Intermediate Project Management

Project Authorisation

• A problem is identified
• Should we address it?

Project Initiation and Selection

• Authorisation and Responsibility
• How should we address it?

Scope

• What is included?
• What is excluded?
• How will we manage changes?

Stakeholder Management

Who are the Stakeholders?

• The Project Sponsor
• The Project Suppliers
• The Project Customers
• The Project Team
• The Project Manager

Project Authorisation

• Based on organisational need
• Driven by internal business need
• Out of operational necessity
• New technology
• Customer need
  Changes
• Industry
• Legislation

The Project Board

• Authorise and control the Project
• Controls the budget
• Approve decisions of Project Team
  Who?
• Project Sponsor
• Supplier Representative
• Customer Representative

Productivity, Efficiency, Profit and Reputation (PEPR)

The most senior people in an organisation are concerned about 4 things,
Productivity, Efficiency, Profit and Reputation (PEPR)
Your business case and any negotiations you may need to have must focus on how your project or any changes will impact these 4 things.

Risk

What is a risk?
Anything which could affect the Project
In terms of:

• Triple Constraint – Time, Cost, Scope, Quality
• Negative effect on benefits

All Projects have risks

• Bad things, but also good things
• Change will happen

Can impact multiple projects

• Share information
• Everyone can benefit

Risk Management Process

• Define the risk, Eliminate ambiguity
• Something that could happen
• We need to know:
• Likelihood
• Impact on Project
• Who can raise a risk? Anyone!!
• Needs an owner

Mitigating Action

Avoid

• You eliminate the activity, process or exposure that creates the risk

Reduce

• You introduce actions to lower the likelihood or the impact of the risk

Transfer

• You shift responsibility or financial impact of the risk to an expert or third party

Accept

• You decide to take no immediate action because the risk is low or the cost of mitigation outweighs the benefit

Risks and Issues

• Risks managed through the project
• Issues are happening, present
• Both need to be logged and tracked

Suggested logging process

• Risk identified
• Establish risk owner
• Score likelihood and impact
• Identify mitigating action
• Review risk and action
• Update Risk Register
• Close Risk

BOSCARD

• Background
• Objectives
• Scope
• Constraints
• Assumptions
• Reports
• Deliverables / Dates

Scope – What is it?

Scope

• How to provide the deliverables
• What work is involved

Scope Creep

• Slowly adding more work during the life of a project

Prioritisation – MoSCoW

• Must – 60%
• Should – 20%
• Could – 20%
• Won’t –

Change Control Process

Things may need to change

• Why?
• Impact on – Time
• Benefits
• Quality
• Risk
• MoSCoW swap?

Change Control

• NO changes allowed without sign off from the Project Manager
• PM can sign off if no impact to time, cost or quality
• If there is impact, change has to be signed off by the Sponsor

Time Pressures

Target vs Estimates

• Targets are not based on reality
• Coming from pressure
• Don’t just accept a new target
• Negotiate on what is possible and acceptable

Being too optimistic:

• Counterproductive
• No opportunity to fine tune

Change Control and the WBS

Change control process in place

• Respond to change but keep control over scope
• Approval is via a clear and transparent process

When change request approved:

• Revise scope statement
• Notify stakeholders
• Update the WBS and other documentation
• Where appropriate update the database of lessons learnt

RAM / Responsibility Assignment Matrix

A diagram or chart showing assigned responsibilities for elements of work.
It is created by combining the work breakdown structure with the organisational breakdown structure.

RACI / RASCI / RACIVS

RACI

• Responsible
• Accountable
• Consulted
• Informed

RASCI

• Responsible
• Accountable
• Support
• Consulted
• Informed

RACIVS

• Responsible
• Accountable
• Consulted
• Informed
• Verifier
• Signatory

Roles

• Project manager
• Sponsor
• Stakeholders
• Business Analyst
• Quality Assurance
• Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
• End Users

Baselining

Plans are baselined after approval

• Progress is measured against the baselined plan

Controlling the Project

• Monitor progress to detect variations
• Identify the reason for any deviation

In the event of problems

• No unauthorised changes to the plan
• Inform project stakeholders
• Avoid undue panic or alarm

Balancing Workloads

• Allocate time to Project work and BAU, don’t try to both at the same time
• Use your Critical Path to identify slack time where you can focus on BAU
• Look for ways to decrease the time it takes to do tasks and therefore increase the Slack in the Critical Path
• Delegate up, sideways or down