Project Setup and Initiation

Project Setup and Initiation is a documentation process in which potential business initiatives are defined and evaluated. Once approved initiatives are instantiated as a project. Instantiation legitimizes a project within the organization and gives the senior manager the authority to apply resources to achieve the project objectives.

Ball Of Gold Corporation has adopted a standardized approach to Project Setup and Initiation that involves four steps: defining the concept, assessing the impact, evaluating the initiative, and initiating the project.

Objectives

Desired Outcomes

Standardize the way initiatives are defined, evaluated, and selected for implementation.

Standardize, through the use of templates, the metrics used to compare and evaluate proposed iniatives

Provide a formal method for recognizing the existence of a project.

Provide the initial planning information needed to proceed with detailed planning.

Improved ability to select and proceed with initiatives based on company direction and strategic objectives.

Ability to perform "apple-to-apple" comparisons between proposed iniatives based on standard metrics (e.g., Return On Investment).

Ability to prioritize resources, across iniatives, based on the impact they have on corporate objectives.

  Detailed Project Planning

Project planning defines the project activities and describes how the activities will be accomplished. The purpose of project planning is to define each task, estimate the time and resources required, and specify a framework for management review and control. The project planning activities and goals include defining:

• The goals that define the project and the specific work to be performed
• Estimates to be documented for planning, tracking, and controlling the project
• Commitments that are planned, and agreed to by stakeholders
• Project alternatives, assumptions, constraints and risks
• The project schedule

Repetition of these steps is necessary to establish the project plan. Typically, several iterations of the planning process are performed before a plan is completed

Objectives

Desired Outcomes

Standardize project planning across initiatives and projects through the application of common planning templates (e.g., Work Breakdown Structures)

Ensure consistency in the level and quality of planning

Provide better management visibility across projects and enable "apple-to-apple" comparisons of progress and performance between similar initiatives and projects.

Provide project management with sufficient information to track project progress and manage project risks.

Sufficient and consistent project information will be available so that stewardship of benefits can be effectively managed.

Increased project planning efficiency and productivity

• Ensure deliverable-focused planning
• Achieve consistency in progress reporting
• Reduce the need to "re-invent the wheel"

Improved visibility and decision making capabilities across initiatives within the organization.

  Project Execution and Control

Once your project reaches the execution and control phase, a project team and all the other necessary resources should be in place or lined up to perform the project tasks. The project plan, developed and baselined, guides the when and where people, time and dollars are brought the bear on an as-needed basis to execute tasks-- and produce deliverables.

The project's manager(s) shift their focus away from discovery to participating, observing, and analyzing what is being done. The critical to-do's for the project manager at this point are:

• Track and monitor project activities and measure actual performance compared to planned performance (the baseline)
• Review and communicate status and recommend future actions
• Implement a change management process in order to control changes to the project's objectives, scope, specifications and overall definition
• Execute an issue tracking process to ensure that there is a central repository for project issues that are addressed (or not addressed) in a timely fashion
• Have in place a corrective action process to document and track plans to correct an issue that impacts the plan and which establishes guidelines for replanning (new baseline)
• Have in place an on-going process to identify and manage project risks

These elements represent on-going activities that occur throughout the life of the project.

Objectives

Desired Outcomes

Provide stakeholders with sufficient information to track project progress and manage project risks.

Provide stakeholders with an accurate projection of probable outcome.

Provide an audit trail of project performance for use in future project planning and estimation.

Identify exposure to project risks and provide risk mitigation strategies and/or contingeny plans.

Provide sufficient information to manage progress on an on-going basis.

Accurate and consistent information will be available to staff for furture project planning and estimation

Increase awareness of potential business and technical risks prior to their occurence

Ensure that managers accountable for project risks act on appropriate mitigation strategies and/or contigency plans

Managers will have near real-time access to accurate project status information and projections

  Project Close-out

The last major phase of a project's life cycle is its close-out. Closing a project should be a fairly routine process, though. Why should this be? The answer is simple. If you have faithfully documented the issues, risks realized, and steps taken along the way-- then it’s a simple matter of archiving what you already have at your disposal. Your stakeholders have signed off on every deliverable, right? If not, then get ready for a grueling "post mortem" or "lessons learned" project close-out meeting.

In addition, if you waited until your project close-out meeting to document lessons learned, you will have forgotten a good portion of them. But, if you did it right, closing out your project should take a couple of hours.

The key elements of project close-out are:

• Final acceptance the project's products indicated by user sign-off *
• Conducting a final lessons learned session
• Completing a written post project evaluation report
• Completing and archiving project records

* The exception: an accepted practice is to develop a "punch list" of loose ends. But this should be used with care. Use a punch list for minor remaining actions only, and cite the punch list in the final acceptance document.

Objectives

Desired Outcomes

Provide management with insights that improve future projects and risk management capabilities

Provide project management with a formal process for gaining sponsor and user final acceptance of the project

Provide a mechanism to document and capture lessons learned during the life of the project

Provide a historical archive of project records to help with planning future projects.

Formal written acceptance of project deliverables by sponsor and/or stakeholders.

Formal post project (after action type) report detailing lessons learned.

An established archive for project records sufficient to enable "reality check" metrics for future projects of similar type and personnel

  Benefits Management

Benefits management is the process that allows you to collect, validate, and manage conditions that drive the benefit stream of undertaken initiatives.

It is incumbant upon the project manager to remain constantly aware of the actual benefits expected of the project and to focus the team all along the way.

Benefits management, therefore, assesses and reports gaps in the realization of expected benefits based on expectations.

  Internal / External Communications

The communication structure facilitating the relationship among various stakeholders in terms of information exchange, frequency and medium of communication must be agreed upon at the outset of the project, and adjusted along the way.

The communication structure leverages the governance structure in sharing, reporting, and updating project and initiative information to all stakeholders.

  Change Control

Change control is the formal process by which major changes in the organizational processes are assessed, prioritized, budgeted, approved and implemented, e.g. changes to the:

• Governance structure
• Business process
• Reporting requirements
• The scope, timeline, budget, or resource requirements of the active project

  Governance Structure

The governance structure of a project is comprised of the project’s major stakeholders, senior management, or their identified constituents to whom they may delegate such responsibility.

Project governance embodies the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders and defines rules of escalation to facilitate responsiveness.

The project itself derives its authority from, and is governed by the stakeholders, and supports the interests of project governance.