So you have a committed plan before you have a plan?

Why not make the plan after everything is installed?

Do you have any idea about project plans and milestoneas. You do not just invent your own timescales which is what BT seem to do.

Perhaps the answer is two assume worst case scenario and just give an end date of 2018 for the commercial roll-out.

Do you have any idea about plans?
Have you ever experienced a project that didn't meet the end date?

BT openwound are a law to themselves , There seems to be a lack of commitment to the FTTC project, in the area that i live at least the 2 FTTC cabs that have gone live on the same exchange as me, are would you believe in situated in areas that have VM cable , they will really get a lot of interest there ,not
The amount of scheduled associated street works such as installing ducting unblocking ducting that they failed to even start never mind complete on several occasions, then theres them having to go back to some locations and put the footway back to a safe state as it was before they dug it up,
And the backwards thinking/planning of the FTTC cab rollout they had to get planning permission for only 2 cabs the company they used took ages to actually submit it to the council , and it also took the max amount of time for them to approve, but they could of been installing the other FTTC cabs whilst this was ongoing then maybe the June date may not of slipped to September backwards thinking thats BT openwound planning for ya ,

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Perhaps the answer is two assume worst case scenario and just give an end date of 2018 for the commercial roll-out.

You forget that posting in this thread are several people who either are, have been, or could walk into a job tomorrow Project Managing multi-million pound multi-site projects.

We are clearly not in a position to contradict them.

For example myself. My two largest projects were at two separate single sites, one at just over £1m and the other around £1.5m, over 30 years ago. (I wonder how much that is these days?). Completed on time and to budget.

My comments are obviously going to be regarded as ill-informed by the people criticising Openreach Project Planning.

In reply to a post by Bob_s2:

Lots of tasks are not done by BT but that is irrelevent the project should take that into account and include it in the milestones of the project plan and enage with the sub contractors to comit to those datres. You do that before you set your plan dates and time scales. The other favorite of BT is blaming thje power companies but all the power compnies have SLA and their published data shows that in 97% of cases that SLA is met so BT are bull [censored] with this

with my DSLAM. i managed to get number for main project manager(carrillion), he confirmed that
DSLAM had power and was certified safe and passed back to openreach,

and it still hasnt had fibre blown through, ironically around 4pm seen like 5 open reach vans parked in asda all out chatting etc, killing time, 10 guys, how much work could be done in an hour?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

For example myself. My two largest projects were at two separate single sites, one at just over £1m and the other around £1.5m, over 30 years ago. (I wonder how much that is these days?). Completed on time and to budget.

Maybe you can answer then, what happens when a project doesn't meet various milestone dates?

You are fundamentally wrong here.

Planning permission is an unknown - because you don't know whether you will get it. This can require changing the plan, multiple times.

Power is an unknown - because you don't know, when you dig up the road, whether it will work in practice. This can require changing the plan (I know - this is what delayed my specific cabinet. Three times. I watched them go off in 3 different directions in the hunt for power - at intervals of at least a month between each)

Fibre provisioning is an unknown - because you don't know, until you try, whether the duct is blocked or not. This can require changing the plan. You don't know, until you try, whether your dig is easy or hard, and whether it can even be accomplished.

Contractors are an unknown - because people make mistakes. They site cabinets in the wrong location, or dig up the wrong thing. People get sick, and don't turn up. Each requires a change in plan.

Sticking to the plan is an unknown - because it requires the weather to co-operate, and workforce to be available. It requires (for example) there to be no emergencies demanding attention elsewhere. For example, I imagine there isn't much cabinet installation going on in York or Newcastle right now.

Changing the plan adds further unknown factors. When any of these streetworks need to be re-planned, there needs to be a notice period (longer on more major roads), and there ought to be co-ordination between roadworks (to make sure they don't cause traffic jams nearby). That helps explain why a "simple" delay is never fixed the next day, and always takes another month. The fines for roadworks taking too long also help push this approach.

What can you do? Simple - make a *reasonable* plan, but expect changes to be needed to a certain percentage of the work. Make sure that the plan has room for re-work, and that the workforce are flexible to turn up anywhere at reasonably short notice, and return to previous sites.

The "now-and-next" operational planners - the one's who decide which team will work on which cabinet over the next few days - have a different need. They want the rollout to be done as efficiently (money-wise) which means they can't have workforce standing idle. If they're all planned in for the next few days, then they can't have excess time built-in "just in case" something goes wrong. The solution is to pack up, go elsewhere tomorrow, and come back a few weeks later. Very little, after all, is critical.

That is called pragmatism. It is what is needed in the real world, which isn't always perfect.

But while being pragmatic with the planning, and the operational work, the marketing department wants to be optimistic with what they are telling the public.