My goal for this post is to synthesize the information in this PMI article I found on some best practices for project management. Nothing can substitute for experience but hopefully these strategies can provide a starting point for anyone to learn from and adapt to their specific project.
Nine Elements of Project Management Best Practices
1. Defined Life Cycle and Milestones
Organizing a project into four phases is an excellent way to provide structure while maintaining simplicity. This is a simple format that can be tweaked to a specific project quite easily. The most simple four phases to use as reference are as follows: Concept, Planning, Implementation, Closeout.
2. Stable Requirements and Scope
All relevant details to a project should be defined early on. Requirements must be solidified in the concept phase so that the project can move forward and avoid problems in the future. Some important factors to consider when defining requirements are:
What are the deliverables?
What are the risks involved?
What are the resources available?
What are the standards of success?
3. Defined Organization, Systems, and Roles
When forming a team for a project it is important to define every member’s roles, responsibility, and accountability. Most project managers will assume a role balancing many different responsibilities The most important skill to have is the ability to communicate and interpret information from project members. The project manager must have accurate information for the project to succeed and that often depends on their ability to understand what their project members have to say. Asking the right questions and using that information to lead the team is what makes a successful project manager.
4. Quality Assurance
Quality assurance begins with the ability to meet the requirements and specifications laid out in the concept phase. Standards for success need to be defined throughout each cycle and reviewed before moving forward. Quality assurance does not get tacked on at the end of a project, it must be present from the beginning and maintained throughout a project life cycle.
5. Planned Commitments
Plans should not be dependant on best-case scenarios or circumstances that are not guaranteed. A plan cannot be a schedule that is subject to change. If there is a lack of information to generate a plan then the information should be sought out first before continuing on. In order to plan successfully, follow these seven components of a project plan:
I. Scope and mission
II. Scheduling
III. Budgeting
IV. Personnel
V. Evaluation and control
VI. Risk and problems
VII. Quality
Scope, mission, and scheduling may be the first things that are thought of when devising a plan but it does not end there. Budgeting must be done ahead of time and is a useful measure of project success when monitored. Finding appropriate personnel for a project can be an unforeseen roadblock than can be avoided by planning ahead of time. If additional members will be needed at a later point in the project, it is best to have them selected and trained by the time they are required.
6. Tracking and Variance Analysis
Throughout the project life cycle, reports should be generated that evaluate whether a project is deviating from its plan or meeting its goals. Unforeseen risks and scheduling changes can cause a project to fail if left unattended. It is best to catch these errors early through tracking of the project’s performance indicators.
7. Corrective Action Decisions
Correcting a project that has deviated from its path is often more difficult than it seems. Taking the time to correct one issue may cause others to fall behind or deviate as well. The project manager must be able to decide when a trade-off is necessary or the requirements must be changed to accomodate the deviation in the project. Making these changes early causes their impact to be minimized. Do not wait to see if a deviated project will be able to correct itself given time, instead correct the problem immediately after reviewing possible solutions.
8. Escalation and Issue Management
It is common for only good news to be passed above in a project hierarchy. Problems are concealed or downplayed until it is too late. The project manager is responsible for having a system in place to report issues so that they can be handled before causing a cascade of subsequent problems. Project members must feel comfortable and have the capacity to escalate an issue to a superior so that it is not left at the wayside. Often times, the problem may only be resolved by someone with more authority. That problem, however, may never come to the attention of someone with that authority due to an inadequate project environment or authority structure.
9. Work Authorization and Change Control
Changes in the scope of a project is common. How these changes are handled will ultimately determine the fate of the project. The project manager must have a system in place to handle changes to the requirements of a project. These changes must be logged and their implications fully understand and planned for ahead of time, before the change to the project is accepted. All members of a project should be informed of a change when it occurs. If there is a breakdown in communication, these changes may never be fully implemented and the project will falter.
These are the nine elements of project management outlined in the paper I referenced. It is definitely worth a read for a more in-depth understanding of what is being discussed here. Hopefully this post can serve as a quick reference guide that can get the project management process started.
Source Citation:
Salapatas, J. N. (2000). Best practices—the nine elements to success. Paper
presented at Project Management Institute Annual Seminars & Symposium,
Houston, TX. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
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