Planning - Failure to plan is planning to fail. By Ernest Shaw, PMP Project management plans are literally the backbone of each and every project. As such, a weak plan will yield weak results and will all but ensure failure. A sound project management plan will actually consist of several sub-plans covering various topics. Sub-plans include Project Planning, Scope, Cost and Risk Management, Quality Control/Quality Assurance, Human Resources Management, Procurement Management, Communications Management, and Project Closure. Project Planning - Project planning is the overall project plan including the subtopics and all ground in between. This document serves to establish the infrastructure for project governance. Scope Management - Scope Management or Control is one of primary functions of the Project Manager. Matching the executed scope to the planned scope is of utmost importance. Excessive scope creep can signal the death of a project as scope creep increases costs and adds time the project execution. Cost Management - The Cost Management Plan can initiate an administrative means of controlling project costs. The means could consist of spending thresholds or limits requiring authorization, pre-approved contracts for service, or project aspects. Risk Management - Risk management can cover a wide variety of items. The obvious items can directly impact any leg of the Triple Constraint – “Scope, Cost, or Schedule”. Risk Management could involve pre-purchase of long lead-time materials, contingent planning for high likelihood losses, or plain old-fashioned theft prevention. Almost every risk management plan will be unique as risks are specific to each new project thus requires a whole new set of assumptions, basis, and contingency plans. Quality Control - Quality Control, or QC, describes the process employed to maintain and desired product specifications within allowed tolerances for deviation. The QC plan may include process evaluations and checklists to programmatically infuse quality. QC plans may also extend to the suppliers of materials, goods, or services to ensure that the desired specification is indeed attainable. Quality Assurance - Quality Assurance, or QA, takes a more active "proving" role verifying that the QC was indeed effective. QA may include non-destructive testing, random sampling, or documentation audits. In QA most everything showing evidence of quality control is fair game. Human Resources Management - Depending on the mission and relative scale, Human Resources Management, or HR, can become complex. HR ties payroll, policies and procedures, reward, discipline, and organizational structure. There are several methods of structuring an organization each providing strengths and weaknesses. In either case no matter your final selection, there will be a need to decide and communicate who does what. In traditional vertical organizations the standard pyramid chart will most likely exist. For more progressive organizations flatter more horizontal structure may be in order. Again, no matter the organizational structure, decide who is to do what and communicate the decision. Procurement Management – Procurement management can be a simple short spreadsheet listing the required items to a given supply chain. If the project requires shipping or transport of materials, preferred suppliers, shippers, or handlers may be worthy partners. Similar agreements can be brokered regarding per unit costs securing discounts or favorable delivery order. Last, the procurement management portion of the planning will contain means to control expenditures. Assigning levels or monetary limits for the various members of the organization is key. Likewise, requiring department level concurrence prior to purchase order initiation can be key to keeping procurement costs as low as reasonably allowable. Communications Management – Can you hear me now? It’s funny how such a simple question can conjure sentiment through out a population. Communications plans are designed to answer that exact question and ensure that the key stakeholders are informed. Status updates, good and or bad news, change notification and requests, difficulties or advances are all of note and all are subject to impacting the project bottom line. In today’s connected world, communications can come in a multitude of means: Email, voicemail, video, teleconferencing, or old fashioned face-to-face in person presentation are just a few of the available means of communications. No matter what the method and frequency selected the maintenance of this communications stream is essential for project efficiency and overall success. Project Closure – Last but not least, project closure wraps up the project and ensures that all deliverables have been satisfied, all open accounts are closed, and final acceptance is transferred. Final closure is also the opportunity to document any lessons learned during the course of the project thus allowing future project performance improvements. All said project planning is essential part of any project from lemonade stand to multi-national software development. No matter what you are doing you will need a plan either formal or informal. Best regards and plan well!

[ Mon, 14 Aug 2006 05:21:14 GMT ]

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