Project Launch Process L040

Blog: Biz-Performance, David Brown

L040 – Define and Agree Project Management Techniques

DEFINITION

Before work starts, the form of project management and control must be defined and agreed. Many clients have their own existing approaches or standards which may be followed if adequate and appropriate.

SUMMARY

Project management techniques should be defined at a high level at the beginning of a project. This definition should address all the areas of project management, planning, resourcing and controlling.

In a majority of cases it will be agreed that a standard approach to project management should be followed.

Other approaches may be used. In some cases the client organisation will have a requirement or strong preference for a specific approach. It may also be appropriate to use the same approach as other pre-existing projects in the same overall programme.

If a specific published approach is not adopted, a set of practices should be defined and agreed as a result of this process. Typically these would cover the approach to:

role and responsibility of project manager, team leaders, QA reviewers, change managers, etc,
estimating and planning,
use of computer tools for estimating, planning, tracking, reporting and control,
project tracking, timesheets, etc,
risk analysis and management,
change control,
issues control,
quality planning, techniques, control and review (if not covered specifically in Process L080),
configuration management,
progress reporting and reviews,
project ownership, eg steering committee / project board / project sponsor’s role and responsibilities.

PATH PLANNING GUIDANCE

This process is mandatory.

DEPENDENCIES

Prerequisites (Finish-Start):

Review/confirm Terms of Reference (ToR), Scope, Objectives (L010)

Prerequisites (Finish-Finish):

Review / confirm business needs and anticipated benefits (L020)
Select path(s) (L030)

Dependent procedures (Finish-Finish):

Quality plan (L080)
Detail the Path Plan (L090)
Define organisation, people and support requirements (L100)

RECEIVABLES

Project evaluation documentation, proposal etc
Project Constitution – terms of reference, scope, objectives

DELIVERABLES

Definition of project management techniques to be used – usually published formally as part of the Quality Plan

TOOLS

PMI or Prince II

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF TASKS

Defining the approach

Where a defined approach is preferred, this will be discussed and agreed with the project sponsor and other key participants, for example, the client organisation’s IT department. The elements of the chosen approach which will affect participants should be summarised for communication. For example, participants will need to know how to report their progress, work completed and issues. This information will normally be incorporated in the project’s Quality Manual.

Where a recognised approach is not being used, the basic needs for project management should still be addressed. Appropriate approaches should be determined, agreed and communicated.

Issues to address

Project Management techniques and approaches may address the following issues:

Detailed plans need to be formulated. These will include details of tasks, dependencies, staff assignments, times, durations, costs etc. The approach and style of the plan should be determined. The approach to estimating may also be formalised in some cases.
General principles may be established for the ownership, executive management, management reporting structures and organisation of the project. Although these are dealt with in more detail in later processes, it may be appropriate to define the basic rules that should be applied.
Every project contains risk. The management team will need to identify, consolidate and analyse risks. The management team should then determine appropriate methods for addressing each risk. The definition may require updating to incorporate the effort and impacts of specific risk reduction programmes. A comprehensive risk management program should be developed to continue the process of identifying, addressing and managing risk for the project’s duration.
An issue is a situation, action, problem or question arising during the performance of the project which cannot be efficiently or effectively resolved within a project team. Issues identified during a project can become show stoppers if not resolved on a timely basis. Therefore, the core team should implement an issue resolution process to identify, track and resolve issues for the duration of the project.
A change is any activity that alters the scope, deliverable, basic architecture, cost or schedule of a project. Change can redefine the project and invalidate the benchmark. A change control process should be developed and implemented to ensure changes to the project’s scope are formally documented, tracked and approved prior to the project deviating from its objective.
Managing and controlling project deliverables is crucial for ensuring team members are protecting the integrity of completed work, using the most current version of a deliverable for work in progress and, minimizing the risk of deleting another team members’ work. The core team should document an appropriate configuration management process.
The core team should develop and implement a formal quality management programme. This should be designed to ensure an appropriate quality assurance framework is established and that sufficient quality control processes are in place. Additionally, the project manager should ensure adequate resources are assigned to the quality management function. (Note that this may be more fully covered in Process L080.)
The project control and reporting process should address tracking objective progress data, reviewing work in progress, reporting key information about the project’s progress and redirecting the project as needed. As part of the high-level definition, the automated software tools that will be used to produce project reporting control data should be selected. The project office manager, if one has been appointed, should be involved in the selection process.
A project office may be established to facilitate the project planning, control and reporting process depending on the project’s size and scope. The project manager should work with the project office manager, if one has been appointed, to develop the detail work planning methodology. This methodology should define the procedures, guidelines, standards, and tools for developing detail work plans.
Some software packages, such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft etc, develop tools to aid in project control which are integrated into their software system. It may be appropriate to use these to assist in managing the project.
Appropriate computer tools may be selected and implemented to support the management team in performing the various tasks. A project planning and tracking tool is usually an essential part of the process. Often, there are specific packages that are particularly appropriate for use in conjunction with a given software implementation. The project office manager should check industry and vendor recommendations before making a final decision.

Communicating the approach

Clearly, the approaches and procedures need to be communicated to the participants in the project. They would normally be included in the Quality Plan. Specific relevant information might also be given directly to participants, for example, instructions on the completion of timesheets and blank timesheets might be sent to participants individually.