Project Management for ESS In-kind Instrument Projects –a challenging set up

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The construction of the 15 Instruments at ESS, where the majority of the scope is provided by our InKind partners across Europe, provides a challenging project set up. For the 15 Instruments we have 14 different IK partners, and for the majority of the instruments there are 2-3 partners that forms a consortium and together delivers an Instrument. This have both its strengths and weaknesses. The amount of Project Management (including Project coordination, Project Planning etc) that ESS needs to provide in order to deliver the Instruments (together with the IK partners) is much more extensive than anticipated in the beginning of the ESS project. The In-Kind partners are instructed to follow ESS processes and procedures, but often also have their own processes and procedures at their lab/institute to work with. For example, it have been a massive challenge to have IK partners accepting to work with the implement one ESS project planning tool (Primavera P6), a crucial step for us to be able to properly integrate the plans. Now, more then a decade down the road we have several lessons learned. One of the successful, early implementations was the set-up of the"Common Projects"for the Instruments. In order to control costs, meet schedule requirements, as well as provide effective and compliant solutions, ESS has established a series of "Common Projects" for the Instruments. The technical areas are Choppers, Beam Monitors, Shielding, Electrical Utilities, Mechanical Utilities, and Motion Control. Each common project has a Work Package manager, who is also the technical or engineering lead, provide sufficient resources and team members to enable the project to execute its scope in a timely fashion. The Common Projects ensure that work is performed in a process that is compatible with the ESS Engineering Handbook; Create designs and manage interfaces in a fashion that meet technical requirements, minimize costs to the instrument teams, other common projects, and the work…