The Role of a Project Manager

The role of a Project Manager is to "Deliver the project on time, within budget and to specification". So in other words, you need to specify clearly upfront what must be delivered by the project, and then you need to produce it within the schedule and budget assigned.

But it's not that simple. You might meet this objective but totally fail as a "top notch Project Manager". We believe your role is much more than that. It is also...

1: To recruit the best
Great projects are delivered by a great team. Your role is to recruit the best people you can find and make sure that their skill sets are perfectly complimentary so that you have all of the experience you need to deliver the project successfully.

You need to document a detailed Job Description for every person in your team so that they all know what is expected of them, at every step in the journey. Only with a great team and everyone knowing what is expected of them, will you deliver a great result.

2: To motivate and lead
You need to be the one "cracking the whip" so that everyone knows what is to be done and by when. You need to be strict and make sure that every task is done on time and doesn't slip. If it does slip, then you need to identify the slippage immediately and have contingency plans so you can get back on track.

As well as cracking the whip, you need to be positive and supportive towards your team so they know you also care. You need to lead by example and motivate others to do the same. If you want others to work hard, then you need to work harder than they do.

Lead by giving them direction, motivating them to work hard and showing you care along the way.

3: To manage the finances
Every project has a budget, whether it's clearly defined or not. You need to ensure that you don't spend more than you're entitled to, or your sponsor / client will be dissatisfied with the end result. Manage finances carefully by listing every expense and ensuring that they are budgeted upfront. If unbudgeted expenditure takes place, tell your client as soon as possible to avoid complications down the track. If you need more budget, then don't be afraid to ask for it!

4: To control change
You need to be the one who controls all change to the project scope, tightly. "Scope creep" kills projects. Define the scope of the project upfront and then review it each week to make sure that you're not doing un-authorized work at any time. Your customer will ask for change throughout the project. Don't always give in. Stay your ground and when this happens, ask for more time or budget to cater for it. Remember—no matter how many changes they ask you for, they will still beat you up if you’re late or over budget. So control change when you see it.

5: Communicate
It's your job as a Project Manager to communicate the status of the project regularly. If people know it's on track it will motivate them. If they know it's late it will motivate them even more. But they will only know if it's on time or late if you communicate this to them.

You need to communicate the project status to your team, project sponsor and client every week of the project life cycle. Never miss a week. Always document the status accurately. Never exaggerate. Communicate the right messages t the right people at the right time.

5 Tips on Project Reporting

Project status: Create a weekly Project Status Report to show your actual vs. planned effort, percent complete and actual vs. forecast spend. Specify the number of open risks, changes and issues, and state whether action by your Sponsor is required to resolve them. Also show the forecast amount of time, effort and money required to finish the project. Always try and forecast as accurately as possible. Never forecast optimistically, always conservatively.

Task completion: You need to regularly show your Sponsor your progress against the tasks listed on your schedule. Create a summarized view of your project plan and update it to reflect the percent complete for every task. Then append this summary view to your Project Status Report. This way, your Sponsor can drill down to see further information about each task, if they want to.

By offering your Project Sponsor both summary and detailed information weekly makes them feel like your project is an "open book". They will have all of the information about your project at their finger-tips. This way, you will get more buy-in from your Sponsor and more support when it's needed.

Milestones: You need to add Milestones to your project plan to show when the major project deliverables will be produced. You then need to report on the progress of each milestone to your Sponsor. Show the percent complete of each milestone, and again, forecast the completion dates.

Here's another tip: You will get more out of your team if you motivate them to complete milestones, as opposed to tasks. That's because people are usually proud of the things that they have achieved in life (i.e. milestones), as opposed to the things they have done to achieve them (i.e. the tasks).

Getting help: Project Sponsors don't always want to hear "we're on track and under budget" in their project reports. They just want to hear the truth. So if you’re behind schedule and you need help to get back on track, then tell your Sponsor about it in your project reports.

State exactly what you need from them. Show them that you're doing the best you can and that you’re the best person for the job, but that you still need their help to deliver the project. If you need more time, money or resources, then ask for it. Don’t be afraid. And remember, the best time to ask for help is before you really need it. This gives you contingency, because it always takes time for help to arrive.

One version of the truth: Your project reports need to depict "one version of the truth" to your team. Keep them 100% accurate and be as open as possible about real issues that are affecting your team. Remember that if you communicate an issue to your Sponsor, then it becomes their issue to fix as well. Reporting issues is a great way to share the responsibility for fixing them.

Waterstop

Pond Construction Guide
Waterstops are used to waterproof construction joints in concrete. They are generally PVC or vinyl, ribbed because concrete does not bond to plastic. Waterstops are embedded in concrete joints to create a fluid-tight diaphragm. The rest of the gap can be filled with acrylic mastic.

Structural concrete is waterproof. It does not require surface treatment or a liner, but the concrete must be well made and care must be taken to waterproof construction joints and movement joints. Construction joints, between separately cast slabs, should be strengthened by the formation of a key (see diagram) and by carrying the reinforcing bars across the joint. The key is made by laying a wood bar in the wet concrete, beveled to facilitate removal. A waterstop is required to prevent leakage through the potential crack and to protect the steel reinforcing bar from water which would cause rusting.

The structure of a small pool may be able to resist the pressure from the expansion of water when it heats up or freezes. Larger pools, even if reinforced, require waterproofed movement joints.

All but the simplest concrete structures should be detailed by qualified engineers.

Cornice

Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.

The function of the projecting cornice is to throw rainwater free of the building’s walls. In residential building practice, this function is handled by projecting gable ends, roof eaves, and gutters. The elimination of the cornice has been important enough in modernist architecture that elaborate internal drainage systems are provided.

A cornice is horizontal molded projection that completes a building or wall; or the upper slanting part of an entablature located above the frieze. The term cornice comes from Italian cornice, meaning “ledge.”

Classical architecture
The cornice molding is the set of projecting moldings that crown an entablature along the top edge of a temple or building. The cornice lies above the frieze, which rests on the architrave, all supported by columns.

The sloping cornice, “raking cornice” or “rake board,” is also carried across the top of the triangular pediment, at the gable end of a building. (refer to image), found on the front of such buildings as the Parthenon, the Acropolis, or Schinkel’s Schauspielhaus. The sloping cornice hangs over the end of the structure supporting the roof. In classical and neoclassical architecture, the sloping cornice uses the same molding profile as the cornice below.

Each of the classic orders has certain characteristic profiles to its cornice:
• The cornice of the Doric order
• The cornice of the Ionic order
• The cornice of the Corinthian order

Doric order in the Parthenon

The geison in classical Greek architecture

Geison is a specialist's architectural term[dubious – discuss], denoting the part of the entablature that projects outward from the top of the frieze in the Doric order and from the top of the frieze course (or sometimes architrave) of the Ionic and Corinthan orders: thus it is simply an equivalent of cornice. In classical Greek architecture the geison forms the outer edge of the roof on the sides of a structure with a sloped roof.

The upper edge of the exterior often had a drip edge formed as a hawksbeak molding to shed water; there were also typically elaborate moldings or other decorative elements, sometimes painted. Above the geison ran the sima. The underside of the geison may be referred to as a soffit. The form of a geison (particularly the Hawksbeak molding of the outer edge) is often used as one element of the argument for the chronology of its building.


Horizontal geison
The horizontal geison runs around the full perimeter of a Greek temple, projecting from the top of the entablature to protect it from the elements and as a decorative feature.[2] Horizontal geisa may be found in other ancient structures that are built according to one of the architectural orders. The horizontal sima (with its antefixes and water-spouts) ran above the horizontal geison along the sides of a building, acting as a rain gutter and final decoration.

Doric order
In the Doric order, the sloped underside of the horizontal geison is decorated with a series of protruding, rectangular mutules aligned with the triglyphs and metopes of the Doric frieze below. Each mutule typically had three rows of six guttae (decorative conical projections) protruding from its underside.

The gaps between the mutules are termed viae (roads). The effect of this decoration was to thematically link the entire Doric entablature (architrave, frieze, and geisa) with a repeating pattern of vertically and horizontally aligned architectural elements. Use of the hawksbill molding at the top of the projecting segment is common, as is the undercutting of the lower edge to aid in dispersing rainwater. To separate the geison from the frieze visually, there is typically a bed molding aligned with the face of the triglyphs

Ionic and Corinthian orders
Horizontal geisa of these orders relied on moldings rather than the mutules of the Doric order for their decoration.

Raking geison
A raking geison ran along the top edge of a pediment, on a temple or other structure such as the aedicula of a scaenae frons (theater stage building). This element was typically less decorative than the horizontal geison, and often of a differing profile from the horizontal geison of the same structure. The difference is particularly marked in the Doric order, where the raking geison lacks the distinctive mutules. The raking sima ran over the raking geison as a decorative finish and, essentially, a rain gutter.

Have you locked your keys in the car?

Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their mobile phone from your cell phone.

Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end.

Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be thousands of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other 'remote' for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).

ATM PIN Number Reversal - Good to Know !!

If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your PIN # in reverse.

For example, if your pin number is 1234, then you would put in 4321. The ATM system recognizes that your PIN number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine.

The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to the location.

All ATM’s carry this emergency sequencer by law.
This information was recently broadcast on by Crime Stoppers however it is seldom used because people just don't know about it.

TWO THINGS YOU PROBABLY NEVER KNEW YOUR MOBILE PHONE COULD DO !!!

Hidden Battery Power

To activate, press the keys *3370# (remember the asterisk). Do this when the phone is almost dead.
Your mobile will restart in a special way with this new reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery life. This reserve will get re charged when you charge your mobile next time.

This secret is in the fine print in most phone manuals. Most people however skip this information without realising.


How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?

To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: * # 0 6 #

Ensure you put an asterisk BEFORE the #06# sequence.

A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. If your phone ever get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code.

They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless.

You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody done this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

This secret is also in the fine print of most mobile phone manuals. It was created for the very purpose of trying to prevent phones from being stolen.

BRAIN DAMAGING HABITS

1.No Breakfast. People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level. This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration. 2.Overeating. It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power. 3.Smoking It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease. 4.High Sugar consumption. Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development. 5.Air Pollution. The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our 20 body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency 6.Sleep Deprivation. Sleep allows our brain to rest... Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells... 7.Head covered while sleeping. Sleeping with the head covered increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects. 8.Working your brain during illness. Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain. 9.Lacking in stimulating thoughts Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage. 10.Talking Rarely Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain.

Why the wedding ring should be worn on the fourth finger

There is a beautiful and convincing explanation given by the Chinese.....

Thumb represents your Parents
Second (Index) finger represents your Siblings
Middle finger represents your-Self
Fourth (Ring) finger represents your Life Partner
& the Last (Little) finger represents your children

Firstly, open your palms (face to face), bend the middle fingers and hold them together - back to back Secondly, open and hold the remaining three fingers and the thumb - tip to tip.
Now, try to separate your thumbs (representing the parents)..., they will open, because your parents are not destined to live with you lifelong, and have to leave you sooner or later.

Please join your thumbs as before and separate your Index fingers (representing siblings)... ., they will also open, because your brothers and sisters will have their own families and will have to lead their own separate lives.

Now join the Index fingers and separate your Little fingers (representing your children)... ., they will open too, because the children also will get married and settle down on their own some day.

Finally, join your Little fingers, and try to separate your Ring fingers (representing your spouse).
You will be surprised to see that you just CANNOT....., because Husband & Wife have to remain together all their lives - through thick and thin!!

Please try this out......... ISN'T THIS A LOVELY THEORY?