Getting Back to Basics: Project Management, a Guilty Pleasure?

Posted on 11/02/2011 at 08:00 am

Do you ever find yourself trying to kick off a project without knowing all the key components?  Twenty years ago, I was a young project manager working in a large engineering firm. Being met with a barrage of tasks, the basic skills I had attained were put to the test. My situation was further stressed due to the fact that my project team members were located in different regions of the country. It was quite evident to me that basic tools and techniques would be essential in reaching out to team members that were spread abroad. The most basic goal of project management is communication among constituent groups or team members. Getting back to basic concepts of project management creates commonality in business practices and standardizes tools and techniques. By doing so, I was successful in bridging gaps in communication and equipping team members with project management tools that were easy to adapt and apply to any project and or service application. My initial approach was to define Project Management, the science (and art) of organizing the components of a project, whether managing the development of a new product, a new service, a political campaign, or a college graduation.  A project is created once, it is temporary, and it is specific to a task or service.  It has a beginning and an end.  Projects can be consumed by an abundance of resources with a limited amount of funding. Getting back to basic precepts helps one to balance resources and funding levels with limited risk.

There are 5 pillars that a project manager has to engage in order to maximize their potential for success. The utilization of these tools outlines a roadmap from project kick off to implementation. The primary tools used are as follows:  project planning, project baseline, reporting, change control, and project closure.  By equipping my team with these valuable tools, they had an opportunity to explore the realm of possibilities when it comes to the utilization of Project Management best practices and services.  Project Management can be a guilty pleasure when basic tools and techniques are embraced. Even the biggest of giants can be slain with a basic slingshot!

By adding these 5 pillars to a service and/or a project my team was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to not only stay on track with project execution but through project implementation as well. It is merely the tools that are used to kick off the project so that it can be implemented with success.  Taking a look at the 5 pillars more closely outlined the uniqueness of the role each team member played while laying the foundation for a project that would be viewed by many. 

The five pillars used are as follows:

Project Planning
The development of action items and scheduling that will aid the project in moving forward with a timeline that targets a start and completion date. 

The execution of a project plan allows the PM to achieve their objectives by staying on schedule, within budget and delivering the product and service on time.  Project planning is fundamental in order to avoid failure and disappointment.

Project Baseline
Establishing a clear and concise project baseline is the most effective way of managing a project from kick off to implementation.  The baseline will capture the project’s scope, time and costs during various stages of the project.  Project Baselines are critical elements to all projects with details focusing on the execution of the schedule, project risk and project issues just to name a few.

Reporting
The mechanism for reporting project status and outcomes in a metric format ensures the project information is being collected and monitored on a regular basis.  Capturing project metrics will keep the reality of how well the project is nearing completion in a more realistic view.  The utilization of this pillar provides a snapshot of where project managers and their projects really are at any given time.  When providing a project management status reports there are several key factors that must be considered.

  • Time (Are we meeting the scheduled deadline)
  • Cost (Are we going to stay within the allocated budget)
  • Resources (How much time are we spending on the project)
  • Scope ( Is the scope creep in line with expectation)
  • Quality (How are we managing risk within the project)
  • Actions (Are there outstanding action items)

Change Control
Change is inevitable.  During a project there will be many good reasons why things need to change.  Incidentally there will also be cases where change is unavoidable.  There are incidents when a request is considered to change agreed scope and objective of the project to accommodate a need not originally defined to be part of the project.

Change control (often referred to as Change Management) is the management process for requesting, reviewing, approving, carrying out and controlling changes to the project's deliverables. Change Control is usually applied once the first version of a deliverable has been completed and agreed upon.

Project Closure
Project closure is a means of applying the finishing touch to a project?  Not necessarily correct!  It is the responsibility of the project manager to ensure that the customer and team members use measures to close the project formally, with practical measures as well.

As previously stated all projects have a beginning and end date.  Without the implementation of a formal closure process, the project can drag on longer than necessary which will result in budget overruns and unsatisfied customers.  Implementing a project closures plan will ensure that the outcome of the project is in line with the scope, satisfy customers and stakeholders, yield overall team sense of accomplishment, capture metrics, and relinquish resources for oncoming projects.  It is imperative that all projects are closed out when completed. 

The project closure process will aid in providing lessons learned from start up to implementation.  The finalization of the project closures will result in all administrative aspect of the project being contained for future reference that relates to the historical information where the documents and procedures were established during the life of the project.    During the closeout there are a few essential things that must be done in a timely and effective manner in order to ensure the project has been properly closed out.  They are as follows:

  • All team members must complete their final time sheet
  • Submit all expense reports
  • Capture and submit metrics from the inception to implementation of the project
  • Final cost must be submitted
  • Provide team project status report
  • Update the issue log
  • Highlight risk, and decide how to close and or mitigate
  • Identify a plan to handle ongoing project support
  • Prepare and submit a final project status report

Having these key components in place aided my team members in not only meeting but exceeding the customer’s expectation.  Project Management is a guilty pleasure if all the tools are properly implemented and utilized.  The infectious desire to perform a job and reflect upon the finished product is surmountable when trying to retain and attract new business opportunities.  Project Management has evolved into tools and techniques that set organizations in higher standards by having highly skilled individuals within the market place who can provide coaching, mentoring and advisement to project managers on the day to day use of the project management tools and techniques. 

- Cinda Feagan, Senior Consultant

Tags: Program Management  

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