SMALL BUS HOME
PROJECT MGT
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Define the Work |
Overview
| How many times have you heard about or been involved in a project that failed miserably? Or perhaps it just was not as successful as it needed to be. Did you ever spend time looking back to see what caused the project to go wrong. |
| If you did, chances are that you will have said, "You know, we should have spent more time planning." Most projects have deadlines, and it seems they are getting shorter and shorter. |
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Hitting aggressive deadlines puts pressure on the project manager to start the project as soon as possible. However, before the project work begins, there needs to be time spent in up-front planning to make sure that the work is properly understood and agreed to. This is not wasted time or 'overhead' time. This is the time the project manager spends ensuring that the project team and the client have common perceptions of what the project is going to deliver, when it will be complete, what it will cost, who will do the work and how the work will be done. At the end of a difficult project, the benefits of planning might be obvious. But, the benefits are known ahead of time as well. At a high-level, the benefits include: |
Understanding and gaining agreement on project objectives, deliverables, scope, risk, cost, approach, etc.
Determining if the original business case is still valid. For instance, a project that requires 10,000 effort hours might make business sense. If the more detailed planning process results in a more refined estimate of 20,000 hours, the project may not make business sense any more.
Making sure the resources you need are available when you need them.
Providing a high-level baseline, from which progress can be compared.
Validating the processes used to manage the project ahead of time with the client.
It should make sense that small projects need a shorter planning cycle, and larger projects need a longer planning cycle. The effort required to plan the project depends on the amount of information, and the level of detail, that needs to be understood and documented. The duration required to define the work depends on the length of time necessary to discover and document the information, as well as the time required to gain agreement and approval from the client.
| At times, the project manager can get frustrated because of the difficulty in gaining agreement with the client on scope, timeline and cost. But that is exactly the reason this work is done ahead of time. Think of the problems you will encounter trying to gain agreement with the client on scope, schedule or cost when the work has started and the deliverables are actually being produced. |
Before the main work on a project begins, a number of items need to be in place. For smaller projects, many of these conditions are met informally or implicitly. However, the larger a project gets, the more important it is that these criteria be met formally and explicitly.
Client gives approval to begin planning. Normally, implicit approval is assumed to have occurred for the project to even get this far to begin with. However, if the project did not have a business case prepared and if it did not go through a prioritization process, then explicit approval should be sought before project planning begins.
Project is defined. This is documented in the Project Definition, which contains objectives, scope, assumptions, deliverables, budget, etc. (For medium or small projects, this might be the Abbreviated Project Definition or a Work Order.)
Project Work plan is created. A work plan must be prepared and used to manage the effort. This includes checkpoints, or milestones, when the project can be evaluated to ensure that it is appropriate to continue.
Client gives approval to begin project. This is signified through a signed, approved Project Definition. The Sponsor must sign the document to ensure agreement.
Project Management Procedures are defined and approved - Procedures must be in place to describe how the project will manage issues, communication, risks, quality, scope, etc. This is especially true for large projects, and less important as a project gets smaller.
Project team resources are assigned - You must have the right people to staff and execute the project. Sometimes valid, approved projects must be delayed because people with the right skills are not available.
