last planner system guide

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A Guide for New Users of the Last Planner System

Nine Steps for Success

Gregory L. Howell, P.E.

Hal Macomber

Lean Project Consulting, Inc

November 18, 2002

2002 Lean Project Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. www.leanproject.com 208-726-9989.Last Planner System is a trademark of the Center for Innovation in Project and Production Management,d.b.a. Lean Construction Institute, www.leanconstruction.org.


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This guide addresses

When to use the LPS vs. otherlean approaches

Step-by-step implementation plan

Improving upon the implementation Teamwork, Trust, and Fear

Organization conditions for success (support, leadership, etc)

We have also included a glossary, references, other implementation practices, andleadership and best practices appendices.

Notes to Readers

Italicized text is used throughout this document to designate glossary items. You will

find definitions in a Glossary at the end of the book.

This guide complements the coaching-by-email program Your First 30 Days on the LastPlanner System. You will find references to the daily lessons in brackets throughout thetext indicating more information is available in the lesson. [5] is a reference to the DayFive lesson.

When to use the Last Planner System

The Last Planner System was designed for projects longer than eight weeks and where a

number of people are required to fulfill the promises forthe customer. For theuncomplicated projects the practices can be carried out on white boards. As scope,complexity, and duration increase, automation tools are necessary to do a comprehensivejob of planning. Initially those tools could be a set of spreadsheets. Eventually projectmanagement environments such asMS Projectare required. In either case the project canbe broken into smaller projects to aid in managing. At the highest end of complexity,scope, and duration, you may want to consider web-based tools.

For those projects that are short in duration, limited in scope and complexity, and wherethere are only two or three participants, consider using a less formal approach forplanning and managing the project.

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9 Steps for Success

We cant claim a proven path for implementing the LPS on your project. However, wecan say a best practice is evolving. We have observed a set of practices that generally

work. Start with these.

This chapter is organized in 9 steps. The sections are both progressive: do one before theother, and they are intended to be pervasive: keep doing it throughout the project. Beforejumping into the 9 steps, start by reviewing our best advice: get off to a good start.

Top Five Actions for Getting Off to a Good Start

1. Give yourself and your team the opportunity to behave as beginners. By that wemean you may find the practices to be awkward; they may take you more time

than you want to take; and you may find you must revisit work that you thoughtwas complete. You may also need to seek out help from people experienced withthe LPS.

2. Dont pretend that you already do the LPS practices. Youll only short change theproject, your team, and yourself. You may already do some of the practices, but it

is the set of practices that makes the difference.

3. Dont be concerned with understanding. Understanding will come with practice.Taking time now to understand before you act only delays being in action andthere are some things that are just not possible to see or understand until they are

experienced.

4. Dont be concerned with looking good. You wont look good if your attention ison learning. Make it your goal to make your make mistakes early and often.

5. Take care of mood of the team and your mood. We learn best when we are inmoods of openness, wonder, playfulness, and appreciation. Beware of the moodsof resignation, panic, arrogance, and complacency. Check in frequently. Speakabout your own mood and invite team members to do the same.

Now youre ready to begin!

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Step 1: Clarify the Promises of the Project with the Customer

Projects are promises. Usually big promises or, they are a set of promises. Some peoplethink that once you clarify the customerrequirements, then that is it. Experience tells us

otherwise. People change their minds. We learn; the situation changes; and backgroundconcerns and issues change, get resolved, and simply go away.

Clarifying customer concerns and requirements is an on-going practice. Some changes,of course, can be addressed within the definition of the project and with the availableresources. Other changes add scope and risk. In these situations you may need toestablish new budgets, schedules, and contract terms. Meet on a regular schedule withyour customer.

Establish an agenda that includes:

Your key assessments of the project (risks, opportunities, and performance toplan)

Investigation of your customers satisfaction (example coming)

Review the promises of the project for clarity and recommitment

Discussion that your customer be responsible and reliable with their commitments

Agree to a schedule for regular meetings. For projects with more than 4 last plannersconsider having a pre-meeting to the weekly work planning meeting to address theconstraints. Make it your job that these meetings occur. Anything might seem moreurgent than a standing meeting, until something has gone wrong on the project. Thesemeetings will provide the opportunity for you to develop a trusting relationship with your

customer. Dont short-change yourself.

Step 2: Build Your Team

Building a team starts with selecting people who are well-suited for the project and whowant to be on the project. Nothing beats a team whose members want to perform and arecapable of doing so. Too often teams are established with whoever is available at themoment without regard to what the people are good at, what they enjoy doing, what elsethey are involved in, and the extent to which they care about the mission of the project.

The dirty little secret behind many project failures is the use offull time equivalentpeople. When a team is staffed with FTEs you are resigning yourselves to multi-tasking.Multi-tasking is one of the top three sources of project unreliability. Some might say thatany engineer is better than no engineer. On the other hand, an engineer who isenthusiastic, competent, and dedicated will make a real difference on your project.Further, teams develop a working style. Having people coming and going from yourteam will be disruptive and is generally ineffective.

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Building a team is an on-going process. How team members coordinate with each otherrequires continued attention. So does the mood of each individual and the mood or spiritof the team. People fall (or drift) into bad moods. Those moods show up in theconversations, Aint it awful It wasnt our fault We did our best Who

could have known and my favorite Theres nothing we can do about it Theleader and team members can take responsibility for producing moods that areappropriate for the task at hand. When in planning conversations moods of ambition andprudence may be appropriate. When working on resolving a breakdown you may wantyour team in moods of determination and seriousness. Dont let the project get awayfrom you; take charge of the mood.

You take charge in the assessments you make. People get lazy with their assessmentsoften thinking their first reaction is the right one. Teams depend on the assessments ofthe leader. When we take the time to craft assessments we respect the members of theteam while creating the opportunity for success. Explore your assessments with yourteam. Invite them to improve upon your assessment rather than agreeing or disagreeingwith you. The assessments we make open and close possibilities. Use the practice ofcrafting your assessments to increase the possibilities for action.1

Step 3: Establish aMilestone Plan andPull Schedule

The production system to complete the work required to complete a milestone is designedbypull scheduling. The people responsible for the work in the phase prepare the pullschedule. The resulting plan is detailed to show the hand-offs between trades or groupsof specialists, but not so detailed as to show the work within a group. Pull schedulingbegins by starting from the ending milestone and working backward. The personresponsible for the milestone establishes the milestone completion criteria and explainshow it supports the project promise. The process works best by placing a cardrepresenting the milestone, its completion criteria and its link to the project promise oncards at the far right side of a blank wall. Then, working back from the ending milestone,activities are added by theResponsible Individuals (RIs) present (or provisionally byothers if they are not)2. Specific conditions for the release of work between activitiesmust be described so that upstream participants know what they must do to complete theirwork so that the downstream activity can begin. Thepull schedule should answer thefollowing questions;

In what chunks will work be assigned to specialists?

1 Example: The client changes his mind about one of his conditions of satisfaction. You might be inclinedto think the customer is flaky. What action is opened by that? You might decide you have to pin thecustomer down on requirements. On the other hand, you might conclude the customer is learning what hecould be getting. Your action in this case is to help the customer learn faster. Crafting assessments withyour team, gives you the chance to choose the more powerful of assessments.2 Every effort should be made to assure the RI supervising each activity in the phase is present. The PullSchedule should not be considered complete until these parties have carefully considered the Pull Schedule,understood the criteria expected for the release of work to them and from them to the next activity, andagree that they can do their work within the time allowed.

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How will work chunks be sequenced?

How will work be released from one production unit to the next?

Will consecutive production units execute work in a continuous flow process or

will their work be de-coupled?

Where will de-coupling buffers be needed and how should they be sized?

How will tolerances be managed?

When will different chunks of work be done?

Once the structure of work in the phase is firm and activities are identified, the RI foreach establishes durations. The RI should be reasonably confident that the duration canbe met and should identify any sources of significant risk. The group then determines theamount of time available for contingency and decides, as a group, how to spend it.Typically, this means allocating more time to those activities likely to run late. If nofloat

is available after the backward pass, the team must examine the schedule and find a wayto createfloat. If no solution is apparent within the phase, the milestone schedule mayhave to be adjusted.

A completedpull schedule represents the design of the production system in terms of thework done by each craft or crew, and establishes the conditions forrelease of work3.More detailed design of specific operations is left for the look-ahead periodunlessoperational details or coordination requirements demand earlier attention. Each partyunderstands and supports the schedule, i.e., both how their effort contributes to the largergoal, and the nature of their commitment to the project and downstream workers. Apullschedule is a promise from each team that, We can accomplish the work in this phase byworking in this sequence. And given what I know now, I believe I can do my work in the

time allotted.

Pull Schedulingwill be successful when these questions can be answered fully.

Were the criteria for completing the milestone clear and linked to the promise of

the project to the client?

Did RIs prepare the Pull Schedule?

Did each RI establish specific criteria for the completion of previous work in the

phase?

Is each participant confident they can start the work and complete it as planned?

Have risks or sources of uncertainty in doing the work safely, in completing it on

time, and to established quality standards been identified and actions taken tocope with or eliminate the problems?

3 Safety should be considered here. If one step is to prepare a deck, the conditions for release shouldidentify that all holes are protected by barricades.

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Were circumstances considered where work might be completed late or early and

tentative plans made to cope with or take advantage of the situation?

Was coordination required during the phase discussed to assure a common

understanding of how action will be coordinated? Will the way work is done within any one activity require adjustments in the Pull

Schedule?

Have all items required for work in the phase that take longer than the look-ahead

period been identified?

Step 4: Make Work Ready Using theLook-Ahead Plan

The look-ahead plan (LAP) is central to project reliability. It supports the practice ofmaking work ready. Work is made-ready through systematically investigating andaddressing each of the constraints for performing an activity. Those constraints fall inthree classes: directives, prerequisites, and resources.

Directives represent declarations, rules and guidance for the project. Directives answerthe questions what, where, how, and how well? Customer conditions of satisfaction,company policy, laws, regulations, procedure, standards, and specifications are alldirectives.

Prerequisites as a class represent action that must be taken prior to the performance ofanother activity. A better way to understand this is to define the conditions upon which

work can proceed or is released. Work advances when others work is completed, whenmaterial is made available (whether in the course of performing the project or as a supplyto the project), when decisions are made, and authorizations or permission to act aregiven.

Resources carry a load or have capacity. There are three resource types: machines, space,and labor. Some people expect to find material in this class. Material however doesnthave capacity. It belongs in the class of prerequisites.

Step 5: Produce a Weekly Work Plan

The weekly work plan (WWP) is the basic tool for coordinating action and maintainingcontrol on your project. The plan is a record of the conversations you have that establishexactly what will be done by whom and by when. Here is another way of thinking aboutthis: What are the promises each team member is making for the up-coming week?

When you establish the WWP you are agreeing in detail how you are fulfilling the look-ahead plan. This takes place in promising conversations. These conversations take the

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following form: last planners make proposals of what it is they see they can and will doto meet the LAP. Those proposals are negotiated with the project manager in thepresence of otherlast planners. This public conversation provides the opportunity toalign the performers actions with each other. We say this is planning as conversationbringing about a coherency of commitments to deliver on the promises of the project.

Project coordination and control in the Last Planner System is principally the practice ofeliciting reliable promises and declarations of completion of those activities that releasework to others. This allows the project work to stay in the desired sequence and advanceas quickly as possible. By paying attention to the declarations of completion performerssay they are done one task can follow the other with little delay.

Mechanics of weekly work planning fall into three classes: preparation, negotiation, andcommitment. Notice we havent said it is about filling out forms or entering data in thecomputer, and we do have to do that. However, planning is conversation. Werecommend that last planners prepare for the WWP meeting by reviewing the currentperformance and upcoming requirements with the team or crew who will perform thework. Conversations with doers will result in reasonable and reliable promises.

Last planners come together with the project manager to negotiate their proposed work atthe WWP meeting. When people are prepared these conversations are short. Lastplanners have the benefit of being in these sessions from one week to the next. Thatgives them confidence to make proposals that will satisfy the LAP and fit with the otherwork planned for the week. The aim of the conversation is to produce a coherent plan ofaction for the up-coming week that keeps the project on schedule.

Finally, a consolidated plan is presented to all last planners as the opportunity to (re)commit themselves to completing the work for the up-coming week.

Step 6: Conduct the First WWP Meeting

Start by establishing a small set of guidelines. We recommend three:

1. Be respectful: Be on time and prepared for the meeting.2. Grant legitimacy: Investigate each others opinions and invite others to investigate

your opinions.3. Be responsible: Promise reliablyi and help others do so.

You could adopt more rules. We think these suffice for the WWP meeting.

Adopt a standard agenda for each meeting.

Start by reviewing the last sessionsplus-delta comments. Select one or twopoints of attention for the days planning session.

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Review last weeks plan reliability. Simple yes|no responses for each task thatwas promised to be complete. Record the reason for variance for each noanswer that is presented.

Review the look-ahead plan. Consider revisiting the promises of the project and

the up-coming milestones. Pay particular attention to next weeks work. Exerciseprudence by questioning any work from advancing to the WWP when there areunresolved constraints. Secure promises to address all open constraints. Recordthose promises as tasks on the up-coming weekly work plan.4

Review next weeks WWP. Get reliable promises for each task: performer,estimate of time to perform (not duration), and exactly when the work will beperformed.

Finish the meeting with aplus-delta review.

Throughout the meeting keep everyones attention on improving performance rather thanpunishing for poor performance. It helps to acknowledge progress as well as behaviors

demonstrated in the meeting that are good for overall team performance. For instance,look for the opportunity to praise people who offer help, ask for help, invite people toinvestigate their opinions, and keep the conversation focused.

Beware ofhappy talk, complacency, avoidance of conflict, and problem-solving. Keeppeople on topic. Also beware during promising conversations to look for the elements ofreliability, particularly the freedom to decline. When people dont see they have a choice,then they fall into resignation and resentment. You want your team members in moods ofambition and perseverance.

Step 7: Track Plan Reliability (PPC) on the Wall

The principal way we measure plan reliability is the percent of the plan that is completed(PPC). The planning horizon is less than 1 week. For planning work weeks that runMonday through Friday people usually will update next weeks weekly work plan eachThursday afternoon or Friday morning. To measure whether work is performed reliablyuse the question Did you do the work as you promised when you promised? There areonly two answers: yes or no. The answers: almost, substantially complete, 90%complete, and yes-but are not allowed. Performance is calculated as a percentage oftasks completed on the plan divided by total tasks on the plan. No credit is given fortasks completed that were not on the plan, nor is the base adjusted downward for work

that was planned that later was found to not be needed. The purpose of this measurementis to assess the reliability of the planning system.

4 The look-ahead plan is used for making work ready. As you go through the plan with key people considerwhat might keep the work from starting and completing as intended. The constraints will fall into the threecategories of directives, prerequisites and resources. Get someone to promise to resolve each open orambiguous item.

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Posting the performance of planning reliability (on the wall) is critical to improvingperformance. Good performance is above 80%; poor performance is below 60%. Matureteams are able to keep performance above 85% on a daily basis.

Here are some other useful ways for measuring the performance of the planning system:

What percent of work performed in the week was planned to be performed? Thisis a measurement of how well the team anticipates.

What work was added to the plan inside of the one-week planning horizon? Thisis a measurement of surprises.

What is the percent of work that can be done versus what should be done? Thismeasures the readiness or preparedness of planning.

What is the percent of work that did get done versus should be done? Thismeasures the original planning.

Step 8: Track Reasons for Plan Variance on the Wall

We have included standard reasons for plan variance. Use these to establish yourParetochart. The following chart details the usual reasons found on your WWP.

Reason Name Explanation1 Unclear COS Didnt understand conditions of satisfaction

2 Unclear rules or standards Didnt understand external directives

3 Client change Criteria change after the assignment

4 Unclear requirement I didnt know what was needed

5 Failure to request I failed to request what I knew was needed

6 No customer I didnt identify who would be receiving what was

needed7 No performer I didnt identify who was providing what was needed

8 Unclear COS I didnt specify exactly what was needed

9 No due date I didnt establish by when it was needed

10 Late request Ordered too late

11 Prerequisite work Provider failed to deliver

12 No promise to deliver Agreement broke down with the provider

13 Insufficient resource Misunderstood the workload

14 Overestimated capacity Misunderstood the capacity of requested resources

15 Unavailable resource The resource was absent with or without notice

16 Unplanned work The resource shifted to other work

ThePareto chartis updated as each variance occurs. Reason for the incidence ratherthan severity is what is being recorded. Be wary of the first answer to why did thevariance occur. Afive why analysis usually reveals a different reason. One of the otherusual findings is that the source of variation is usually in the control of projectparticipants (failure to request protective covering) rather than out of their control (poorweather).

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Schedule your first review of the data after accumulating data for three weeks or until youhave more than 10 data points. Address the highest occurring reason first. Do ananalysis with your team to remove the source of the variation. While there are differentmethods in use (seven problem-solving (QC) tools, the new seven tools, etc), the most

important question to answer in selecting a variance to act on is Do we have theauthority and wherewithal to address the situation? Dont waste time on items that arenot yours to address. Instead, get the responsible parties involved and get a promise fromthem to eliminate the source of planning variation.

Planning performance will not just improve by itself. Tracking, isolating, and eliminatingsources of variation are the chief way you will improve project reliability.

Step 9: Establish practices for Improvement

Habits follow practice. Start by establishing practices that you want adopted as habit.Well use the practice ofplus-delta reviews to examine what to focus on and how to goabout it. Theplus-delta review is a form of in-the-moment peer coaching. The intent isto provide real-time feedback on what worked to produce value and what could be doneto produce more value. The spirit of theplus-delta review is unconditionally positive.Thats not to mean sugar-coating. Rather it has attention on progress and what isworking. It also provides the opportunity for each person to express their opinion, whichearly on in projects reinforces that you are interested in each others opinions.

Eventually, people will not wait until the end of the meeting to provide peer coaching.You will find people will take responsibility in the midst of a conversation to have it besuccessful. That is just what you want.

Be diligent about taking action after eachplus-delta review. Failing to act on theplus-delta review comments is disastrous for the project. Notice we didnt say can bedisastrous. It is always disastrous. People will perceive it as going through the motions,insincere, or a waste of time.

Assess your performance at regular intervals. Do this as a team and then again with yourcustomerand any sponsor group. We suggest three standard questions for assessingperformance:

1. What are we doing well?

2. What have we learned?3. What needs more attention?

The focus of a project assessment is on the future, not the past. Reviewing pastperformance is for creating the basis for taking action in the future. Keep your attentionon the promises of the project when doing these assessments and you will come up withactions that make a difference to the future performance of the project. Lets go overthese questions one-at-a-time.

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We ask the first question, What are we doing well? with the intention to acknowledgeperformance and preserve performance for the future. Use the question to examine teampractices of planning and coordination. For instance, do you start and end weekly workplanning sessions on time? Are you diligent about doing afive why analysis for each plan

variance? Use the question to look for what you are routinely doing well. By startingwith the question you will put yourselves in a positive mood setting the stage for the nexttwo assessments.

The second question, What have we learned? gives the team the opportunity toappreciate each other and to set a standard for continued learning. Learning is anassessment. Be clear for yourselves how you know you learned. What is it that you cannow do that you were not able to do previously? When looking at learning, use a ladderof proficiency to gauge progress. For example, when learning to play soccer you dontexpect the new player to pass without having the ball intercepted. Getting the ball to ateam mate some of the time is progress. Keep your attention on the progress you andyour team are making.

With the third question, What needs more attention? we put our attention on only thoseareas that will make a difference to tomorrows results. There is no sense beating onsomeone for something that wont matter tomorrow. Here is another way of asking thequestion, What do we need to get good at? Maybe the answer is something you arealready good at, but more proficiency is needed. We have a tendency to focus on what isnot working. Dont fall into that trap when you answer this question. Some of thegreatest opportunities for improvement can be found among the people who are alreadydoing well.

Do these reviews in a spirit of unconditional constructiveness. Thats not to mean be

positive for positives sake. No. It means we are building something together.Remember that. Underscore building and together. We need each other and we havethe opportunity to improve our collective performance.5

Teamwork, Trust, and Fear

Projects succeed and fail for all sorts of reasons. Often our success is just good luck likeso many failures can be attributed to bad luck. What does luck have to do with it? Whenpreparation meets opportunity we have luck. Where can we focus our efforts onpreparation? On the dynamics of teams: teamwork, trust, and timidity.

Teamwork, hot groups, in the groove, or flow, is what were after.How do you get it? Put your attention on how people interact with each other. Practicesof coordinating action make or break teams. Coordination on projects occurs in

5 Theres a currently popular book Whale Done! by Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager. Itseems killer whales are trained with only positive feedback, no negative feedback. The reason is quite

practical: trainers have to get in the water with the killer whale. If these animals can learn without negativefeedback why are we giving negative feedback to our coworkers?

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conversation. Are people making reliable promises? Do they act with free will andgenerosity? Do people invite others to offer their opinions? These are the acts forcoordinating.

Trust is foundational to team performance.Trust doesnt just happen. Theres nothing mysterious about it either. Trust, trusting, andtrust-worthiness all take cultivation, conversation, and commitment. Many people say,Ill trust when Ive got evidence that the other person is trust-worthy. What if thatperson is at the center of coordination? Imagine the waste, the hedging, the buffers, theresulting bad moods of the people who arent being trusted. How much damage couldthat do to your project?

What is trust? For starters it is a complex assessment about a persons sincerity,competence, reliability, and care to perform for and on your behalf. We say, I trust myson to take out the trash without being reminded or I trust the babysitter will keep mydaughter safe and see that she is content or I trust the engineer will produce a designthat is within the budget allotted and the time available. Notice that when we trust, weare always speaking about another person in action taking care of our concerns. Thattrust is often based on experiences from the past. But not limited to it. For instance, Itrust the surgeon recommended by my family practitioner will take care of me through myoperation. In that case I am relying on another persons ability to assess competence,sincerity, reliability, and care. It is not an assessment that I am competent to make.

So what must we do on our projects? We must be open to talking about trust. Trustingbuilds in conversation as well as through the successful completion of work with and forone another. Give yourself and each other permission to raise issues of trust. Have thoseconversations in moods of inquiry, care for each other, and concern for the success of the

project. The conversations neednt be accusatory. Weve learned that most of the timepeople are just doing their best; no more; no less. Engage in conversations of trust withthat supposition and you can only produce more trust.

Fear gets in the way of all performance.Navigating off of our fear rather than grounded assessments of risk and consequencekeeps us from attaining our goals. Its been said that what people fear most is publicspeaking. Perhaps. It is a good example of paying attention to ones emotions rather thanthe risk and consequences of the situation. No one dies speaking in public, but peoplereport having fear similar to the risk of death. What does this have to do with projects?People on your team are surely acting from their fears rather than the ambitions and

commitments of the team. They continue to do so and will until you intervene. You donot want team members withholding their views for fear of displeasing the boss. Youdont want people saying Yes when they mean No because they dont want to appearuncooperative. These actions put your project at risk.

Organization Conditions for Success

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Assess your readiness for a LPS implementation.We see people jumping into Last Planner System implementations without considering ifthey are ready, how the LPS is different from current practice, and without taking the timeto bring their team on board. Projects are tough enough without introducing morechallenges. We urge you to take the time you need to get you and your team ready to

succeed.

We prepared the following assessment tool from working with numerous teams. While itconveniently comes out to 10 points, we couldnt come up with an 11 th nor could weagree on dropping one. At the same time, being able to satisfy the assessment doesntensure a successful project, only that you have a good chance of getting off to a goodstart.

Use the assessment tool with your team members. Starting off this way will set a goodexample for working collaboratively. Use this first opportunity to explore your own styleand to encourage team members to try on new styles for themselves.

Assessing Project Readiness1 There is a single person speaking as the customerof this project. O

2 There is a clear set of promises made by the project manager and accepted bythe customer.

O

3 We understand why this project is important to the customer. O

4 We understand the risks, opportunities, and consequences in the project. O

5 We have the right people to do this project. O

6 We have enough time to accomplish the promises of the project. O

7 Standard meetings have been established for weekly work planning, customerreviews, and improving project performance.

O

8 The project team has declared its set ofrules of conduct. O9 Team members commit to the outcome(s) of the project. O

10 Nothing will get in the way of our success. O

Use an agree|disagree approach for this assessment. Fill in the circle if you agree; leave itblank if you disagree. Do not proceed with your project until you can answer positivelyto all ten statements.

Story-telling is part of keeping the promises and context alive for the project team.The best approach is the one that works for you and your team. Get comfortable withspeaking about what you are delivering and why you are doing it. Make opportunities to

speak at project team meetings, in one-on-one conversations with team members andother interested parties, and invite your key project team members to do the same.Consider establishing an email list and/orproject klogto support the team.

Go all out to keep your customerengaged in your project.For some people this could sound dangerous. We can tell you that it is dangerous whenyou dont keep yourcustomerengaged. Notice we didnt say involved in the day-to-day activities. To the extent you can avoid having your customer perform for you on the

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project. At the same time the customeris the only one who can say what is to beprovided and to what standards. That is unavoidable. Meet regularly with your customerto review project performance. Invite the customerto make assessments. Practicelistening during these sessions. You may need to work on being more open and less

defensive.

Perform regular team assessments of the project.We offer the following tool. Use it with your team, your customer, and your projectsponsor or other interested parties. We selected just ten characteristics of highperforming project teams. Answering that you strongly agree to just two or three of thesecharacteristics is often a feat. Dont be discouraged by the results. Remember to use thisfor the basis of action planning.

Assessing Project Performance1 The look-ahead plan and weekly work plan are updated and agreed to every

week.O

2 We start and end each planning session with aplus-delta review. O

3 WWP tasks are proposed by the last plannerand negotiated with the projectmanager or other responsible party.

O

4 Project performance (PPC& Pareto data) is prominently displayed in the projectwork-setting.

O

5 Pareto data is used to improve project performance. O

6 This project is on an improving path. O

7 Only tasks in a made-readycondition go on the WWP. O

8 New project team members get support using the LPS. O

9 Our motto is, "Reliable everyday." O

10 We are steering this project rather than just responding to each day's urgencies. O

Fill the circle to the right of the question if you strongly agree with the statement. Fillone half of the circle if you somewhat agree with the statement. Leave the circle empty ifyou disagree with the statement.

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Glossary Items

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iAssessmentsSynonyms: opinion, characterization, view. Assessments are the basis upon which we take action.Deliberate action results from the assessments we make together about the state or condition of theproject. A best practice on projects is to make assessments collaboratively considering the extent towhich possibilities have been opened for action.

Background ConcernsIn the background of someones assessments and requests exist a set of concerns a kind of caring forsomething that the speaker may or may not notice. A concern is not a worry. Rather it exists as whatwe care aboutwhy we are asking for something. Example: I care about my relations with my newneighbors so I ask the contractor to keep the job site clean and safe. Surfacing those concerns can leadto the opening of alternate paths and requirements for the project.

BuffersA mechanism for deadening the force of a concussion; e.g., a capacity buffer is created by schedulingless than all the time available. If production falls behind schedule, there is capacity available forcatching up. (Lean production/construction generally prefers capacity buffers to inventory buffers.)

Conditions of Satisfaction (COS)Directives, often criteria, imposed by the entity initiating a process (usually the owner) that specify howsuccess of the outcome will be gauged. COS are expressed by the customer or on behalf of thecustomer.

CustomerThe user of ones output .Example: John needs the results of our acoustical tests in order to select the best location for hismechanical equipment. John is our customer because he will use what we produce.

De-coupled

Engaged

Five Why AnalysisA problem-solving technique to get at the root cause of a problem by asking why five times. Theapproach is often followed by other techiniques, often cause-and-effect analysis.

Float

Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)The practice of considering human capacity as the equivalent of 40 available hours of a class or group

of performers without consideration to who exactly is available and through what period the hours areavailable. The use of FTEs often leads to multitasking and resources in contention.

Grant LegitimacyThink about the right of a person to be who he is and to think and do as they choose without anyonesapproval. Granting legitimacy is critical between project participants. Each has their own viewwhether or not that view turns out to be useful in furthering the aims of the project. Accepting that andfinding a way to incorporate the differences of perspective can result in more innovation, learning, andperformance.


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Happy talkInsincere conversations that are positive on the surface but conceal negative assessments and unspokencomplaints.

Hot GroupsThe term was coined to refer to groups who demonstrated top performance over extended timeframes.While people differ on characteristics of hot groups and how to sustain them, members of hot groupsare known by their care and trust for each other, the learning and innovation they produce, and aneveryday attention to results.

Ladder of ProficiencyCompetency is not an absolute notion. Beginners are expected to know less and perform below thosewho are competent. People who are virtuoso or masterful have higer levels of competencey. Theladder refers to the range of competency available and attainable.

LAPLook-ahead plan.

Last PlannerThe person or group that makes assignments to direct workers. Squad boss and discipline lead arecommon names for last planners in design processes. Superintendent (if a job is small) or foremanare common names for last planners in construction processes.

Look-ahead planThe middle level in the planning system hierarchy, below front end planning and above commitmentplanning, dedicated to controlling the flow of work through the production system.

Look-ahead Schedule

The output of look-ahead planning, resulting from exploding master schedule activities by means of theactivity definition model, screening the resultant tasks before allowing entry into the look-aheadwindow or advancement within the window, and execution of actions needed to make tasks ready forassignment when scheduled. Look-ahead schedules may be presented in list form or bar charts.

LPSLast Planner System.

LPS Practices

Make ready

To make ready is to take actions needed to remove constraints from assignments to make themsound.

MS ProjectSoftware application Microsoft Project.

Pareto ChartDisplayed as a bar chart. Used to portray the leading sources of variability on a project. Pareto is alsoknown as the 80-20 rule.


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Percent Plan Complete (PPC)Percent plan complete; i.e., the number of planned completions divided into the number of actualcompletions, usually referring to activities on a weekly work plan.

Plus-DeltaThis is a technique for continuously improving the project (pursuing perfection). Meeting participantsare asked to make positive characterizations of what added particular value for them and what could bechanged so that the meeting would be of more value.

PPCPercent Plan Complete. Calculated as tasks on the plan that are completed as a percent of all tasksplanned for completion. No credit is given for partial completion of a task. PPC is a measure of theperformance of the planning system.

Project klogA klog is a special kind of weblog for accumulating and disseminating knowledge among a group.Think of a weblog as a continuously updated web page. Project teams use klogs to tell the story of theproject, record key assessments, commitments, and events, and they use it for conveying what theylearn for the project and for other projects.

PullInitiating the delivery of input based on the readiness of the process into which they will enter fortransformation into outputs.Example: Request delivery of prerequisite information at or before the time you will be ready toprocess that information. Note: whats different here is that the readiness of the process is known ratherthan wished. Either the process is ready prior to requesting delivery or plan reliability is sufficientlyhigh that work plans can be used to predict readiness.

Pull Scheduling

Push vs. Pull

A push system schedules the release of work based on demand, while a pull system authorizes therelease of work based on system status (from Hopp and Spearman 1996 p. 317)

Reason for variance...for failing to complete weekly assignments; e.g., lack of prerequisites, insufficient time, uncleardirectives. Reasons can also be sought for failing to advance scheduled tasks from master schedule tolook-ahead schedule or from one week to the next within the look-ahead schedule.

Release of workWork is released when it is in a ready state and it is time to perform the work. Ready work has allconstraints resolved. The team can declare work as workable backlog thus making it time to performthe work even though it is ahead of the orginal schedule.

Reliable promisesA promise is considered reliable at the time it is made when one can assess that the performer has thewherewithal (materials, tools, skills, etc.) for performing the task, has assessed the time to perform, has


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allocated sufficient capacity for performing, is sincere in making the promise, and is ready to beresponsible for the consequences in the likelihood that the promise cannot be fulfilled for whateverreason.

Responsible IndividualA person who makes promises on the project. These promises usually encompass a domain of action orresponsibility, like structural engineering.

RIsResponsible individuals.

Seven problem-solving (QC) tools

Weekly Work PlanA list of assignments to be completed within the specified week; typically produced as near as possibleto the beginning of the week.

WWPWeekly Work Plan.

last planner system guide

Documents