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Project Management Solutions & Services
Overview
A project is a temporary endeavor to deliver
a
specific thing within a finite time-line and budget to a specified level of
acceptance and is managed by an individual deemed responsible for the project
and is supported by an individual with sufficient authority to make business
decisions in respect to the project. These two key players are the Project
Manager - responsible for the Project; and the Project Sponsor - who is
responsible for the Business. In very simple terms - the former spends the
money, the later writes the cheque.
MBF Consulting Services
provides Project Management services and follows a standard approach to the
methodology to ensure that the Project Sponsor gets a valued investment.
Based on the Project Management Institute (PMI)'s Guide to PMBOK
(Project Management Body of Knowledge) the following high-lights briefly the
four phases of the project.
Standard Approach (Phases)
At this Phase the overall concept of the project is
defined. It may be a high-level description for example a Project to
"Upgrade the Operating System for all computers in the company "or "Customer
Satisfaction levels are to be improved for the Help Desk with the average
response time improved to 15-minutes". While these provides the
general intent of the project, the conc ept, they are not specific enough to
be truly effective. For example, the personal computer base could be
only a few machines or it could be thousands, the help desk may be fielding
hundreds of call a day or per hour across multiple timelines. The
answers to these clarification questions will help scope the project.
Tools:
Checklists, Initial high level
Charter, historical data (lessons learned)
Deliverables:
Planning Charter
At this phase we would expect to confirm or re-confirm
requirements; the purpose and objective of the project; what is in scope and
what is not; the expectations, assumptions and constraints, as well as the
relative priority of the project within the organization and the priority
within the project for cost, time or scope. What is the tolerance for
risk, level of quality expected? Resources available? Processes in place
or needed? and many other questions will be asked to ensure that what is
being requested is defined, developed and delivered to the satisfaction of the
client and sponsor.
This is also the Planning Stage of the project. One of the key tools
used in the phase is the Work Breakdown Structure or WBS which will enable the
project to be broken down into tasks and areas of responsibility. This
is key as with the appropriate definitions and values the schedule and
budget will be provided as part of the project plan.
Part of the planning process will include the definition of
the Communications Plan, Quality and Risk Management Plans, as well as
Resource plans for the project organization. Each needs to be addressed,
although not all Projects require full detailed plans for all aspects of the
plan. For example, in the area of Risk. A particular Project may
have limited risk or limited expected risk, and management is prepared to
"take the risk", then the Risk Management Plan would be no more than a
couple of lines in the Project Charter. Other projects may require a
detailed breakdown and matrix of potential risks, a detailed analysis of the
impacts and the likelihood of the risk occurrence. This would in turn
require at a later date a full mitigation or contingency plan to address each
area of risk.
Tools:
Project (Planning) Charter, Work
Breakdown Structure, Work Packages, Task Lists,
Deliverables:
Project Charter, Schedule Plan, Budget Plan, Resource Plan,
Communications Plan, Risk Management Plan, Quality Assurance Plan, and the
overall Project Plan
At this phase the product, solution or application is
implemented, delivered, upgraded or initialized as per the definition made
previously. This will likely be the longest phase as the execution could
include the development of the solution, testing, re-designing,
re-development, re-testing, piloting, before the actual launch or final
implementation of the solution.
The Project Manager is into the monitoring and controlling
stage of the project, making sure the plans defined previously are being
followed, measuring the earned value, recording issues and change requests,
presenting changes for approval, maintaining meetings for status and other
updates, reporting to management on status and progress, taking corrective
action as applicable and generally making sure that expectations are being
managed.
Tools:
Project Charter, Project Plan,
Work Packages, Issue Record & Log, Change Request & Log, Status Reports,
Communications Plan, Risk Plan, Minutes, Timesheets, Cost Reports,
Deliverables:
Solution, product or
applications - the project deliverable.
This phase is often overlooked or not given the priority it
should have. This is where we ask "Did we do what we said we would do?"
AND "Did we delivery what the client wanted?" This presupposes that we
have asked enough questions in the previous phases to make sure that these two
questions are if not the same or very close. It also supposes that we
looked at this Phase in the beginning of the project so that we would be able
and ready to answer the questions when we reached the end.
This is also the place when "lessons learned" are
supplied. We should be able to a detailed breakdown of the project,
defining what went well, what did not, what needs to be improved upon for the
next project. That detail must be captured for the project team and for
future teams to assist them in being successful in the future. The
"Project Binder" will be completed with the necessary sign-offs and Bring
Forward items for action after the team has been disbanded. The Project
records - documents, schedules, records and logs should be collected into a
"binder" - that can be a hard copy or a virtual binder storage on the
Internet. Either way it needs to be accessible and it needs to be
accessed.
Tools:
Project Closeout Checklists, Project
Closeout Documents, Project Evaluation Forms, Sign-Off Forms, Project Charter,
Schedule & Plan
Deliverables:
Project Closure, Project
Binder, Lessons Learned
MBF Consulting Services
believe that as part of the Closeout Phase the team should be reviewing
how the deliverable can be improved. Based on Six Sigma (Quality)
experiences and Continuous Improvement training, it is anticipated that no
project should simply stop when complete. Many Projects have been setup
in the past to continue through Phase II or Release Level Projects. This
is similar in that through the structured approach the deliverable will be
improved. As part of the close the team identifies how the project could
be improved for the future, but a excellent deliverable, after the fact, is a
document that would show how the product should be improved.
Tools:
Project Team, Facilitator and
Project Closeout
Deliverables:
Continuous Improvement Report
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