Overview of Project Management

PM Process:

Project management is a complex undertaking, with many stages and processes. It should follow the full business life cycle, from definition and justification of the project, through to delivering demonstrable benefits for the business.

The project manager's skills are essential from the beginning. The defined approach and its business case will rely on a good understanding of the project process along with reliable estimating and carefully considered planning.

As well as the project manager's prime objective to deliver the results, there are many supporting disciplines and processes. These should ensure that the project will deliver a valuable result without surprises. The foremost need is to monitor the anticipated level of benefits and make adjustments to deliver optimum results. The leadership team should also actively identify and manage risks, issues, changed requirements, quality standards, plus a host of other side issues.

Not all these processes follow the traditional development life cycle. In particular, it is wrong to consider the project has finished when the new system goes live. That way you will never know whether it delivered the planned benefits and you will probably not achieve them! Management attention must be retained to deliver the benefits - through to the Post-Implementation Review (PIR) and beyond. Some of the project management processes will migrate into continuing line management processes to be used throughout the life of the solution.



Here is a summary of the processes:

• The concept, objectives, approach and justification of the project are properly defined, agreed and communicated.
• Management-level planning maps out an overall management plan from which resources, acquisitions and sub-contracts can be identified, costed and put in place. The business case will be re-assessed to ensure the original assumptions and justification hold true. At this stage, many of the detailed management processes will be defined and instigated.
• A project will pass through several stages or phases, each with a different objective and deliverable. Typically the phases will require different skills, structures and resource levels. It is normal to plan, estimate and resource each phase separately (albeit overlapping the preliminary work to avoid stoppages).
• Planned benefits will be assessed and monitored throughout the project - optimising benefit should be the prime goal of the project manager.
• Quality requirements and approaches will be defined and agreed during the project start-up. Typically there will be rules that apply to the routine work of the team plus specified quality audits at the end of the phases.
• Risks will be assessed at the start of the project. Contingency plans and avoiding action will be defined as appropriate. The risk management process will pro-actively monitor risks throughout the project. Risk assessments and plans will be modified as appropriate.
• All participants will be encouraged to communicate potential issues for resolution. The issues management process will ensure they are considered and addressed.
• The scope of the project and specific changes to the solution will be controlled through a management process with appropriate balances and controls - focused on achieving optimum overall benefit.
• Versions of all deliverables will be controlled (whether temporary working papers or permanent outputs) through a configuration management process.
• A documentation management process will ensure all information is available to all those who require it, and is subject to careful control over authorship, reviews and updates.
• An effective team will be nurtured through appropriate initiation, training, communications, and social events.
• Organisational change issues will be assessed early in the project, leading to a course of communications, events and other activities to ensure all parties affected by the change are ready and willing to change.
• The needs to communicate outside the team with other parts of the organisation, customers, suppliers, and other parties will be assessed. A course of communications will be defined and actioned.
• Large projects inevitable require a process to handle expenditure on subcontractors, equipment, software, and facilities. Project accounting will monitor and control expenditure - both as a routine management activity and as part of the overall focus on delivering optimum benefits.
• Where sub-contractors are involved, there will be a management process to agree and monitor contracts.
• At the end of the project, there will be several activities to transition work, processes and deliverables to line operation. The team also need to ensure filing and documentation is in good order, leaving behind sufficient detail for the operation of the system, audits concerning the project, and as a baseline for future maintenance and development. People, equipment and facilities need to be demobilised.
• After the live solution has settled down, it is normal to organise a Post Implementation Review to measure the success of the project, to see what further improvements can be made, and to learn lessons for the future.