Project Management
Projects are different from ‘business as usual’ activities
because they have a number of distinguishing features:
- they bring about change projects may offer investment
opportunities
- they have unknown elements, therefore:
- they create risk
‘Business as usual’ activities are recognisable because:
- there are known policies, processes, procedures or
precedents which may be followed
- there is virtually no risk (as opposed to the problems which
often occur in meeting deadlines etc)
- the activities are not new, but repeated (albeit not
necessarily very frequently), therefore:
- they do not offer change
A project will have a measurable outcome in terms of impacts (ie
changes to what is done or the way things are done) and benefits
either tangible, increased revenue or cost avoidance, or
non-tangible in terms of moving your organisation towards its
strategic objectives.
A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique
product, service or result. Projects are different from business as
usual because the project concludes when its specific objectives
have been attained, while operations adopt a new set of objects and
the work continues.
Project failures are all too common and the reasons for failure
are many and varied. The causes are usually attributable to one or
many of; lack of co-ordination, lack of communication, poor
estimation, insufficient measurables, inadequate planning, lack of
control, or lack of quality control resulting in the delivery of
products that are unacceptable or unusable.
Without a project management method, those who commission a
project, those who manage it and those who work on it will have
different ideas about how things should be organised and when the
different aspects of the project will be completed. Those involved
will not be clear about how much responsibility, authority and
accountability they have and, as a result, there will be confusion
surrounding the project. Without a project management method,
projects are rarely completed on time and within acceptable cost –
this is especially true of large projects.
A good project management method will guide the project through a
controlled, well managed, visible set of activities to achieve the
desired result. DRIVE - which is based on PRINCE - uses the
principles of good project management to avoid the problems
identified above and so helps to achieve successful projects. These
principles are;
- A project is a finite process with a definite start and end
- Projects always need to be managed in order to be successful
- For genuine commitment to the project, all parties must be
clear about why the project is needed, what it is intended to
achieve, how the outcome is to be achieved, and what their
responsibilities are in that achievement.
PRINCE is an acronym for PRojects IN Controlled Environments and
is the de facto standard used extensively in the UK. The key
features of PRINCE are;
- its focus on business justification
- a defined organisation structure for the project management
team
- its product-based planning approach
- Its emphasis on dividing the project into manageable and
controllable stages
- Its flexibility to be applied at a level appropriate to the
project
DRIVE Project Management is based on PRINCE but provides the
practical support not found in the PRINCE manual to support project
managers on a day-to day basis.
DRIVE provides benefits to the managers and directors of a
project and to an organisation, through the controllable use of
resources and the ability to manage business and project risks more
effectively.
DRIVE embodies established and proven best practice in project
management and encourages formal recognition of responsibilities
within a project and focuses on what a project is to deliver, why,
when and for whom.
DRIVE Project Management provides projects with;
- a controlled and organised start, middle and end
- regular reviews of progress against plans and against the
Business Case
- flexible decision points
- automatic management control of any deviation from the plan
- the involvement of management and stakeholders at the right
time and place during the project
- good communication channels between the project, project
management and the rest of the organisation
Project managers using DRIVE Project Management are able to;
- establish terms of reference as a pre-requisite to the start
of a project
- use a defined structure for delegation, authority and
communication
- divide the project into manageable stages for more accurate
planning
- ensure resource commitment from management is part of any
approval to proceed
- provide regular but brief management reports
- keep meetings with management and stakeholders to a minimum
but at the vital points in the project
Those who will be directly involved with using the results of a
project are able to;
- participate in all the decision-making on a project
- if desired, be fully involved in day-to-day progress
- participate in quality checks throughout the project
- ensure their requirements are being adequately satisfied
For senior management DRIVE Project Management uses the
“management by exception” concept. They are kept fully informed of
the project status without having to attend regular time-consuming
meetings.
DRIVE Project Management is a process-based approach to
project management sets out guidance for 8 process components to be
carried out during the project;
- Organisation – which
encourages a Customer / Supplier environment and ensures a
tripartite partnership between the Users, The Executive and the
Supplier as the Project Board. It also suitably empowers the
project and team management to focus and achieve the day-to-day
implementation of the project. A typical project organisation
comprises the following and is designed in such a way as to
optimise delivery of the project products (and is not merely a
microcosm of the corporate organisation);
- The Project Board is made up of senior managers
and is the ultimate authority on the project and carries
ultimate accountability.
- The Project Manager manages the project on a day-to-day
basis and is primarily responsible for planning, control and
people leadership.
- The Team Leaders are delegated some of the less
significant project management duties and are responsible
for the low-level planning and monitoring of the teams work.
- Project Assurance is primarily the function of the
Project Board, but may be delegated. The role of Project
Assurance is to ensure that the project is being run
properly and that the Project Board’s interests are being
looked after. The role is impartial and independent of the
Project Manager.
- Project Support (often derived from the Project Support
Office) provides advice, guidance and tangible assistance to
the project team.
If seen as appropriate, additional roles can be identified
as members of the team, such as a Design Authority. Whatever
the structure and content of the Project Team it is
important that each of the roles is clearly defined, agreed
and recorded in the Project Initiation Document and Quality
Plan. This includes the roles expected of the Project Board.
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- Planning – to pre-define the
scheme or method describing how, when and by whom specific
targets are to be achieved. Progress against these plans are the
backbone of the management information system and are not only
prepared for the project as a whole but also for each stage and
workgroup. The Exception Plan is prepared to recommend
corrective action when a project is likely to exceed its costs
or timescales.
- The Project Plan is created at project initiation and is
used by the Project Board to give a high level view of major
products / timescales / costs / risks
- Stage Plans are created at the end of the previous
stage, are an intermediate level view for the next stage and
expand the project level product plans. They are used by the
Project Manager to track progress week-by-week.
- Team Plans are the lowest level of stage detail and
reflect work package allocation and progress. It is these
plans that ultimately determine whether a deliverable will
be on time and at the right cost.
All these plans will contain tolerance, and it is for the
appropriate manager to maintain progress within these
tolerances. Otherwise, if overrun is predicted, an Exception
Plan shall have to be produced and agreed (but be aware that
the Project Board is unlikely to favour any change to the
overall project commitments).
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- Controls – to ensure that the
products being produced will meet the defined requirement in the
time required and to the cost expected. Control also ensures
that the Business Case remains viable by achieving the desired
benefits and that the Demming loop to plan, test, learn and fix
is effectively applied. Effective Project Management is about
achieving the desired benefit through pre-emptive control and,
if necessary, damage limitation. A pragmatic control system
needs to consider;
- what is expected to happen?
- what has then happened?
- what is the difference?
- how serious are the consequences?
- what can be done to recover the situation?
Apart from the regular use of Progress Information and
Highlight Reports, management controls can also be exerted
through periodic review meetings;
- Project Initiation, to approve the Project's terms of
reference and organisation.
- End-Stage Assessment (ESA), to review the stage just
completed and approve the plans for the next stage.
- Mid-stage Assessment (MSA), to introduce a review at least
every three months in a long stage.
- Checkpoint Review, the regular technical and management
control point.
- Project Closure, for a final review of the Project.
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- Stages – which partition the
project into manageable horizons bound by review and decision
points. The PRINCE approach is to concentrate the management of
the project on the management stages (and not on the technical
stages of, e.g. design, build, implement) since these form the
basis of the planning and control processes described throughout
the method. To do otherwise would run the risk of the project
being driven by the specialist teams, instead of the Customer’s
management.
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- Management of Risk – to expose,
contain and control the adverse consequences of future events
whether derived from within the business or from external
factors before they become disruptive to the success of the
project. Risk analysis comprises three activities;
- Risk identification, which determines the potential
risks, which could be faced by the project.
- Risk estimation, which determines the importance of each
risk, based on an assessment of its likelihood and
consequences to the project and business.
- Risk evaluation, which decides whether the level
of each risk is acceptable or not and, if not, what actions
can be taken to make it more acceptable. Understanding the
probability, cost and impact on time of these risks will
help achieve predictable plans.
The results of the risk analysis activities are documented
in the Risk Log. It is insufficient, however, to merely
identify these risks as a potential for explaining failure.
Effective Risk Management should then;
- Plan the countermeasures
- Assign appropriate Resources to carry out the
countermeasures
- Monitor or periodically check whether the potential risk
has arisen in reality
- Control activities to ensure that the events of
the plan really happen Risk Management continues throughout
the project.
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- Quality in a Project Environment
– to identify what it is about the products or services of the
project that make them fit for their purpose or satisfactory to
their stated needs. This quality management provides the process
by which the quality expected by the Customer is achieved and
demonstrated to be present in the finished product. This helps
to minimise the costly rework of inappropriate products, keep
costs down and enhance the achievement of the Business Case.
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- Configuration Management – or
product control to ensure the final deliverable comprises the
correct version of each of its sub components. This includes the
management of documentation or any other mid project deliverable
to ensure the distinct versions are recognisable. The realisable
benefits from this include;
- knowing what is where and who is looking after it
- disciplined filing
- keeping track of the latest versions of products
- helping to control the distribution of new or changed
releases
- making it easier to assess the impact of change
- security
It is appropriate to entrust this work to a Configuration
Manager, a member of the Project Team.
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- Change Control – to effect
alterations to the products of the project in a way that ensures
the full implications on risks, cost and time are appreciated
and managed.
Change control is not about allowing the project content to
change freely such that the rate of change exceeds the rate of
progress. All changes are treated as types of Project Issue and
are handled similarly.
However, should the issue be a request to change a baselined
product, then this becomes a Request for Change. These can arise
because;
- Someone has changed their mind
- There is new business or legal requirement
- Some new technology has emerged which should be used
- Somebody has thought of a better way of doing something
- A control decision has changed the scope or quality
specification
An Off-specification is raised when a baselined product is
subsequently found to be faulty.
These two types of change request are treated in the same
way and consider whether the alteration might be too
expensive in relation to the benefit it would bring, or that
the impact on timescales are prohibitive. An impact analysis
would understand;
- What would have to change
- What effort would be required
- What would be the impact on the Business Case, which
requires an understanding of benefits loss if the change is
not implemented, verses the gains if it is.
- Whether there are any implications to other
products.
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