How to overcome hurdles with "Lean for Planning"

Lean management has been ensuring lean and efficient processes on construction sites for several years now. When the method is applied to the planning stage, however, it cannot make full use of its strengths. This is where agile task management comes in. Jökel Bau, a construction company based in the German federal state of Hesse, is already working successfully with it.

Complex projects with a lot of parties involved, inefficient interfaces, changes at short notice: these are the challenges facing planning departments. The drafting of buildings is a creative process. The exact features that a building should have are often only decided during the planning stage. Rigid multi-page schedules do not help here – and the lean method also works best as lean site management during implementation on the building site.

The Best of Lean and Agile

Agile task management combines the lean philosophy and agile management for the planning phases of construction projects. Peter Jökel, Managing Director at Jökel Bau, began introducing agile task management in the planning department of the construction company in 2018. One reason was the positive experience with lean site management, which Jökel Bau has been using for several years.

The Managing Director also wanted to use these advantages at the planning stage. The net result after one year is positive: ‘Agile task management has become the heart of our planning department,’ he explained. ‘It makes all the interfaces, workloads and capacities transparent and efficient.’ The cooperation between planners and site managers has improved considerably, added Peter Jökel.

All Projects at a Glance

A board of cards hangs on the wall in the office of the planning department – the multi-project board. This enables the team to keep an overview of all the projects that they are planning in-house. The board represents all work packages in all projects for the next 21 weeks. This is based on the jointly developed standard processes for planning, which are specific to Jökel Bau.

On the basis of the work packages for the next two weeks, each team member derives the daily tasks and visualizes them with sticky notes on the weekly schedule or the task management board. Every day, the planning department meets for its daily stand-up meeting, i.e. a short meeting held standing up. This is where employees can share information about the previous day's tasks, the current day and about problems that have occurred or are expected.

Onboarding of New Colleagues is Easier

If something changes in the scheduled process, all the project managers and planners can discuss it transparently. The department heads also meet every fortnight in front of the multi-project board to exchange information on the latest acquisitions, new projects and future planning capacities. The positive side effect that Peter Jökel has identified is that knowledge and experience are shared to a very high degree between employees with different levels of experience. The method has also made it much easier to integrate new colleagues.

Agile Management: the Best Choice for Planning

Agile management is based on short-cycle, agile development processes. Communication is transparent and structured. The planning team can respond flexibly to changes and problems. ‘As in the case of lean management, it is also important in agile task management that employees at all hierarchical levels develop an understanding of the overall process. This enables them to produce the plans on schedule and in the required quality,’ explained Jochen Weber, consultant at Drees & Sommer.

Jochen Weber was part of the Drees & Sommer team that assisted Jökel Bau with the design and introduction of agile task management in the planning department. The introduction took about one year, from analysis to the final design. During this time, the consultants worked closely with management, the department heads, the planning department team and the site managers. Together, they analyzed and developed processes, organizational structures, interfaces and rules for cooperation, as well as the self-perception and external image of the planning department. On this basis, the consultants developed a conceptual design based on a multi-scrum approach with scrum elements.

Successful Sprinting with Scrum

Scrum is one of the best-known features of agile management. Originating from software development, this method emphasizes high flexibility and agile development of deliverables in defined cycles. In scrum, these cycles are called sprints. As a rule, these do not last longer than four weeks.

Before each sprint, the team jointly defines which tasks and work packages, i.e. processes within the planning or service phases in accordance with the German Official Scale of Fees for Services by Architects and Engineers (Honorarordnung für Architekten und Ingenieure, HOAI), are to be processed within a sprint. The team then visualizes these decisions in a detailed plan on the task management board (sprint backlog). Each of the work packages or user stories in their entirety form the long-term plan (product backlog), which is displayed on the multi-project board. This provides all project participants with visual support that creates full transparency and enhances their daily work.

‘Going forward, we also intend to bring our external planning partners, such as building services, electrical and structural engineering planning, into our company for a certain phase as part of fixed, interdisciplinary project teams, in addition to our employees in the planning department. At that stage, then, agile task management should become a way of life for everyone involved,’ as Peter Jökel explained his vision.