外卖店变得更大和更复杂的项目,你需要通过正规的流程和技术来有效地管理工作。项目管理专家汤姆Mochal解释的目的,价值和实施的管理项目成功的最关键的环节。
小项目不一定需要项目管理多项目管理学科的很多知识。但是,作为一个项目变得更大,正规的流程和技术变得至关重要。不同的项目管理方法,组织和构造这些进程,以各种方式,但我们要集中在10个基本方面:
- 定义项目
- 规划工作
- 管理工作计划
- 管理问题
- 管理范围
- 风险管理
- 管理沟通
- 文档管理
- 管理质量
- 管理指标
在一般情况下,如果你能掌握这些领域,你可以在大多数项目中取得成功。您可以不必再担心管理文档或度量一个小项目,但您的项目越大,越多,你需要专注于所有10个进程。
请注意,我们的名单不包括分析,设计,测试,或实施。项目工作的那些谁可能知道,他们通常包括分析和测试。然而,有一个最大的必须进行区分的。分析和测试的实际项目工作的努力(也称为一个项目的生命周期)的一部分。这些阶段的变化取决于项目类型。如果你有一个全生命周期的项目,你可以进行全方位的分析,设计,施工,测试和实施。在其他项目上,你可能会做的某些组件。例如,如果你执行的是研究和开发项目,你会不会做实施。如果你进行了一项研究,该项目可能会结束后的分析阶段。
你看到缺了点什么?
两个过程有时被列为基本的项目管理人员管理和合同和采购管理的一部分。人本管理是项目经理的一项重要技能,但它不是具体的项目管理。毕竟,任何管理上下级关系,需要人的管理。的区别是,它是一个“项目经理”技能,但不一定是“项目管理”技能。
我们也从我们的名单中排除了合同和采购管理。在大多数组织中,项目经理需要了解合同和供应商的管理,但他们不负责。通常是一个法律部门和/或采购部门负责这些学科。
时间和顺序进程
除前两类 - 定义项目和规划的工作 - 10个重大项目管理领域不落入一个连续的路径。流程3至10可以以任何顺序进行,而事实上,在整个项目在并行和持续的方式进行。例如,如果弹出一个主要问题,你必须使用问题管理,而不管其他什么方面的项目管理你正在使用之前,期间或之后。让我们来仔细看看每个进程。
注:此信息也可以作为PDF下载。
#1:定义项目
作为项目经理,你必须让确保工作正确理解和同意项目工作开始前由项目发起人和主要利益相关者。你会的保荐人及利益相关者合作,以确保项目团队和客户有共同的看法,该项目将带来什么,将完成的时候,它会花费什么,谁做的工作,如何工作会完成后,将有什么好处。
项目越大,更重要的是,这个信息被映射正式和明确。所有项目应该从这种类型的前期规划,以防止出现问题,所造成的不同的观点对项目的基本条款。这一步的主要成果是项目定义(有的公司称这个项目宪章“)。
在一个较高的水平,定义工作的目的包括:
- 了解和获得项目的目标,成果,范围,风险,成本,方法等协议定义的工作,这是最重要的部分,是大部分时间花费在获得共同协议。
- 确定原有业务的情况下是否仍然有效。例如,一个项目,需要10,000努力小时,可能使商业意义。如果更详细的定义过程的结果,在20000小时的一个更精确的估计,该项目可能不再是可行的。
- 确保你需要的资源是可用的,当你需要他们。
- 提供一个高层次的基线,从所取得的进展可以进行比较和范围可任意调节。
- 用于管理项目的过程与客户达成一致。
定义工作所需的工作量取决于信息的量和需要被理解和记录的信息的详细程度。定义的工作所需要的持续时间的长度取决于所需的时间来发现和记录的信息,以及所需要的时间,以获得从客户机的协议,并批准。
这可能是很难界定到底什么样子庞大而复杂的项目最终交付。这也是难以估算的总成本和截止日。如果是这样的话,你可以打破该项目分成较小的项目。首先要做的项目,然后应该更容易定义。要在未来完成的项目,可以详细定义,因为他们得到执行。
在结束的定义方面,你应该有一个项目定义,它定义了项目的预期目标,成果,范围,风险,成本,期限,和角色。本文件应正式批准之前,项目团队进行项目发起人和其他关键利益攸关方。有时,你感到沮丧,因为在范围,时间表和成本上与客户达成一致的难度。但是,这正是这个定义工作完成的时间提前的原因。想想你毫无疑问会遭遇试图获得与客户协议的范围,进度,成本的工作已经开始,实际生产交付的问题。
#2:规划工作
当您定义项目,可以确保你有一个协议,应该完成什么样的工作,在这个项目中,项目发起人。在这个阶段,你确定如何将完成的工作。这涉及到建设项目的工作计划。根据项目的大小,你会采取不同的方法。例如,使用像Microsoft Project的项目管理软件包,电子表格,甚至一张纸,可建小项目的工作计划。
如果你没有一项工作计划要使用的模板作为起点,你可以使用你可以在较高的水平,并在项目成越来越小的碎片打破了工作,直到工作分解结构(WBS),技术得到工作的全貌。整个团队合作,在此练习。我建议打破较低水平,直到剩余的每个活动不少于80小时的工作,很清楚什么是需要完成的活动。
一旦所有的工作已经发现了,你可以顺序的活动,并找出它们之间的依赖关系。在这一点上,WBS已被转换为网络图。
接下来,添加资源(工人)的每个活动。如果你知道某些资源,你可以添加他们的名字。如果没有,你可以使用通用名称作为占位符。然后,您可以添加的努力小时,每个活动的开始和结束日期。
现在你的工作计划是蓄势待发。你会知道什么工作,你必须完成(项目定义),以及你将如何完成工作项目工作计划。
项目定义和规划之间的关系
您可能会发现,你不能完成项目定义,而无需启动奠定了整体项目工作计划。在许多情况下,你需要同时在这两个可交付工作。为您收集的信息范围和交付,你需要开始奠定了一个时间表,这样就可以让你的手,周围估计的精力和时间。当交付,范围,假设和方法是完整的,你应该有足够的信息,该项目的工作计划,估计预算,精力,时间,你会使用依次完成项目定义。
#3:管理工作计划
在这一点上,你已经完成定义项目和规划的工作。主要可交付成果是项目定义和项目工作计划。有些项目经理认为,定义和规划的工作,即项目管理是最困难的部分在他们身后。那绝对是不是的情况下。
你永远也不会成为一个成功的项目经理,如果你不保持工作计划日期。记住,工作计划仅仅是一个交付。它描述的工作需要发生的,工作秩序的,需要做出多大的努力,谁分配,但它代表只有你最好的猜测如何完成剩下的工作项目在任何特定点。
您的项目越复杂,就越需要在你的工作计划,随着时间的推移。作为项目经理,你必须评估持续进行(可能是每周)的工作计划,并确定该项目的当前状态。
在此期间每周检讨,你会更新与当前的工作状态完成和正在进行中的工作计划。你会评估,剩下的工作看,如果该项目将原来的努力,成本和工期计划内完成。如果可以,你都处于良好状态。如果不能,你必须采取纠正措施。
所有项目管理的技能,这也许是最根本的。根据你的项目的动态,你可能会不断利用你的经验和创造力,在预期之内完成的项目中的地位。一个星期,你的项目可能是轨道上。接下来的一周,你可能有迟到和问题已经浮出水面的工作任务。
如果在关键路径上的活动是晚了一个星期,你不能坐视不管,让整个项目晚了一个星期。相反,你必须评估可用的资源和选择,并拿到项目回到正轨。如果你善于,工作计划管理,项目管理更具挑战性和有意义的方面之一。如果你不津津乐道,需要细致的工作,你可能会发现更很难获得成功。
#4:管理问题
一个“问题”出现问题时,会阻碍项目的进展情况,并不能得到解决,由项目经理和项目团队没有外界的帮助。如果出现一个重大问题,你没有选择,但解决这个问题。唯一的问题是你是否会积极申请问题管理的情况或比目鱼通过优柔寡断和不确定性,这个问题应如何解决。
问题管理有两个主要组成部分。首先是有一个过程,发现问题,确定他们对项目的影响,检查的替代品,并把人的情况下做出最好的决定。这是所有的项目管理程序的一部分,应该定义并同意提前。这些程序确保问题得到确认,并尽快解决。
问题管理的第二个组成部分是应用特定的解决问题的技巧。这包括一些技术,如鱼骨图,帕累托图,和根本原因分析的理解。了解这些技术中的一个或多个,可以让你和你的团队理解的性质和造成的问题,什么样的选择是,什么样的替代将是最好的行动方针。
一个重要的事情,所有项目经理发现是有一个过程来解决问题,这并不意味着你会成功地解决每一个。有时候,有很大的替代问题,你的工作是帮助发现最好的一个。在其他情况下,有没有很好解决的一个主要问题。有时,您的最终选择是造成最小的伤害或者是最糟糕的选择中挑选解决方案。尽管如此,你的问题解决过程和解决问题的技巧,可以让你确定哪些选项可用,因此你至少明白反响。
#5:管理范围
范围说明该项目的边界,定义项目将提供什么,需要什么数据,以及受到影响的组织。给定一组的资源和时间,无限多的东西可交付使用。
范围变更的定义范围变更管理开始。如果项目经理没有做过一份好工作的定义范围,这将是难以管理,在项目范围。范围变更管理的目的是为了保护电流,核准的项目定义的可行性。当该项目被定义,什么项目会产生一定的成本,并在一定的时间内设定一定的期望。你和项目发起人有那些开发及审批项目定义时,心中的期望。
在一个项目的生命过程中,有可能是需要的项目是不同的,或者不包括在原来的项目定义,这是可以预料的。如果发生这种情况,客户端不应该期望这些项目可交付使用先前商定的资源和时间上的限制。该项目小组将确定新的要求,并确定项目的影响,如果在新规定包括。的信息,然后采取保荐人批准。
记住,赞助商是谁批准的工作经费,开始。因此,他或她是谁批准的任何更改原协议。如果足够高的商业价值的变化,保荐机构应当批准增加了新的要求的项目,以及增量预算和时间表来完成这项工作所需。然后每个人都将在协议和大家的期望,将被重置。
当然,有时它不发生的那么顺利。常见的问题包括:
- 范围蠕变。大范围的变化,很容易发现。然而,当变化都很小,有时你会发现,你包括他们没有意识到这一点。意味着你接受小的变化,有一个显着的累积效应对项目范围蔓延。你和整个团队必须勤于防范范围的所有变化-大,小。
- 最终用户范围审批项目发起人支付项目的人。然而,一旦项目开始,球队花费更多的时间与较低级别的客户和最终用户。某些项目团队成员相信,范围变更都很好,如果最终用户的批准。这不是这种情况。除非赞助商已明确下放审批权限,这些人不能批准范围变更。他们可以提出范围变更请求,但只有赞助商的资金授权批准增量工作。
- 团队成员不承担责任。错过最后期限的一个常见原因是队员比需要做更多的工作。例如,团队成员可能会被要求创建一个报告。他或她创造它,客户要求的新信息。团队成员尝试,以适应客户端,工作结束了迟到。这种情况发生时,团队成员认为,只有项目经理需要担心范围变更管理。他们需要明白,它是每个人的责任。
许多项目失败的根本原因是范围变更管理不佳。有效地定义和管理范围将增加成功的机会,你的项目将达到预期。
#6:风险管理
风险是指未来的情况或存在的情况下,项目团队的控制范围以外的,如果它们发生,将有不利影响的项目。换句话说,而一个问题是,必须要处理的当前的一个问题,风险是一个潜在的问题。功的项目经理解决问题,当他们出现。积极主动的项目经理, 尝试找出并解决潜在的问题发生之前。这是风险管理的科学与艺术。
由于规模较小的项目通常不具有持续时间长,有发展问题的机会较少。较大的项目通常有潜伏的风险只是在地平线上。风险管理涉及到项目中找出所有潜在风险,确定他们会发生的可能性有多大,了解对项目的影响,如果他们发生。
有了这些信息,项目团队可以决定哪些风险应积极管理。例如,一个具有高风险发生的概率和对项目的影响,一定要积极主动地管理。另一方面,具有较高的发生的可能性,但对项目的影响的边缘的风险,可能会忽略。
一旦你确定你想要积极管理风险,可以调用五个一般反应:
- 离开它。你会留下一个风险,如果您确定您的项目将不会受到伤害,如果发生的风险或是否有什么可以做,以解决风险,你愿意借此机会,它会不会发生。
- 监控的风险。在这种情况下,你不主动降低风险,但您监视它,看它是否或多或少可能发生,随着时间的推移。如果它看起来更可能发生以后,团队必须解决它在那个时候。
- 避免风险:避免风险意味着消除的条件,这是造成问题。例如,与特定供应商相关的风险可能是可以避免的,如果使用其它供应商。
- 移动的风险:在某些情况下,风险管理的责任可以从项目中删除,通过分配向另一实体或第三方的风险。
- 降低风险:在大多数情况下,这是采取的方法。如果风险已经确定,是一个问题,你可以制定一个积极的计划,以确保它不会发生。
正如范围变更,本身并没有错,有一个项目的风险。客户不要指望一个项目将是无风险的。要紧的是项目管理的响应。如果风险被识别和积极管理,该项目有一个更好的成功机会。如果风险被忽略,该项目将受到负面影响,当风险变成问题。当时,有可能解决,而不会影响该项目的选择比较少。
#7:管理沟通
正常通信的一个项目是管理客户和股东的关键。如果他们没有充分了解项目进度,存在的问题和困难,由于不同的期望水平是一个更大的机会。事实上,在许多情况下,当冲突出现时,这是不是因为实际的问题,而是因为客户或经理人感到惊讶。
有两个级别项目上进行通信。首先,所有的项目应沟通状态。其次,如果你的项目是更大,更复杂,更充满政治色彩的,你需要一个更高和更复杂的层次的沟通,在沟通计划。
状态会议和地位报告
所有项目都需要有效的沟通,项目经理和项目团队从项目经理到其他的利益相关者。状态报告和状态会议,需要做的不仅仅是说该项目是否是轨道上。这是沟通的时候,你一切你觉得需要知道你的项目。你沟通一下坚持到项目的预算和进度,从上一报告期的成果,规划今后一个时期的成就,新的风险,当前的问题,以及目前的范围变更请求。
必须传达的信息和演示,与观众的心灵。因此,你会期待与您的团队,每周状态会议将包括在一个相当低的和详细的讨论。状态报告发送到赞助商和管理利益攸关方必然是短暂的和高层次的。
沟通计划
大举措,尤其是那种需要组织变革,必须包括一个整体沟通计划,需要多方面的沟通方式。建立这个计划的过程包括定义您的所有利益相关者,确定他们需要什么信息,集思广益的方式来传递信息,然后决定一组尽可能涵盖尽可能多的利益相关者的沟通,在资源最高效的方式。
根据观众的沟通分为三个领域之一。
- 强制性的。这包括状态报告,预算报告,以及法律和审计的要求。
- 信息,这是需要了解更多的人可以提供扩展信息的通信。例子包括一个文档库,常见问题解答(FAQ),和一个项目网站,其中包含相关项目信息。
- 这是市场营销。通信的设计为您的项目建设的积极性。例子包括发布的成功故事,建筑的正面形象,分发管理推荐,并使用一个项目的标志。
由项目经理必须积极主动地处理通信,必须在规划和执行有目的的记住。如果有效和积极的沟通,你会发现,整个项目的运行更顺畅,减少冲突和挫折。
#8:管理文件
许多项目经理是理所当然的,直到他们淹没了数百个文件,文档管理。这是更好地估计项目和项目管理文档,您认为该项目将产生的体积,建立适当的流程和规则来组织文档,管理文档在项目过程中,以确保它不会失控。
规模较小的项目的项目经理不需要给尽可能多的思想来管理文档。随着项目的不断变大,文件明确需要进行积极的管理。最简单的包括文档丢失或问题是很难找到工作,结束了被复制。在最坏的情况,文件版本走出,克服文档更新张贴和丢失,混乱和不确定性统治。
这是项目管理的一个方面,可能会得到一个工具,如一个文件,存储库。然而,工具可以是一样混乱,如果适当的技术不是用于存储文件的方式,使他们能够很容易地检索。
文档管理涉及简单和复杂的任务。一个简单的活动,例如,是一个文档的命名约定。如果你的团队有10人,每个人每个星期提交状态报告,这是不长之前,你有成百上千的文档。它更容易组织的文件,如果每个人都使用通用命名约定。的文件的名称应与每个人的名字吗?如果是这样的话,那么每个人的历史地位报告会排列在一起,更容易找到。
或许你会想搜索特定时间点的状态报告。在这种情况下,状态报告应该开始的日期。然后所有的状态报告特别报告周期将一起排序。
文档管理另一部分是理解文件的工具,你将使用的类型。例如,您可能定义Microsoft Word作为标准的文档编辑器。如果你的团队是跨职能,包括客户,供应商和供应商,这些类型的文档管理规则变得更加重要。
必须考虑其他因素,成功地管理文件。这些措施包括,在这里您可以存储文件,他们将如何组织,访问和安全规则,关键字/索引,命名标准,版本控制,完成状态,保留/清除,备份,和标准模板格式。
#9:质量管理
表示质量是如何接近的项目和成果,来满足客户的要求和期望。换句话说,质量最终测得的客户端。
项目团队应该努力达到或超过客户的要求和期望。有时有一种倾向,认为“质量”是指最好的材料和设备零缺陷。然而,在大多数情况下,客户端不会想到,买不起,一个完美的解决方案。如果只有一个项目中的一些颠簸,客户端仍然可以说,该项目提供高水平的质量。
另一方面,设计一个完美的,无缺陷的解决方案,并不满足客户的需求,不被认为是高品质。质量管理步骤的目的是在质量方面,首先要了解客户的期望,然后把一个地方,以满足或超过预期的计划和过程。
因为质量定义的客户端,它可能似乎是它是完全主观的。然而,大量关于质量可以是客观的。这首先需要分解成若干定义的质量特性的领域,“品质”的通用术语。
例如,你能想到的品质的电脑应用程序在响应时间方面,外观和手感,易于理解,帮助文档水平,无瑕疵。一旦你定义了更多实实在在的品质特点,你可以看看他们每个人来决定他们如何可以测量更具客观性。
质量管理是不是一个事件:这是一个过程,一种思维定势。一贯的高品质的产品,不能产生一个错误的过程。你需要一个重复的周期测量质量和更新过程。
收集度量标准,使质量管理工作过程中是至关重要的。因此,项目管理,质量管理和管理指标,第九届和第十届方面是紧密联系在一起的。如果你想做好质量管理,您必须衡量。
当项目被初步定义,项目团队必须了解客户的期望,在质量方面,质量计划,计划的活动,以满足这些期望。质量计划包含完整性和正确性标准,使项目团队知道质量的期望是什么。
质量计划中还包含两个通用的质量管理流程:质量控制和质量保证。质量控制活动,确保项目所产生的交付满足客户的期望。在质量控制活动的一个例子是各组成部分的检查,将用于完成一个最终的可交付。质量保证活动,确保创建可交付使用的过程都是高品质的。质量保证技术的一个例子是一个清单,它包含了所有可交付达到竣工验收之前,必须完成的步骤。
质量管理的目的之一是尽可能在项目的早期发现错误和缺陷。因此,良好的质量管理过程,最终将采取更多的精力时间和成本在项目前。然而,早期注重质量有一个大的回报,随着项目的进展。例如,它是更有效地发现与业务需求的问题,在分析阶段的项目,而不是重新添加缺少的要求,在产品测试工作。它也便宜得多发现的问题,例如,当芯片被制造比来代替它,当客户端在购买后的服务带来的产品中的计算机芯片。
#10:管理指标
收集度量项目是最复杂的项目管理流程,可能是最难的。因为指标难以界定和收集,他们通常被忽略或处理不好。所有项目应当收集有关成本,工作量和周期时间的基本度量信息。然而,还必须收集指标,确定交付满足客户的期望,以及内部项目交付流程工作。根据结果,你可以采取纠正行动或过程改进活动,使流程更加高效和有效。
管理指标和质量管理有关。如果你不收集度量,交付或流程质量难以提高。度量是用来给一些迹象开始的质量状况是什么质量是否增加或减少。
许多指标可以聚集在一个项目。项目团队应该识别和收集一套平衡,提供最大的价值。要确定正确的指标为您的项目,您可以:
- 确定项目的成功标准在产品交付成果和项目执行方面。也就是说,确定你的成果需要什么样子的项目是成功的。此外,确定您的项目需要完成,被认为是成功的,例如,预算和期限的预期。
- “头脑风暴”式的讨论提供了一套指标,每个成功标准的状态指示。
- 看为一套平衡的指标,成本,交期,质量和客户满意度方面取得成功的迹象。
- 优先考虑潜在的指标,拿出一个列表,以最具成本效益的方式提供最大的价值。
- 设置目标,让你判断是否成功。度量是很少的价值本身。值来测量你是对的首选国家或同意的目标。
- 添加收藏活动的工作计划,以确保人民群众负责的度量收集和分析过程。
在一般情况下,指标管理是价值不大的较小的项目,因为没有足够的时间采集数据,分析结果,并作出适当的过程改进的变化。较长的项目,给你的时间使用反馈回路。如果该指标被用来驱动改善组织范围的基础上,获得最具价值。
Takeaway: The bigger and more complex a project gets, the more you need formal processes and techniques to effectively manage the work. Project management expert Tom Mochal explains the purpose, value, and implementation of the most critical aspects of successfully managing a project.
Small projects don’t necessarily require much knowledge of project management or much project management discipline. But as a project gets larger, formal processes and techniques become essential. Different project management methodologies organize and structure these processes in various ways, but we’re going to focus on 10 basic areas:
- Define the project
- Plan the work
- Manage the workplan
- Manage issues
- Manage scope
- Manage risks
- Manage communication
- Manage documentation
- Manage quality
- Manage metrics
In general, if you can master these areas, you can succeed in most projects. You may not have to worry about managing documentation or metrics on a small project, but the larger your project, the more you’ll need to focus on all 10 processes.
Notice that our list doesn’t include analysis, design, testing, or implementation. Those who have worked on projects probably know that they typically include analysis and testing. However, there is a major distinction to be made. Analysis and testing are part of the actual project work effort (also called a project lifecycle). These phases change depending on the project type. If you have a full lifecycle project, you could perform the full range of analysis, design, construction, testing, and implementation. On other projects, you might do only certain components. For example, if you were performing a research and development project, you wouldn’t be doing implementation. If you were performing a study, the project might end after the analysis phase.
Do you see something missing?
Two processes are sometimes included as a part of basic project management: people management and contract and procurement management. People management is an important skill for project managers, but it’s not specific to project management. After all, any management-subordinate relationship requires people management. The distinction is that it’s a project “manager” skill, but not necessarily a project “management” skill.
We’ve also excluded contract and procurement management from our list. In most organizations, project managers need to know about the management of contracts and vendors, but they aren’t responsible for it. A legal department and/or procurement department is usually responsible for these disciplines.
Timing and sequencing of the processes
Except for the first two categories — defining the project and planning the work — the 10 major project management areas don’t fall into a sequential path. Processes 3 through 10 can be done in any order, and in fact, are done in a parallel and ongoing manner throughout the project. For example, if a major problem pops up, you must use issues management regardless of what other aspects of project management you’re using before, during, or after that time. Let’s take a closer look at each process.
Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.
#1: Define the project
As the project manager, you must make sure that the work is properly understood and agreed to by the project sponsor and key stakeholders before the project work begins. You’ll work with the sponsor and stakeholders to ensure that the project team and the client have common perceptions of what the project will deliver, when it will be complete, what it will cost, who will do the work, how the work will be completed, and what the benefits will be.
The larger the project, the more important it is that this information is mapped out formally and explicitly. All projects should start with this type of upfront planning to prevent problems caused by differing viewpoints on the basic terms of the project. The major deliverable from this step is the Project Definition (some companies call this a Project Charter).
At a high level, the purpose of defining the work includes:
- Understanding and gaining agreement on project objectives, deliverables, scope, risk, cost, approach, etc. This is the most important part of defining the work and is where most of the time is spent in gaining common agreement.
- Determining whether the original business case is still valid. For example, a project that requires 10,000 effort hours might make business sense. If the more detailed definition process results in a more refined estimate of 20,000 hours, the project may no longer be feasible.
- Making sure the resources you need are available when you need them.
- Providing a high-level baseline from which progress can be compared and scope can be controlled.
- Gaining agreement with the client on the processes used to manage the project.
The effort required to define the work depends on the amount of information and the level of detail that need to be understood and documented. The duration required to define the work depends on the length of time necessary to discover and document the information, as well as the time required to gain agreement and approval from the client.
It may be difficult to define exactly what the final deliverables look like for large and complex projects. It is also difficult to estimate the total cost and deadline date. If that is the case, you can break the project into smaller projects. The projects that are done first should then be much easier to define. The projects that are to be completed in the future can be defined in detail as they get closer to execution.
At the end of the definition aspect, you should have a Project Definition that defines the expectations of the project in terms of objectives, deliverables, scope, risks, costs, deadline, and roles. This document should be formally approved by the project sponsor and other key stakeholders before the project team proceeds. At times, you can get frustrated because of the difficulty in gaining agreement with the client on scope, timeline, and cost. But that is exactly the reason this definition work is done ahead of time. Think of the problems you would no doubt encounter trying to gain agreement with the client on scope, schedule, or cost when the work had started and the deliverables were actually being produced.
#2: Plan the work
When you define the project, you make sure that you have an agreement with the project sponsor on what work should be completed in this project. In this stage, you determine how the work will be completed. This involves building the Project Workplan. You’ll take different approaches according to the size of the project. For example, the workplan for small projects can be built using a project management package like Microsoft Project, a spreadsheet, or even a piece of paper.
If you don’t have a workplan template to use as your starting point, you can use the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), a technique for looking at the project at a high level and breaking the work into smaller and smaller pieces until you can get the full picture of the work. The entire team can collaborate on this exercise. I recommend breaking down the work into lower levels until each remaining activity is less than 80 hours, and it is clear what is required to complete the activity.
Once all of the work has been uncovered, you can sequence the activities and identify dependencies between them. At this point, the WBS has been converted to a Network Diagram.
Next, you add resources (workers) for each activity. If you know of certain resources, you can add them by name. If not, you can use generic names as placeholders. You then add the effort hours and the beginning and ending dates for each activity.
Your workplan is now ready to go. You’ll know what work you have to complete (Project Definition) and how you’ll get the work done (Project Workplan).
The relationship between defining and planning the project
You may find that you can’t complete the Project Definition without starting to lay out the overall Project Workplan. In many cases, you’ll need to work on these two deliverables simultaneously. As you gather information about scope and deliverables, you’ll need to start laying out a timeline so that you can get your hands around estimated effort and duration. When the deliverables, scope, assumptions, and approach are complete, you should have enough information in the Project Workplan to estimate the budget, effort, and duration, which you’ll use in turn to complete the Project Definition.
#3: Manage the workplan
At this point, you’ve finished defining the project and planning the work. The major deliverables in place are the Project Definition and Project Workplan. Some project managers think that defining and planning the work means that the hard part of managing the project is behind them. That is definitely not the case.
You’ll never be a successful project manager if you don’t keep the workplan up to date. Remember, the workplan is only a deliverable. It describes the work that needs to occur, the order of the work, how much effort is required, and who is assigned, but it represents only your best guess as to how to complete the remaining work at any particular point in the project.
The more complex your project is, the more change is going to be required in your workplan over time. As the project manager, you must evaluate the workplan on an ongoing basis (perhaps weekly) and determine the current state of the project.
During this weekly review, you’ll update the workplan with the current state of work that is completed and in progress. You’ll evaluate the remaining work to see if the project will be completed within the original effort, cost, and duration plans. If it can, you are in good shape. If it can’t, you must implement corrective action.
Of all of the skills of managing the project, this one is perhaps the most fundamental. Depending on the dynamics of your project, you may be in the position of having to constantly use your experience and creativity to get the project completed within expectations. One week, your project may be on track. The next week, you may have work assignments that are late and issues that have surfaced.
If an activity on the critical path is a week late, you can’t sit idly and allow the entire project to be a week late. Instead, you must evaluate the resources and options available and get the project back on track. If you’re good at it, managing the workplan can be one of the more challenging and rewarding aspects of project management. If you don’t relish the detailed work that is required, you may find it much more difficult to be successful.
#4: Manage issues
An “issue” arises when a problem will impede the progress of the project and can’t be resolved by the project manager and project team without outside help. If a major problem emerges, you have no choice but to resolve it. The only question is whether you’ll actively apply issues management to the situation or flounder through indecision and uncertainty about how the issue should be resolved.
Issues management has two major components. The first is having a process to uncover issues, determine their impact on the project, examine alternatives, and bring in people to make the best decision under the circumstances. This is all part of the project management procedures that should be defined and agreed to ahead of time. These procedures ensure that issues are recognized and resolved as quickly as possible.
The second component of issues management is applying specific problem-solving techniques. This includes some understanding of techniques such as Fishbone diagrams, Pareto charts, and root cause analysis. Having an understanding of one or more of these techniques allows you and your team to understand the nature and cause of the problem, what options are available, and what alternative would be the best course of action.
One important thing that all project managers discover is that having a process to resolve issues doesn’t mean you’ll successfully resolve every one. Sometimes, there are great alternatives to issues and your job is to help discover the best one. In other instances, there is no good resolution to a major problem. On occasion, your final choice is to pick the solution that causes the least harm or is the best among poor choices. Still, your issues resolution process and your problem-solving techniques will allow you to determine what options are available so that you at least understand the repercussions.
#5: Manage scope
Scope describes the boundaries of the project and defines what the project will deliver, what data is needed, and which organizations are affected. Given a set of resources and time, an infinite number of things can be delivered.
Scope change management starts with scope change definition. If the project manager hasn’t done a good job defining scope, it will be difficult to manage scope during the project. The purpose of scope change management is to protect the viability of the current, approved Project Definition. When the project was defined, certain expectations were set for what the project was going to produce for a certain cost and in a certain timeframe. Both you and the project sponsor have those expectations in mind when the Project Definition is developed and approved.
During the life of a project, there may be a need for items that are different from, or not included in, the original Project Definition; this is to be expected. If this occurs, the client should not expect that these items can be delivered using the previously agreed on resource and time constraints. The project team will identify the new requirements and determine the impact to the project if the new requirements are included. The information is then taken to the sponsor for approval.
Remember, the sponsor is the one who approved the funding of the work to begin with. Therefore, he or she is the one who should approve any changes to the original agreement. If the business value of the change is high enough, the sponsor should approve adding the new requirement to the project, as well as the incremental budget and timeline needed to complete the work. Everyone will then be in agreement and everyone’s expectations will have been reset.
Of course, sometimes it doesn’t happen so smoothly. Common problems include:
- Scope creep. Large scope changes are easy to spot. However, when the changes are small, sometimes you find that you’re including them without realizing it. Scope creep means that you’re accepting small changes that end up having a significant cumulative effect on the project. You and the entire team must be diligent to guard for all scope changes — big and small.
- End-user scope approval. The project sponsor is the person paying for the project. However, once the project begins, the team spends more time with lower-level clients and end users. Some project team members believe that scope changes are fine if the end user approves them. This is not the case. Unless the sponsor has specifically delegated the approval authority, these people can’t approve scope changes. They can raise scope change requests, but only the sponsor has the funding authorization to approve incremental work.
- Team members not being accountable. A common cause of missing deadlines is that the team members end up doing more work than required. For example, a team member may be asked to create a report. As he or she is creating it, the client asks for new information. The team member tries to accommodate the client, and the work ends up being late. This happens when team members think that only the project manager needs to worry about scope change management. They need to understand that it’s everyone’s responsibility.
The root cause of many unsuccessful projects is poor scope change management. Defining and managing scope effectively will increase the chances that your project will meet expectations.
#6: Manage risk
Risk refers to future conditions or circumstances that exist outside the control of the project team and that will have an adverse impact on the project if they occur. In other words, whereas an issue is a current problem that must be dealt with, a risk is a potential problem. Reactive project managers resolve issues when they arise. Proactive project managers try to identify and resolve potential problems before they occur. This is the science and art of risk management.
Since smaller projects usually don’t have long durations, there is less opportunity for problems to develop. Larger projects usually have risks lurking just over the horizon. Risk management involves identifying all potential risks to the project, determining how likely they are to occur, and understanding the impact on the project if they occur.
With that information, the project team can determine which risks should be actively managed. For example, a risk with a high probability of occurring and a large impact on the project should definitely be managed proactively. On the other hand, a risk that has a high likelihood of occurring but a marginal impact on the project can probably be ignored.
Once you identify which risks you want to actively manage, you can invoke five general responses:
- Leave it. You would leave a risk if you determined that your project would not be harmed if the risk occurred or if there was nothing that could be done to address the risk and you’re willing to take the chance that it won’t occur.
- Monitor the risk. In this case, you don’t proactively mitigate the risk but you monitor it to see whether it’s more or less likely to occur as time goes on. If it looks more likely to occur later, the team must address it at that time.
- Avoid the risk: Avoiding the risk means eliminating the condition that’s causing the problem. For example, risks associated with a particular vendor might be avoided if another vendor is used.
- Move the risk: In some instances, the responsibility for managing a risk can be removed from the project by assigning the risk to another entity or third party.
- Mitigate the risk: In most situations, this is the approach to take. If a risk has been identified and is a concern, you can develop a proactive plan to ensure that it doesn’t occur.
As with scope changes, there is nothing inherently wrong with having risks on a project. Clients don’t expect that a project will be risk-free. What matters is the project management response. If risks are identified and actively managed, the project has a much better chance of success. If risks are ignored, the project will be negatively affected when the risks turn into issues. At that time, there may be fewer options for resolution without impacting the project.
#7: Manage communication
Properly communicating on a project is critical for managing the clients and the shareholders. If they’re not kept well informed of the project progress, there is a much greater chance of problems and difficulties due to differing expectation levels. In fact, in many cases when conflicts arise, it’s not because of the actual problem, but because the client or manager was surprised.
There are two levels of communicating on projects. First, all projects should communicate status. Second, if your project is larger, more complex, or more politically charged, you need a higher and more sophisticated level of communication defined in a Communication Plan.
Status meetings and status reports
All projects need effective communication from the project team to the project manager and from the project manager to the rest of the stakeholders. Status reports and status meetings need to do more than just say whether the project is on track. This is the time you communicate everything you think needs to be known about your project. You communicate about adherence to the project’s budget and schedule, accomplishments from the last reporting period, planned accomplishments for the next period, new risks, current issues, and current scope change requests.
The information and presentation must be communicated with the audience in mind. Therefore, you would expect that a weekly status meeting with your team would include discussions at a fairly low and detailed level. Status reports you send to the sponsor and management stakeholders will necessarily be brief and high-level.
Communication Plan
Large initiatives, especially the kind that require organizational change, must include an overall Communication Plan that takes a multifaceted approach to communication. The process for building this plan includes defining all your stakeholders, determining what information they need, brainstorming ways to deliver that information, and then deciding on a set of communications that cover as many stakeholders as possible in the most resource-efficient manner.
Depending on the audience, the communication falls into one of three areas.
- Mandatory. This includes status reports, budget reports, and legal and auditing requirements.
- Informational. This is communication that provides extended information for people with a need to know more. Examples include a document library, frequently asked questions (FAQ), and a project Web site that contains relevant project information.
- Marketing. This is communication designed to build enthusiasm for your project. Examples include publishing success stories, building a positive image, distributing management testimonials, and using a project logo.
Communication must be handled proactively by the project manager and must be planned and executed with a purpose in mind. If you communicate effectively and proactively, you’ll find that the entire project runs more smoothly and with less conflict and frustration.
#8: Manage documents
Many project managers take document management for granted until they’re inundated with hundreds of documents. It’s better to estimate the volume of project and project management documentation you think the project will produce, establish the proper processes and rules to organize the documentation, and then manage the documentation during the project to ensure that it doesn’t get out of control.
Project managers on smaller projects don’t need to give as much thought to managing documentation. As projects get larger, the documentation definitively needs to be actively managed. Problems at their simplest include documentation that gets lost or is hard to find and work that ends up being duplicated. At its worst, document versions get out of order, document updates get over-posted and lost, and confusion and uncertainty reign.
This is an aspect of project management that may be supported by a tool, such as a document repository. However, tools can be just as confusing if proper techniques aren’t used to store documents in a manner that allows them to be easily retrieved.
Document management involves simple and complex tasks. A simple activity, for example, is a document-naming convention. If you have 10 people on your team and each one submits a status report each week, it’s not long before you have hundreds of documents. It’s easier to organize the documents if everyone uses a common naming convention. Should the name of the document start with each person’s name? If so, then each person’s historical status reports will sort together and be easier to find.
Or perhaps you’ll want to search for status reports from particular points in time. In that case, the status reports should start with the date. Then all the status reports for a particular reporting cycle will sort together.
Another part of document management is understanding the types of document tools you’ll use. For example, you might define Microsoft Word as your standard document editor. If your team is cross-functional and includes clients, vendors, and suppliers, these types of document management rules become more vital.
Other factors must be considered to successfully manage documents. These include where you’ll store the documents, how they’ll be organized, access and security rules, keywords/indexing, naming standards, versioning, completion status, retention/purging, backups, and standard template formats.
#9: Manage quality
Quality is represented by how close the project and deliverables come to meeting the client’s requirements and expectations. In other words, quality is ultimately measured by the client.
The project team should strive to meet or exceed the client’s requirements and expectations. Sometimes there is a tendency to think that “quality” means the best material and equipment and zero defects. However, in most cases, the client doesn’t expect, and can’t afford, a perfect solution. If there are just a few bumps in the project, the client can still say that the project delivered to a high level of quality.
On the other hand, a flawlessly designed, defect-free solution that doesn’t meet the client’s needs isn’t considered high quality. The purpose of the quality management step is to first understand the expectations of the client in terms of quality and then put a plan and process in place to meet or exceed those expectations.
Because quality is defined by the client, it may seem that it is completely subjective. However, plenty about quality can be objective. This requires first breaking down the generic term of “quality” into a number of areas that define the characteristics of quality.
For example, you can think of a quality computer application in terms of response time, look-and-feel, ease of understanding, level of help documentation, and absence of defects. Once you’ve defined the more tangible characteristics of quality, you can look at each of them to determine how they can be measured with more objectivity.
Quality management is not an event: It is a process and a mindset. A consistently high-quality product can’t be produced by a faulty process. You need a repetitive cycle of measuring quality and updating processes.
Collecting metrics is vital to making the quality management process work. So, the ninth and tenth aspects of project management, managing quality and managing metrics, are closely tied. If you want to do a good job of managing quality, you must measure.
When the project is initially defined, the project team must understand the expectations of the client in terms of quality and plan the activities to meet those expectations in a Quality Plan. The Quality Plan contains completeness and correctness criteria so that the project team knows what the quality expectations are.
The Quality Plan also contains the two general quality processes: quality control and quality assurance. Quality control activities ensure the deliverables produced by the project meet client expectations. An example of a quality control activity is an inspection of each component that will be used to complete a final deliverable. Quality assurance activities ensure that the processes used to create the deliverables are of high quality. An example of a quality assurance technique is a checklist that contains all of the steps that a deliverable must complete before it reaches final acceptance.
One of the purposes of quality management is to find errors and defects as early in the project as possible. Therefore, a good quality management process will end up taking more effort hours and cost up-front in the project. However, focusing on quality early has a large payback as the project progresses. For example, it is much more efficient to spot problems with the business requirements during the analysis phase of the project than to redo work to add missing requirements during the product testing. It’s also much cheaper to find a problem with, for example, a computer chip when the chip is manufactured than to replace it when a client brings the product in for service after a purchase.
#10: Manage metrics
Gathering metrics on a project is the most sophisticated project management process and can be the hardest. Because metrics can be difficult to define and collect, they’re usually ignored or handled poorly. All projects should be gathering basic metric information regarding cost, effort, and cycle time. However, you must also collect metrics that determine how well the deliverables satisfy the client’s expectations and how well the internal project delivery processes are working. Depending on the results, you can undertake corrective action or process improvement activities to make the processes more efficient and effective.
Managing metrics and managing quality are related. It is difficult to improve the quality of your deliverables or your processes if you’re not gathering metrics. Metrics are used to give some indication of what the beginning state of quality is and whether quality is increasing or decreasing.
Many metrics can be gathered on a project. The project team should identify and collect a balanced set that provides the most value. To determine the right metrics for your project, you:
- Identify the project success criteria in terms of product deliverables and project execution. That is, determine what your deliverables need to look like for the project to be successful. Also determine how your project needs to be completed to be considered successful-for example, budget and deadline expectations.
- Brainstorm a set of metrics that provides an indication of the state of each success criterion.
- Look for a balanced set of metrics that provides indications of success in terms of cost, delivery, quality, and client satisfaction.
- Prioritize the potential metrics to come up with a list that provides the most value in the most cost-effective manner.
- Set targets to allow you to determine success. Metrics are rarely of value alone. The value comes in measuring where you are against a preferred state or agreed on target.
- Add collection activities to the workplan to ensure that people are responsible for the metric collection and analysis process.
In general, metrics management is of less value on smaller projects because there isn’t enough time to capture the data, analyze the results, and make appropriate process improvement changes. Longer projects give you time to use a feedback loop. The most value is gained if the metrics are used to drive improvements on an organization-wide basis.