PM Network - August 2016

project coordination team ramped up interviews with each project leader. The meetings covered issues such as the status of component design, possible assembly risks and how long it would take to build components.

For instance, in 2007 the project coordination
team interviewed project leaders to analyze finan-
cial risks. “If the answer was, ‘We need another five
years,’ then we obviously needed to look at infla-
tion,” Dr. Lorenz says. “If the industrial contract
was going to start three years down the line, we
needed to check [the project leader’s] estimate of
€ 50,000, because inflation was going to increase
this estimate.”
A risk register helped identify possible sur-
prises that endangered the overall objective or
the schedule for assembling the device, Dr. Bosch
says. Risks were divided by category, such as per-
sonnel or engineering, and included the potential
impact, countermeasures and an estimate of their
costs. The process forced the team leaders to
brainstorm solutions long before problems sur-
faced, Dr. Bosch says.

“Some of these risks never evolved into a real
problem. For all listed risks, we could implement
countermeasures proactively.”
Dr. Bosch and Dr. Lorenz also managed contin-
gency budgets, so reserve funds would be on hand
whenever necessary. The initial contingency of nearly
€ 18 million was gone by the time reactor construc-
tion was completed in December 2014. “We used all
of it, but we didn’t need more,” Dr. Lorenz says. “So
the risk assessment was quite spot-on.”
That was welcome news for W7-X sponsors—
state and national governments in Germany and the
European Union.

“We were able to explain easily how we planned
for each euro and how it was spent. The sponsors,
especially the Ministry of Science in Germany, were
very glad,” Dr. Lorenz says. “From what I under-
stand, we grew into a role model in Germany for
how a scientific project should be managed.” PM
“From what I
understand,
we grew into
a role model
in Germany
for how a
scientific
project
should be
managed.”