CONTACTS 
0201 - PG&E Grid Customer Services        415 973 1014 fax 8426
020101 - Mr. Bill DeHart, PMP
020102 - Project Manager =415 973 1014 pger 510 472 2288; Project Management

SUBJECTS
Board Meetings
Asilomar Redux Give Me Men to Match My
Asilomar, PMI NCC
Evaluation, Review, Lessons

0806 -    ..
0807 - Summary/Objective
0808 -
080801 - Followed up work at ref SDS 10 line 39, ref SDS 9 line 55, r
080802 - line 43, ref SDS 3 line 427.
080803 -
080804 - Delivered a Communication Metrics report, ref DRP 2 line 13, to Bill
080805 - at PG&E.
080806 -
080807 - Bill has not read the article on Asilomar, but plans to do so soon.
080808 -
080809 - He recalled there are disagreements among PMI NCC Board members about
080810 - doing an audit for the 1996 Asilomar event.  Paul Nelson proposes the
080811 - audit should be performed to reconcile a shortfall in the project
080812 - budget of $1000.  Bill indicated Paul feels this is needed to clear
080813 - any concern about management of Asilomar. Bill recalled that Ahmet and
080814 - others feel that spending $3K to look for $1K is not good management.
080815 -
080816 -
080817 -
080818 -
0809 -

SUBJECTS
Bill's Assignment, 960815
Demonstration for New Users
Construction, Sales discussions, PG&E, Sprint, Bechtel
Intelligence, Military
Command and Control of the Record
Proactive Management uses Communication
Congestion More Managers Cause Noise
Everybody's Talking, Nobody's Listening, No
Complex Scenario Example Communication

2412 -
241201 - PG&E's Project with Sprint Behind Schedule, Poor Communications
241202 -
241203 - Bill advised that he is working directly with Sprint's Project Manager
241204 - who is a lawyer.  He speaks with this person on a daily basis.
241205 -
241206 - Sprint's project has 300 sites and each site has about $200,000 in
241207 - cost, so the overall project for Sprint is about $60M.  He estimates
241208 - PG&E's portion is only about $6M.  My sense today from the discussion
241209 - with Bill is that PG&E's work is being performed adequately, because
241210 - they are mainly the landlord for each project site.
241211 -
241212 -     [See effort to develop a spreadsheet calculating the level of
241213 -     effort for management as a function of subjects, ref SDS 14 line
241214 -     59.]
241215 - ..
241216 - Bill is concerned about the project not meeting completion date
241217 - objectives due to a very complex business environment. If that happens
241218 - PG&E could be blamed and this could jepardise future opportunities for
241219 - PG&E to get more business from Sprint.
241220 -
241221 -      [See report on 970801 that Sprint intends to fire Bechtel, ref
241222 -      SDS 15 line 64.]
241223 -
241224 -      [See report on 970809 that communication improved, Bechtel will
241225 -      finish project, ref SDS 16 line 68.]
241226 -
241227 - He described the business environment of Sprint having hired Bechtel
241228 - as project manager.  Bechtel has hired separate A/E and Construction
241229 - Manager firms.  Each of the 300 sites has a dedicated project manager
241230 - and lower tier staff.  This organization greatly escalates the flow of
241231 - communication to prioritize, coordinate and perform the work.  It may
241232 - be an example of "Too many cooks spoil the broth."  With so many
241233 - managers, communication becomes a process of "guess and gossip."  It
241234 - reflects the problem identified by Dr. Ray Levitt at the PMI meeting
241235 - on 960912, ref SDS 1 line 176.  The more people involved in a
241236 - communication chain, the greater liklihood of error, delay and extra
241237 - cost.
241238 -
241239 -      [See article on entropy in information base causing cost and
241240 -      schedule failure, ref SDS 13 line 279.]
241241 -
241242 - PG&E must deal with each project separately, and this increases the
241243 - chances of error through miss-communication.  So there is an overall
241244 - project risk, and PG&E has a portion of that risk.
241245 -
241246 - He advised concern has become apparent by Sprint that the project will
241247 - not meet Sprint's completion objectives.  Communication between Sprint
241248 - and Bechtel reflect this concern, and Bechtel's objective to avoid
241249 - liability.  Bill seemed to indicate that Bechtel's concern about
241250 - completion is evident in communications throughout the project
241251 - organization.
241252 -
241253 - We considered the idea of Bill drafting a memo from PG&E to his key
241254 - contact at Sprint to lay out the concern and suggest a Communication
241255 - Metrics program to improve project performance.  Bill said the project
241256 - schedule is weak, so that needs to be strengthened and more rigorous
241257 - daily scheduling is needed using SDS to avoid the problems of a
241258 - complex business environment.
241259 -
241260 - Bill will draft a memo setting out the the project environment and
241261 - factors that impact Sprint's success and how that affects PG&E.  I
241262 - will draft a double spaced memo he can then edit and share with his
241263 - boss, so PG&E can submit it to Sprint.  This will show PG&E is taking
241264 - the initiative to assist its customer.  We can propose a meeting with
241265 - Sprint's Project Manager to consider ideas to address the overall
241266 - issue.  Actually, I am inclined to seek a pre-memo submission meeting
241267 - with Sprint to hear their thinking, so the memo can be crafted to
241268 - avoid controversy and show how to accomplish Sprint's objectives.
241269 -
241270 -     [Submitted these notes to Bill as part of SDS update at ref SDS 11
241271 -     line 47.]
241272 -
241273 -     [See call to Bill at ref SDS 12 line 65.]
241274 -
241275 -     [See lunch with Bill on 970801, ref SDS 15 line 66.]
241276 -
241277 -     [See telecon with Bill on 970809, ref SDS 17 line 73.]
241278 -
241279 -     [See telecon with Bill on 970828, ref SDS 18 line 77.]
241280 -
241281 -
241282 -
241283 -
241284 -
241285 -
2413 -