software which can do miracles by giving them all the schedules and forecast, but they don’t realise that, preparing a schedule is the team effort and it is just a tool to reflect the strategy in measurable term. Then the most import part is the implementation of the Schedule at site.

yeah,
n one more is trend that, only if u know primavera n MSP mangement seeems he knows planning.
but other side of coin is u shld have at least some site exp for beig a good planner
Cheers,
abhi

Hi
all after reading all your posts, i would like to share my horrible experience, the contractor gave p3 copy of schedule and guess what in that 5000 activities prog, there was not a single relationship given at all, activities were held on their dates by constraints, i was shocked and amazed at such thing.
cheers
mangesh

You are wrong .this is not a New Trend ,I worked in UAE from 1993 -2004 with international companies in many landmark projects and have come across many so called PLANNING ENGINEERS who does not have a clue of Activities involved, logic, sequence,durations or required resources.I used to wonder how on earth these people got recruited as Planning Engineers.

This is fault of the Managers of such International Companies working on Mega Projects who select these ’So called Planners’ not such planners.

And most surprising part on some contractors / consultants is when their so called "PLANNING EXPERT" refuses to give P3 program in soft copy and then v hav to fight hard / convince them to supply us the soft copy. Thats really crazy!!

in one of the building project, this PE submitted 40000 activities which includes 8000 milestones and few thousands of hammocks.

Really crazy, 8000 milestones and approx 3000 hammocks in a building project and apart from this there are constraints and lags

And on top of that for them a ’soft Copy’ is a PDF file of the schedule !!!!!????

It’s a soft copy.. isn’t it?

But the main question is who generates these Bluff-Masters

THE CLIENT and THE SO CALLED PROJECT MANAGERS

Project Managers in UAE are mostly by profession are carpenters, fitters, scuba divers etc. As they are not expert in knowing the importance of this paperwork, these bluff-masters grow near and around them.

Few people may feel offended, but this is the true condition of UAE.

Cheers,

Ravi

Yeah Ravi,

I fully agree with you.

Most of the people who are working as PM are same as mentioned by you.
so no way of any paper work or written communication.

this is not only the situation in UAE but in most of the Gulf courntries.
cheers
Abhi

Hi Ravi,

I took note of your comment regarding scuba divers.

I got this friend of mine who is working in a very junior position but with long years of experience. He did scuba diving and eventually becomes certified scuba diving instructor. After sometimes, he becomes a manager in one of island development with huge pay and bonus/incentives.

I call it luck. He is lucky

He did invite to learned scuba diving for discounted fee. I never thought it will be an asset someday. However, I told him "Im been doing diving since twenty five years ago, usually 4:00 AM but this is only 2 inches above ground level"

Cheers,

What if the lady is standing up Charles?

Hi

Yes, that absolutely right. Commencing any project require initial meeting with the project team. In fact it starts right start from the bidding stage. In case of a successful bid, the same information should pass to the project team during execution at site as a guideline. In day to day life also each one is working like a Planner. Effectiveness of Planner depends upon the Organisation Project Management Maturity, Philosophy, Communication and team work.

Hi

Yes, that right. Commencing any project require initial meeting with the project team. In fact it starts right start from the bidding stage. In case of a successful bid, the same information should pass to the project team during execution at site as a guideline. In day to day life also each one is working like a Planner. Effectiveness of Planner depends upon the Organisation Project Management Maturity, Philosophy, Communication and team work.

Dear Marlon,

As you have said earlier, for being a good planner he must have effectice communication.
One should always interact with people from various departments, not only from the managemnt but also his co workers.

In short he shoulb be a good team player.
Cheers,
Abhijit