The Playbook to Planning: A Sr. Project Manager's Perspective

I sat down with a daily user of Outbuild, a Sr. Project Manager with Iron Maple to learn more about how he conducts his planning meetings using Outbuild 's Lookahead and Weekly Workplan for his project, Fundy Quay, a Mixed-Use Development in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

About the Project, From the Owner, Fundy Harbour Group :

The Fundy Quay project is a catalytic project for Saint John involving a key waterfront development site which has been actively pursued for many years. The multi-phase mixed use development by Fundy Harbour Group will include five buildings having a total floor area of 69,700 square meters. At full build out this project will add 677 top-tier dwelling units and over 400 internal parking spaces. The ground floor of each building will be commercial/retail space in order to bring a vibrant tenant and public experience to the site. The mix of uses will bring additional residential density to the Central Peninsula and will bring additional animation to waterfront on a 24/7 basis through increased activity and public space improvements including an extension of Harbour Passage, publicly accessible open space and through leveraging improvements to the adjacent market slip public space.

Starting Out Sequencing the Master Schedule

When he first got assigned this project, he sat with his Superintendent and reviewed the sequencing of the entire project - tackling each area of the Building to identify phases and areas that allow them to hit their target Milestones.

As an example, this project has specific complexities where they have to build their way out, such as the Elevator Pit having multiple phases and trades. The building has several different elevations with pile caps and grade beams so they first determined the proper sequencing based on this.

Phases and Sequences in hand, Next Up: Outbuild Lookahead and Weekly Planning Meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays

With a conceptual Master Schedule built out into larger duration phases for Milestones, he then conducts Weekly Planning Meetings on Tuesday mornings for the shorter duration tasks using Outbuild's Lookahead.

This is where Outbuild really shines: The Lookahead tasks are always driven by the Master Schedule. The tasks must be completed within the parameters of the "parent brackets" that act as guardrails and are automatically fed down from the Master. The two never go out of sync with one another. If the field needs to communicate a change that would update the Master Schedule, they can send a Modification Request.

Note: As a general rule, Tasks created on the Lookahead should be within those shorter interval timeframes, such as 5 days or less.)

They then check their progress again on these items on Thursdays. Rinse and repeat. Every week.

Outbuild's Lookahead: Setting Durations

Each project may have different considerations on how far out you want to look into the future - but in this case, the Iron Maple team is attempting to have Lookaheads created up to 8 Weeks' rolling.

An important point to call out is that it's okay if it's not fully fleshed out that far in the future. But the sooner the tasks take place (i.e 1-3 weeks), the greater detail the Lookahead should have.

Purpose of Planning Meetings & Setting Expectations

On Tuesdays, for the Trades involved with this scope and duration, they are all asked to attend and bring their sequenced work to the meeting (whether that's written down in their own notepad, added on Outbuild, or simply kept in their head but thought about ahead of time).

As shown above, the PM will remind the team to please come prepared to discuss durations, manpower and any constraints that would prevent them from doing the work, and together with the trades, he and his Superintendent will "set the stage" for the discussion to sequence the work over the next several weeks.

As additional visual aid while having the Lookahead open, they also use Bluebeam to highlight the areas they're working in on the Drawings during their planning meetings.

Remember: Sequencing is Dynamic

During our conversation, he gave examples of how this is and should be a dynamic discussion: as one example, in their first planning meeting, they shared with the trades their plan with the Elevator Pit and the Rebar guy vocalized challenges with their suggested sequence and suggested alternatives. The PM and his superintendent, not experts in Rebar installation, trusted his expertise and allowed the change to the entire sequence based on his input.

So because they set the stage of the Plan (conducting a weekly meeting, showing the Lookahead as a visual tool on the expected sequencing of work), they have enabled Sequencing to be dynamic and have given a voice and a platform for the Trades to provide input on the plan using Outbuild, and subsequently verify whether it's possible before Production.

Outcomes: Order, Manpower, Duration

One of the key outcomes of these meetings is to determine these 3 things: Order, Manpower, Duration.

1. Order: When are you starting the work? Is it before or after the next Trade?
2. Manpower: How many people will this task take? What is the crew size?
3. Duration: How many days do you need to do this work?

Progress Updated on Outbuild's iPad App for Lookahead

Each task on the Lookahead can easily be updated in the field by the Superintendent/PM or the Trades themselves using Outbuild's Lookahead App.

Roadblocks - Planning in Synchronization with the Design, Consultants, & Owner Team

In conjunction with planning meetings involving the Trades, he has also leveraged Outbuild 's Unlimited User model to invite the Design and Owner team in their planning efforts to stay on track with their milestones, and when something is needed from them, he assigns them Roadblocks.

What are Roadblocks?

Roadblocks in Outbuild are any "thing" that could stand in the way of accomplishing a particular task in the Lookahead. Roadblocks serve much like a Constraint Management Board - each must have a Category assigned, a brief description for more detail, a Person Assigned which triggers an email notification to that person with a Due Date. This can involve consultants and the Owner and Design team for things like Concrete Testing, Engineer Sign-Offs, Owner Decision, Inspections, etc.

The beauty of Roadblocks are that they are intended truly as a preventative measure before delays occur.

There are a myriad of use cases for Roadblocks. Below are a few examples.

For inspections, this effectively tells them when they need to come on site, otherwise work will potentially be paused or slowed down. The Iron Maple team is notifying these people well in advance. An inspection can happen on the same day a concrete pour happens, so you can set that as a Roadblock to have it due on the day of.

They also use it for their own Manpower efficiency - if they have work they are self-performing, he will assign a Roadblock to their Craft Labor Manager to confirm the right people (and number of people) are on site and on what day.

And of course, Roadblocks can be assigned to the Trades themselves, such as managing material deliveries. An example was given with their Elevator Pit work, the Plumber was responsible for installation of drain sleeves so they assigned a Roadblock to the Plumber to confirm material delivery is scheduled to be onsite a week prior to installation.

"The Roadblocks page is catch-all for anything and everything that could slow you down on the Project." - Senior Project Manager, Iron Maple Constructors

I've also used this page analogous to what keeps a Superintendent up at night (we hope they can sleep better using Outbuild!)

Back to Design, he points out that Roadblocks and our integration with Procore Technologies RFI's in the Lookahead and Submittals in the Master Schedule enhance the communication between the Project Team and Design Consultants, because they know how to better prioritize, visualize, and make decisions on items that are in their court that could impact the Schedule. For a full list of our integrations, check out my other article here: The Power of Outbuild with Procore.

Weekly Workplan Commitments

Iron Maple's approach in these weekly Tuesday meetings is to first conduct the overall Planning Meeting where they're looking more than just 1 week in advance first, but also seek to get Weekly Plan Commitments.

Outbuild automatically turns Lookahead items into a Weekly Workplan, thus enabling him to get those commitments during each weekly meeting.

Lookahead View of WWP

Weekly Workplan

Show Me How I'm Measured, and I'll Show You How I Perform

Wrapping all this up, this PM's commitment to performance as a project team and to their trusted Trade Partners is not just to pat himself on the back. It's a way for the entire Project Team to measure their performance working together as a team.

Analytics help you learn more how you can do things better next time. It provides the real data required to measure your performance.

Imagine a future where your Trade Partners can advertise to their GC's when bidding, "We're an 80% PPC Trade, certified through Outbuild on 10 jobs in the [insert-city-here] area."

Or you were just awarded another project, and want to see which trades are available when that project gets started.

This is the kind of power and enablement Outbuild is providing for our customers.

I would like to extend a HUGE thank you to the Iron Maple team for being such a great partner and sharing all these valuable insights.

Want to learn more about Outbuild?

Check out our YouTube channel, or visit our website, Outbuild.com to try it for free today.

You can also email or message me directly or any of us at Outbuild for questions or support.

Collin Creach

Sr. Account Executive at Outbuild

collin@outbuild.com