The Goal Getters

It’s next to impossible to measure performance or, effectiveness on a project if you do not have a “measuring stick”. Quite simply, the measuring stick on any project is your client and their expectations! Therefore, capturing client expectations becomes the most critical task at the beginning of any project. After the project is underway, being able to measure against those expectations means you can guide the project and help make effective decisions. The more you know about your client’s expectations the easier it becomes.

The place where I like to capture client expectations is in the Project Scope and Charter. This document is closely linked to the workplan. The workplan is where expectations are turned into tasks, deliverables and milestones that will help meet those expectations. There isn’t a sequential order implied between defining the work and building the schedule and budget. Therefore, you can work on the Project Scope and Charter and the workplan simultaneously.

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Can it be done; absolutely!  However, to meet this timeline you won’t get ‘everything under the sun’ and you’ll have to strong change control to stick with the plan.  I know what you’re thinking, “sounds too good to be true”.  Right?  Maybe not.  Think about building a house in 90 days.  Can it be done?  Yep, I’ve done it (minus the foundation).

But it required a pretty specific plan and we had to stick to the plan even though we knew we wouldn’t be looking at the end product in 90 days.  In it’s basic form we had i. a plan with critical milestones and ii. what I’m calling “building blocks” (i.e., framing, plumbing, electrical etc).  We had to make sure that each of the building blocks was fully defined ahead of time (i.e., framed walls went here and not over there) and mapped out on the timeline to fit it in the 90 day window.  Since I was the one managing the workplan I actually ended up switching the tasks around and going against the traditional order followed in construction.

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Application Management Outsourcing (AMO) refers to the ongoing maintenance, management, and support of an application software portfolio by an external company. It’s a hot topic these days with shrinking IT budgets. But how do you know if outsourcing the administration is right for you and your company?

First you have to identify the applications that are suitable for developing and maintaining remotely. Not all situations will fit this criterion due to security and procedures around administering certain applications and/or environments. I’d say 95% of the time this is not an issue however; I’ve been at some financial services clients where AMO was not an option.

Second, you need to know the company you outsource too. More importantly they need to know you and know your business. Outsourcing for the sake of outsourcing or, saving money is in my opinion short sighted and misses the concept of outsourcing all together. Most Hyperion Financial Management applications are considered mission critical due to the impact they can have on the close cycle of a company and therefore, share price. Do you really want to hand that responsibility over to ‘cousin Vinny’ because he’s 10% less than a more reputable firm?

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I often get asked ask questions regarding the correction application of project management on client engagements. This topic comes up in RFPs, project kick-off meetings as well as after the fact during post implementation reviews. As you know there is no magical answer to the right amount or, the correct application of project management.The old adage “it’s an art not a science” holds true no matter when you address the topic with your client.

Bottom line, everyone does it a little differently. If you follow an industry standard PMBOK Methodology you’ll find that there are 4 four common components to managing projects and managing project processes:

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Scope is the term used to describe the boundaries of the project. Scope is used to define what the project will deliver and what it will not deliver. For larger projects, it can include the affected organizations, the transactions impacted, the data types included, etc. If you look at the reasons that projects fail, it is usually the result of two problems. Either the team did not spend enough time defining the work and / or there was a lack of scope management. Even if the project manager did a good job of defining scope, the hard part comes in having to manage the project within that agreed-upon scope.

The purpose of scope change management is to protect the viability of the approved Project Scope and Charter and the approved business requirements. In other words, the Project Scope and Charter defines the overall scope of the project, and the business requirements define the deliverables in detail. The project team committed to a deadline and budget based on this high-level and detailed scope definition. If the deliverables change during the project (and usually this means that the client wants additional items), the estimates for cost, effort and duration may no longer be valid. If the sponsor agrees to include the new work into the project scope, the project manager has the right to expect that the current budget and deadline will be modified (usually increased) to reflect this additional work. This new estimated cost, effort and duration now become the approved target.

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An issue is a formally-defined problem that will impede the progress of the project and cannot be resolved by the project manager and project team without outside help.These issues need to be collected, managed and tracked to closure.Simply using an Issues Log will avoid issues ‘falling off the table’ and offer a way to communicate issue status to your client.

Identify the problem

Solicit potential issues from any project stakeholders, including the project team, clients, sponsors, etc. The issue can be surfaced through verbal or written means.

Determine if the problem is really an issue

The project manager determines whether the problem can be resolved or whether it should be classified as an issue.

Enter the issue into the Issues Log

If it is an issue, the project manager enters the issue into the Issues Log.

Determine who needs to be involved in resolving the issue

The project manager determines who needs to be involved in resolving the issue. The sponsor may be involved, or the sponsor may not have the expertise to assist in the resolution process. For instance, the resolution may require technical or legal staff. The problem may be contractual and require resolution from the Purchasing Department. However, at some point the alternatives will be discussed and a resolution will be made. It is important to understand up-front who needs to be involved in making this final issue resolution.

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Risk refers to future conditions or circumstances that exist outside of the control of the project team that will have an adverse impact on the project if they occur. Whereas an issue is a current problem that must be dealt with, a risk is a potential future problem that has not yet occurred. A reactive project manager tries to resolve issues when they occur. A proactive project manager tries to resolve potential problems before they occur. This is the art of risk management.

The project manager should perform a risk assessment with the project team and the client to identify high, medium and low level risks. The project manager should perform a risk assessment with the project team and the client to identify high, medium and low level risks. There are two ways of tracking risks. You can manage the risks on your project using an Issues and Risk Log. Or, for a larger project you can develop a Risk Management Plan.

Create Risk Management Plan

Start the risk management process by understanding your overall approach for managing risks. This includes defining your risk management process, who is involved with the risk management process, what tools will be used, what roles will be involved, if any (project manager, risk officer, risk manager, etc.), the timeline and the effort associated with managing risks, the risk techniques to be used, etc.

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The old adage about quality being in the eyes of the beholder is true - quality is ultimately measured by your client. Your goal is to understand the client’s requirements and expectations - and then meet those expectations. This is a critical concept about quality. Sometimes there is a tendency to think that ‘quality’ means the best material, the best equipment and absolutely zero defects. However, in most cases, the client does not expect, and cannot afford, a perfect solution. On the other hand, a flawlessly designed, defect-free solution that does not meet the client’s needs is not considered high quality.

Determine the client requirements for quality

Work with your client to determine their requirements for quality. These are the detailed characteristics that are important to the customer. The high-level characteristics of quality can be uncovered during the project definition process. The detailed quality requirements should be uncovered when you gather business requirements.

Create a Quality Plan

Develop a Quality Plan to identify the major deliverables, completeness and correctness criteria, quality control activities and quality assurance activities. The Quality Plan allows you to understand when the deliverables are complete as well as how to show they are correct. The Quality Plan also describes how you will ensure that the client’s quality requirements are achieved. It is the place to describe the processes and activities that will be put into place to ensure that quality deliverables are produced. The Quality Plan describes the quality assurance and quality control activities used on the project. The actual activities needed to implement these processes need to be identified and included in the schedule to ensure they are completed.

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