The fourth and last article that relates on “How to Enforce the Culture of “100% Committed to Achieve” in Managing the Contractor’s Contract Price on Capital Construction Projects?”, will address how to how a single version of the truth cost performance status report of the contract agreement between the Project Owner and Contractor, project budget as well as the commitment contract agreements between the contractor and internal and external entities that the project’s scope of work was outsourced to.
Those articles have detailed how to build the overall cost model shown below, manage all changes to the contract, budget and commitments, and manage interim progress invoices against the contract and all commitments. The different transactions or records of the cost management business processes will be the data source for generating the integrated cost report to provide a single version of the truth of the project’s cost performance status.
The cost ledger module of PMWeb Project Management Information System (PMIS) solution will automatically capture the financial details of each business process transaction. Those financial details will be grouped by their type such as original budget, budget revisions, income contract, commitments, change orders, requisitions, etc.
This data will become available to create cost worksheets by selecting the cost record type and whether it is approved or pending approval that will be displayed as columns in the cost worksheet. There is also the option to add alias columns by creating formulas to use the values of the different record types available for the cost worksheet in creating new values or measures. There is no limit to the number of cost worksheets that can be created and used in PMWeb.
The cost worksheet will provide a real-time single version of the truth reporting of the project’s financial status. The financial data can be grouped by the cost breakdown structure (CBS) levels created by the contractor to manage all cost associated data. The cost worksheet allows the reader to drilldown to the source of each reported cost record to trace the details of the relevant business process transaction. In addition, the cost worksheet can be exported to MS Excel in case there is a need to run what-if scenarios, make changes to the reported cost information while keeping the data source intact or just for customized reporting or presentation.
It is a common requirement that the cost worksheet will be one of the many cost reports that need to be produced and shared with stakeholders. Although PMWeb comes ready with more than 150 ready to use forms, reports and dashboards, each contractor can design their own cost worksheets and cost dashboards to display the needed information in the required format while respecting each contractor branding requirements.
In addition, there is the option of creating other reports that consolidate cost data from different business processes managed in PMWeb. For example, one of the default ready to use PMWeb reports available to be viewed is the report that summarizes the budget and commitment contracts details managed on each project. The report will summarize budget adjustments, approved and pending commitment change orders and interim payment certificates issued against the commitment contracts. Similar to other PMWeb reports, the report reader can drilldown to trace the transaction that has provided any of the displayed cost information.
About the Author
Bassam Samman, PMP, PSP, EVP, GPM is a Senior Project Management Consultant with 40-year service record providing project management, project controls services and project management information system to over than 200 projects with a total value in excess of US $100 Billion. Those projects included Commercial, Residential, Education and Healthcare Buildings and Infrastructure, Entertainment, Hospitality and shopping malls, Oil and Gas Plants and Refineries, Telecommunication and Information Technology projects. He is thoroughly experienced in complete project management including project management control systems, computerized project control software, claims analysis/prevention, risk analysis/management (contingency planning), design, supervision, training and business development.
Bassam is a frequent speaker in topics relating to Project Management, Strategic Project Management and Project Management Personal Skills. Over the past 40 years he has lectured at more than 350 events and courses at different locations in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and South America. He has written more than 500 articles on project management and project management information systems that were featured in international and regional magazines and newspapers. He is a co-founder of the Project Management Institute- Arabian Gulf Chapter (PMI-AGC) and has served on its board of directors for more than 6 years. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI), a certified Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP) and Earned Value Professional (EVP) from the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE) and Green Project Management (GPM).
Bassam holds a Masters in Engineering Administration (Construction Management) with Faculty Commendation, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA, Bachelor in Civil Engineering – Kuwait University, Kuwait and has attended many executive management programs at Harvard Business School, Boston, USA and London Business School, London, UK.