Principles of Project Management – Module 2 Page 1 of 26

Project Management Principles: the Concept Phase – Module 2

Topics:

1. The Project Manager Role

2. Project Stakeholders

3. Project Concept life-cycle phase

4. Setting your goal(s) and justifying them

5. Writing the Project Charter

6. Identifying success criteria & measurable outcomes

7. Project assumptions, constraints and risks plus roles & responsibilities

8. Identifying stakeholders

9. Appoint the team and kick off the project

10. Quick Summary of Module 2.

Topic 1: The Project Manager Role

• Welcome to Module 2 of the Project Management Principles Subject.

• In the last module we overviewed what a project is and how it should be managed using modern Project Management methods.

• In this module we are going to discuss:

o Project Managers: what the job role entails

o Project stakeholders: who they are

o Concept life-cycle phase in more detail, including:

Setting your goals and justifying them

Writing the Project Charter

Identifying success criteria and measurable objectives

Project assumptions, constraints and risks plus identifying roles & responsibilities.

Identifying stakeholders

The Project Team and Kick-off Meetings

• What is the role of a Project Manager?

• Project Managers are sort after people. Job demand for effective project managers has grown enormously over the last few decades. Project Managers that are experienced and have successfully led projects in the past are rewarded with some of the highest salary packages in industry, below upper management. There is an article in your readings that outlines average Project Manager Salary’s across 2011.

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• First, what is the PM not– they are NOT the project owner… that is the person or organisation sponsoring (paying for) the project.

• The PM is the person responsible for carrying out the day-to-day management of the project.

• Appointed by the owner of the project, be that the organisation running the project or a specific Project Sponsor.

• They will need an overall appreciation of everything that is involved in the project because they are the key contact between the project team and the project sponsor and/or upper management. They are the “go-to” person for information about the project requirements, progress and performance.

• PMBoK says the project manager should have three characteristics:

o KNOWLEDGE of PM via the Nine knowledge areas

o PERFORMANCE (performance of applying knowledge) via the 42 management processes

o PERSONAL characteristics that make them effective at leading the team and balancing the constraints so the project objective is met.

• Ultimately they have responsibility for managing the project team so that the agreed project objective is reached on time, within budget, to the agreed quality requirements. However, they may operate in an environment where between their and the project sponsor role is a portfolio manager. If this is the case the Portfolio Manager – who usually governs a number of projects – would be responsible for any decision on continuing or ceasing the project based on the strategic priorities of the organisation it is running in and in consultation with the Sponsor and possibly an official project review panel.

• Need to have multiple skills including: in depth knowledge of project management, good communication and personnel skills and an ability to perform efficiently and effectively under constraints such as time and budget. Also usually need a sound technical knowledge of the technical discipline the project is being run in. Some argue what is most important is having good project management skills, that technical knowledge isn’t necessary. However, there is no denying that having in-depth technical knowledge of the project greatly assists a PM in their understanding of project requirements and constraints, in their ability to relate to project team members and their ability to communicate technical issues to all stakeholders.

• Can agree successful Project Managers must actually not only have sound technical knowledge and in depth knowledge of Project Management, they also need emotional as well as intellectual intelligence (EQ and IQ).

• If you investigate what soft skills are you will see why having high emotional intelligence is important!

• “Soft Skills are behavioural competencies. Also known as Interpersonal Skills, or people skills, they include proficiencies such as communication skills, conflict resolution and negotiation, personal effectiveness, creative problem solving, strategic thinking, team building, influencing skills and selling skills, to name a few.” is the definition from Wikipedia.

• As a result there are a limited number of the population that are likely to make really good project managers.

• Some organisations use personality trait tests such as the Myer-Briggs test that categorises personalities into 16 types that are combinations of: Introvert, Sensing, Thinking, Judging, Extravert, iNtuitive, Feeling, Perceiving. Combinations and

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extent of these tendencies are used by many companies to assess suitability for a job role and to help construct teams of people that cover a range of personality traits to help in ensuring the team has people of varying natural types in the hope that they will better complement each other’s skills.

• One of the readings is an article by Max Wideman where he attempts to break down the general population on the basis of MBTI for suitability of project work. Interestingly his findings indicate about 30% of the general public are probably not suited to working on Projects in any team or leadership role. They believe 40-45% of the population are suitable for some type of project management leadership role and 2025% are followers, but that only a very few 1-2 % of the population are the appropriate types for managing project conceptualisation stage.

• Should you take notice of this? Maybe not – there are always exceptions to the rule. However you should recognise that some employment agencies and organisations where you may wish to work will and for that reason it can be useful to be aware of your personality type and what type of project role that is likely to make you considered suitable for.

• Personally, while I think being aware of your MBTI can be useful, I’d recommend that you look at the list of traits identified next for Project Managers and - if you wish to work in this role - honestly appraise your own abilities against those listed. If you can truthfully say that you have the majority of these traits Project Management as a discipline would welcome your entry into this career. The more effective Project Managers we have trained in industry the higher the number of successful projects there will be run! If however you know that you would have issues with many of these traits I’d be inclined to place your energies elsewhere... possible still in project work but aiming for a team role rather than a leadership role. If you are in a situation where you know you will be expected to work in project teams regardless of whether you believe you are suited to project work or not, then enrolling in and undertaking some formal studies on Project Management will definitely make your life easier, but if you recognise being a PM is not your ultimate goal then I would be likely to limit your studies to vocational levels (Cert IV or Diploma).

• See the SLIDE of points drawn from multiple sources of successful Project Manager traits:

o Can inspire

o Communicate well

o Has integrity and

enthusiasm

o Team-builder

o Competent

o Has empathy and

problem solves

o Cool under

pressure

o Ability to delegate

o Have foresight

o Are organised

o Know how to lead

o Good

communicators

o Pragmatic

o Empathetic

o Collaborative

management style

o Adaptable

o Resourceful

o Great

communicator

o Flexible

o Naturally command

authority

o Can sift data well

o Set, observe, re-

evaluate priorities

o Ask good questions

and listen

o Don’t use

information as a

weapon

o Stick to

communication

schedules

o Have expertise in

PM applied to their

field

o Use fair consensus-

building to manage

conflict

o Use networks

internally &

externally to

problem solve

o Enjoy their work!

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References:

http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/top-five-project-management-traits-to-master.html

http://www.cio.com/article/447182/Six_Attributes_of_Successful_Project_Managers

http://99u.com/tips/6946/Top-10-Characteristics-of-GREAT-Project-Managers

• If seeking to be a Project Manager the hardest task will be getting an organisation to appoint you to the role before you have had experience running projects that have been successful. I am sure many of you will already have experienced the frustration of having gained training in a field to find that the great majority of employment opportunities are offered only for those with previous experience! This is an issue for anyone looking to fulfil a leadership role – someone has to invest the faith in you to start off with for you to gain the experience that everyone places so much importance on. Often this trust will only be placed in people that have worked within an organisation on projects as a team member for some time, though there will always be the occasional situation where a ‘newbie’ is given a chance. However, when seeking to get this type of position look for mentors both within and without the organisation. In the rest of this SUBJECT you will find “Expert Judgement” referred to quite often as a technique for performing management processes. Obviously if it is your first time running a project, you may be lacking in this area. However, don’t read “expert judgement” as just you own. If the organisation uses Portfolio Managers this job role entails providing mentorship to the Project Managers assigned to projects under their authority. They are a great example of the sort of people that can provide you with their “expert judgement” to help you carry out various processes. If there are no portfolio managers at this level seek out mentor relationships with other Project Managers that do have more experience. The Internet can be an invaluable resource also, allowing you to access the experience and advice of project and portfolio managers with a wealth of experience. Many of these people are more than willing to put their experiences in writing, as you will find if you access the reading resources provided with these modules.

• Oh – and if you are going to agree to managing a project, do try to form an understanding of it as quickly as possible so that, at a personal level, you can form a decision about whether it is a good potential project. Being offered a PM role for a project that seems deemed to fail can be a very effective nail in the coffin for your aspirations of making a career as a project manager!

• Before progressing to the next topic encourage to look at the Readings Tab. There are some detailed descriptions of Project Manager Job Roles. Also have a go at the online quiz to find out what Myer-Brigg ‘type’ you are and read the Max Wideman article that evaluates which Myer-Brigg personality types are most suited to project management job roles.

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Useful Links

VIDEO:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkd7JGl0-90 (The Project Manager Role)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLWl3NxgEW4 (Explanation of how Portfolio Management helps with strategic analysis and selection of projects).

WEB:

• http://www.projectmanagement.net.au/position-project-manager-roles-and-responsibilities Australian Project Manager - Job Description

• http://www.best-job-interview.com/project-manager-job-description.html USA Project Manager Job Description

• http://targetjobs.co.uk/careers-advice/job-descriptions/278215-project-manager-job-description UK description of Project Manager Job Role

• http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/top-five-project-management-traits-to-master.html

• http://www.cio.com/article/447182/Six_Attributes_of_Successful_Project_Managers

• http://www.projecttimes.com/articles/top-10-leadership-qualities-of-a-project-manager.html

• http://99u.com/tips/6946/Top-10-Characteristics-of-GREAT-Project-Managers

• http://www.pmi.org/en/Professional-Development/Career-Central/10-Countries-with-Highest-Salaries-for-Project-Managers.aspx See for average figures and comments by people working in the field.

• See http://www.maxwideman.com/papers/profiles/intro.htm To read an article that researches which Myer-Briggs Personality Types are best suited to different roles in Project Management

• Then do the questionnaire http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp to find out roughly what Myer-Briggs Type you are (not a replacement for having a full Myers-Brigg evaluation).

• http://maxwideman.com/issacons2/iac1276b/index.htm Slide show on the Project Portfolio Manager Job role.

• http://maxwideman.com/issacons3/iac1365b/sld001.htm slideshow about the power of politics within an organisation.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_skills explanation of soft skills and their importance

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Topic 2: Project Stakeholders

• Stakeholders: In essence the people involved in your project.

• PMBoK defines as “persons or organisations (e.g. customers, sponsors, performing organisation, the public) who are actively involved in the project or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by the performance or completion of the project.” PMBOK ,Ed 4.(2008)

• Obviously the Project Manager and Project Team members are stakeholders, but when you examine the PMBoK definition you will see there are a whole lot more people that can be described as stakeholders also. For instance if the end user of a project deliverable is the public, then the public becomes an important stakeholder in your project (for instance if creating a public space or service, for example a Museum or a web site). As the slide shows you there are

• It is important to recognize both who the stakeholders in a project are and what their stake in it is. Just because a person or organisation is a stakeholder in a project does not mean that they will champion it or work hard for its success. Just as important is recognising those stakeholders with vested interests in seeing the project fail as all sorts of risks to the project can be created by this group.

• In Module 1, Topic 2 we talked about what Project Management is and examined some of the key reasons for project success. High on the list were management and stakeholder support as well as involvement from end users. This highlights just why it is so important – as early as possible in your project – to work out who your stakeholders are and assess exactly what their stake in the project is. You need to get the right people ‘on side’ as soon as possible.

• Comprehensive identification of stakeholders helps the Project Manager and their team understand what individual stakeholders interests are. This is why one of the Initialisation processes we will look at in the Concept stage is “Identifying Stakeholders”. Part of this process will be identifying who are internal stakeholders and who are external… basically who is part of your organisation and who is not, as many projects nowadays require some outsourcing of work and it would be very rare for everything in a project (resources and work) to be able to be supplied internally.

• Understanding the Organisational Structure of the company the project runs within is also important for recognising who your stakeholders are. If you are running a project for an external client understanding their company’s organisational structure can also be useful. This is because the hierarchy of authority is not always obvious. People that may appear to be in key roles may in fact be in more of a figurehead or caretaker than a decision maker. Knowing who the decision makers are and who has influence on these decision makers may be important for gaining sufficient support and resources for a project.

• The size of the organisation that the project is being run in can also obviously influence the number of stakeholders there are. For instance, in large organisations that run many projects there will normally be a specialist “Project Management Office” – or PMO – that is tasked with providing support functions to all projects being run. A PMO may provide administrative support, guidance on project management methodologies and templates, centralised communication and mentoring, training and support for both Project Managers and staff. In this situation the PMO staff you work with should also be considered stakeholders as the effectiveness of their support of your project can be critical for the project’s success.

• There may also be Portfolio Managers within the organisation that operate at a more strategic level above the PM role. The Portfolio Manager being a strategic role means that they may have had more involvement at the initial Concept stage of the

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project than the PM, who may not be appointed until after the decision to proceed to planning for a project. In these situations the Portfolio Manager (and possibly a review board) can have the responsibility for reviewing and even recommending cancellation of a project, which makes them a very important stakeholder in the project.

• It is also likely that you will in a project have a variety of managers in addition to upper management such as the company’s executive and portfolio managers. As projects need both administrative and technical skills there are likely to be both functional and operational managers that are stakeholders. Functional managers are managers of sections that provide services such as procurement, accounting and human resources. Operational managers are people that manage core business areas such as R&D, manufacturing or maintenance. If a project is an internal one it is possible that the end result will be handed over to an operational manager whose team will then implement the ongoing support and maintenance of the project deliverables.

• Identifying your stakeholders effectively is important for many reasons including:

o Making sure the right people have input to the planning

o identifying project champions who will help your project be promoted and then implemented enthusiastically

o being aware of stakeholders that may cause problems for the project so that you can work to bring them on side or work to reduce their possible negative impact. This doesn’t mean ignoring valid concerns – it is always important to keep an open mind and ear to both positive and negative feedback on a project. Being blindly optimistic about a project is never wise. However, some stakeholders may harbour their own personal reasons for wanting to see a project fail and recognising this is an important part of managing all your project’s stakeholders.

o Topic 8 will look at the ‘identifying stakeholders’ process in greater detail.

• Before progressing to the next topic encourage to look at the Readings Tab. I would recommend exploring the Max Wideman ‘isaacons’ and job role index as it has a wealth of information about stakeholders and the type of responsibilities they are likely to have within a project.

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Useful Links

VIDEO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIeqIN90dK0 Who is a stakeholder?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaqAhkGJ1yg Identify who your stakeholders are, helping you to understand the importance of doing this as early as possible in the project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkUCcJwwvAQ Identifying and understanding stakeholders, including internal and external stakeholders

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuhHBcBoTgA Managing stakeholder expectations

WEB:

• http://eq4pm.typepad.com/eq4pm/2006/04/applied_eq_49_r.html Stakeholder Management

• http://www.pmhut.com/manage-your-stakeholders-or-they-will-manage-you Manage Your Stakeholders or They Will Manage You

• http://www.maxwideman.com/issacons3/iac1357/sld001.htm slideshow about project organisational structures that summarises the main types of structures and how much influence the PM is likely to have in each.

• http://maxwideman.com/issacons2/iac1276b/index.htm Slide show on the Project Portfolio Manager Job role.

• http://maxwideman.com/issacons2/iac1291/sld001.htm Slide show explaining the Project Sponsor / Champion / Owner role.

• http://maxwideman.com/issacons3/iac1365b/sld001.htm slideshow about the power of politics within an organisation.

• http://maxwideman.com/issacons2/1275.htm Index for all job role descriptions on the Max Wideman website.

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Topic 3: Project Concept life-cycle phase

You will remember from Module 1 that a project is commonly seen as having a four stage project life-cycle. We used the acronym CDEF to represent it, being the Concept, Development, Execution and Finishing stages. In this topic we will provide an overview of the management processes that occur in the starting or ‘Concept’ stage of a project.

• The concept phase is where the concept is conceived, investigated for its feasibility, formally proposed and a decision made to develop it, signed off on by the sponsor and major stakeholders. This includes:

o Identification of the project goal

Project goals can be identified in many ways which Topic 4 will examine, ranging from truly original ideas (the Apple iPod) through to receipt of a Statement of Work as part of a tendering process (to build a mine site).

o The goal then needs to be evaluated such as:

By using SMART analysis

By analysing the Statement of Work (or tender document)

By writing a Business Case.

o The project’s feasibility may need to be investigated, particularly if your organisation is in the business of creating brand new products or services. The greater the level of uncertainty regarding a project the more useful it can be to perform a feasibility study.

You can perform a feasibility study to work out if it is possible to create the product or service the goal aims to achieve. You can also carry out a study to investigate different ways of producing the project goal.

You can then write a Feasibility Report to present the findings of a study or simply to provide analysis of feasible methods of creating the project outcome. A feasibility report can either recommend whether the project goal is feasible to be produced or which way is best to produce it – or it may do both. Largely depends on the type of project goal and the sponsoring organisations familiarity with producing the deliverable.

o Also need to consider the suitability of the project for the organisation the project goal is to be is implemented in. Delivering a project on time, to scope, within budget and to agreed standards will still be seen in the long term as a failure if its end deliverable actually ends up not being suitable for the environment it is implemented in. For instance the best planned out and implemented new software product in the world, if it doesn’t end up providing what the business needs, won’t be utilised and so will end up being considered a failure.

o After sufficient consideration of Business Case, SOW, Feasibility reports agreement needs to be achieved that the project is suitable to initiate. If upper management after assessing these documents agrees the project is worth further investigation a formal document will need to be prepared to authorise the project’s start-up.

o The main mechanism for this is usually called a Project Charter. It may be written by the Project Sponsor or the Project Manager – or a combination of both. What is vital is that it is signed off on by the key stakeholders such as

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the Project Sponsor, the Client if that is a third party and the Project Manager. Topics 5 to 7 will look in more depth at writing a Project Charter.

o Once the Project Charter has been signed off, the next process for project start-up is Stakeholder Identification. This will be performed to identify everyone who has a vested interest in the project (examined in Topic 8). The key stakeholders are already known from the Charter, but there are often many more stakeholders that need consideration. Going through some formal analysis of who they are and what their interest is will definitely help the PM manage their project more effectively, as discussed in our last Topic on stakeholders.

o Lastly the project concept phase can conclude with a kick-off meeting held for the newly formed Project Team to recognise the end of the Concept stage and formally start of the Development stage. Topic 9 will explore bringing the project team together in more detail.

• There are two management processes used in the Project Concept phase both of which we look at in following topics:

o Develop project charter

o Identify stakeholders

• Both these processes are Initialisation processes, but the Charter is part of the Integration Knowledge area and “identifying stakeholders” is part of the Communication knowledge area, for obvious reasons. The Charter is a key document for drawing together all the separate pieces of information about the project, such as its scope, the stakeholders, initial timelines and budget as well as assumptions and constraints. The ‘identifying stakeholders’ process is key to being able to effectively communicate throughout the project because the result of it should be documented acknowledgment of all stakeholders and their interest in the project, which thereby defines who to talk to and what they need communicated.

• While the Initiating process group is utilised for the Concept phase of a project’s life cycle it is worth remembering that a complex project may well be broken up into a series of projects or phases to help make them easier to manage. If this is the case with a project you are involved with remember that initiating processes should then be applied at the start of each phase of the project – not just the once. If the aim is to make managing a complex project easier by splitting it up, then the same project management processes will need to be applied to each phase. Doing this helps strategic and higher management keep re-focusing on the relevance of the project to its business case and allows for a decision to be made as to whether the project should continue, be delayed or even discontinued. While the description of a successful project may be that it is completed to scope, within the schedule and budget planned and to the agreed standards of the key stakeholders, the attempt to achieve this, if for one reason or another no longer aligns with the needs of the organisation it is being carried out for, will despite all efforts end up being deemed a failure.

• In the next topic we will look at defining and properly assessing your Project Goal.

o Before progressing to the next topic encourage to look at the Readings Tab. The Project Connections website provides a useful list of resources for helping with the Concept phase of a project, including a checklist you can adapt to help check off all processes being followed. The Tasmanian Government web site is also worth checking – many useful fact sheets as well as templates.

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Useful Links

VIDEO:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVSXB7mMfpw Project life cycle, phases and process groups

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_Xu1QupXY4 Project life cycle phases, differing on discipline

WEB:

• http://www.projectconnections.com/templates/phases/concept.html lists and provides access to a series of templates that may be used to assist in the Concept Phase of a project.

• http://www.projectconnections.com/templates/detail/concept-phase-checklist.html provides a checklist for the end of concept phase stage of a project, with detailed explanations.

• http://www.egovernment.tas.gov.au/project_management/project_life/initiating_a_page Factsheets and templates for initiating projects, including feasibility and business case templates.

• http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_05.htm A broad overview of the planning processes of a project starting at Analysis of opportunities.

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Topic 4: Setting your goal(s) and justifying them

• Identifying a project goal. Project goals are formed in many different ways:

o Someone has a ‘light-bulb’ moment

o Organisation may exist to build products in which case customers may bring in ideas for projects, or in-house think-tanks come up with them

o Someone recognises an opportunity

o A business deficiency highlights the need for a project

o To do the business of the company projects may be required, in which case the goal will be quite obvious, e.g. the company is a mining company, it therefore needs to run exploration projects and mine construction projects

o Organisation may be in the business of running projects for others in which case the tender or statement of work (SOW) document would identify the goal for you. It is still important to assess whether winning the tender is going to benefit the business though. Unfortunately too many companies have suffered financial penalties or even gone bankrupt by seeing ‘winning the tender’ as the end goal, rather than profiting from the fulfilment of the tender’s statement of work.

• If your business actually thinks up project goals (rather than applies to fulfil others) make sure that the goal is stated in as clear a way as possible as specifically as possible. For a simple analogy we will look at the cake making example we illustrated in Module 1.

o The goal to make a cake. Seems clear enough – but is it?

o Why are we making the cake? What type of cake do we want? Where will it be made? How much money can be used on ingredients? What is the time frame for making the cake? How many people want a slice of the cake? A simple goal of ‘make a cake’ no longer seems sufficient.

o Ask the questions and understand the answers and we can set a far more realistic and specific goal.

o Turns out you are making the cake for a wedding for a good friend. The friend likes chocolate mud cake and there are 60 people invited. You will make it in your own kitchen. The wedding is one month away and the cake needs to be transported to the location of the venue so will need to be finished two days earlier. Your friend does want formal wedding cake decorations. Personal budget of $150.

o Our goal would be a lot clearer if it were changed to “Make chocolate mud cake day to feed 60 people at a wedding in 1month, formally decorated and finished two days prior for transporting to the venue. “

• A common method for evaluating goals is SMART analysis:

• SMART analysis

o Specific

o Measurable

o Achievable

o Realistic

o Time framed

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• If we apply the SMART technique to our original goal it would fail sadly. With the limited information we had there was no way of evaluating whether the goal was achievable and realistic, and no way of knowing the time frame and how to measure it.

• The new goal is specific enough to provide a means of measurement (chocolate/ feed 60), and assessable for whether it is a realistic goal that you can achieve given your kitchen resources, allocated budget and time frame. If you are a good cook and have a decent kitchen the good news is your goal for your friend’s birthday present is a SMART one. If you don’t’ have access to an oven, and have never cooked a cake in your life, it is much better you change your goal now than try and achieve it in the timeframe provided.

• While this is a very simple example the same principles apply to every project.

• However, identifying and justifying a project goal will often require a lot more work than just a simple SMART analysis.

• Necessary to properly evaluate the goal if your own idea or a project via tender. Many companies have gone bankrupt by tendering for projects that ended up being not suitable to their abilities. When responding to tenders make sure an in depth assessment is done of the Statement of Work (SOW).

• Build a Business Case to assess the reasons for why the project should be run. Main job is to work out if the project is worth making the required investment in time, money and resources from a business standpoint.

• The business case should contain:

o The background to the proposal and its objective

o The Business need or problem the project would seek to address

o Cost benefit analysis to assess if it is a sound investment/decision

o Preliminary requirements and estimates

o Analysis of options and recommendation

• Dependent on the project goal more or less analysis may be done

o Building a website for a website developer doesn’t need assessing for feasibility

o Inventing a brand new product (i.e. mobile phone) does

• Investigate project feasibility, if necessary, via:

• Feasibility Study and a Report of its findings

o May examine if goal is feasible to create

o May examine several methods of creating and recommend one option

o Traditionally a Feasibility study assesses:

Technological feasibility (can it be done given available resources / options)

Operational feasibility (how well it may solve problem/opportunity and what people / social issues may arise)

Legal feasibility (will result conflict with any legislation: privacy, security etc)

Schedule feasibility (can project be performed in a reasonable timeframe)

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Financial feasibility (Cost Benefit Analysis).

Market potential may also need to be assessed, particularly for completely new products.

o Broader scope than a CBA though may include the Cost Benefit Analysis as the way of assessing the economic feasibility if project. CBA should assess Return on Investment and compare ‘costs to build’ against ‘costs saved across life of project result’.

• Once a project goal is properly assessed and a decision made project is feasible and will benefit the company a formal authorisation document needs to be drawn up.

• The next topic looks at how to do this by writing your project charter.

• Before progressing to the next topic encourage to look at the Readings Tab. The YouTube movies give a good overview of writing SMART goals and assessing project risk via a feasibility study, but I particularly recommend you look at The Feasibility Study slide show on the University of Toronto website as it provides a nice clear explanation on Feasibility studies and CBA.

Useful Links

VIDEO:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmOS3dj9h0s Writing SMART goals

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_YiHyNcIE8 Assessing project risk through a feasibility study.

WEB:

• http://www.learnmarketing.net/smart.htm SMART goals

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria Evaluating using the SMART technique

• http://www.egovernment.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/78056/CConducting_a_Feasibility_Study_Fact_Sheet.pdf Fact sheet on Feasibility Studies from Tasmanian Govt

• http://www.egovernment.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/78061/Developing_a_Business_Case_Fact_Sheet.pdf Fact sheet for developing a business case from Tasmanian Govt

• http://www.egovernment.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/78048/Checklist_for_Major_Business_Initiatives_Fact_Sheet.pdf Example of evaluating a project idea from Tasmanian Govt

• http://healthvermont.gov/wic/documents/EBTFeasibilityStudyCostBenefitAnalysis.pdf Sample Feasibility Study and cost benefit analysis

• http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~jm/340S/02/PDF2/Feasibility.pdf Excellent PowerPoint outlining main steps of Feasibility Study and Cost Benefit Analysis

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Topic 5: Writing the Project Charter

• Writing the Project Charter is seen as part of Integration Management, which is a key role of the project manager. Developing it is the first initiating process that should be carried out in managing a project, according to PMI’s standard, PMBoK.

• For each management process PMBoK recommends a series of “inputs” (information to help you build the process from), suggest “Tools and Techniques” which are suggestions of way to DO the process and finally “outputs”, which are what the process should ‘output’ or create.

• Inputs for the Project Charter should include :

o Statement of work, business case, any contracts / tenders used and should also consider enterprise environmental factors and any organisational process assets.

• Organisational Process Assets are information the organisation holds from the past (hence assets). So for a Charter this should include examination of Charters written for past projects. A key indicator of potential project success is an organisation having already performed successful projects. Any past projects should have produced documentation (such as Charters) that the current project can benefit from viewing.

• Tools and Techniques for developing the Charter are “expert judgement”. In other words the person or people that develop the Charter should have a good understanding of the project and how to write Project Charters for the organisation’s and project requirements. Of course expert judgement relies on someone being an expert in initiating projects – and this expertise is not always available. If it is your first attempt at writing a Charter recognise that “expert judgement” doesn’t have to be your own - find a mentor who can advise and direct you.

• There is only a single “output” from the Develop Project Charter process: the Project Charter.

• Charters vary company-to-company but may contain:

o Project Title

o Description of project purpose, inc business need / justifications which may be drawn from the Business Case

o High level project / product description to outline preliminary project scope

o Summary schedule (start/end/significant milestone dates)

o Summary project budget which would be a rough order of magnitude (ROM) estimate

o Measurable project objectives and their success criteria

o Summary of the planned approach ( high level requirements)

o Roles & responsibilities including who authorises the Charter and who signs off on project deliverables

o Who the assigned Project Manager is with contact details

o Sign-off section for key stakeholders with date of authorisation (must include Sponsor)

o Comments area for stakeholders to note any issues

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• The Charter may derive descriptions of project objectives, including the business need / justifications straight from the Business case.

• The summary schedule sets out a rough outline of the project timeline.

o Should have start and end dates, with the start date being the beginning of the Concept stage of the Project (when the goal was initially identified)

o Should outline the timeline through to project end by marking out main milestones

o Milestones are key dates that can be used as significant markers of progress through a project. For instance the date you want the Project Charter signed off on, and the date you want the execution phase of the project to begin. If the project is based on a contract then key dates will probably be contained within it.

• The summary budget should be included, though acknowledged as a rough order of magnitude estimate as it can’t be expected that accurate estimates can be made before the scope of the project has been detailed, time durations and resource requirements estimated etc. Past projects of a similar nature can often provide useful information for this.

• Project Charter may be written by the Project Sponsor or the Project Manager. Many argue it should be the Sponsor as they are ultimately responsible for oversight and funding of the project, others argue the PM should as they are the ones that will have to develop plans and manage throughout. Ultimately what is important is that the person paying for the project (the Sponsor) is the person who signs the Charter, thereby allocating authority to the Project Manager to take the project forward to planning.

• Purposes of writing the charter include:

o Getting buy-in and authorisation is achieved through signing off of the Charter.

o The different contexts your Project Charter can be used in throughout the project:

Defines the project and establishes the goal posts from which the project can be started

Helps ensure project has been properly assessed so that an unsuitable or risky project isn’t started

Helps establish the lines of authority for the project

Delegates responsibility to PM to start using resources in planning

Promotes good project management processes from the start by getting key stakeholders used to reading formal documentation and being expected to assess and sign off on it.

Will act as a primary tool for verifying scope and getting deliverables accepted. If the charter clearly identifies the agreed project goal, objective and expectations, including success criteria then Project Closure should be straight forward.

Great initial communication tool for encapsulating the main project expectations and allowing all team members, present and future, a common understanding of what it will involve.

• The next two topics will cover in more detail developing the success criteria and documenting stakeholder expectations as well as the summary of the planned approach and development of the roles and responsibilities matrix.

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• Before progressing to the next topic encourage to look at the Readings Tab. Meet your new best friend: the project charter gives you a great run down on the different contexts a project charter can be used effectively for.

• For forum make a post about who develops and signs off on Project Charters in your workplace.

Useful Links

VIDEO:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4x6uQzP2o0 Preparing a Project Charter

WEB:

• http://www.pmhub.net/wp/2009/07/project-charter/ “Who Writes the Project Charter?” by Jim Owen

• http://josephphillips.com/writing-the-project-charter-2/ “Writing the Project Charter” by Joseph Phillips

• http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/meet-your-new-best-friend-the-project-charter.html

“Meet Your New Best Friend: The Project Charter” by Cameron Watson

• http://www.projectmanagementdocs.com/project-initiation-templates/project-charter.html sample charter and template

• http://www.projectknowledge.com/PDF/HO30_2010ProjectCharter.pdf template for a charter

• http://www.enterprisesforum.com/top-7-project-charter-templates-free-download project charter templates

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Topic 6: Identifying success criteria & measurable outcomes

• Key to a successful Project Charter is identifying and documenting the project’s success criteria.

o The success criteria identify at the project start-up how the project will be measured to be successful at the project finish.

o May also be called project approval requirements.

o This then means that correctly identifying and documenting success criteria will have a direct relationship to whether the project outcome is accepted by the customer/organisation it has been developed for.

o To be able to measure success criteria you need to have measurable project objectives.

o Use SMART assessment for assessing each of your objectives: are they specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time framed.

o Estimates already included in the Charter for time, budget, scope and quality are common success criteria that can be easily measured.

o Success criteria can include project criteria as well as product criteria. E.g.

The project will be run using PMBoK processes = measurable project success criteria

The end product will be ‘x’ long by ‘y’ high and ‘z’ depth=measurable product success criteria

• Measurable outcomes

o In other words you can’t afford the success criteria that will be later used to sign off on and accept delivery of the project goal to come down to subjective factors. There needs to be factors agreed on by the key stakeholders that can be easily acknowledged and tested to see if they have been carried out.

o To go back to the Cake analogy, don’t put a huge amount of effort into building a cake that the measure of success for is “everyone loved the cake”. Come up with measurable outcomes such as how large the cake should be to feed 60 people, the type of cake it should be (chocolate), the freshness and quality of ingredients, the date and time it will be ready and that it is cooked according to the recipe’s instructions. If these measurable outcomes are agreed to as being the success criteria for the cake, then the one person in the room that doesn’t like chocolate cake however it is cooked, will not be able to argue the cake is a failure, because even they would have to agree the success criteria identified at the beginning of the project have been met - as long as you can provide them with the evidence of them having been.

o At the Charter level success criteria will be high level.

o During planning, particularly in scope and quality management more specific measures and success criteria will be documented.

o Trick is to encompass the overall criteria for success in the Charter allowing for later further elaboration.

o When documenting success criteria it can help to ask the client and sponsor (if different people) to define how they see it:

How will you know if the project is completed?

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How would you define its success?

How will you measure how well the project has been done?

o Remember to make sure timeframes and costs are agreed.

o For success to be agreed it can be measured in two ways:

Discrete (did we achieve the success criteria – yes or no)

Continuous (measured on a scale e.g. as a %)

Discrete success critieria: deliverable ‘x’ is supplied on ‘date’

Continuous success criteria: achieve a 25% rise in customer satisfaction ratings

o Both success criteria are clear and measurable so can help stakeholders easily agree at the end of the project whether it was successful.

o Depending on project writing success criteria can be easier or harder.

If a product is the goal defining its specifications at the start will provide measurable success criteria

If a service is the goal success criteria can be much harder to determine.

o Key point is the more clearly you define the success criteria for the project in the Charter (which must be agreed by the key stakeholders) the easier it will be at project handover to measure the project’s success.

o Before progressing to the next topic encourage to look at the Readings Tab. The last link to a Charter on the Washington State University website provides a good example of writing pretty subjective success factors into measurable criteria, so well worth having a look at.

Useful Links

VIDEO:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlAd0JneHKg Explains how to define success using measurable objectives.

WEB:

• http://www.maxwideman.com/guests/hierarchy/abstract.htm Defining the hierarchy of project objectives by Robert Youker.

• http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project-help/define-your-project-goals-and-success-criteria-HA001211137.aspx Defining your project goals and success criteria by Jane Suchan.

• http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/21-project-management-success-tips.html 21 tips for successful project management starting with project success criteria

• http://www.boston-spin.org/slides/010-Jun99-talk.pdf Writing better requirements: The key to a successful project, by Kimberly Roberts

• http://www.projectmanagementdocs.com/project-initiation-templates/project-charter-long.html Sample template for Charter with “project approval requirements”.

• http://www.pm4girls.elizabeth-harrin.com/2007/10/success-criteria-how-do-you-define-success/ Discussion on defining success criteria successfully.

• http://sis.wsu.edu/docs/WSUProjectCharter-v10.pdf Good example of writing subjective success factors in a measurable way to act as success criteria.

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Topic 7: Project assumptions, constraints and risks plus roles & responsibilities

• Different companies will include different topics covered in their Charter but even right at the start of the project there are some assumptions, constraints and risks you can identify. You may or may not choose to include them in the Charter depending on their importance and whether you believe it will be beneficial to include them this early on and they are currently apparent.

• We will cover them in more detail in Module 3 when looking at planning the project in more detail.

• Keep at a high-level if included in the Charter. They will need further elaboration during planning. May use to outline assumptions / constraints with managing the project rather than identifying scope product assumptions and constraints.

• Assumptions (what you believe to be true for the purposes of planning).

o To plan anything there are general things we consider to be true… at the extreme end we assume we will be alive, that the organisation will remain operating, that the world won’t end. These assumptions don’t normally need listing (though in the case of projects revolving around innovative and ground-breaking inventions insurance is often taken out to insure against the risk of key personnel staying healthy).

o The task of identifying high level assumptions is to list anything that can be considered reasonable for the purposes of planning, but that if they don’t hold true will have a severe impact on the project.

o Assumptions the Project Manager is making regarding the managing of the project will benefit from being identified in the Charter. An example may be: Assume that support will be provided by the PMO throughout (which is being considered for closure). This flags to key stakeholders that if the PMO is closed there is a likelihood the project will require additional support from somewhere else. Another assumption may be if there were legal ramifications to the project goal, you assume access to legal advice will be provided on sensitive issues. If this assumption turns out not to be true risk assessment is going to need to assess the viability of continuing the project or perhaps revising the scope to avoid legally sensitive areas.

• Constraints, sometimes called Limitations (factors that may impede the project) may also be included in the Charter.

o Already discussed common constraints of scope, schedule, budget, risks, resources and quality but every project will have its own unique constraints. An outline of what these are set at will already be in the Charter (e.g. ROM budget, timeframe, scope, measurable outcomes and success criteria).

o At this stage (under the Constraints heading) it is the unique constraints you would identify, but again if listed in the Charter this would be at a high level, though more specific that simply saying money, time etc.

o May also benefit from being project management related.

o For instance, if there was limited access to the project’s end customer this would be worth denoting at the time of the Charter as good communication with the customer has a direct bearing on ability to plan and understand their requirements.

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• Risks are important to consider early on as without identification it is not possible to plan how you can avoid them or reduce their impact if they occur. As serious risks can endanger the whole project flagging them this early helps inform the key stakeholders you are asking to authorise the project to assess the potential risks in the scale of running the project and identify if they can provide assistance.

o Both assumptions and constraints are directly linked to potential project risks. For instance if you assume a particular resource will be available for the project you are also identifying a potential project risk, if it turns out that the resource is unavailable that will risk the project’s timeline and scope. With our high-level examples of assumptions and constraints above, a lack of access to previous history of projects, particularly if the proposed project team has limited experience, can really make managing the project harder. Having a project customer that is at a remote location thereby constraining your ability to communicate and get important information from also poses a direct risk to the project. If the Customer is who will pay for the project deliverables then despite their lack of contact with you, if you haven’t successfully determined their needs and what they deem success criteria handover may become problematic.

o Identifying risks is obviously only one part of managing them. Having them identified then requires you assess their probability, their potential impact on the project and devise responses to mitigate or avoid them… but we’ll wait until Mod 3 for going into detail.

• Risks can also provide opportunities but this will be looked at further in Module 3. For example though, if you were to identify at the Charter stage a possibility of the project deliverable also fulfilling the objectives of another important client of the business, you may then be able to extract agreement for additional support and resources for the project.

• Roles and Responsibilities

o At the stage of the Charter id basically anyone that will have authority over the project running.

o Who is sponsoring, who the client is, who key managers that have authority are and whom the Manager is.

o Provide a matrix or table of these people and what their responsibilities are to the project, for example who signs off on project success criteria, who signs off on project?

o Make sure you have contact details recorded.

o Make sure the Project Manager’s responsibilities and authority are clearly delineated.

o At least the Project Sponsor may sign, but preferably the Manager and Customer, if that is a 3rd party to denote their approval of the Charter and for it to proceed to the development phase.

o Good idea to allow these signatories to make additional comments if they wish to sign on condition of a further factor or flag a potential concern.

o Roles and responsibilities, like assumptions, constraints and risks will all need further elaboration as the project moves through development and more information becomes available and more staff are brought into the project.

• Further elaboration (explanation and expansion) for all of these areas will be needed to better detail risks, constraints, assumptions and roles & responsibilities as the project progresses. This is referred to as “progressive elaboration”.

Principles of Project Management – Module 2 Page 22 of 26

• In the next topic we will examine the second of the Initiation processes “Identifying Stakeholders”.

o For readings - the Project Management Documents website contains many useful templates that you may use and adapt if your workplace doesn’t already have these available

Useful Links

VIDEO:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J7urtEex6c Develop Project Charter process

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suvzf7ckQfs Another take on the Charter process covering need for further elaboration and importance of authority

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKMWmdPZbmc developing a charter in health records area.

WEB:

• http://www.inc.com/tools/project-charter-example.html Good example of roles and responsibilities, and sign-off

• http://www.projectmanagementdocs.com/project-initiation-templates/project-charter-long.html More extensive sample charter.

• http://www.pmhub.net/wp/2009/07/project-charter/ “Who Writes the Project Charter?” by Jim Owen.

• http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/meet-your-new-best-friend-the-project-charter.htm “Meet Your New Best Friend: The Project Charter” by Cameron Watson.

• http://www.projectmanagementdocs.com/project-initiation-templates/project-charter.html sample charter and template

• http://www.projectknowledge.com/PDF/HO30_2010ProjectCharter.pdf template for a charter.

• http://www.enterprisesforum.com/top-7-project-charter-templates-free-download project charter templates

Principles of Project Management – Module 2 Page 23 of 26

Topic 8: Identifying stakeholders

• Second initialisation process after building the Charter.

• Is part of Communications management

• Most projects have many stakeholders when you remember that a stakeholder is defined as anyone impacted by the running of the project and its outcome, or who have a vested interest in the project outcome. Because stakeholders can be so influential in the running and eventual assessment of project success it is vital that the Project Manager form, early in the project’s life, as clear as possible a matrix of

o Who the stakeholders are

o What their interest is

o What their involvement is

o How they may impact the project

o What their influence is

• Inputs used are:

o The Project Charter

o Procurement documents such as contracts, suppliers

o Enterprise environmental factors such as Government regulations, standards, company culture and structure

o Organisational process assets such as stakeholder register templates or stakeholder information from previous projects.

• Tools and Techniques are: expert judgement and stakeholder analysis as tools and techniques to build the two identifying stakeholder outputs

• Stakeholder Analysis: formal process for analysing each of the stakeholders you have identified in your project.

o 1st identify all potential stakeholders and information about them

o 2nd classify their influence and their interest on a grid of low to high

o 3rd consider how you can influence them to either build their support or reduce their negativity

• Outputs are: Stakeholder register and Stakeholder management strategy.

• Stakeholder Register will be useful throughout for whole team as includes contact details and who you need to communicate with throughout.

• The Stakeholder management strategy is also developed that may well contain sensitive information as the purpose is to document how stakeholders may be influenced to support the project. Consider censoring if going to place in a location for the whole team to access.

• Performing effective Stakeholder Identification makes it much easier to make sure communication includes the right people and provides them with relevant information. Importantly it helps the manager to effectively manage stakeholder interests throughout the remainder of the project.

• The next topic examines the project team and holding a kick-off meeting.

• From the Readings Tab: read the Ezinearticle on why you should care about identifying stakeholders for your project’s success. The stakeholder register templates are worth checking out too.

Principles of Project Management – Module 2 Page 24 of 26

Useful Links

VIDEO:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaqAhkGJ1yg Identify who your stakeholders are

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkUCcJwwvAQ Identifying and understanding stakeholders, including internal and external stakeholders

WEB:

• http://ezinearticles.com/?Identify-Stakeholders-on-Your-Project---Why-Bother?&id=2419733 Identify Stakeholders on Your Project - Why Bother?

• http://www.brighthubpm.com/project-planning/96416-stakeholder-register-example-and-template/ Sample Stakeholder Register and template.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder_analysis Overview of Stakeholder analysis.

• http://pmtips.net/defining-stakeholder-part-1/ and http://pmtips.net/defining-stakeholder-part-2/ Two part overview of defining stakeholders.

• http://www.projectmanagementdocs.com/project-initiation-templates/stakeholder-management-strategy.html example and template for Stakeholder Management Strategy.

Principles of Project Management – Module 2 Page 25 of 26

Topic 9: Appoint the team and kick off the project

• From the initiation processes of identifying stakeholders and developing the Project Charter you should have enough information to start bringing key team members together. The Project Sponsor, Project Manager and client (if not the sponsor) should already be identified and have signed off on the Charter.

• Good project management practises emphasise how important is to have your team’s input into areas such as:

o the projects scope definition and work breakdown structure

o estimates of how long time will be needed to perform technical tasks

o how much funding will be required

o what technical skills and resources (materials / software) will be needed

• Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can often be Team Leaders and need to be identified and brought into the “core” Project Team to assist the P.M. in planning.

• The project team should be expected to grow after planning processes have been completed because only then will you fully understand all the skills that will be required and the time frames and costs that will be involved. Also, there is little point in having the workers that will carry out the technical work of the project sitting around doing nothing while the work of planning out the project – which is a lot of work – is being done. In fact, as many project team members will be already employed within your organisation and may be currently working on finishing off other projects before they are required on yours, your “team” at this stage may just mean you require their attendance at some key planning meetings.

• However, having some sort of ‘kick-off meeting’ at the end of the Concept stage will clearly indicate to the team members you will need assistance in planning from that the assessment of whether or not the project should be planned out has been made, the key people who can build those plans have been identified and the meeting will formally end this stage and signal the start of the Planning stage of the project’s life cycle.

• Of course you could hold this meeting to signify the start of the planning phase as there is no substantial difference between holding it then – but I have more time in this Module than the Planning module, so I’ll cover it now.

• Project kick-off should help you:

o Introduce the Project Manager (and possibly sponsor) to the team

o Get the team to start building a team ethos

o Make sure everyone understands what the project is about

o Discuss the key points for the project’s success identified from the business case, SOW, Project Charter including thinking about assumptions, constraints and risks to the project

o Outline how the team will communicate and

o Establish primary roles and responsibilities from the start.

• You can hold more than one kick-off meeting – one to kick-off execution processes is usually recommended for the then fully assembled project team, where explaining where to access the Project Plan and its key elements will have everyone starting the execution stage with clear guidelines and an overview of the project for all.

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• Key point – don’t go into planning as a Project Manager without having a team to help provide you with expert advice and technical guidance. At project execution phase a lack of consultation with people that understand how the technical details of the project’s work should be carried out soon becomes obvious. Indicators of this are work activities that are not properly resourced or feasible in the order sequenced, or time and cost blowouts! The people allocated the actual work tasks of creating the project will quickly lose enthusiasm if they feel they are being asked to follow an ill-informed and poorly planned Project Management Plan.

• Before progressing to the next topic encourage to look at the Readings Tab. Please check out the readings for some useful information and templates for holding kick-off meetings.

Useful Links

VIDEO:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxjuo4Vnp6U How to kick-off a project

WEB:

• http://www.pma.doit.wisc.edu/plan/1/what.html What and Why plus How to hold kick-off meetings. Provides templates for kick-off meetings and some useful advice.

• http://goodkickoffmeetings.com/tips/ designed for Web Project kick-offs.