“When you were putting this team together, why did you overlook this role on the team?” I asked.
Susan looked at me sideways. “What do you mean?”
“You put this team together, and yet you are dissatisfied with the problem solving capability of the team. They keep running into the same problem over and over, yet always have to go back to square one to solve it.”
“Aw, come on, you know I have a budget. I got the best people I could afford,” she replied.
“This is not a matter of budget, this is a matter of design. I have talked with your team and you have a great bunch of people. But you are missing a role. When you designed your team, you missed a role.”
“What do you mean, designed my team?” Susan asked.
“You thought about the people you needed to do the production, but you never thought about building in one role to make sure production got done. Someone to watch the schedules, create your checklists and see patterns in problems. That is the capability you are missing on your team.”
“Yes, but I can’t afford another person on the team, and besides, I would have to pay more for someone with that capability,” she defended.
“You are going to pay for this role anyway. Without this role, you will have problems that stop the line, re-work on elements that have to be done twice and overtime. You are paying for this role anyway.”
Follow-up specialist I think that this is the job title of that person; it is preferable that this person holds a certificate in the same field of the projects undertaken by the company.
The main task of that person is to follow-up schedule for the project and ensure compliance with the scheme & preparation of periodic status reports of the project as well as to work to resolve minor problems in accordance with his authority , at the end reporting any signs of delay to the administration.
In the presence of more than one project in the company that person can work in more than one project at the same time to reduce costs.