project documentation

Two weeks ago my father died. My mother had died two years earlier and my father had been less than communicative with my brothers and I about his personal affairs, so trying to sort his things out after he died wasn’t easy. Fortunately he had given the church instructions on how his memorial service should be conducted. His financial advisor seemed to have his financial affairs under control. However, one of the biggest problems we had was finding out who his friends were and how to contact them to inform them of his death. There were five different lists of contacts and we didn’t know whether they were his or my mother’s friends and who was still living. Many had changed their telephone numbers and we couldn’t contact them.

This reminded me how important it is for Project Managers to keep records on site. As a Project Director I have on occasion had to step in on site when a PM has been suddenly taken ill or had to attend to urgent personal business. It’s often been frustrating trying to find who to contact and which suppliers and subcontractors were being used on the project.

In this day and age PM’s have their own laptop computers or tablets and it can be even more frustrating since all the project information is often stored on these devices which travel with the PM. It’s therefore important that the company has systems in place whereby information on these devices is regularly backed-up onto the company’s central computer system so that it can be retrieved by someone else should the PM be unavailable. The information should also be stored in a standard system of files and folders so that information can be easily found.

It’s important that PM’s give a full set of handover documentation to PM’s who are relieving them while they are away on leave.

Often projects work double shifts and there is a PM on duty for each shift. Again it’s vital that they handover sufficient documentation to the incoming PM so they know what work was done in the previous shift and what they need to do during their shift.

If the project has a full set of records which are easily accessible, and the PM prepares a comprehensive set of handover documentation, then the transition from one PM to another can be fairly seamless.