Atul Gaur Project Management

7 Essentials of Monitoring and Control of Project Work

2011-11-06T19:31:00.000+05:30

Monitoring is an aspect of project management performed through out the project. Monitoring includes collecting, measuring, and disseminating performance information and assessing measurement and trends to effect process improvements. Continuous monitoring gives the project management team insight into the health of the project, and identifies any areas that can require special attention. It is concerned with

(a) Comparing actual project performance against the project management plan

(b) Assessing performance to determine whether any corrective or preventive actions are indicated, and then recommending those actions as necessary

(c) Analysing, tracking and monitoring project risk to make sure risk are identified, their status is reported, and that appropriate risk response plans are being executed

(d) Maintaining an accurate and timely, information base concerning the project’s products and their associated documentation through project completion

(e) Providing information to support status reporting, progress measurement, and forecasting

(f) Providing forecast to update current cost and current schedule information

(g) Monitoring implementation of approved changes as and when they occur

17 Actions to Manage Project Execution

2011-10-30T09:47:00.000+05:30

Direct and Manage Project Execution is part of the Execution process group and falls under the Project Integration Management knowledge area. Project Management Methodology and Project Management Information Systems are widely adopted execution tools and techniques.

Following are important actions performed in order to manage project execution

Perform activities to accomplish project objectives
Expend efforts and spend funds to accomplish the project activities
Staff, train and manage project team member assigned to the project
Obtain quotations, bids, offers, or proposals as appropriate
Select sellers by choosing from among potential sellers
Obtain, manage, and use resources, including materials, tools, equipment, and facilities
Implement the planned methods and standards
Create, control, verify, and validate the project deliverables
Manage risks and implement risk response activities
Manage sellers
Adapt approved changes into the project’s scope, plans, and environment
Establish and manage project communication channels, both external and internal to the project team
Collect project data and report cost, schedule, technical and quality progress, status information to facilitate forecasting.
Collect and document lessons learned, and implement approved process improvement activities.
Implement approved corrective actions that will bring anticipated project performance into compliance with the project management plan
Implement approved preventive actions to reduce the probability of potential negative consequences
Implement approved defect repair requests to correct product defects found by the quality process

5 Attributes of Decomposition

2011-10-23T14:09:00.001+05:30

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

WBS is the deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of work to be executed by the project team, to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables.

The WBS organises and defines the total scope of the project. The WBS subdivides the project work into smaller, more manageable pieces of work, with each descending level of the WBS representing an increasingly detailed definition of the project work.

The planned work contained within the lowest level WBS components, which are called work packages, can be scheduled, cost estimated, monitored and controlled.

The WBS represents the work specified in the current approved project scope statement. Components comprising the WBS assist the stakeholders in viewing the deliverables of the project.

Decomposition is the most effective tool for creating a WBS. It is the subdivision of the project deliverables into smaller, more manageable components until the work and deliverables are defined to work package level. The work package level is the lowest level in the WBS, and is the point at which cost and the schedule of the work can be reliably estimated.

Decomposition may not be possible for a deliverable or sub project that will be accomplished far into the future. The project management team usually waits until the deliverable or the sub project is clarified so the details of the WBS can be developed. This technique is sometimes referred to as rolling wave planning. Decomposition of the total project work generally involves the following activities:

(a) Identifying the deliverable and related work

(b) Structuring and organizing the WBS

(d) Developing and assigning identification codes to the WBS components

(e) Verifying that the degree of decomposition of the work is necessary and sufficient

Work Performance Information

2011-10-16T13:29:00.000+05:30

Work performance information is the output of Direct and Manage Project Execution Process and includes the following

(a) Schedule work progress showing status information

(b) Deliverables that have been completed and those that have not been completed

(d) Extent to which quality standards are being met

(e) Cost authorized and incurred

(f) Estimates to complete the schedule activities that have started

(g) Percent physically complete of the in progress schedule activities

(h) Documented lessons learned posted to the lessons learned knowledge base

(i) Resource utilization detail

Project Cost Control

2011-10-09T13:23:00.000+05:30

What is project cost control?

Project cost control entails

(a) Influencing the factors that create changes to the cost baseline

(b) Ensuring requested changes are agreed upon

(d) Assuring that the potential cost overrun do not exceed the authorized funding periodically and in total for the project

(e) Monitoring cost performance to detect and understand variances from the cost baseline

(f) Recording all appropriate changes accurately against the cost baseline

(g) Preventing incorrect, inappropriate, or unapproved changes from being included in the reported cost or resource usage

(h) Informing appropriate stakeholders of approved changes

(i) Acting to bring expected cost over runs within acceptable limits

Cost Control Techniques

Following are some of the important cost control tools and techniques

(a) Cost change control system

(b) Performance measurement analysis

(d) Project Performance Reviews

(i) Variance Analysis

(ii) Trend Analysis

(iii) Earned Value Techniques

(e) Project Management Software

(f) Variance Management

20 Steps of Project Schedule Development Process Part - II

2011-09-25T15:09:00.000+05:30

Step 6: Develop initial activity sequence independent of resource availability

Any project requires men, material, and machines to complete the schedule. These resources are not available for an indefinite period of time. Availability of resource is scarce and needs to be planned in order to achieve the deliverables. Resource availability affects the planned schedule and therefore should be taken into consideration while developing a schedule.

Step 7: Apply discretionary dependencies to address resource availability

In order to develop a realistic schedule consider the resource availability for each and every scheduled activity. A resource calendar is an important input to this step. Identify the working days and non working days for the project, establish the availability of resources in terms of skills, knowledge, geographical location, duration of availability of resources to the specific project.

Step 8: In order to determine duration of each activity consider availability and productivity of each resource

The information required is schedule activity scope of work, required resource types, estimated resource quantities and resource calendar with resource availabilities.

(a) Estimate the amount of work effort required to complete the schedule activity

(b) Estimate the amount of resources required to complete the schedule activity

Parametric estimating and three point estimates are the most important estimating tools and techniques. Parametric estimating technique considers multiplying the quantity of work to be performed by the productivity rate. Three point estimates are based on determining the three types of estimates viz Optimistic, Pessimistic and Most likely.

Step 9: Include two mandatory milestones: Project Start & Project Finish

Project start and Project finish dates are two most important milestone that should be incorporated in a schedule. No schedule can ever be made with out these two critical milestones.

Step 10: Link each activity in the schedule and calculate early and late start and finish dates

Early Start (ES) and Early Finish (EF) helps in deriving the activity float ie the freedom available to move the start dates of the activity without delaying the project finish date. Early start date of activity is the earliest time an activity can start similarly early finish date is the earliest time an activity can finish. Technique used to calculate the ES and EF of an activity is called forward pass.

Late Start (LS) it is the latest time an activity can start without delaying the project Late Finish (LF) is the latest time an activity can finish without delaying the project. The technique used to find LS and LF is called backward pass.Calculation of ES/EF, LS/LF is the core of the network analysis and forms the basis of critical path analysis.

ES = EF of the immediate predecessor, for activities with more than one predecessor it is the latest of the earliest finish times of the preceding activities.

EF = ES plus the activity duration

LS = LF minus the activity duration

LF = LS of the activity that immediately follows, for activities with more than one activity that immediately follow, LF is the earliest of the LS of those activites.

Total Slack = LS – ES or LF – EF

Critical Paths have either a zero or negative total float/slack and it is the longest path in the schedule network between the start and finish dates

Total Float/Slack of an activity is the function of the performance of activities leading to it. It is shared by other activities.

Free Float/Slack is the amount of time that an activity’s earliest finish time can be delayed without delaying the earliest start time of any activities that immediately follows.

For Part I (Steps 1 to 5) click here

20 Steps of Project Schedule Development Process - Part I

2011-09-18T13:01:00.000+05:30

What is a Project Schedule?

Project Schedule is a list of activities that need to be performed in order to fulfil the project scope. This list is organised in a logical sequence, also called the schedule network logic. The list consists of activity duration, constraints, interdependencies among the various activities, activity lead and lag and the resources required to complete the schedule activity. Project schedule specifies the planned start and finish dates of each activity likely to be executed in a project, it also specifies the dates when important projects milestones have to be met. The project scope statement is a key input in developing a project schedule. The project schedule serves as a baseline against which the project progress can be tracked.

The 20 Steps for developing a project Schedule:

Project schedule development is an iterative process and continues through out the project as work progresses. Project schedule is updated as the duration, resource estimates change on account of changes to project scope and budget. Anticipated risks may occur or disappear and this may also result is updating the project schedule

Step 1: Review all information relating to time management that serves as a basis of defining each activity.

Project deliverables assumptions and constraints documented in Project Scope Statement and the Project Schedule Management Plan are important documents that should be considered while developing the project schedule. Project Work Breakdown Structure, Organisational Policies relating to activity definition, lessons learnt from previous project, activity list of previous similar project are other documents that should be referred to while developing a project schedule

Step 2: Support each element of the project scope, as defined in the WBS, by an activity or activities.

Identify the deliverables at the lowest level in the WBS called the work packages. Subdivide the work packages into smaller, more manageable components called schedule activities. The process of dividing the work packages in to more manageable components is called decomposition. Rolling wave planning is another tool that can be used in developing a project schedule. Rolling wave planning is form of progressive elaboration planning where the work to be performed in near term is planned in detail as compared to the work that are at higher level of WBS component. Therefore, schedule activities can exist at various level of detail in a project life cycle

Step 3: Define activities uniquely; include a verb, at least one object, and any useful clarifying objectives.

While defining the activities include the scope of work description in quantifiable terms for each schedule activity so that the project team member can understand in sufficient detail what work is required to be performed.

Step 4: Define the activity list.

The activity list is comprehensive list including all schedule activities planned to be performed on a project. The activity list does not include any schedule activities that are not required as part of project scope. The schedule activities are discrete components of the project schedule, but are not components of WBS. The schedule activities have certain attributes like activity identifier, activity code, activity description, predecessor activity, successor activity, lead and lag, assumption and constraints, resources requirements, Schedule activity can also include other attributes like level of effort, person responsible, geographical location etc.

Step 5: Determine and record the order in which the activities will be performed

The activity list generated as a result of step 1 to step 4 is an input to next stage of schedule development process. The logical relationship among various schedule activities need to be established and documented, also identify the leads and lags among various activities. Relationships among various schedule activities can be established by constructing the schedule network diagram.

Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) is an important tool used to establish precedence relationships. PDM is also called Activity-on-Node (AON) and is used by most of the project management software. The PDM method has four types of precedence relationships or dependencies:

(a) Finish-to-Start: The initiation of successor activity depends on the completion of successor activity.

(b) Finish-to-Finish: The completion of successor activity depends on the completion of predecessor activity.

(d) Start-to-Finish: The completion of successor activity depends on the completion of predecessor activity.

Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM) is another method to establish the logical relationships among schedule activities. This technique is also called Activity on Arrow (AOA) and is less prevalent than PDM/AON

There are three types of dependencies that the project management team should impose on the schedule are

(a) Mandatory Dependency: Inherit to the nature of work being performed

(b) Discretionary Dependency: Established based on knowledge of best practices in a particular application area or where a specific sequence is desired based on past experience on a successful project. This is also referred as preferred logic, preferential logic, or soft logic.

(c) External Dependency: External dependencies are those that involve a relationship between project activities and non project activities.

5 Essentials of Project Scope Management Plan

2011-09-05T17:31:00.001+05:30

Project Scope Management Plan:

The project scope management plan is a planning tool describing how the team will

(a) Describe the project scope

(b) Develop the detailed project scope statement

(d) Verify the project scope

(e) Control the project scope

Project Charter, Preliminary Project Scope Statement, Project Management Plan, Organizational processes and procedures, enterprise factor are the inputs required for developing the scope management plan

5 Essentials Processes of Project Scope Management Plan:

A project scope management plan should include the following five processes

(a) A process to prepare a detailed project scope statement based on the preliminary scope statement

(b) A process that enables creation of a WBS from detailed project scope statement

(d) A process to verify and accept the completed project deliverables

(e) A process to approve and control changes to project scope. This process should be linked to integrated change control procedure.

15 Essentials of Project Scope Statement

2011-08-29T11:38:00.000+05:30

The Preliminary Project Scope Statement:

Preliminary Project Scope Statement is an output of develop preliminary project scope statement process. The preliminary project scope sets the boundary for the project and associated products and services as well as methods of acceptance and scope control and is developed during the Initiating phase of the project. It defines the projects risks, assumptions and constraints. Initial WBS, milestones, cost estimates, project configuration management system and initial project organisation are part of the preliminary project scope statement.

Project Charter, Project statement of work, organisational processes and enterprise factors are some inputs required to develop the preliminary project scope. The level of detail in the preliminary project scope depends on the complexity of the project.

The Detailed Project Scope Statement:

A clear well defined scope statement is a critical success factor for a project. A detailed project scope statement is developed by the project team during the scope definition process, which is part of scope management plan. The detailed project scope statement is an output of the project planning phase.

Project Charter, Preliminary Project Scope Statement, Organisational processes, Project scope Management Plan, Approved Change requests to project scope, schedule and cost are the inputs required to develop a detailed project statement.

The project scope statement specifies the high-level specifications of the main item and at times ancillary side item, the end user acceptance requirements, the main area of the work to be performed and the intended deliverables. The project scope statement also might specify what is not included in the project scope (ie exclusions).

The project scope statement provides a reference source for everyone in the project to review and agree upon the needs, requirements, objectives, and outcomes as well as what individual contributions are expected. It enables a project team to perform detailed planning, guides the project team during work execution, and provides a baseline for evaluating whether request’s for changes or additional work are contained within or outside the project’s boundaries.

15 Essentials of a detailed Project Scope Statement:

(a) Measureable success criteria for the project in terms of Cost, Schedule and Quality

(b) Product / service characteristics or result that the project was undertaken to create.

(c) Conditions or capabilities that must be met or possessed by the project deliverables in order to satisfy a contract, standard, or specification or other formally imposed document

(d) Indicate what is included in the project and explicitly indicate what is excluded from the project

(e) Project deliverables as well as ancillary results like reports, documentation etc

(f) Product acceptance criteria

(g) Project constraints, for eg project budget, imposed dates

(h) Project assumptions and possible impact of these assumptions

(i) Project team members, stakeholders

(j) Known risks

(k) Schedule milestones

(l) Cost estimates

(m) Level of configuration management and change control to be implemented

(n) Specification documents with which the project should comply

(o) Approval requirement for project objectives, deliverables, and work

15 Benefits of a Project Management Plan

2011-08-23T20:38:00.001+05:30

Project Management Plan:

A project management plan is the collection of outputs of the project planning processes. It defines how the project is executed, monitored and controlled and closed. The project management plan needs to be updated and revised through out the Integrated Change Control Process. The Project Management Plan consists of

(a) Project Scope Management Plan

(b) Project Schedule Management Plan

(d) Quality Management Plan

(e) Human Resource Management Plan

(f) Communication Management Plan

(g) Risk Management Plan

(k) Procurement Management Plan

(l) Process Improvement Plan

Other components of the project management plan include

(a) Milestone list

(b) Resource Calendar

(d) Risk Register

Attributes of a Project Management Plan:

(a) The project team has to select a set of processes that would be implemented in order to complete the project. There are a total of 44 project management processes that are organised in 9 knowledge areas. Some important project management processes are

(i) Develop Project Charter (ii) Develop Preliminary Project Scope Statement (iii) Develop Project Management Plan (iv) Scope Planning (v) Risk Analysis etc. For Complete list of all project management processes refer to my post “Project ManagementProcess and relationship with project management knowledge area”

(b) Once the project management processes are selected the level of implementation of each process should also be indicated in the project management plan

(d) The project management plan should indicate the dependencies and the interactions among the selected processes and their inputs and outputs

(e) How the work will be executed to accomplish the project objectives

(f) How changes will be monitored and controlled

(g) How configuration management will be performed

(i) How integrity of the performance measurement baselines will be maintained and used

(j) The need and techniques for communication among stakeholders

(k) The project life cycle and the project phases

(l) How open issues and pending decisions will be addressed and the time frame with in which these issues will be addressed

Inputs required for Project Management Plan:

(a) Preliminary Project Scope Statement:

The preliminary project scope statement documents the characteristics and boundaries of the project, and its associated products and services, as well as methods of acceptance and scope control.

(b) Project Management Processes:

Refer post Project Management Processes andrelationship with knowledge area.

Government and Industry standards, Quality Standards, existing facilities, existing human resource, stakeholder risk tolerances, costing estimates, industry risk databases, existing information system etc

(d) Organisational Processes:

Health and safety policies, Quality checklists, process audit and improvement targets, standardized work breakdown structure templates, risk templates, standard guidelines for performance measurement criteria, Communication guidelines, financial guidelines, record retention and information security system guidelines, vendor management policy, change control procedures and guidelines, document creation, approval, control and retention guidelines, project closure guidelines.

Benefits of Project Management Plan:

(a) An hour spent in planning can save three during execution, It saves crucial execution time

(b) Defines the project in detail

(d) Identifies the project management team and the project stakeholders

(e) Indicates the project schedule and major milestones

(f) Establishes baseline plan for schedule, scope and cost

(g) Provides a tracking mechanism against a established baseline

(h) Helps in project performance reporting

(i) Identifies and establishes communication needs and methods

(j) Identifies risks to the project and indicates a response mechanism

(k) Establishes a process for implementing changes to project scope, schedule cost, quality and risk.

(l) Lists various criteria that the product or service should qualify in order to meet the project objectives

(m) Improves monitoring and control of project activities

(n) Identifies existing resources and indicates additional requirements to complete the project

(o) Provides requirements of funds for various phases of the project

Project Management Process and relationship to Project Management Knowledge area

2011-08-21T21:03:00.000+05:30

Process Group	Process Name	Knowledge Area
Initiating	1. Develop Project Charter	Integration
Initiating	2. Develop Preliminary Project Scope Statement	Integration
Planning	3. Develop Project Management Plan	Integration
	4. Scope Planning	Scope
	5. Scope Definition	Scope
	6. Create WBS	Scope
	7. Activity Definition	Time
	8. Activity Sequencing	Time
	9. Activity Resource Estimating	Time
	10. Activity Duration Estimating	Time
	11. Schedule Development	Time
	12. Cost Estimating	Cost
	13. Cost Budgeting	Cost
	14. Quality Planning	Quality
	15. Human Resource Planning	Human Resource
	16. Communications Planning	Communications
	17. Risk Management Planning	Risk
	18. Risk Identification	Risk
	19. Qualitative Risk Analysis	Risk
	20. Quantitative Risk Analysis	Risk
	21. Risk Response Planning	Risk
	22. Plan Purchases & Acquisitions	Procurement
	23. Plan Contracting	Procurement
Executing	24. Direct & Manage Project Execution	Integration
	25. Perform Quality Assurance	Quality
	26. Acquire Project Team	Human Resource
	27. Develop Project Team	Human Resource
	28. Information Distribution	Communications
	29. Request Seller Response	Procurement
	30. Select Sellers	Procurement
Monitoring & Controlling	31. Monitor & Control Project Work	Integration
	32. Integrated Change Control	Integration
	33. Scope Verification	Scope
	34. Scope Control	Scope
	35. Schedule Control	Time
	36. Cost Control	Cost
	37. Perform Quality Control	Quality
	38. Manage Project Team	Human Resource
	39. Performance Reporting	Communications
	40. Manage Stakeholders	Communications
	41. Risk Monitoring & Control	Risk
	42. Contract Administration	Procurement
Closing	43. Close Project	Integration
Closing	44. Contract Closure	Procurement

Activity or Task Which one to use?

2011-08-14T11:59:00.000+05:30

Activity and task are two project management terms often used interchangeably. This articles intends to highlight the difference between these two terms and their correct usage.

Activity: PMBOK 3^rdedition defines activity as “A component of work performed during the course of a project”. A Google search on activity throws up some interesting definitions of the term the most appropriate definition with regard to project management is given by businessdictionary.com according to the site an activity is defined as “Smallest unit of work having four characteristics: (1) definite duration, (2) logic relationships with other activities in the project, (3) resource consumption, and (4) an associated cost”.

Activities that are associated with achieving the project deliverables are called schedule activities. Each schedule activity is identified with a unique alpha numeric identifier. Identification of an activity helps in differentiating it from other project activities. Schedule activities have a description, which states the scope of work that needs to be performed on that schedule activity. All schedule activities have a defined start and finish date also called as estimated start and finish dates and an estimated duration. All schedule activities are logically linked to each other and can be represented on a network diagram called the schedule network diagram. The schedule network diagram can be analysed to predict the project completion date. The network diagram also revels the critical path and the critical activities for a project.

The logical relationship of schedule activity is based on its relationship with its immediate predecessor and successor activity which is known as activity dependency. All activities cannot happen at once and therefore each activity has a definitive lead and lag which is incorporated at the time of developing the schedule network.

Various resources are applied on schedule activities in order to achieve the completion of the schedule activities and each schedule activity has a cost associated with it. Schedule activities have assumptions and constraints which are taken into account while developing the network logic. All related schedule activities can be grouped under a common head called summary activity. No resources are assigned to summary activities and facilitates in reporting purposes.

Task:

PMBOK 3^rdedition defines task as “A term for work whose meaning and placement with in a structured plan for project varies by the application area, industry, and brand for project management software”. The definition of task as mentioned in businessdictionary.com is “The smallest identifiable and essential piece of a job that serves as a unit of work, and as a means of differentiating between the various components of a project”.

PMBOK in its definition itself suggests that “whose meaning varies” and depends on the “industry and the project management software” which means both these terms are interchangeable.

However according to me both these terms are different and the points of difference are duration, cost, logical relationship, resource consumption every task need not have a cost associated to it and need not be logically related to other activity/task for example coordination activities, conducting a review meeting, solving problems are by definition tasks that a project manager performs in order to complete a schedule activity.

To avoid this confusion I stick to only one term and that is “activity”. How about you?

How to Develop a Project Charter

2011-08-09T11:40:00.000+05:30

Project Charter: A project charter is created during the initiating phase of the project and it is a document that provides authority to project manager to apply resources to project activities. It is a formal authorization to commence project activities. It provides details on project scope, schedule, budget, the project team and enumerates the befit of undertaking a project. An agency external to the project organisation like project sponsor, government agency authorizes a project.

Inputs Required for Developing a Project Charter:

1. Contract Copy

2. Statement of Work(SOW): SOW consists of

a. Business Need: Market Demand, Technological Advancement, Legal/Statutory requirement

b. Product characteristics

c. Relevance to organisations strategy

3. Organisational Structure / Chart

4. Regulatory Standards

5. Quality Standards / Policies

6. Existing Manpower and their skill set

7. Human Resource Policy

8. Work Authorization System: A system of sanctioning and authorizing project team members to commencement of work on a specific activity or a group of related activities to ensure that right things are done in a proper sequence.

9. Costing Estimates / Policies

10. Risk information

11. Project Management Information collection and distribution system (Project Management Software)

12. Change control procedures

13. Procurement / Outsourcing policy

14. Communication Policy

15. Policy on document creation, storage, distribution, retrieval, approval and retention

Contents of a Project Charter:

1. Identification / Reference No: Each project is identified by an acronym or a reference no. Naming a project gives the project and its team a sense of identity. Most organisations have a laid down procedure to name and reference a project. The project identification or reference should appear in all documents related to that project.

2. Record of revision: All documents undergo a change once approved. It is a good practice to incorporate a table indicating record of revisions to a project charter. The table should indicate document title, approval date, revision no, description of change, name and designation of person approving the charter/changes, name and designation of the person preparing the charter.

3. Project Overview: Project charter is a document that will be used by those who may not be familiar to the project. The project overview should consist a narrative of the project description highlighting the reasons for taking up the project, main benefits that the project will deliver, and how the benefits are aligned to the organisations strategy. Project overview should mainly elaborate the business aspects of the project. This section should briefly indicated the estimated duration and the cost required to complete the project

4. Justification

4.1 Business Need: The opportunity, reason for taking up the project

4.2 Business Impact: Benefits of taking up the project

4.3 Strategic Alignment: How the project is aligned to organisations mission and vision

5. Scope: Explicitly define the project boundary and the key deliverables, distinguish between what is included and what is not included in the project scope. A well-defined scope will reduce confusion among the stakeholders and help the project team in preparing a detailed project plan.

6. Deliverables: The project charter should list each of the major deliverables expected from the project and describe them in detail.

7. High-Level Requirements: The project charter should enumerate the essential requirements that the deliverables should meet in order to satisfy the objectives

8. Project Milestones: This section should cover the high level milestone schedule and should clearly indicated when key project phases would complete. Key deliverables should form part of project milestones

9. Budget: Highlight the funds required to complete the project. Present the total cost of the project and a cost break up would be beneficial. For eg split the cost into land and buildings, machinery, installation and commissioning, training, preoperative expenses etc for a detailed list of cost break up refer to my post “Components of Project Cost”

9.1 Funding Requirements: Indicate phase wise / period wise funds requirement

9.2 Funding Source: Indicate how the project is being financed, internal accruals, loans etc

10. Alternative Analysis: Present a high-level analysis of the various alternatives and how each one does not fit the business need, impact and strategy.

11. Assumptions: Assumptions are statements believed to be true and from which a conclusion is drawn to prepare the project charter. Assumptions related to cost, schedule should be indicated in this section.

12. Constraints: Constraints are limitations that must be taken into consideration prior to initiation of the project. These limitations could be with respect to schedule, cost, resources, quality requirements, and statutory regulations.

13. Risks: Risks are factors both internal to the project and external to the project that can go against the project and impact the project schedule, budget resources etc. All known risks along with the risk mitigation plan should be identified and incorporated in the project charter.

14. Project Stakeholders: Identify the project stakeholders and group them under internal and external stakeholder. Briefly describe the expectations with the project and their involvement, communication needs.

14.1 Internal: Project Manager, Project Team, HOD’s, functional managers

14.2 External: Sponsor, Suppliers, Vendors, Govt agencies/departments

15. Project Team:

15.1 The Project Team: List the names of the team members and the project manager, include their contact details, designation etc.

15.2 Organisation Chart: Include the project organisation chart with photographs of the team members

15.3 Roles and Responsibilities: Mention the role and responsibility of each individual team member and that of project manager.

16. Resources Required: Project charter authorizes a project and acts as a contract among the project team and the stakeholders. A complete list of resources required to effectively manage the projects should be mentioned. Resources should include men, material, equipment, tools, utilities, services of various other agencies as well as internal departments.

17. Change Control Procedure: A high level change management system adopted for addressing changes to scope, budget, risk and quality. Change request procedure, approval and recording procedures should be mentioned. The stakeholders involved in the configuration management should be mentioned and their role, responsibility and authority should be outlined in the project charter. Refer to my post “Change Control Benefits and Procedures” for more details on change control

18. Communications Plan: The project stake holder communication needs and the information distribution mechanism adopted for the project should be addressed. Indicate the names of key people entitled to receive the project performance reports, who are the team members responsible for preparing and distributing the reports and what communication medium will be adopted should be mentioned in the project charter.

19. References: All documents used to develop the project charter should be mentioned in this section. References include contract documents, standard procedures of the organisation, safety and quality manuals etc.

20. Terminology: Project stakeholders may be from various disciplines and may not be familiar with all the terms related to the project. This section should include list of acronyms, abbreviations and glossary of terms applicable for the project.

21. Appendices: This section can include details of organisation chart, the project organisation chart, communication matrix, costing details and any such details which is meant for a detailed information on a topic.

Change Control : Benefits and Procedures

2011-08-05T11:11:00.001+05:30

Change Control : Benefits and Procedures

Introduction:

No project ever proceeds as per the originally envisaged plan. Changes to the project are beneficial and can be proposed either by the project team itself or by the project sponsor. Market demand, technological advancements or statutory requirements are some factors that necessitate change to the project deliverable. The project team should accept changes to project deliverables rather than confront it. Change Control System is a tool that equips a project team in managing with changes to project scope, schedule, budget, risk, quality requirements, and product characteristics efficiently and effectively.

The Change Control System:

The change control system is a documented procedure that deals with

(a) The process of identifying and recording the changes to project when and as they occur.
(b) The procedure for classifying the changes.

(c) Defining the approval criteria for requested changes.

(d) Procedures for reviewing and approving the requested changes.

(e) Constituting the group of stakeholders/project sponsors responsible for approving the requested changes.

(f) Procedure for releasing the approved changes and integrating the approved changes to the baseline project plan.

The change management system is based upon size and complexity of the project.

Attributes of A Change Control Procedure:

A documented change control procedure should exist prior to commencement of actual work on the project. A reference to change control system should be made in the project charter so that the project stakeholders are informed of the existing change control procedures. Following are the key attributes of a change control procedure

(a) The change control procedure should have a Change Request Form

(b) The authority of the group/competent person responsible for approving the change request should be well defined and documented

(c) Who can raise a change request should be clearly documented

(d) Impact of the suggested changes to scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk etc should be recorded and indicated in the change request

(e) Justification for the proposed change should be clearly mentioned in the change request

(f) All requested changes should be traceable to their respective work break down, resource break down, cost and risk breakdown components.

(g) Classification of change request based on its impact to scope, schedule, cost, risk and quality.

(h) Frequency of changes

(i) Change request-tracking mechanism (change control log)

(j) Integration of requested changes to approved project baseline

(k) Review mechanism

(l) Reporting of current status of requested changes

(m) All requested changes should bear a reference no for identification and traceability

The project team should record all requested changes in the change control log and the project manager should review the implementation, integration status of the requested changes during the project performance review meetings.

Benefits of Change Control:

A project without a documented change control procedure is likely to be plagued by schedule and cost overruns. Uncontrolled flow of changes to project also hampers the morale of the project team. Some benefits of the change control system are as follows.

(a) Changes control system reduces project creep. Project creep is defined as incremental changes to approved project scope that consume time and resources.

(b) Improves communication among project team members and between project team and project stakeholders

(c) Provides better control of the project activities to the project manager

(d) The project team can remain focused on meeting the various project milestones

(e) Change control log and change request form serve as a knowledge base for analysing the factors responsible for changes to the project. These factors can be considered while planning a similar project later.

(f) Helps in regulating the changes to the project

Relationship among Scope,Schedule and Budget

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Relationship among Scope, Schedule and Budget

The three most important aspects of any project are scope, schedule and budget and these are referred to as “The triple constraints”. These constraints have to be managed efficiently in order to avoid schedule and cost overruns. Let us understand these terms and how they are related.

Scope: Scope defines the work boundaries and the deliverables of the project. It indicates what is included as project deliverables and helps in understanding what is not included in project scope. Scope clearly indicates the work that needs to be performed in order to deliver the product/service with its specified features or functions.

Schedule: Schedule is the list of activities that needs to be performed in order to fulfil the project scope. This list is organised in a logical sequence, also called the network logic. The list consists of activity duration, constraints, interdependencies among the various activities. Project schedule specifies the planned start and finish dates of each activity likely to be executed in a project, it also specifies the dates when important projects milestones have to be met. The project scope statement is a key input in developing a project schedule.

Budget: Budget is an estimate of cost of all activities planned for the project. This estimate is generated by applying the cost of resources (men, material and machines) to each activity. Every activity consumes resources and has direct and indirect cost associated with it. In other words, budget indicates the cost of completing planned activities.

Relationship: It can now be stated that budget is a function of schedule and scope. If we have a constant budget, the only two variables are scope and schedule. Changes to project scope affect project schedule. It is therefore necessary that every change to the project scope is justified, approved by a competent authority and recorded prior to integration to the original project scope. The updated project scope should be utilized to change the project schedule to arrive at the new set of activity start and finish dates and milestone dates, and the updated budget. Alterations to project scope and resulting change in schedule have a direct bearing on project budget.

It is therefore necessary that the changes to project scope are monitored as closely as possible. Rework is one another factor that affects a project schedule and consequently the project budget. Rework hampers the progress of scheduled activities, as the scarce resources have to be deployed once again for an activity that has been completed though not to the required standard or level of satisfaction.

How to prepare an effective daily project execution plan

2011-07-23T16:39:00.001+05:30

How to prepare an effective daily project execution plan

Importance of planning: A project manager needs to plan all activities required to achieve project deliverables, latest project planning software’s are a handy tool and can accommodate a never-ending list of activities. At times a Project Manager is required to have better skills in handling information generated by these software rather than demonstrate his core project management skills. These project management tools if used to generate just the required data in order to plan activities for the next day or two can make project execution more effective. A short duration plan with limited amount of data can make life simpler for any Project Manager. This article intends to guide in preparing a daily plan that can help a project manager in taking control of activities and channelize his efforts in meeting the milestones or project deliverables

What is a Daily Plan? A daily plan is a consolidated list of activities and should be prepared at least a day in advance effective for the next day. It should include activities that are planned for the day, and are part of the base line project plan; it should include the list of activities that are a result of changes in project scope or backlogs. At this stage, the activities should be further broken down into smallest measurable and quantifiable task to have a better degree of control on the activity. Breaking the task to smallest set of activity will also help in better allocation of resources. Always start with the next most important milestone and work towards its accomplishment.

What Should Daily Plan Include? The daily plan should include the following set of activities

List of activities currently in progress
List of activities scheduled for commencement as per the updated project schedule
List of activities scheduled for completion as per the updated project schedule
Person responsible to achieve the target
List of activities that require coordination with other agencies/stakeholders
A measurable, quantifiable target against each activity
The status of the activity whether achieved or not
Reasons for not able to achieve the planned target for the day

Review the plan: The daily plan should be prepared a day in advance and reviewed before implementing it. The review process should include the project team members, contractors, supervisors who would be actually implementing the task. It is a good practice to consider the material availability schedule, resource calendar in order to stream line the plan. If an activity requires a linked coordinating activity and if it has not been carried out, it is advisable to include the coordinating task and not the actual task. For eg if a weld setup has to be inspected by a third party quality inspector and he has not been informed, it is likely that he may not turn up and carry out the activity as per the plan. Such coordination tasks are generally not captured during the activity list development process and daily planning is a good platform to incorporate such activities.

Implement the plan: The Project Manager should make use of the data filtering capabilities of project management software or add a custom filter to automate the process. All team members should be informed about the plan by conducting a meeting; individual copies should be hander over or sent by email. Project Managers ability to use database or spreadsheet can create wonders. Daily planning also increases the involvement of the people and makes them feel responsible for the project.

The project manager should brief his team early in the morning and reiterate the salient aspect of the plan. Project Manager should dedicate time to personally monitor the activities and instruct the team members to intimate him if any scheduled task is not being implemented as per plan. It is a god practice for any Project Manager to check the implementation of the plan at regular intervals. If the no of daily activities is large it can be delegated to the next most influential person in the team

At the end of the day the project manager should review the plan with his team members. During the review process the actual state of the activities should be recorded and reasons for not being able to complete the task should be ascertained and recorded in the daily planning register/database. Any incomplete task, should be incorporated in the next day’s plan or scheduled for a later date after analyzing the reason for non-completion.

Challenges during the implementation phase: This methodology is a test of leadership skills of any Project Manager. It is likely that project team members may be the first one to oppose such a move. I did face a serious opposition while implementing the daily planning technique in a recently concluded project. The opposition could be on various grounds and it is Project Manager’s responsibility to prove the efficacy of the system. I had to personally demonstrate this methodology and proved it with data that if the daily plan is not implemented on a regular basis backlog of activities increases and activity completion rates drops drastically. In addition, there were other agencies, which spelt out the success of this method in very clear terms.

Advantages: The practice of generating the daily plan can throw up some interesting data on various tasks, resources and even the individuals responsible for the targets. It can give reasons for not meeting the targets and they could be anything like delay in receipt of material, receipt of wrong material, lack of coordination, poor / lack of understanding of the design drawings or product specifications. It can also generate interesting data on rework and the database can be helpful in conducting re work analysis. Project Manager can use this data to better track his project. The methodology provides a greater visibility of information to the project team by giving details of what needs to be done the very next day and gives a better degree over all control of the project

Analysis of the data: The next most important step is analysis of the data generated by this process. Analysis of the data helps to streamline the efforts of a Project Manager. He gets inputs to channelize his resources in areas that are lagging behind. Some simple quantitative tools like pareto analysis can help in understanding the reasons for delay. Simple graphs like planned activities Vs completed activities can display visual results of the extent of activities that are lagging behind and that needs to be expedited in order to achieve completion targets. Analysis can also set a benchmark on of number of activities that needs to be completed each day. A deeper drill down of data can reveal the exact reasons so as to why the daily targets cannot be achieved. and their frequency of occurrence. The Project Manager can then develop a strategy to minimize the number of ‘No’ against each activity in the daily plan

Conclusion: Planning efforts can never go waste, if a detailed plan targeting activities that have to start, finish, and are inprogress is prepared and adhered to keeping the over all schedule in mind can generate wonderful results for the project, professional satisfaction for the team members and guaranteed ROI for the stakeholders.

Gas Metal Arc Welding of Stainless Steel

2011-07-18T16:52:00.001+05:30

Defects in MMAW/SMAW welding processes

2011-07-14T17:37:00.004+05:30

Different reaction

2011-07-14T16:28:00.000+05:30

I am appalled to see the way politicians, people, media have reacted differently to a train accident and a terror strike. When 81 people died PM did not visit the accident site, neither was a candle march carried out in any city in India. Compensation was announced only by the railways. Rahul Gandhi made a hush-hush visit to Kanpur city to meet the injured. No emergency meetings were conducted to supervise / expedite relief and rescue ops. India's Star CM Narendra Modi did not speak a word on poor handling of the railways and the rescue ops. And media comfortably forgot the whole story exactly after 24 hrs and found a new one "Mumbai Bleeds".
Have we commercialized death?

1 Question You Should Ask as a Manager - Management Tip of the Day - July 13, 2011 - Harvard Business Review

2011-07-13T19:34:00.001+05:30

1 Question You Should Ask as a Manager - Management Tip of the Day - July 13, 2011 - Harvard Business Review

Project Management EVA Tips

2011-07-12T20:00:00.001+05:30

Project Management EVA Tips

MS Project Tips

2011-07-12T19:55:00.002+05:30

MS Project Tips

Tips and Tricks for Microsoft Project 2007: Creating Useful Custom Views

2011-07-12T17:28:00.001+05:30

Tips and Tricks for Microsoft Project 2007: Creating Useful Custom Views

Re-label Resources in the Gantt Chart View

2011-07-12T16:26:00.001+05:30

Re-label Resources in the Gantt Chart View

Government and its accountability

2011-07-10T22:45:00.001+05:30

Why no FIR is logged when Indian Railways murder 100 passenger or lapses by Airport Authority of India causes death of 350 passengers? Can some one please explain this to me?

Let us consider the most recent train accident for good two to three hours there was no relief provided to the injured, they were left to the mercy of helpless locals , though locals did an appreciable job. Is it not the duty of the state to respond in shortest possible time frame and with adequate gear and provisions and render help to the needy? Who is responsible for the lives lost due to delay in relief measures?

Even when Indian railways for finding it difficult to attend to the first accident there was news of another one. What will happen if it was a nuclear reactor? I have my doubts if India can ever gear up to meet such eventualities