SKILL NUMBER 3: MANAGING PROJECT

THE BOOK OF MANAGEMENT

THE TEN ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR ACHIEVING HIGH PERFORMANCE

SKILL NUMBER 3: MANAGING PROJECT (pg. 148-213)

Project Management

 

Project management is the skill of moving from idea to results.  Projects are the mechanism by which organization and individuals change and adapt to take advantage of new opportunities or counter threats.  Projects usually require coordinated activity of a number of people to achieve the outcome.  At the simplest level, a project is a ‘one-off’ which is defined by three parameter that is time, cost and quality.  The six phases of a project are:

Nos.	Phases	Explanation
1.	INITIATION	Identify problem to be solved or opportunity to be explored
2.	DEFINITION	Refining understanding
3.	PLANNING	Deciding the details
4.	CONTROL	Doing, monitoring, and adjusting according to need
5.	IMPLEMENTATION
6.	REVIEW	Assess the outcome

 

Important elements that can’t be ignored when managing a project:

1. Defining the team
2. Understanding key roles

Every project is different.  But the key roles that apply to most projects are:

1. Sponsor – owner of resources and authority
2. Manager – daily executive responsible for the project
3. Technical specialist – people with the expert skills
4. Client – coordinates or represent the interests of end-user group
5. Buyer – procure or commission projects on behalf of end-user
6. Quality assurance – to ensure all prescribed methodologies are carried out properly
7. End-user
2. Know your team

Team members frequently have other work to juggle and will be influenced by a second ring of stakeholders whom you have no direct control such as line-managers, colleagues, clients and suppliers.

4. Owning the project

Demonstrate personal and managerial competence and commitment.  Must be able to communicate and have confidence to stand up to opposition both inside and outside the project team.  Must also be a good listener with the ability to sift through the opinions and to take on ideas.

5. Taking responsibilities

Must have a balance of task- and people-related skills as success comes from building diverse individuals into a strong team.  This will be achieved through

·         Personal determination

·         Creativity

·         Powers of persuasion

·         Moral change

·         Integrity

·         Excellent time management

·         Personal organization

·         Some understanding of the technical aspects of the project.

6. Engaging with the sponsor

The relationship between project manager and sponsor is the foundation upon which the whole project is built.  Both must have the same understanding of success and established a relationship of trust so as to enable the sharing of issues and concerns with each other.  Effective sponsor is one of the key determinants of success.

7. Documenting the progress

This will not only increase the efficiency of project team but also improve communication.  Simple formats work best.  Never underestimate presentation – people are quick to judge based on first impressions.  The practice of physically signing off documents is a very useful way to get people to take project seriously.

6 KEY PHASES OF DOCUMENTATION

01	Initiation phase	Mandate (agreement of the project’s need and aims Brief (description of issues to be resolved or opportunity to be exploited)
02	Definition phase	Project initiation document (PID) (defines project deliveries and whys) Business case (financial figures behind the opportunity) Risk log
03	Planning phase	Schedule and resource plans (including completion dates and resource requirements) Quality plan (monitoring and how)
04	Control phase	Changes to scope (agreed modification to original brief) Milestone reviews (progress against schedule and budget) Quality reviews
05	Implementation phase	User acceptance test (UAT) Implementation schedule
06	Review phase	Post implementation review Lessons learnt review

 

A successful project depends on clear thinking in the preparatory stages.  Important things a project manager needs to know when setting up a project:

1. Have a project brief

To establish agreement in how to achieve project success, the brief should

·         Be documented

·         Address issues and opportunities

·         Outline thoughts on how best this might be done

2. Putting a team together

An effective manager builds a team with a strong sense of identity.  Its important to build and maintain the ‘team dynamic’.  Get started

·         Select the right people

·         Take personality ‘fit’ and motivation into account

·         Assess potential candidates

·         Research the best way to manage them

·         Make personal approach to each person selected and request their participation

·         Explain why they have been selected and the benefits expected

·         Have an initial meetings with all team members to discuss

o   Team roles

o   Ground rules

o   Hopes and concerns

o   Decision making processes

o   Success acknowledgement

o   Alternative actions

o   Addressing conflicts

·         Name your project team

·         Create ownership by involvement in

o   Production of work

o   Risk analysis

o   Problem solving

3. Identifying the key players
4. Gather information

This can be done by asking the right people the right questions in the right way and record the findings.  Identify the essentials and the ‘nice to have’.

5. Weigh the costs

Every project is an investment of time, effort and resources.  It is important to weigh:

·         The cost of undertaking the project

·         The benefits it is likely to deliver

Invisible cost should also be taken into account.  While it is easy to identify the change the project will deliver, the benefits should be aligned with at least one of the organization’s goal.

 

Projects by nature are risky.  So it’s important to identify, plan for and manage risk.  Risk need to be evaluated by 2 criteria:

1. Probability (the likelihood of happening)
2. Impact (the seriousness)

DEALING WITH RISK There are 5 ways of dealing with risk, as outlined in the internationally recognized project management standard PRINCE2
PLAN CONTINGENCY	Have a Plan B that will achieve the same result by a different route and leave future plans intact
REDUCE	Take action to reduce either the likelihood or impact of the risk
TRANSFER	See if you can spread the risk so that the consequence’s become less serious
ACCEPT	There are some risk that are considered acceptable because the cost of dealing with them is greater than the benefits one would get from developing countermeasures
PREVENT	Terminate the risk by doing things differently.

 

It important to have a plan in place besides trying to prevent, reduce or even transfer the risk:

1. Plan well using the 10-steps Team Planning Technique.
1. Restate the objective
2. Brainstorm the products
3. Brainstorm the task
4. Place the task in chronological order
5. Confirm the task.  Look at the logic flow
6. Draw in dependencies between tasks (the relationship between 2 tasks).  Determine which task needs to be done first before able to move to the next tasks.
7. Allocate times to tasks
8. Assess and resolve risks
9. Allocate tasks
10. Agree milestones and review points
2. Get the schedules right

The most widely known tool is the PERT (Project Evaluation and Review Technique)

 

Project management is rarely a full-time role.  We tend to prioritize urgency over importance when deciding things to be done.  A project manager has to:

1. Focus further ahead than the immediate, hence the emphasis on

·         Definition and planning

·         Proactive communication with stakeholders

·         Risk analysis

2. Find time to focus on the big picture.  Start with a plan, integrate project tasks with day-to-day tasks and motivate yourself to do longer-term task every day.
3. Set time aside to plan which tasks and activities can be delegated to others.  Successful delegation is not always easy, so overcome the barriers to delegation by:

·         Tackling fear – fight any feelings that delegated tasks will not be done properly or on time.

·         Planning well – think ahead so that you don’t discover tasks that have to be done when it is too late to ask anyone else to do them.

·         Getting experience – the best way to learn to delegate is to have someone delegate effectively to you.

·         Fighting guilt – nice people don’t like delegating unpleasant task.  Effective leadership requires a hard head as well as a soft heart.

·         Beating indecision – try to make quick decisions.

4. Maintain the momentum by:
• Motivating yourself
• Re-energize yourself when having mental blocks
• Motivate others
5. Communicate successfully by carefully selecting the medium for your message.

MESSAGE MEDIUM

6. Review the progress effectively which can be done through meetings.
7. Manage the project information
8. Monitor the cost throughout the lifecycle of the project
• Able to give a true picture of progress
• Reduce risk by ensuring decisions to modify or cancel project are taken early
• Abe to identify area of inefficiency
• Provides valuable information for planning future projects
• Could highlight theft or fraud
9. Manage changes to project scope by creating a written record of all the changes.

 

At the end of the project, is the handing over to the end users.  But before that, the most important responsibility is the project ‘going live’.  The implementation is primarily a client-focused phase.  The final few steps are:

1. Handing over
• Hold a pre-implementation meeting
• User Acceptance Test (UAT)
• Transfer of responsibility
• Hold ‘go live’ event, involve the project sponsor
• Evaluate changes and benefits it has achieved
2. Evaluating success
• Review outcome of the project and evaluate the overall success
• Done by looking at

·   the immediate impression

·   whether it has delivered long term benefit

·   benefits gains in business terms

3. Reviewing the process
• Conduct ‘lesson learnt’ review

·   Get the team together

·   Discuss how the project went

·   Take account of the views of everyone involved

·   Record recommendations

·   Structure the documentation for future reference

• Learn from experience
• Valuable lessons for the future
• Avoid making reviews into witch-hunts
• Project learning is done to improve performance on future projects