One of the greatest benefits of projects in an organisational
context is their ability and effectiveness in the achievement of
goals. The success or failure of projects is largely related to
the way that managers develop tactics or plans for the projects
and how these plans can be effectively monitored and controlled
through the various stages of the project lifecycle. It is a
basic premise that the successful implementation of a project
requires the development of a set of action plans together with
subsequent tactics by the project manager. The planning stage of
the project will define issues such as the project goal, targets
and other milestones, as well as the establishment of a
relationship with the clients or stakeholders of the project.
The tactical aspects of the projects will include activities
such as verifying the projects technical abilities, resources
needed such as personnel and equipment and putting systems in
place for the monitoring and control of the project. Although
these planning and tactical activities are carried out through
the duration of the project careful attention should also be
given to the human issues and its influence on the project.
More and more organisations are using a project management
approach for the effective execution of critical operations.
Projects are often carried out in four phases, namely the
defining, planning, executing and delivering of the project.
How do I get started on learning how to manage projects? It is
important to take part in the exercises that are given here.
Many of us read trough modules like these as an overview without
going through the practicality of it. Its all in the doing.
Watching someone having a great experience on the television, or
reading about it in a book is not the same as being there
ourselves.
Although some project managers use a five step model for the
managing of projects, our project model have four steps.
Step 1 Get clear about your project (conceptual planning phase)
The conceptual planning process aims to define the project as
accurately as possible. The phase starts of by identifying the
needs of those whom initiated the project, which are usually a
client, management or stakeholders. This process determines not
only the customer's criteria for acceptance of the final
outcome, i.e., one of the project's success measures, but also
identifies the starting point for the planning and performance
of future activities. The company's main business objectives and
strategies need to be identified and understood so that the
project goals can be in line with them. Depending on the size of
the business, the organisation may appoint a high-level
executive who serves as a champion for the project. The project
manager can use this person as a resource, coach, advocate, or
sounding board during the project.
During this initial phase, the planning team, once appointed
identifies risks associated with the whole project and how to
respond to them. Conceptualising often involves an initial
feasibility decision requiring management to answer questions
such as, what is the problem, and what are the alternative
solutions or projects? Selection techniques or decision-making
procedures should ideally be put in place for the making of
difficult decisions. Typical questions to be asked may include,
what are the specific goals of the project? How do these goals
match with the organisational mission? How do they meet the
users' requirements? What is the general level of resource
required? Are these resources available or must they be
acquired? What are the technical requirements of the project?
All these questions need to be addressed when evaluating and
selecting a project?s undertakings. Milestones should be
identified by which progress can be monitored. Informed
estimates of time, cost and performance expectations can now be
made. The project team will use these estimates to determine
whether the project is, feasible and should continue, or
impractical and be discontinued. The steps to be followed in the
first phase could be as follows. It may vary from one project to
another.
Convene a meeting with the author of the Request for Proposal or
the customer who requested the project.
Gather additional information and identify proposed solutions.
Assign a project manager to assist in proposal development.
Identify potential team members required to support the proposed
solution.
Convene a proposal review meeting with potential team members to
identify: proposed creative approach; scope of work, potential
number of effort days; resource requirements; technical
requirements; and other issues to be addressed in the proposal.
Produce a work breakdown diagram, proposed budget and resource
requirements list.
Produce a draft proposal that will be forwarded to the author of
the Request for Proposal for review.
Convene a proposal review meeting to finalize or adjust the
proposal.
This phase is extremely important. A good carpenter always
measures twice and cut once. This step is about specifying what
the measures will be.
Step 2 Project Organising
Ensuing the conceptual planning phase, the second stage aims to
accomplish two main types of activities, those dealing with
detail planning and those dealing with the project team. Some of
the well-known planning functions of this phase are the
construction of a network diagram, selection of project
personnel, determining the availability of resources and
selecting contractors if needed, making project location
decisions, and determining budgets.
The decisions made in the first stage together with the work
breakdown diagram, act as a guideline for this phase. A detailed
activity plan or network diagram is the first to be compiled.
Information is gathered from the work breakdown diagram and the
graphic flow chart of the project plan. The network lays out the
logical sequence of activities to be completed together with the
start and finish times of each activity. The following steps can
be taken during this phase, although, once again they may vary
depending on the project. Form the project team.
Create team member work plans.
Produce Statements of Work and sub-contracts for
sub-contractors.
Produce a detailed project management plan which includes a
detailed schedule, resource requirements, budget, quality
assurance methods, communications, administrative procedures,
reporting, project change process and other details needed to
effectively initiate and manage the project in accordance with
the approved proposal and contract.
Assess potential risks and produce risk management plan.
Procure required resources and personnel requirements.
Review draft project management plan with the project steak
holders.
Conduct project kick-off meeting and sign-off the approved
Project Management Plan.
Meet with the customer's subject-matter-experts, and other
participants to gather all relevant data.
(As required) Train or provide detailed briefings to members of
the project team and supporting customer personnel.
Finalize all contractor agreements with all sub-contractors.
Form and brief the project team about their work packages.
Step 3 Implementation and Control
The main activities of this stage include securing the necessary
resources to perform the project work, executing the activities
identified in the project planning, monitoring and reporting on
project progress, and re-planing if needed. This phase will
normally require the most time and effort. The project team will
often acquire resources from outside the organisation to
facilitate the timely completion of the project. Performance
capabilities are continually tested to ensure that the project
is carried out as intended. Management may be faced with
important decisions such as equipment selection, project
management software selection, choosing among various project
compressing/crashing options if there is a need to finish
earlier or overcome a delay related to for instance the
installation of telephones. Alternative solutions to possible
project problems or challenges also need to be in place.
Regular progress evaluations and reports are key to this phase.
For this purpose, information and knowledge about the project
progress were continuously circulated to the various project
constituents. Accurate measures needed to be developed to track
progress. Change control processes were to put in place to
handle any requests for change. All requests for change might
not be accepted and it is up to the project manager to make a
decision taking resources and time constraints into
consideration together with the overall impact on the success of
the project. The steps to be followed in the first phase could
be as follows. It may vary from one project to another.
The project team produces the products in accordance with the
Project Management Plan and Quality Assurance Plan.
A process to track and report the completion of all scheduled
tasks and the achievement of the planned milestones to the
customer on a monthly basis is created.
Ensure the effective and timely use of all resources.
Control the expenditures of all budgeted funds.
Proactively measure the identified risks to the project and in
conjunction with the project team and customer, produce plans to
eliminate or reduce the identified risk.
Recommend to the customer and effectively execute all approved
changes to the project objectives, plans, schedule, resources,
and budgets.
Ensure products and services meet or exceed all quality
standards as defined in step one.
This stage is concluded when the customer formally accepts the
output from the project.
Step 4 Project Evaluating and System Improving
Last but not least, the final stage is a valuable yet underused
project stage.
The project review should look at the processes used in the
project, the outputs from the project, and the work performed by
the team members and other individuals. Important decision
analyses in this phase include project audits and evaluations,
personnel appraisal, and feedback from stakeholders. Both the
project management system and people involved can be improved by
the lessons learned. Resources that were secured for the project
are now released, and the project is transferred to its intended
users. The final evaluation report is seen as the closure
document for this phase sometimes be called the project history
should completed as thoroughly as possible and kept for future
reference and projects.
The Closing Phase normally takes a few days. During the Closing
Phase the project manager will ensure the following tasks are
completed:
Review the original contract and supporting documents to ensure
all contract items and product specifications have been
completed.
Deliver all final products to the customer.
Conduct a project close-out meeting with the customer,
stakeholders and team members.
Update and close-off the final master project schedule.
Archive all project materials including deliverables, files, the
Project Book, reference materials and other supporting
documents.
Backup up and electronically archive all project electronic
files.
Debrief all team members and contractors about their performance
assessments.
Document the project team lessons learned.
Produce a final project report.
Celebrate the success of the project with team members.
About the author:
Learn more at http://www.my1stbusiness.com Ben Botes MSc. MBA,
is an Entrepreneur, Speaker, Writer, Coach and academic. He is
the founder of My1stBusiness.com, South African Business Hubs
Join the My1stbusiness.com Reseller Program and earn 40%
referral commission http://www.my1stbusiness.com/affiliate
Read Ben's Blog at http://www.my1stbusiness.com/weblog
|
