Business Services - Best Practices for Project
Management
Compilation from Business Services Projects
DISCLAIMER
This is a work in process document. As post implementation reviews are
conducted for Business Services projects and more is learned on how to
effectively manage projects, this document should continue to be updated. The
scope of this document is primarily geared towards the management of small
technology projects and not those that are enterprise wide, although some of the
same concepts do apply. ITAP will be developing a Project Office and when it is
implemented, a methodology and processes will be developed. This document
will need to be updated to ensure that it aligns with ITAP’s methodology and
processes.
Templates of several outputs of a technology project can be found at:
\\1061fs03\data\BS\Common\Users\BSC\Project_Mgmt\Project_Templates\
TRIPLE CONSTRAINT
The triple constraint involves making tradeoffs between scope, time and cost for a
project. It is inevitable in a project life cycle that there will be changes to the
scope, time or cost of the project. However where most projects fail is that when
one of the areas changes and appropriate adjustments are not made to the other
areas. For example, if a deadline is moved up, what actions are needed with
regards to cost or scope to ensure the deadline is met without compromising the
quality of the product.
Business Services - Best Practices for Project Management
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Successful project management requires that all knowledge areas (scope, time,
cost, quality, human resource, communications, risk, procurement, project
integration) be managed effectively. Some of the items that came out of the
reviews are directly related to the above knowledge areas, areas of which there
needs to be improvement.
Core Functions
Scope Management
Defining and managing all the work required to successfully complete the project.
Charters should be developed for each project.
A formal process should be developed for change management including the
estimate in cost of making the change.
Scope of the project needs to be clearly defined in the project charter. To
avoid scope creep, any changes to scope must be documented and a formal
approval must be obtained before changing the scope of the project.
Need to determine who can make decisions and differentiate based on
magnitude of decision. Not every project decision should go to the Steering
Committee.
Time Management
Estimating how long it will take to complete work, develop project schedule, and
ensure completion.
Project Schedule – for each project a project schedule should be defined early
on. Tasks should be identified down to the task/person level. Project
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schedule templates (plans for software upgrades, software development etc…)
should be developed so that project managers have a “pool” to pull from.
All projects that have more than 5 resources and have duration
of longer than 1 month should utilize Microsoft Project to
develop a project schedule.
Requirements should be done prior to development work.
In areas where business changes are needed, significant time
should be allotted to do this.
Include entire project team in planning. This will help minimize
tasks being overlooked in the plan.
Break the project into small pieces. Not all functionality has to
be delivered with one release.
Time needed for the project by the various resources needs to be
better identified. Often the time is underestimated.
Cost Management
Preparing and managing a budget
Budget guidelines need to be established prior to project
Need to determine who has the authority to make certain budget decisions
A budget identifying the total cost of ownership of an application should be
developed. Some costs that need to be identified and budgeted for are:
Consultants – as we continue to purchase more applications. Our
dependency on consultants will continue. This needs to be budgeted as
a recurring cost with each upgrade.
Maintenance agreements will be a recurring cost of owning purchased
applications.
Travel and professional development – the skills needed to support
these new applications requires staff to learn new technology as well as
develop partnerships with other institutions utilizing the same
software. This is a recurring cost and should be budgeted for
accordingly.
Quality Management
Ensures the project will satisfy stated or implied needs
A formal customer sign-off process is needed.
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Ensure the scope statement has specific measures of success so that it is easier
to determine if a project has been successful at meeting the objectives.
Facilitating Functions
Human Resource Management
Making effective use of people.
Knowledgeable resources should be identified for the project team and
involved as soon as possible. If staff are unable to devote time necessary, then
tasks should be prioritized.
End users should be involved early in the project and updated throughout.
If a project requires some special skills (i.e. knowledge of SQL etc..), staff need
to have the training made available at the right time. This may be something
that should be included in the project plan – training assessments of project
team.
Staff should be given release time for participating in projects spanning a long
time or requiring significant staff effort.
Clearly define staff roles and responsibilities.
Communications Management
Generating, collecting, disseminating, storing project information.
A communication plan should be developed to outline what gets
communicated to whom and who is responsible for the communication. For
example, what information gets communicated to the Steering Committee?
Sponsor Meetings - regular meetings should be established with sponsor to
ensure they are aware of project status. Frequency should be based on project
size and turnaround time. The larger the project, the more infrequent
(monthly) the meetings should be. Format of agenda should be consistent.
Team Meetings - regular meetings should be established with project team to
ensure tasks completed, that they are aware of important deadlines
etc…Agendas should be developed and minutes should be completed with
action items.
Point of Contacts – POCs should be identified for major groups (i.e. IT,
testers, business areas etc…). Sometimes it is difficult to ensure if people read
email regarding important dates etc…The POC is responsible for ensuring
their area is aware of information relating to them.
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Majordomo - mail lists may also be developed so that the project team can
communicate freely with each other.
Risk Management
Identifying, analyzing, and responding to risks
Risks need to be identified prior to project. In addition, procedures on how to
handle these risks if they arise need to be documented.
Staff turnover will most likely occur on projects spanning a long time. A
management plan needs to be devised on how new staff will be brought up to
speed.
Procurement
Acquiring or procuring goods and services that are needed from outside the
organization
It may be necessary to hire outside consultants for larger projects. This may
allow implementations to run smoother as the consultants can alert us to
issues.
Project Integration Management
Overarching function that affects and is affected by all other knowledge areas.
Close interaction with vendor is needed to understand changes with new
versions (i.e. what current functionality won’t exist in new version)
Project Plan should be developed and include:
Overview of the project - description, sponsors, stakeholders,
deliverables
Organizational structure of the project – authority of project manager
and steering committee, responsibilities and communication for the
project, reporting structure of project
Management and technical approaches – management objectives,
project controls (status reports, how to handle changes), risk
management, project staffing plan, technology methodologies
Scope management plan – WBS (work break-down structure) or high
level task list, key deliverables
Project schedule – summary and detailed
Budget – summary and detailed, assumptions
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A project should be broken down into small manageable pieces rather
than implementing everything at once.
Periodic reviews should occur to determine if the project should continue.
Miscellaneous
Testing
Should be detailed – scripts should be developed for minimal testing.
This doesn’t mean that other testing is not also needed.
Parallel testing – when at all possible, it is best to be able to test the old
version in conjunction w/ the new version. This helps identify gaps.
Issue list should be maintained throughout project to ensure issues are
resolved before implementation or at least be aware that those issues
exist.
Instances (QA/DEV/Production) – when testing, instances need to be
compatible to ensure the needed functionality is transferred from one
version to the next.
Issues found after testing should be included in test scripts to detect in
future upgrades/enhancements to the system.
Training
Evaluations may be needed to determine if there is additional training
that is needed. Be careful in assumptions regarding knowledge level of
the users.
Adequate time should be allowed for training. A common theme in all
feedback was that there wasn’t enough time for testing. Need to
identify a “rule of thumb” for project managers to use as a guide.
QA instance needs to be “frozen” when training material development
starts.
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