Project Management
 

For all of you closet PM folks out there in Porsche DIY world...
Does anyone have a good work breakdown structure for rebuilding these cars?
I figure with so many major conversions, rebuilds and projects going on in the positive pressure forum, I would post this here. I need a WBS so I can make a schedule for myself.

Heh heh heh, I've been contemplating putting together a ms project schedule for my 914 race car build. Easy to get distracted with shiny new parts while tub needs to be completely dissembled.

My real distraction is the 930, it was supposed to be a perfect car, no issues, but I couldn't continue to walk away at that price...

I have come up with a decent WBS for my purposes. I just thought there may be a few people on here that had some opinions.
I stayed away from MS Project and just did the activity list in MS Excel so it is a little easier to manipulate and not exactly date certain :)

LOL!

If your Porsche work mimicks the project I am on in my job, a WBS will double the time to finish and double the cost of the project! Make sur that you use EVM to stay on budget and schedule!


Good Luck!

Just save yourself a lot of time and go right for the schedule crash.

You guys make me laugh. PM is actually what my business does consulting and training for... so yes, I am kinda being a nerd by doing this but maybe it will let me have new examples to use in the classes I teach or meetings I facilitate :)
I have been trying to "crash" the schedule... problem is I have no more resources to throw at the problem until parts show up. Just getting a dang oil line puts a week long lag into the whole process. Ugh!!! Maybe I will actually post the WBS and activity list I came up with. Too bad you can't put excel spreadsheets on this forum.

If you save the spread sheet as a jpeg in MS office or from a screen shot using clipboard and MS paint to save the screenshot as a jpeg and then crop it down if desired you can post it or anything you can see on your monitor here.

edit: To save the screenshot in a windose temp file called clipboard, press the print screen button on your keyboard.
Then open MS paint and click file > new file. Then click edit > paste or press control V on the keyboard and the screenshot will appear in paint.
Then click file > save as a jpeg, choose folder of choice to save it in and save it.
Done.

Then if you want you can crop the image down to get rid of the task bar and tool bars etc in an image editting program like ACDSee or photoshop. i can't remember if you can crop jpegs in MS paint, maybe you can. I'm still using XP so if using a newer or different OS it may be different.

Jeeeez, now that is just too damn funny! I had started one of these myself but didn't get far as I was too overwhelmed with the real stuff from work.. and too many side projects to get any further on it! Started my in Excel as well.. but seriously never moved further than the shell! Whatta you got?

Paul


Oh no.. not EVM, ok you guys are about to take the fun out of this!!

You guys crack me up. We work on our own cars because we enjoy it. If you don't enjot it don't do it yourself. A f------ computer program to track you progress and stay on schedual; that's not enjoyment that's your damn job.

Make a simple 5 item punch list, if you feel the need to be in control, then get a couple of the items started and as your waiting on parts for one you work on one of the others. The KISS method !!!!!! The only end of the world is the end of the world.

Anyone have a computer program for your sex life ????

I'm hearing the Twilight Zone theme here.

Cole

don't have an iphone but i thought of an app or small computer program for one that would list pictures and numbers for all the hottest hookers in every city on the network.

you could all the app "ihook"
..it has a nice ring to it.

I made one for my 930 Restoration.
At the end of the project ,I found I was out by exactly 100%. :D

Wow, for an old guy I would have thought you would appreciate the planning aspect Cole. LOL. I have about a 50 item "punch list" before I can even turn the key. That's what got me thinking. So I spent an hour creating my activity list. It helped me to see the predecessors and successors so I knew what I could work on. Today I actually got three things done that I did not even think of doing until I made the list. :)
Anyway, for all you guys that know how to spell EVM (one of our specializations)... my TCPI is 1.4. I have some making up to do!!!
CPI is .85 and SPI is .75. I should fire myself and find a new PM. LOL

Turtle:

Honestly never thought of the planning aspect. I drive a lot for work and I have never turned on the radio in my car, in fact i don't even know if it works, I guess I do all my planning in my head. Seems to have served me pretty well although the 6 mo.
of chemo has caused some short term memory laps but even that seems to be improving.

I designed and built my own home 7 years ago. I bought the property in the late fall and had to tear down the original house so I hired an Amish friend to frame the new house so I could get it under roof before the snow fell and then I finished it from there. Each evening after dinner I would sketch out the design plans on graph paper and drop them off to the framers each morning. It took me 5 years of nites and weekends.

A little out of the box for rural Indiana corn country but it didn't turn out not too bad for an Old Guy with no plan.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1315533688.jpg

For a backward old guy that took his Statics final with a slide rule and the most advanced software I've ever used was the first version of Excel I've managed to get along ok.

I have been a Production Manager, Product Manager, Project Manager, and Program Manager. I am presently the VP of Business Development of a small company my stepson and I started seven years ago. We have grown the business from 22K the first year to to 11.2 Million last year. I still use my original cell phone with voice mail only and I don't text, But I get by.

Cole

Whooohooo! My MS-Outlook calendar just dinged to let me know my wife has finished her ovulation cycle, it's go time baby!

I agree that most of the planning can be done in ones head... but this one has so many things that are new and different I could not wrap my head around all of it. Heck, my first job to my current business has had me doing planning religiously. I am a relative youngster... but I learned how to do planning with mylar and chart-pak tape from a golden oldie 15 years ago :) Except for the chassis being there, I feel like I am building a damn car from ground up... all by myself. That's why I post each night... just knowing that other people are looking at the build and will hopefully catch any gross mistakes is a nice little risk mitigation activity. Heck, did you see that one thread where a guy saw that the rod bolts were too short... probably saved that motor from grenading! Anyway, it's probably overkill, but at least it brought the whole thing into perspective and made me realize this isn't a project I can finish in two weeks :mad:

Turtle,

Don't get me wrong I think your probably doing it the right way. I just felt the need to poke you a little as your focus on time and planning, seems to me, keeps you from enjoying the great adventure.

Realize what you are able to do and the great sense of accomplishment that accompanies this kind of project. Just step back now and then and enjoy what you, not anyone else, have done. The most fulfilling part of getting there is the ride.

Your doing good work and you should be proud and never forget to give yourself a little credit.


Bri:

Thanks !!! That was great and I needed that.


Cole

I appreciate a good poke every now and then :)
Yes, I am not the most skilled person at enjoying the ride. I tend to get OCD about getting it done. I tried this once before about 7 years ago with a 914. It ended in a miserable failure of a project. I sold it for pennies just to get it out of my sight because I was so disgusted with myself over the whole thing. I will never let that happen again. So I guess there is a little of that going on in the back of my mind.
Onto a more positive note... I was able to knock out 18 of the 50 things I need to do before I can turn the key today. My SPI is a getting a little closer to 1.0!!! LOL

Turtle,

I've got all the confidence in the world in you. Your doing fine. Always remember when things aren't going well it's time to stop for a couple days. I remember timing my cams for the 15 or 20 time and my OCD was telling me they had to be dead on. I stopped and didn't look at it again for 3 weeks. When I got back at it it dialed in dead nuts.

If your like I think you are by the time your done you'll be trying to buy the 914 back so you can do it over again. Hang in there you'll be fine !!!!!

Cole

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lbzq0jQ5pO1qcljuu.jpg

(Tongue very much in cheek, lol)

I have used a few of the project management programs while getting my bachelors degree but still go back to my lists on a clipboard. I have a clipboard for each car and it has worked for me since 1988.

I guess I need to get with the times.