The One Thing Your Construction Project Is Missing: Follow-Up Is Key To Project Success
Ever felt the frustration of handing over a task, only to find out it’s been languishing in the ‘to-do’ pile for weeks? Or maybe you’ve experienced the sinking feeling of realizing that a project is way behind schedule, despite having clearly outlined milestones and detailed instructions.
If these scenarios sound familiar, you’re not alone. When it comes to construction project management, especially in megaprojects, simply assigning work and providing detailed instructions is often not enough to ensure project success. According to this article in the Harvard Business Review, to make sure work gets done, you need to do one thing consistently: follow-up. Their expert discusses how an effective follow-up process is the key to keeping projects on track, identifying potential issues early on, and addressing delays promptly. Here’s how to do it efficiently using Foresight.
Implementing an Effective Follow-Up Process
When a massive infrastructure project experiences delays, it can impact the success of the project in two main ways: by diminishing the financial returns for stakeholders and also by diminishing the benefits to society.
The HBR article outlines a comprehensive strategy for making follow-up a strategic tool in project success. This includes accepting that follow-up is essential, clarifying expectations, systematizing the follow-up process, building in margins, and discussing results. While all these steps are crucial, Foresight’s construction project management platform is particularly useful for clarifying expectations and systematizing follow-up. With Foresight, construction teams can efficiently assign tasks and automate the follow-up process, integrating these key aspects into the broader follow-up strategy essential for successful construction execution.
Clarify Expectations
This involves clearly outlining what you want in writing and when you expect it by eliminating any ambiguity and setting the stage for successful progress tracking and accountability.
Foresight can help with this by making it quick and easy to determine what needs prioritizing and where there are potential risks. The latest updates, including the Activity Completion Plan and Change Analysis, place the schedule at the heart of project execution. These features, along with the ability to filter by Custom Tag and share insights via email, empower project teams to make data-driven decisions, prioritizing tasks that are critical for milestone completion.
Combined with Foresight’s powerful tools for setting and tracking priorities and identifying potential blockers and delays, construction managers can identify as well as prioritize essential activities, focusing resources and efforts where they are needed most.
To do this, it’s easy to assign tasks using Activity Cards to set deadlines, monitor progress, and provide feedback to team members in real-time. Even tasks that live outside the schedule can be included, for a complete and integrated overview of all project activities. This focused approach enhances clarity and accountability across the project team.
Systematize Follow-up
In the HBR article, the author suggests having a shared spreadsheet to track progress and a scheduled time to review it for the latest status updates. Yet by leveraging project management software like Foresight, you can completely automate the follow-up process.
Foresight can send email alerts to team members, ensuring that they are kept updated on their tasks, deadlines, and action items, allowing construction managers to focus on critical issues rather than administrative tasks. Role-based access ensures a personalized approach, reducing the risk of missed deadlines as well as information overload.
Of course, there will still be meetings to review progress and discuss any issues. Foresight’s reporting tools and dashboards can help support your project meetings, ensuring that everyone is on the same page regarding progress, issues, and upcoming tasks. Having the information on a centralized platform promotes open communication and keeps the team focused on achieving their goals.
Securing Success
When it comes to megaproject execution, effective follow-up is not just an option; it’s a necessity. By establishing a formalized follow-up process and leveraging AI-powered project management software, like Foresight, construction teams can navigate the complexities of large-scale construction projects with greater confidence, ensuring that their ambitious goals are met and their investments are protected.
