Why include Stonecreek Partners in your project team?
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Project Management
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Comprehensive project management is essential in today's complex business environment. Project management is not only about managing process - it is about making decisions as well.
Project management demands a free flow of communication with and among project team members, and internal and external project stakeholders. The project team needs frequent information from each of its team members to complete and improve the project and to understand the needs and expectations of the project's customers. Project communication management involves project communication planning, information distribution, reporting performance and formal project close-out.
A good project management plan is based upon two elements: good inputs and good planning practices. In addition the project management plan must be actively used throughout the project, for both scheduling work and tracking progress. Stonecreek LLC believes strongly in planning the front-end of any project development effort, as the care taken at the beginning typically eases project issues that may develop later.
Project Scope Set -- The project should have a clearly defined scope and subsidiary objectives. A scope statement of project scope allows someone to quickly determine if a given requirement should possibly be implemented by a project. Ideally, a scope statement should be available in a business case or other document that has been approved by senior managment. If a scope is not available, then you one must be created if only for the purposes of the project plan.
Detailed Requirements Available -- The project requirements need to be detailed enough to support an initial conceptual design.
Initial Design Available -- An initial conceptual design should be completed in sufficient detail to create a project management plan.
Requirements Stability Known -- It is typically known how likely it is for project requirements to change over time, and by how much. Often plans are drawn up early in the project lifecycle, when requirements may not be firm, even if they are detailed. This is fine, so long as everyone is aware how much requirements may change. One approach to dealing with unstable requirements is to allow extra risk factor in the plan for requirements change. Another approach is to reserve the right to change the project plan, including delivery date, as requirements change.
Development Team Should Have Input -- The development team should be involved in all aspects of the estimation process. It is not always possible to involve the whole development team with every aspect of the development. However, at least some key team members should be present to help plan work for the project. The development team should have the major inputs such as how long it will take to develop the overall project. A project manager's role is to ensure that the development estimates are reasonable, adding time to cover risk that you might see.
Person Responsible For Each Item Signs Off Estimate -- The person who will be implementing each part of the project agrees to take responsibility for implementing it in the time estimated. While not usually a formal sign off, it is important that team members have the confidence about the estimates they are expected to work to. A project manager may be confident because they gave the estimate themselves. On the other hand, a project manager may trust the estimation of a senior developer. Either way, a plan works best if individuals commit to performing each task in the time planned.
Project Manager Signs Off Each Estimate -- The Project Manager agrees that each item is estimated realistically. Since the project manager will have responsibility for bringing the project to completion in the time specified by the plan, it is important that the project manager have some degree of confidence in each item of the plan. If the project manager is not confident of the individual estimations, how can confidence be shown in the overall plan?
High Risk and High Value Items Brought Forward -- The project management plan should identify high risk and high value tasks and brings them as far forward as possible. It makes sense to do the risky items first, since it gives you more time to fix problems if things go wrong. Similarly, it makes sense to do items that add a lot of business value first.
Reports and Deliverables Scheduled Every 2-3 weeks -- The project management approach should provide for deliverables to the client or senior management at regular interverals (2 to 3 weeks). A project with many, regular reports, milestones, and deliverables is inherently simpler to control than one that produces nothing until the very end. Each deliverable is a concrete milestone that is visibly met or not met. Regular deliveries also allow users to give constructive feedback sooner that they otherwise would.
Assumptions and Dependencies Documented -- All assumptions made and external dependencies specified in the plan should be explicitly documented. Because plans are drawn up early on in the project lifecycle, there will be many unknowns, and assumptions need to be made in order to produce a schedule. These assumptions must be documented as part of the plan so that the plan can be modified appropriately should the assumption turn out to be false. A special kind of assumption is the external dependency, where the project plan assumes that some task external to the project is complete by a certain point in the project's progress.
Risks Addressed -- The project management plan should address "mission critical" risks in a comprehensive manner. The kinds of things that you should be looking at in any project are: 1) An effort made to identify the biggest risks to on-time, on-budget delivery; 2) The effect of the risk on the project, should the event occur, is estimated. Estimates of how likely each risk is to occur; 3) An appropriate mitigation strategy for each risk has been identified and included in the plan - even if it is only to allow extra time in the schedule.
Project Management Plan Should be Understandable -- The plan needs to be presented in such a way that it can be understood by everybody who is expected to use it. An effectively communicated plan is a great help to the project manager because it allows individuals within the team to take more responsibility for keeping to the schedule. For instance, a team member who will not finish a task on the date planned is more likely to let you know if they can see the effect that will have on the schedule. A clear, open plan also allows everyone to have input to the plan.
Track Against Plan -- The project's progress is of course tracked against the plan. The plan should be updated regularly with the project's progress. It is a good idea to track the project weekly, so that the weekly project report includes an accurate picture of progress.
Plans Change with Circumstances -- The project management plan is revised as necessary in order to meet the project budget and timeframe. Because projects are large efforts that involve many variables, unexpected things happen from time to time and can at times cause the plan to be changed to take this into account.
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Stonecreek Partners Resource pages are provided freely and without limitation for personal, private, non-commercial use, and may be linked to as a source page. All resource page information is based on 30 years of practitioner's experience of Stonecreek Partners' principals, in the retail, entertainment, hotel, residential, and commercial real estate industries.
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