Monitor and Control Your Projects (Part 3)

There are 3 critical areas that many project managers overlook when monitoring and controlling projects, and they are often the root cause of project failure. These 3 areas are the management of; suppliers, procurement and communications. To help you to monitor and control each area efficiently, we've described each in further detail below...

Monitor and Control Your Projects (Part 3)

Having previously covered the management of time, cost, quality, change, risk and issues - the final step in the "Monitor and Control" newsletter series is the management of suppliers, procurement and communications.

If you can monitor and control all of these aspects smoothly and efficiently, then you will have a great chance of delivering your project successfully. So let's tackle the last 3 remaining areas now...

Managing Suppliers

Always make sure you appoint suppliers through a formal process. Even if you're appointing suppliers you know and have worked with for some time, always create a statement of work which defines the exact scope of work that you wish them to perform.

Next create a formal detailed supplier contract for the scope of work to be completed. In this contract, define the work to be completed, the responsibilities of both parties, the performance criteria and terms and conditions for the relationship. Then if things go sour, you have something to fall back on.

In your contract, have milestones which specify what it is that you expect them to have delivered and by when. Then at each milestone date, complete a formal review of deliverables completed to date, vs. the deliverables specified in the contract. If things change during the project, then amend the contract accordingly. The contract should always represent the nature of the agreement and never become "out dated".

You can then closely monitor and control your suppliers performance.

Control Procurement

As well as managing your suppliers overall performance, you also need to monitor and control the procurement of goods and services from those suppliers.

Controlling procurement is all about reviewing and accepting goods and services once they have been delivered by your supplier. You need to implement a Procurement Management Process which enables your team to take ownership of the item being delivered, review it against pre-defined criteria and approve payment for it, based on your supplier contract.

Tip: Always make sure that you issue Purchase Orders for products you require from suppliers. Create a detailed description of the product you require on the Purchase Order, so that you have something to measure against when it arrives.

Perform Communications

Communication is King! As part of the "monitor and control" phase in a project, you'll need to keep a constant eye on the communications that are taking place.

You should always have a formal Communications Plan in place so that key messages are communicated to the right people at the right time. You can then monitor and control your project communications by making sure that the activities on your communications plan are completed at the right time, and in the right manner.

Make sure you have a feedback process so that if the wrong messages are received by staff, suppliers or stakeholders, then you'll be immediately informed and can take action to resolve it.

So that's in. In these last 3 posts, we've explained how to monitor and control your project by managing:

	Time, Cost and Quality
	Change, Risks, and Issues
	Suppliers, Procurement and Communications

By using these key project management principles, you can deliver projects quickly and efficiently, with less stress and effort than before.

Monitor and Control Your Projects (Part 2)

One of the biggest challenges you will face as a Project Manager is "scope creep". That's when during the Execution phase of the project, the planned scope of work changes, often causing delays and expense.

To avoid this, you need to carefully Monitor and Control your projects, by implementing change, risk and issue processes. Here are some tips on how to do it...

Monitor and Control Your Projects (Part 2)

So things aren't going to plan because your customer has changed the scope of the project? Don't worry, this is a normal event for a Project Manager, as many projects are time consuming and while the project has been progressing, the business pressures faced by the customer have changed.

The art is not in minimizing change, but in managing it properly when it does occur. Here's how to do it...

Monitor Change

The most typical cause of a project going off-the-rails is that the scope has grown out of control, by "osmosis". The client has asked for changes, the team have had new ideas and your nice neat set of project tasks now look like spaghetti.

To succeed, you need to keep tight control of your project scope, by being vigilant about change. Do this by implementing a change management process. As soon as you identify a request for change in your project, document it formally by specifying where the change has come from, why it's needed and its impact on your project objectives.

And if the change is likely to affect the target end dates, budget or deliverables, then get your sponsor and customers approval before implementing it. Don't be afraid to ask for more time, people or money if you need it, especially if the change was initiated by the customer.

Never allow change to run your project. Instead, run your project by managing change!

Control Risks

As a Project Manager, it's all too easy to roll your sleeves up and get stuck into the project delivery. But when you do this, it's often hard to keep your head above water. You may end up managing at the micro level and high level risks to the project may pass you by.

It's hard, but try and remain a little divorced from the detailed day-to-day operation of your project where possible. In this way, you can continually assess the overall risk to the project from the outside and pounce on new risks when they appear.

Also, implement a Risk Management Process to formalize the way that risks are identified, assessed and mitigated. For each risk that appears, quantify its potential impact on the project, then take immediate action to minimize the likelihood of it occurring. Always create contingency plans, so that if the risk does occur, you can go to "plan b" and minimize its effect on the project delivery.

Resolve Issues

Resolving issues sounds easy right? The challenge however, is not just in resolving every issue that turns your way, but instead monitoring all of the issues that occur on a project and only resolving issues that are likely to impact on the project outcome. It's very infrequent on a project that you'll have time to resolve every issue that crops up - so be picky.

To make sure that you resolve issues in a timely manner, you need to put in place an Issue Management Process. This helps you to review all of the issues that crop up, assess their impact, delegate the ones that can be handled by others and resolve those that are critical to the project.

And there you have it! By managing change, risks and issues, you'll be able to avoid scope creep and boost your chances of achieving project success!

 Read More... Monitor and Control Your Projects (Part 3)

Monitor and Control Your Projects (Part 1)

How should you monitor and control your projects? It's a good question, because everyone does it differently. We believe that the processes you use to monitor and control projects should be the same, regardless of the size and type of project you undertake. So read on, to find out how to effectively...

Monitor and Control Your Projects (Part 1)

After you've started up and planned your projects, you'll move into the Execution (or "delivery") phase in the project life cycle.

This is typically the longest phase in the project, as it's in this phase that the physical deliverables are built for the customer. Whether your project is to build a construction complex, computer system or land a space vehicle on mars, you will need to very carefully monitor progress and control delivery. Otherwise, your project could go off the rails.

So to monitor and control delivery, you need to implement 9 critical project management processes. We'll describe the first 3 processes here, and in the next newsletter we'll cover the remaining 4 critical processes or you.

Critical Process #1: Time Management


Every Project Manager knows that the customer expects their project to be delivered "on time". But how many Project Managers actually record every hour spent by staff on the project?

To ensure on-time delivery, that's what you need to do: implement a time management process. This process will help you to monitor the time spent by all of the members of your team, so that you can control how time is spent.

It's not just about "having great time management skills" either, it's about putting in place a process for recording time spent by staff by using timesheets and recording that time against the project plan.

That way, you can create an accurate picture of the current status of the project to determine whether or not it is likely to finish under / on / over the time allotted.

Critical Process #2: Cost Management


Few Project Managers can tell you for every day of the project, exactly how much of their budget they have spent to date. The reason is that many of the project costs are often difficult to track, especially when they relate to the use of equipment and consumption of materials.

But to deliver you project within budget, you need to monitor and control all of the costs that accrue, on a very regular basis. You can do this by implementing a cost management process.

Cost Management is all about accurately recording project expenses, as they occur. By using Expense Forms and an Expense Register, you can monitor all project costs and control expenditure when unplanned expenses arise. You don't need to be an accountant, you just need to keep an eye on the overall project expenditure on a weekly basis and act quickly when any issues arise.

Critical Process #3: Quality Management


It's often said that the hardest thing to monitor is "quality". Most Project Managers find it difficult to determine exactly what the customer expects in terms of deliverable "quality", let alone measure the actual levels of quality achieved. But you must try.

To do this properly, you need to implement a Quality Management Process. By following this process, you can set quality targets to be achieved and gain agreement from your customer.

Then you can use Quality Assurance and Quality Control techniques to monitor and control the actual quality of your project deliverables. If your quality levels drop below the targets set, then you can take action to rectify it. By constantly reviewing quality levels and ensuring that they always meet the target, you can feel confident that your customer will sign off your project as complete, once all of the deliverables have been produced.

And there you have it. By implementing time, cost and quality management, you can take the first steps needed to properly monitor and control your project delivery. ...

Read More... Monitor and Control Your Projects (Part 2)

Managing a Program of Work

Want to manage a program of work?

As you become more experienced managing projects, you will often be asked to manage an entire "program of work". This is usually more challenging than managing a single project, as you will have a greater budget, team and responsibilities than you had before.

To help you out, we've defined here the 4 steps to take when...

Managing a Program of Work

So what is a Program? Well, a simple definition is that it's a group of projects. But wait– there's more! The projects in a program will have been grouped together for a reason, which is typically that they contribute to the same objectives in the business strategy.

Also, programs may include operational work within their scope, which makes them different by their very nature.

So you've been asked to run a program to build a new retail complex which involves 3 construction projects and some general marketing activities. How do you do it? Here are some tips:

Review the Strategy

When kicking off your program of work, the first step is to review your company strategy and agree on the objectives that your program is responsible for delivering. This is important, as the objectives are what you use to peg your projects to. If you end up creating new projects that don't contribute to your specified objectives, then they should be excluded from your program of work!

Get support

To gain the support, funds and "mind share" of your executive team, complete a Business Case. This will help you to identify the benefits and costs of running the program, the risks you foresee and what it is that you need to make it a success. It will also help you get the funding you require, as your Business Case will justify the funding needed, by stating the benefits to be realized.

Start carefully

Now that you have the funding and support from management, you're ready to kickoff. Before launching into scoping your projects—instead define your overall program of work in depth first. Create a Program Charter setting out your vision, objectives, roadmap and deliverables. Then set up a Program Office and appoint the key members of your administration team.

Selection is critical

You're now ready to define your projects and other related work. Scope out each project carefully and make sure that the benefits delivered from all of your projects combined, deliver the goals stated in your Business Case. Selecting the right projects to deliver the right benefits is critical. Make sure you categorize, evaluate, select and prioritize your projects carefully.

It's all down to execution

Now kick off your projects in a logical order. Spread your program resources (people, time and money) evenly so you don't have resource constraints. Go for quick wins first. Schedule larger projects next, once you have momentum. Never schedule critical projects to take place at the end. To retain the buy-in of your Sponsor, make sure your projects deliver value early.

Control chaos

After your projects kick off, changes in the business often cause a level of chaos. Your projects change in scope, their budgets get constrained and resource shortages start occurring. How you react to these changes will determine your level of success as a Program Manager.

When this happens, step back and re-assess your program. Outside influences are often the cause and these are things that you alone can fix. Only in exceptional circumstances should you dive into the depths of the program itself and work alongside project managers and teams at the micro level. A good Program Manager will instead step back and make macro level changes to influence the success of the program.

We hope these tips help improve your program management success! 

Building high performing teams

So you're a Project Manager on a new project and you want to build a high performing team? Excellent, this is a great goal to strive for.

But it's not easy, especially in the project environment which has its own challenges. To do it, take these tips for...

Building high performing teams

What exactly is a high performing team? It's "a team that exceeds the goals you set, by working hard and smart, as a group, not individuals."

Whether you're in IT, construction, engineering or another industry, building a high performing team is critical to success. You can do it in just 5 steps...

1) Planning

Before you hire your first person, you need to document what it is that your team have to achieve and by when. You also need to create specific Job descriptions that set out your expectations for each role and how you'll measure their performance.

Don't stop there. Think about the team culture you want to build, the dynamics of your team and how they should work together. Only with a personal vision for how your team will perform, will you be able to meet that goal.

2) Recruiting

Recruitment is harder than it looks. It's easy to recruit the wrong person, and it's even easier to build a team that don't perform well. A candidate should only be recruited if they fit the job description, align with your personal vision for how the team will work together and they want to work in a culture that depicts your vision.

Take your time. Be swayed by your gut feel. Recruit "like-minded people". Introduce them to high performing staff you know of and get their feedback. Be choosy. Recruit the best. If you have to pay top dollar for top performer, it will often cost less in the long run, than a cheap resource who doesn't perform.

3) Culture Creation

If you've hired "like-minded people" then they will all like each other, and that's a great start. Get them working together on tasks. Constantly change the people you pair up, so that people get to know others in the team.

If your ideal culture is "performance through achievement" then shout out loud about each team success. And if you want "performance through happy customers" then strengthen the relationship between the team and your customers. Get them socializing. Try team sports.

4) Self Motivation

A happy motivated team will always out-perform an unhappy unmotivated one. And it starts with you! Are you happy and motivated? Get on track personally by working out, relaxing after hours, de-stress and set personal goals. Your motivation will rub off on your team.

Then when you're ready, focus on motivating your team. Use team building and group rallying exercises to get them pumped. Tell them how proud you are to work with them. Help them understand why the goals are important and how every team member contributes to them.

5) Recognition & Reward

People only respond positively to positive behavior. So you need to constantly recognize achievement when it's due. Tell the team about an individuals success. Make them feel proud. Spread the love—don't focus on one team or person too frequently.

And reward them when it's due. Reward them unexpectedly as people will appreciate it all the more. Meals to restaurants, tickets to the super-bowl. These things mean a lot to staff when they didn't expect it!

And there you are. If you plan for success, recruit a great team, build a positive culture and recognize achievement, then you'll build a healthy project team and boost your chances of success!

Create your own Project Lifecycle

It you don't want to have to start every project from scratch, then it's worthwhile creating your own Project Life cycle.

How should you do this? What should it look like? And how do you use it? Keep reading to find out how to...

Create your own Project Life cycle...

A Project Life cycle is a series of steps that you take to complete a project from start to finish. Of course, it implies that you can complete the same steps for every project— so is this true?

In principle, yes. Every project will have an Initiation phase, a Planning phase, an Execution phase and a Closure phase. However within these phases, the steps you take may vary slightly between projects.

The trick is to create a lifecycle that is generic enough to use for all of your projects, while still being specific enough to add value and save you time on delivery. Here's how to do it...

Map it out

Every project is delivered in some form of lifecycle. You probably usually define your project upfront, then you'll hire your team, you'll plan and complete a set of tasks to create some deliverables and then get your customer to signoff the output. This sequence of steps are what is called a "lifecycle" and chances are that you're using the same generic lifecycle every time you deliver a project!

So start by mapping out your current project lifecycle on a blank sheet of paper and identify the elements that you know work well, and those that don't.

And improve it

Then try and improve your lifecycle by analyzing why certain steps don't work well currently. Analyze the root cause and identify which steps you could take instead, to improve your chance of success. For instance, maybe "scope creep" is an issue for you, so by putting in place better steps for managing changes to scope, it would help.

Once you have identified the sequence of steps that you know will deliver your projects successfully from start to finish, the next thing you need to do is to "get detailed".

Get detailed

With a clearly defined series of steps, you now need to define the tasks and activities that are needed to perform each step efficiently. For instance, if your first step was to get funding for your project, then do you need to create a Business Case or Financial Plan to do it? What type of person will authorize the funding and what information will they need to do it?

For every step, describe how you intend to do it, the tasks and activities to be taken, and as importantly, who is responsible for doing them (e.g. it is yourself or members of your team)?

Tool up

Great—so you have a crystal clear process for delivering projects. Now how can you do each step quickly and efficiently? Typically project managers use templates, software and examples to help them complete each step faster and more efficiently. With a well documented lifecycle, the right lifecycle steps and good tools, you will be armed and ready to tackle any type of project to succeed.

Get ready

And finally, with all of this collateral, you need to collect it into a single place, ready to use on projects. Many project managers use "MPMM" for this, as you can create a brand new Project Lifecycle and import all of your templates and examples into it, ready for use.

By creating your own project lifecycle or customizing that of another, you can apply a single approach to managing successful projects.

Download a complete Project Lifecycle within MPMM now...

How to use Project Standards...

Have you ever heard a Project Manager say "we use best practice" or "we applied project standards" to projects? If you have, then what do they really mean and how do they do it? Read on, to learn...

How to use Project Standards...

A "Project Standard" is an agreed best practice way of managing a project. We say agreed, as the standard will usually have been reviewed and used by thousands of project managers around the world, before it becomes formally recognized as a "standard" practice.

There are 3 common standards in the Project Management industry:

1. PMI "PMBOK" Standard
2. OGC "Prince2" Standard
3. APM "Body of Knowledge" Standard

These standards give you a generic way of managing projects. They don't give you a prescriptive "step-by-step" approach to managing projects, but they do give you a set of practices and principles that you can apply to your projects, to boost your chances of success. So how should you use them? Here's how...

Make your selection
Review each of the above standards and select the one that has the closest fit with the way you run projects now. Each standard will have a completely different approach, terminology and lifecycle to the rest.

Only by selecting the standard that closely matches the way you work, will you really be able to immediately boost your efficiency.

Pick and Choose
Standards are typically generic, so that they fit all industries and all project sizes. So they will probably include stuff you won't need. Pick and choose the elements of the standard that you know you need to deliver projects successfully.

Customize to Fit
Then take the parts you've chosen and customize them to fit your environment. Keeping within copyright law, you'll probably want to change the terminology, the language used and the sequence of activities used.

Break it Down
To be able to use a standard properly, you really need to take it to the next level for your projects. You need to define the next level down. So for instance, if it talks about "risk management", then you'll want to list and describe the exact steps needed to manage risk within a project. For every step, describe what should be completed, how, by whom and in which order.

Use it for projects
Now that you have chosen your standard, picked the relevant parts, customized it by adding your own terminology and described it in a little more detail, you're ready to use it for your projects. Here are some tips on how to use it:

	Use the same standard for every project. Only by applying the same principles over and over again, will you gain "economies of scale" allowing you to manage projects faster.
	Don't always apply the standard in its entirety. Only apply the bits that are relevant to the particular project you're managing.
	Continue improving the standard. On every project, identify the elements of the standard that help and those that didn't. If you continuously improve the standard used , then it will become a "living and breathing" tool to help you improve your projects.

By using standards to improve the way you work, you'll soon be known as "that guru who always gets their projects done on time!"

Motivating Project Staff over Christmas

As a Project Manager, the Christmas period coming up can be a real worry. You have a backlog of project work to complete, yet many of  your team will be on leave and the remaining team members want to "wind down" over the Christmas period. So how do you keep on track? Read this newsletter to learn tips for...

Motivating Project Staff over Christmas

The Christmas period often results in substantial delays for projects. With staff holidays, reduced productivity and a lack of focus, teams often fall way behind with their deliverables. Besides - when your peers are all away in the Caribbean, who wants to work, right?
It takes a talented Project Manager to keep their project on track over this period and deliver an outstanding result. To help you do this, use these 5 tips...

Tip 1: Plan Ahead
Often, Project Managers have no idea who is taking leave until the week before Christmas. So they suddenly become short of resource and unplanned delays occur. You need to plan ahead.
Find out right now, who in your team wants to take leave over the Christmas period (December and January) and for how long. Then negotiate with them as to when that leave is taken. Try and schedule the leave for a timeframe that fits with your project plan. For instance, if you're in the design phase over Christmas, try and convince your construction workers to take their leave over this period.

Tip 2: Make it fun
It's fair to say that most people don't want to "slog it out" between Christmas and the New Year. They really want easy, interesting work that is fun to do. They don't want to do anything repetitive, anything stressful or anything too big, while others are on holiday. So get the most out of their performance by giving them work that fits their needs.
Every project plan is full of "fun" tasks and "mundane" tasks. Try and give your team members that stay behind and work over Christmas, some of the fun tasks to do. Whether it's researching a new solution, designing a concept, creating a marketing plan or creating prototypes, as long as the work is fun then your staff are more likely to maintain a high level of productivity.
Also, by giving them shorter tasks to complete over this period, it makes them feel like they're achieving more.

Tip 3: Don't burn-out on the run-up
Project Managers often try and finish as many deliverables before Christmas as possible, so that they can show that they have delivered more within the current year. So teams are usually stressed around this time.
It's fine to increase the work slightly before Christmas, but remember; only a percentage of your team will be taking a holiday and will be able to wind-down afterwards. So be careful not to overload the guys that will be staying around over the Christmas period, or they might burn out early in the new year. Remember: overloading only works if it is short term and is followed by a period of complete rest.

Tip 4: Regroup
Post Christmas day, many staff quickly become de-motivated. The Christmas cheer has finished, the office may feel empty and the telephone never rings! Now is the perfect time to regroup by taking your team out to lunch and revisiting your work goals for the next few weeks. Get your team together frequently over this period, so that they feel like a team within a team, while the others are away.

Tip 5: Reward and Recognize
And finally, make a special effort to reward achievement over this period, as you normally would when everyone else is there. A valued team will always be more productive!
By taking these 5 tips, you'll be able to keep team motivation levels high during the Christmas period and allow your team to gain the time to regroup, refresh and gain new energy for the coming year ahead.

Work smarter by purchasing the Project Management Kit of templates. They will save you time and make life easier!

What is a Feasibility Study

A feasibility study as an analytical tool used during the project planning process, shows how a business would operate under an explicitly stated set of assumptions. 

These assumptions include the technology used (the facilities, types of equipment, manufacturing process, etc.) and the financial aspects of the project (capital needs, volume, cost of goods, wages etc.). 

The feasibility study represents the first time in a project development process that the pieces are put together to see if they perform together to create a feasible concept, both technically and economically .

The feasibility study also shows the sensitivity of the business to changes in these basic assumptions.

 Feasibility studies contain standard technical and financial components, presented in more detail in a later section of this report, but the exact appearance of each study varies. This variation depends on the industry studied, the critical factors for that project, the methods chosen to conduct the feasibility study, and the budget of the study. 

Emphasis can be placed on various sections of an individual feasibility study depending on the needs and requirements of the group for whom the study was prepared. Since most studies have multiple potential uses, it is critical to design the study so that the material provided will serve the needs of all these.

The feasibility study provides an evaluation of the potential for success for a project. The perceived objectivity of the evaluation is an important factor in the credibility placed on the study by potential investors and financiers. Also, the creation of the study requires a strong grounding in both the financial and technical aspects of the project. For these and other reasons, persons from outside of the membership group or consultants conduct most feasibility studies.

Feasibility studies for a cooperatives are similar to that for any other type of business, with one important exception: member-users are concerned with having the cooperative be successful because that will help make their personal businesses more successful. Hence, feasibility studies must address the impacts of the project on members as well as the cooperative

How to get Projects back-on-track

Have you ever had a project go over budget or schedule?

Most Project Managers encounter budget overruns or project delays at some point in their career. What can you do when you've stretched your schedule, exceeded your budget and you have your Project Director breathing down your back to finish your project, like, yesterday?

To help you out, we've described in this post...

How to get Projects back-on-track

Whether you project's suffering from cost overruns or delays, it's likely that it's because:

	The initial schedule was a little too optimistic
	The project was under-resourced from the outset
	There was insufficient funding allocated to the project
	The customer has changed the scope during the project
	New risks and issues are impacted on the project.

So what do you do if your project has experienced these problems and it's starting to "veer off the track" ? We suggest that you take one or more of the following steps:

Option 1: Re-schedule
At the start of the project you will have agreed to deliver the project within a fixed schedule. If this schedule is no longer achievable, then you're best to raise it with your customer as soon as possible and get them to agree to a new delivery schedule which is more achievable.

Do this by creating a new forecast in your Project Plan and then once you gain approval, "baseline" your plan so that the new delivery schedule is fixed. You will only want to reschedule once during the project life cycle, otherwise you'll be sending an implicit message to your team that late delivery is acceptable.

Option 2: Gear up
If you have sufficient budget in your Financial Plan but insufficient resources, then you need to apply more people, equipment or materials to complete the tasks laid out in your Project Plan. You can seek additional resource from; within your business, external recruitment, hiring contractors or appointing suppliers as required.

But what if you're under-resourced and you don't have the funding available to appoint more resource? Then, you only have 2 options: a) Find the money, or b) Improve the efficiency of your staff. In most cases, you'll need to improve the efficiency of your staff, so that they can complete more tasks with the timeframe and budget available.

Option 3: Find the money
"Anything can be done with money". So the first step is to present a Business Case to your Sponsor for additional funds for the completion of the project. But in most cases, the funds aren't available and the original budget that was set is fixed in concrete. So in this case, you need to find money from the existing budget. You will need to carefully analyze your existing budget and your expenditure to date and identify efficiencies.

As with most projects, a large percentage of the cost is spent on people. You may need to reduce your administration staff, negotiate new rates for the supply of services or impose penalties in suppliers for overspending or late delivery. In most projects, you can save 10-15% of the cost of the project (especially if a little contingency was added at the start) by cutting back on staff costs, giving you the cashflow you need to deliver within budget.

Option 4: Reset the scope
During the life of a project, it's easy to forget what the exact scope of the project was originally, as defined in the Terms of Reference. So inevitably the customers needs change and the scope of the project widens, until affect the budget and schedule are affected.

If this happens, you have two choices—revert back to the original scope or agree to a new scope. The best option is usually to revert back to the original scope, as by doing that you will immediately relieve any pressure on your schedule and budget. But if you choose to set a new scope, then make sure it's properly documented and formally approved with your customer.

One quick tip is that if your scope widens from that originally set—it's the perfect opportunity to ask your customer for more time, funding or resources to complete it. If you don't do this, then delivering a wider scope based on the original budget and schedule will put pressure on your project team to deliver more, inevitably causing a reduction in the quality of their deliverables and a greater staff turnover.

Every time your customer requests a change in scope, renegotiate a new schedule, budget and resource allocation. Or you can just say "no" of course!

Option 5: Carefully manage risks
Your project may be operating within the original scope, budget and schedule set—but new risks and items may prevent your successful delivery. Could these problems have been foreseen and were they managed quickly as soon as they were identified?

You really need to implement a formal risk management process and issue management process. These processes will help you identify risks early on, and take the steps needed to mitigate them. They will also give you procedures for identifying and resolving project issues, before they impact on the project delivery.

By taking these steps to manage your schedule, budget, resources, scope, risks and issues, you will be able to put your project back on track and ensure you deliver within the budget and schedule agreed with your customer, achieving true project management success.

How to Create a Communications Plan

Send the right message - to the right people - at the right time.

If you manage projects, then you will know that to succeed, you need to communicate clearly with all of your project stakeholders. Otherwise your staff will lack clear direction, team morale will be low and your project may deliver over schedule and exceed its budget.

To make sure that your projects communicate effectively, we have described here...

How to Create a Communications Plan

Using the latest Communications Plan template released today, we have described how to create a bullet-proof Communications Plan for projects. We have provided a snapshot of this template here by listing the 10 steps you need to take to create a Communications Plan for your project.

Step 1: Situation Analysis
The first step to take when creating a Communications Plan is to perform a Situation Analysis. This is a fancy term for researching your existing communications environment.

Review the performance of all communications within your project and identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Then identify any lessons learned from past communications exercises, so that the same mistakes made in the past are not repeated here.

Step 2: Communications Objectives
Great. So you know what your communications strengths are and where you need to improve. You are now ready to set out your communications objectives.

List the top three objectives that you want to achieve from your project communications. For instance, you might want to inform stakeholders of the project progress, boost management buy-in or improve your team productivity.

Step 3: Communications Guidelines
Then set out your communications guidelines for controlling communications within your project. For example, you may decide that:

	All messages will be distributed through pre-defined channels
	All critical communications will be pre-approved by management
	All communications will be tailored, based on stakeholder needs

Step 4: Target Audience
Now define exactly who it is that your team will formally communicate with. Remember, formal communications are a method for controlling the messages sent out by your team. They promote a single consistent view of your project to a specified audience so that "everyone has the same version of the truth".

Step 5: Stakeholder Needs
Each target audience group will have their own needs. These stakeholders will require information that is specific to their role in the project. For instance, a Project Sponsor will need to be informed of high priority risks and issues, whereas a Quality Reviewer might need to be notified of the current status of project deliverables.

Step 6: Key Messages
Then list the key messages that need to be sent to each Stakeholder. Key messages may include project status, project issues, project risks, project deliverables or project resources. The next step is to define how you will deliver each message to them, through a delivery channel.

Step 7: Delivery Channels
There are a huge variety of ways in which you can deliver your key messages to stakeholders (e.g. emails, newsletters, meetings, conferences). For each stakeholder, identify the channel that you will use to deliver your key messages.

Step 8: Communications Schedule
Now you are ready to create the schedule of communications events, activities and actions that are required to deliver the right messages to the right people at the right time throughout the project. Create a detailed schedule of events and for each item listed, specify the timeframes for completion and any dependencies on other events in the schedule.

Step 9: Communications Events
For each event listed in your schedule, describe it in depth. Make sure that you define the purpose of the event, how it will take place and when it should occur.

Step 10: Communications Matrix
And finally, once you have listed the events and described them in detail, you need to identify who will manage them and who will review their effectiveness. Create a Communications Matrix which lists for each event who is accountable for the event, who will take part and who will review its success.

Once you have taken these 10 steps, it is up to you to get your Communications Plan approved by your manager and then execute it to deliver communications efficiently across your project.

And just one last tip - to improve your communications you need honest feedback on your team's performance. Implement feedback measures such as questionnaires, feedback forms and surveys to learn how to continually improve communications within your project team.

Manage Projects Within Budget

One could say that your biggest challenge as a Project Manager is delivering "within budget".

If you are late then you can consider adding more staff, if the quality of your deliverables is not good enough then you can consider scheduling more time, but if you are over budget, then there are not a lot of options for you. So to help you out, we have described here how to:

Manage Projects "Within Budget"

Every Project Manager has a fixed budget. It is one of those things that makes a "project" a project. If you had an on-going annual budget, then you would be managing an operational activity, not a project.

The budgeting challenge for a Project Manager is that often by the time that they are allocated to a project, the budget has already been set by the Sponsor. The Project Manager does not have any real "say" in the matter. So how to can you manage your project within budget, when you have not created the budget in the first place? Here are 10 top tips on how...

Tip 1: Revise the budget
As soon as you are allocated to a project, make it one of your first jobs to revise the budget set. Even if the budget has not formally been set, the Project Sponsor will have some ideas on the overall amount of budget available for use. If you think that the budget is insufficient, tell your Sponsor as early as possible.

Tip 2: Create a Financial Plan
Whether a budget already exists of not, your next step is to create a detailed Financial Plan for your project. This plan will set out all of the planned expenses and when they are likely to occur. Make sure that your Sponsor accepts your plan and that you are comfortable that you can deliver the project against it.

Tip 3: Baseline the plan
Right, so you are now managing the project against a detailed Financial Plan, not a loose budget or general guide on what should be spent. You have a detailed view of the forecast project costs, against which to measure project progress. You should now baseline the plan by getting your Sponsors endorsement and communicating it to your team leaders.

Tip 4: The plan is the plan
Many people manage their project against the total amount of expenditure available. Do not fall into this trap, as you will always think you have enough funds to complete the project. Instead, manage the project against the detailed Financial Plan you have set out. If some items go over budget, investigate why and fix the issues. Only by managing at this level of detail can you build an accurate view of the projects performance against budget.

Tip 5: Get serious
If you are serious about delivering your projects within budget, then you need to implement some form of Cost Management Process. This process will give you formal procedures for the identification, recording and tracking of project costs.

Tip 6: Use Expense Forms
Ensure that your staff record all expenses using Expense Forms. Only by formally recording expenses can you build an accurate picture of the overall cost of the project to date.

Tip 7: Register your expenses
By using an Expense Register or log, you can create a summarized view of the project cost to date, at any point in time.

Tip 8: Report progress We have seen some Project Managers tell their Sponsor that they are likely to be over budget the week before they were due to finish! If you even have an inkling that you might be over budget, tell your Project Sponsor about it as early as possible. It will help you gain buy in and they may even be able to help you out.

Tip 9: Do not be afraid If you need more money and you have exhausted all other options, then ask for it. Do not be afraid to tell your Project Sponsor that you have reached this point. Remember, there are quite often very valid reasons for needing more money throughout the project.

Tip 10: Balance time, cost and quality evenly Remember, your goal is to deliver the project on time, to cost and quality. Never compromise time and quality to bring your project in under budget. It is a challenging job, but always try and balance time, cost and quality fairly. You can do it!

If you would like help managing projects within budget, then these 2 products will give you all of the templates and methods you need...

	Project Management Templates
	Project Management Methodology

How to Manage Large Projects

Would you like to manage large projects?

The most difficult thing about managing a large project is juggling the set of deliverables, timeframes, staff, suppliers, equipment, materials, contractors and customers. It can be an extremely challenging task. To make things easier for you, we've described here:

How to Manage Large Projects

So what is a large project? It's usually one that:

• Involves a large financial expenditure
• Takes anywhere from 6 months to 2 years
• Has a big project team in different locations
• Involves the creation of large quantities of deliverables
• Requires external suppliers and contractors.

Large projects typically have higher risk and are harder to control than small projects, as they involve large quantities of people, time, money and resources. So they have a lot more to lose when things go wrong!

Each of these processes are described below:

1. Manage Time

Delivering "on schedule" is usually the hardest challenge for a large project, due to the sheer amount of work involved. You need a clear time management process to record time spent by staff, log it in a timesheet register and update the project plan with current progress.

This process allows you to track progress and control delivery against the original target date set. All staff should complete timesheets and hand them to the project administrator weekly.

2. Minimize Cost

To minimize the cost of the project, a cost management process should be implemented. This involves recording all expenses in an expense register and regularly updating the project plan and financial plan schedules with the status of the project budget.

Only by gaining an up-to-date view of the total project spend, can you control expenditure and minimize costs.

3. Control Quality

The quality management process is used to conduct quality assurance reviews to check that the deliverables produced by the project meet the quality targets set.

A set of quality control measures are put in place, to monitor and control the quality of each deliverable produced.

4. Reduce Change

Using a change management process, the Project Manager can identify any requests for change and review their potential effect on the project.

Large projects all too frequently suffer from scope creep, whereby changes are implemented without approval. This causes delays and budget over-runs. The change process will prevent this occurring, by monitoring and controlling all changes and implementing a formal process for their approval.

5. Mitigate Risks

Large projects usually encounter a larger amount of risk, so the key to success is in identifying these risks early and mitigating them before they impact on the project. Using a risk management process, you can identify and mitigate project risks early.

Low and medium priority risks will be addressed by the Project Manager, however high priority risks will be raised at Project Board meetings to be addressed.

6. Resolve Issues

Complex and technical projects usually encounter a high number of issues, as the project deliverables may be unique in nature. The trick is to resolve them as early as possible. Implement an issue management process, to enable staff to raise issues and have them resolved by the Project Manager in a timely manner.

7. Manage Procurement

If you're obtaining goods and services from external suppliers, then you will need some form of procurement management process. This process will explain how you want to procure items, through the issuing and fulfillment of Purchase Orders.

It will also explain how you intend to manage the performance of your suppliers, by conducting supplier reviews at each contractual milestone.

8. Get Acceptance

It's not enough to produce top quality deliverables, you have to gain acceptance from your customer that each deliverable meets their requirements. This is called the acceptance management process.

As you finish each deliverable, get your customer to sign it off as being 100% complete. It will help you manage the project and get permission to perform project closure when you're ready.

9. Perform Communications

On larger projects, it's crucial that you keep stakeholders properly informed. By implementing a communications management process, you can distribute formal communication messages, to ensure that you deliver the right content to the right people at the right time.

10. Complete Phase Reviews

And lastly, to manage large projects, you need to implement phase reviews at the end of each major project phase. Each review allows your team to determine that they have met their objectives for the current phase and can therefore progress to the next phase in the project life cycle.

For large projects, these processes help Project Managers to monitor and control their projects effectively, increasing their likelihood of achieving success.

How to Manage Small Projects

Do you often manage small projects?

If you do, then you will know that the way you manage small projects is different from managing larger more complex projects. To help you make this distinction and improve your success in managing smaller projects, we've described in this newsletter...

How to Manage Small Projects

So what is a "small project" vs. a "large project"? It's fair to say that small projects have:

	A lower project budget
	Very short delivery timescales
	Less people and more limited resources
	Lower risk and fewer project issues
	More clearly defined deliverables

However small projects are not necessarily easier to manage than large projects! They may still be complex and involve a range of departments, resources, suppliers and customers to complete them.

So to boost your chances of success, we have set out here, the Project Life Cycle for managing small projects:

Step 1: Create a Terms of Reference

For small projects, the first step to take is usually the creation of a Term of Reference. This document describes the project vision, scope, objectives, deliverables, timeframes and known risks for the project.

You need to get all of the project stakeholders to agree to this document, so that you gain a crystal clear view of what the project is to achieve. Without formal approval, projects suffer scope creep, lack of change control, poor sponsorship and communication problems.

Step 2: Appoint the Project Team

Thanks to your Terms of Reference, everyone agrees what it is that has to be achieved. You're now ready to appoint your team. For small projects, you will usually need to gain the support of senior management, to allocate resource to your project, from within the business.

You will probably have a very limited budget for appointing external suppliers, consultants and contractors. But if they are required, you will need to formalize supplier contracts at this point.

Regardless of the project role appointed, make sure you create a clear Job Description first, so that staff know exactly what's expected of them.

Step 3: Set up the Project Office

Even small projects need the support of a project office who help with project reporting, risk / issue / change resolution, training and administration. For small projects, you will need the services of your project office to make sure that your project conforms with internal standards and processes, and to get project support when you need it.

Step 4: Create a Project Plan

The Project plan is more than just a schedule of events. It describes the entire Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for the project by defining all of the phases, activities and tasks required to deliver it. It also sets out the project scope, milestones, effort, deliverables, resources and dependencies in detail.

For smaller projects, your project plan will become your "single view of progress for the project." By updating it immediately after your weekly project status meetings, you can ensure that you remain on track.

Step 5: Create a Quality Plan

With a clear view of the project plan, you now need to work out how you're going to ensure that you will meet the requirements of your customer will help you do this by defining your quality targets, complete Quality Assurance reviews and Quality Control.

Step 6: Create a Communications Plan

The final step in the planning process is to set out a plan for keeping stakeholders properly informed of the progress of the project.

Using the Communications Plan can define the communication needs of all stakeholders. You can then build a schedule of communications events so that you inform the right people with the right information at the right time.

Step 7: Build the Deliverables

Of course the largest amount of time allocated in your Project Plan, will be spent building the physical deliverables for your customer. Whether it's creating new products, deploying new services or re-engineering processes, make sure that you use a Deliverables Register to record the progress of your deliverables towards completion.

Step 8: Monitor and Control

While your team are building the project deliverables, your job is to monitor and control the critical elements of the project. This includes:

• Time Management
• Cost Management
• Quality Management
• Change Management
• Risk Management
  
• Issue Management

Step 9: Close the Project

Once all of the deliverables are complete, your job is nearly finished. At this point, you need to close the project by completing any outstanding items, filing project documentation, releasing suppliers, terminating contracts, re-allocating resources and communicating closure to the project stakeholders.

Step 10: Review Completion

Even for small projects, it's necessary to review it's completion. By completing a Post Implementation Review you can gain an independent assessment of the level of success of the project, the areas for improvement and any lessons learned.

And that's it! By following these 10 steps, you'll boost your chances of delivering your projects on time and under budget.

Create a Project Charter

Want to improve your project success? Most Project Managers will tell you that the best way to ensure success is to define your project clearly from the outset. That way, all of your team members, stakeholders and customers will have a single view of what the project needs to achieve. So the best way to define you project clearly is to:

Create a Project Charter

A Project Charter is a document that is completed at the very start of the project life cycle. It sets out the project vision, objectives and scope, so that you can gain a clear picture of what it is that the project must achieve.

It also describes the deliverables, the people involved in producing them and the timeframes for delivery.

To create a Charter for your project, take these 5 steps:

Step 1: Set the Vision

Every team needs a "Vision". By clarifying the vision for the project and the goals that must be met, your team will gain a single collective understanding of what it is expected of them. When setting out your vision, make sure that you:

Gain agreement from the Sponsor first Write it using clear, meaningful word Communicate it to all team member

Don't email the vision out to your team. Instead, present it personally, so that they have a first hand understanding of what it is, why it's important and what it should mean to them.

Step 2: Define the Scope

With a clear vision, the next most important step is to define the project scope. The scope lists the activities and deliverables that must be completed, in order to achieve the vision.

Having a detailed scope helps you to plan your project effectively. It also helps you to prevent "scope creep" which is when unplanned deliverables and activities are added to your To Do list by your customer.

Only by clarifying the project scope at the outset, can you manage your customers needs, by telling them for instance that a request is "out of scope" and therefore requires additional time or money to complete it.

Step 3: Structure the Project Team

So you know your end target (i.e. your vision) and deliverables to be produced (i.e. your scope), you now need to identify the people who are going to do the work.

Create a Project Organizational Structure chart which show all of the customers, stakeholders, team members and other people involved with your project. Depict the reporting lines between each, and where possible, add lines of communication as well.

Documenting the organization structure is important, as it clarifies the number of people needed to complete your project and the responsibilities of each member in your team. It also helps you to create Job Description for each member of your team.

Step 4: Create a Roadmap

Then create a project roadmap. This is a high level project plan that lists the phases, activities and tasks that your project will pass through, to complete the entire project management life cycle.

As well as setting out the activities needed to complete the project from start to finish, you need to identify the resources needed for each project phase. And finally, identify the overall budget required to complete the project, so that you gain financial approval to undertake the project, as early as possible in the project life cycle.

Step 5: Identify Risks and Issues

The last step to take when creating a Project Charter is to list the risks and issues that are currently apparent. By listing these items, you can make your Project Sponsor aware of the overall level of risk of the project and enlist their support to resolve them early.

By taking these 5 steps, you're ready to create a Project Charter to initiate projects more successfully. If you would to implement these 5 steps for your projects, then get the Project Charter Template now.

Want to boost your project management success? Check out these 2 great project management solutions...

	Project Management Templates
	Project Management Methodology