| How often have we heard these
words uttered shortly after we have submitted a budget proposal
for a new project and it has exceeded what the management team
have in their budget or savings need to be made? Worse still you
are a little way into a project and some unseen costs suddenly
loom into view and you have to try to get some more money approved
to cover your costs. I am sure we can all remember a time and
probably not too long ago where we had this happen to us and we
all had to search hard to see what we could lose from the project
or where we could cut a few corners and still hopefully deliver
the project that was expected of us.
This was a situation that faced the builders of the tower in
Pisa back in 1173. So lets just imagine going back there: in
those days the City of Pisa had become a wealthy and well-respected
City with a thriving port and the wealthy merchants wished to
build something to celebrate its glory and important position
in the world. It was decided to build a tower that would house
a set of bells that could be rung out over the surrounding area
showing to the world the importance of this City. Work began
in 1173 on the project of building the tower. Unfortunately
more emphasis was put on the building and the design than the
research into the land on which it was to be built. By 1185
the first 3 floors had been completed with a small stop in the
proceedings whilst they were at war with Florence. Something
that had not been in the project plan (perhaps they had failed
to do the risk analysis properly!). They also failed to have
periodic progress and reassessment meetings, as wars with Florence
were to become a feature over the next 100 years or so. Not
only did these wars deflect the occupants of Pisa from building
their tower but consumed a lot of their money too.
Then the problems really began to become apparent as the tower
began to lean quite noticeably and a further appraisal of the
situation showed that it had in fact sunk about 30-40cm and
had a lean in excess of 5 cm. The groundwork had not been sufficient
to support such a weight and with hindsight there may well have
been better locations to build the tower in the first place.
A repair plan was required, but there seemed little that could
be done to the design to reduce its weight, as the height increased
by reducing the diameter of the tower. So they could either
take it all down or continue with caution. They chose the latter
option and by 1284 the tower had reached 48 metres in height
and had been constructed in such a way that although the lower
floors of the tower were off to one side and leaning, the next
section was perpendicular to the earth.
Finally around 1350 the project was complete with the final
top section being added bringing the height to 58 metres in
total. Over the centuries the tower has continued to add to
the angle of lean and now it tilts a massive 5 metres from the
vertical and this figure increases around 1 mm every year. It
has also sunk around 3 metres into the ground below its original
level. Finally in 1990 the tower was closed to visitors as it
was thought to be unsafe and a massive project was started to
correct some of the lean on the tower. About 5 years ago all
the experts were predicting that unless something was done to
try and right the tower the construction would collapse completely
within the next 20 years. Work commenced in 1998 and a large
pair of steel suspenders was constructed to support the tower
on steel cables whilst the work was carried out. In addition
800 tonnes of lead were placed at the base of the tower to stabilise
it. The tower has already been straightened by 14 cm and when
the work is complete the tower will be 43 cm less crooked (straighter
than it has been since 1700) however it still will not be detectable
with the human eye. The cost of this particular phase of the
project is a mere £18.6 million pounds.
The point we are making here is that without the investment
in the planning (Business Analysis) phase which may save you
a small amount at the beginning of a project, you can end up
spend a much larger sum of money trying to correct the problems
that would have been highlighted by such a phase. It has been
our considered experience over the last 20 years that if you
try to save on this section of the project, then you can spend
in excess of 20 times this in trying to correct the problems
further down the line. In the case of the tower in Pisa a factor
of several thousand times that figure. We have seen many companies
try to save on this phase of the project only to defer the payment
(plus a large amount of interest) at a later date.
PDT Ltd
John Warren founded PDT LTD in 1985 with the aim of producing
the best company to come to for Business Analysis and with the
finest computer modelling toolset in the industry. With these
aims in mind they set about developing a tool on which business
processes could be modelled, developed and tested without subjecting
the business to all these changes and having to monitor the
results in a live environment with all the chaos that can ensue.
Today the company has many successful implementations with customers
as diverse as the MOD, the healthcare sector, warehousing and
distribution customers and vehicle location and delivery companies.
PDT Ltd is also a system integration company in the AutoID
market place, providing systems and solutions made up of the
best and most suitable products for the individual customer
requirements. We have supply agreements with the leading players
in the AutoID and mobile data arena including (but not restricted
to) Symbol Technologies, Zebra Technologies, TEC, Paxar, O’Neil,
Datalogic, HHP, Casio and Intermec. This enables us to use our
market knowledge and expertise to select the best equipment,
and using the skills of the members of our PDT Associates group,
write software or tailor off-the-shelf packages to provide the
customer with a complete solution to their business problems.
PDT Ltd has specialist knowledge in the area of business process
analysis and has worked with many large companies and organisations
in looking at their business processes and documenting them
correctly, reviewing business processes and looking at how best
to implement changes to the systems and testing the ideas on
some specialised software we have developed. The software models
the changes that are proposed and monitors the effects of these
proposed changes. We then develop a specification that accurately
reflects the proposed changes and this then forms the basis
of the ITT document that will be passed out to potential suppliers.
Don’t let your next project become the modern day leaning
tower - come and talk to PDT Ltd who have the expertise and
tools to help you avoid making these expensive mistakes.
Contact details:
Jon Critoph
Sales and Marketing Manager
PDT Ltd
6 Kings Grove
Maidenhead
Berkshire
SL6 4DA
Phone 01568 770812
Fax 01628 782413
Mobile 07766 828072
|
