Managing Variances

As the Turnaround environment evolves many Managers and Sponsors are becoming more aware of the value of Planning, Scheduling and especially project controls. This is leading to a renovation of the expectations of how Turnarounds are monitored, controlled and effectively managed. The Turnaround Manuals of the past are becoming much more explicit Turnaround Management Frameworks. New climate conditions produce a backdrop to better understand risks and opportunities in an dispassionate light.
This leads to the title and the main inspiration of this post.

Those whom are intricately involved in the process of reporting earned value and variances understand the variables and inherent stresses of delivering value added reports that support the plan. However, variances are often misunderstood management tools that have adopted an association with failure. It is somewhat peculiar that little or no variance is often an underlying expectation during Turnarounds. On the contrary, it should be expected and understood that variances are an inevitable certainty. Through this evolution of emotional intelligence and maturity, risks and opportunities can be forecasted, mitigated or dissolved early enough to minimize negative impacts. With environmental development of, truly understanding the performance measurement baseline is measured on the plan and that planning is the best evaluation of the effort and scope of work during the Planning Phase better management practices can be employed. Essentially, management isn't about being perfect and being right, it is more about recognizing and repairing what goes off track. This is where the management part of the Earn Value Methodology is often misunderstood and mismanaged.

Mitigation is therefore a significant factor in the managing the potential ill effects recognized from reporting. Most often variances are a result of insufficient planning, logistics, resource skillsets and training core team personnel and finally not adhering to the baseline schedule all key stakeholders authorized.

The resultant factors of poor planning coupled with insufficient management maturity create a recipe for disaster in the Turnaround environment undermining the effort of the professional people with passion for what they have attempted to accomplish.