Monitor and Control Your Projects (Part 2)

One of the biggest challenges you will face as a Project Manager is "scope creep". That's when during the Execution phase of the project, the planned scope of work changes, often causing delays and expense.

To avoid this, you need to carefully Monitor and Control your projects, by implementing change, risk and issue processes. Here are some tips on how to do it...

Monitor and Control Your Projects
(Part 2)

So things aren't going to plan because your customer has changed the scope of the project? Don't worry, this is a normal event for a Project Manager, as many projects are time consuming and while the project has been progressing, the business pressures faced by the customer have changed.

The art is not in minimizing change, but in managing it properly when it does occur. Here's how to do it...

Monitor Change

The most typical cause of a project going off-the-rails is that the scope has grown out of control, by "osmosis". The client has asked for changes, the team have had new ideas and your nice neat set of project tasks now look like spaghetti.

To succeed, you need to keep tight control of your project scope, by being vigilant about change. Do this by implementing a change management process. As soon as you identify a request for change in your project, document it formally by specifying where the change has come from, why it's needed and its impact on your project objectives.

And if the change is likely to affect the target end dates, budget or deliverables, then get your sponsor and customers approval before implementing it. Don't be afraid to ask for more time, people or money if you need it, especially if the change was initiated by the customer.

Never allow change to run your project. Instead, run your project by managing change!

Control Risks

As a Project Manager, it's all too easy to roll your sleeves up and get stuck into the project delivery. But when you do this, it's often hard to keep your head above water. You may end up managing at the micro level and high level risks to the project may pass you by.

It's hard, but try and remain a little divorced from the detailed day-to-day operation of your project where possible. In this way, you can continually assess the overall risk to the project from the outside and pounce on new risks when they appear.

Also, implement a Risk Management Process to formalize the way that risks are identified, assessed and mitigated. For each risk that appears, quantify its potential impact on the project, then take immediate action to minimize the likelihood of it occurring. Always create contingency plans, so that if the risk does occur, you can go to "plan b" and minimize its effect on the project delivery.

Resolve Issues

Resolving issues sounds easy right? The challenge however, is not just in resolving every issue that turns your way, but instead monitoring all of the issues that occur on a project and only resolving issues that are likely to impact on the project outcome. It's very infrequent on a project that you'll have time to resolve every issue that crops up - so be picky.

To make sure that you resolve issues in a timely manner, you need to put in place an Issue Management Process. This helps you to review all of the issues that crop up, assess their impact, delegate the ones that can be handled by others and resolve those that are critical to the project.

And there you have it! By managing change, risks and issues, you'll be able to avoid scope creep and boost your chances of achieving project success!

Further Information

Visit Method123.com for the complete set of templates, forms and checklists to complete projects quickly.

See MPMM.com for smart software that helps you implement methodologies for projects.

Monitor and Control Your Projects (Part 1)

How should you monitor and control your projects? It's a good question, because everyone does it differently. We believe that the processes you use to monitor and control projects should be the same, regardless of the size and type of project you undertake. So read on, to find out how to effectively...

Monitor and Control Your Projects
(Part 1)

After you've started up and planned your projects, you'll move into the Execution (or "delivery") phase in the project life cycle.

This is typically the longest phase in the project, as it's in this phase that the physical deliverables are built for the customer. Whether your project is to build a construction complex, computer system or land a space vehicle on mars, you will need to very carefully monitor progress and control delivery. Otherwise, your project could go off the rails.

So to monitor and control delivery, you need to implement 9 critical project management processes. We'll describe the first 3 processes here, and in the next newsletter we'll cover the remaining 4 critical processes or you.

Critical Process #1: Time Management

Every Project Manager knows that the customer expects their project to be delivered "on time". But how many Project Managers actually record every hour spent by staff on the project?

To ensure on-time delivery, that's what you need to do: implement a time management process. This process will help you to monitor the time spent by all of the members of your team, so that you can control how time is spent.

It's not just about "having great time management skills" either, it's about putting in place a process for recording time spent by staff by using timesheets and recording that time against the project plan.

That way, you can create an accurate picture of the current status of the project to determine whether or not it is likely to finish under / on / over the time allotted.

Critical Process #2: Cost Management

Few Project Managers can tell you for every day of the project, exactly how much of their budget they have spent to date. The reason is that many of the project costs are often difficult to track, especially when they relate to the use of equipment and consumption of materials.

But to deliver you project within budget, you need to monitor and control all of the costs that accrue, on a very regular basis. You can do this by implementing a cost management process.

Cost Management is all about accurately recording project expenses, as they occur. By using Expense Forms and an Expense Register, you can monitor all project costs and control expenditure when unplanned expenses arise. You don't need to be an accountant, you just need to keep an eye on the overall project expenditure on a weekly basis and act quickly when any issues arise.

Critical Process #3: Quality Management

It's often said that the hardest thing to monitor is "quality". Most Project Managers find it difficult to determine exactly what the customer expects in terms of deliverable "quality", let alone measure the actual levels of quality achieved. But you must try.

To do this properly, you need to implement a Quality Management Process. By following this process, you can set quality targets to be achieved and gain agreement from your customer.

Then you can use Quality Assurance and Quality Control techniques to monitor and control the actual quality of your project deliverables. If your quality levels drop below the targets set, then you can take action to rectify it. By constantly reviewing quality levels and ensuring that they always meet the target, you can feel confident that your customer will sign off your project as complete, once all of the deliverables have been produced.

And there you have it. By implementing time, cost and quality management, you can take the first steps needed to properly monitor and control your project delivery.

Use Templates or a Methodology to monitor and control your projects effectively.

Create a Project Charter

Want to improve your project success? Most Project Managers will tell you that the best way to ensure success is to define your project clearly from the outset. That way, all of your team members, stakeholders and customers will have a single view of what the project needs to achieve. So the best way to define you project clearly is to:

Create a Project Charter

A Project Charter is a document that is completed at the very start of the project life cycle. It sets out the project vision, objectives and scope, so that you can gain a clear picture of what it is that the project must achieve.

It also describes the deliverables, the people involved in producing them and the timeframes for delivery.

To create a Charter for your project, take these 5 steps:

Step 1: Set the Vision

Every team needs a "Vision". By clarifying the vision for the project and the goals that must be met, your team will gain a single collective understanding of what it is expected of them. When setting out your vision, make sure that you:

	Gain agreement from the Sponsor first
	Write it using clear, meaningful words
	Communicate it to all team members

Don't email the vision out to your team. Instead, present it personally, so that they have a first hand understanding of what it is, why it's important and what it should mean to them.

Step 2: Define the Scope

With a clear vision, the next most important step is to define the project scope. The scope lists the activities and deliverables that must be completed, in order to achieve the vision.

Having a detailed scope helps you to plan your project effectively. It also helps you to prevent "scope creep" which is when unplanned deliverables and activities are added to your To Do list by your customer.

Only by clarifying the project scope at the outset, can you manage your customers needs, by telling them for instance that a request is "out of scope" and therefore requires additional time or money to complete it.

Step 3: Structure the Project Team

So you know your end target (i.e. your vision) and deliverables to be produced (i.e. your scope), you now need to identify the people who are going to do the work.

Create a Project Organizational Structure chart which show all of the customers, stakeholders, team members and other people involved with your project. Depict the reporting lines between each, and where possible, add lines of communication as well.

Documenting the organization structure is important, as it clarifies the number of people needed to complete your project and the responsibilities of each member in your team. It also helps you to create Job Descriptions for each member of your team.

Step 4: Create a Roadmap

Then create a project roadmap. This is a high level project plan that lists the phases, activities and tasks that your project will pass through, to complete the entire project management life cycle.

As well as setting out the activities needed to complete the project from start to finish, you need to identify the resources needed for each project phase. And finally, identify the overall budget required to complete the project, so that you gain financial approval to undertake the project, as early as possible in the project life cycle.

Step 5: Identify Risks and Issues

The last step to take when creating a Project Charter is to list the risks and issues that are currently apparent. By listing these items, you can make your Project Sponsor aware of the overall level of risk of the project and enlist their support to resolve them early.

By taking these 5 steps, you're ready to create a Project Charter to initiate projects more successfully. If you would to implement these 5 steps for your projects, then get the Project Charter template now.

Want to boost your project management success? Check out these 2 great project management solutions...

	Project Management Templates
	Project Management Methodology

Improve Project Success

As a Method123 Newsletter recipient, we thought we'd tell you that we have just released a major new version of MPMM® Professional. This version allows you to create a customized project management methodology for your business.

You can now ...

	Add multiple new methodologies
	Customize the MPMM methodology
	Create multiple customized methodologies
	Upload your existing project methodology
	Add your existing project templates
	Edit all MPMM content and terminology
	Share methodologies with your colleagues.

If you want to customize your project methodology and templates, then MPMM Version 3.0 will help you.

Quick Facts

	It's based on the PMBOK® and Prince2®
	It was created by Project Management Experts
	Offers an entire Project Management Methodology
	Every phase, activity and task is described in depth
	Includes 1000+ content pages, tables, and examples.

Benefits

	Helps deliver your projects on time and within budget
	You can manage staff, customers and suppliers easily
	Monitor and control risks, changes and issues
	Create project documentation more quickly
	Improve the quality of your deliverables.

Free Trial
Click here to Download a Free Trial now...

Manage Projects "Within Budget"

One could say that your biggest challenge as a Project Manager is delivering "within budget".

If you are late then you can consider adding more staff, if the quality of your deliverables is not good enough then you can consider scheduling more time, but if you are over budget, then there are not a lot of options for you. So to help you out, we have described here how to:

Manage Projects "Within Budget"

Every Project Manager has a fixed budget. It is one of those things that makes a "project" a project. If you had an on-going annual budget, then you would be managing an operational activity, not a project.

The budgeting challenge for a Project Manager is that often by the time that they are allocated to a project, the budget has already been set by the Sponsor. The Project Manager does not have any real "say" in the matter. So how to can you manage your project within budget, when you have not created the budget in the first place? Here are 10 top tips on how...

Tip 1: Revise the budget
As soon as you are allocated to a project, make it one of your first jobs to revise the budget set. Even if the budget has not formally been set, the Project Sponsor will have some ideas on the overall amount of budget available for use. If you think that the budget is insufficient, tell your Sponsor as early as possible.

Tip 2: Create a Financial Plan
Whether a budget already exists of not, your next step is to create a detailed Financial Plan for your project. This plan will set out all of the planned expenses and when they are likely to occur. Make sure that your Sponsor accepts your plan and that you are comfortable that you can deliver the project against it.

Tip 3: Baseline the plan
Right, so you are now managing the project against a detailed Financial Plan, not a loose budget or general guide on what should be spent. You have a detailed view of the forecast project costs, against which to measure project progress. You should now baseline the plan by getting your Sponsors endorsement and communicating it to your team leaders.

Tip 4: The plan is the plan
Many people manage their project against the total amount of expenditure available. Do not fall into this trap, as you will always think you have enough funds to complete the project. Instead, manage the project against the detailed Financial Plan you have set out. If some items go over budget, investigate why and fix the issues. Only by managing at this level of detail can you build an accurate view of the projects performance against budget.

Tip 5: Get serious
If you are serious about delivering your projects within budget, then you need to implement some form of Cost Management Process. This process will give you formal procedures for the identification, recording and tracking of project costs.

Tip 6: Use Expense Forms
Ensure that your staff record all expenses using Expense Forms. Only by formally recording expenses can you build an accurate picture of the overall cost of the project to date.

Tip 7: Register your expenses
By using an Expense Register or log, you can create a summarized view of the project cost to date, at any point in time.

Tip 8: Report progress We have seen some Project Managers tell their Sponsor that they are likely to be over budget the week before they were due to finish! If you even have an inkling that you might be over budget, tell your Project Sponsor about it as early as possible. It will help you gain buy in and they may even be able to help you out.

Tip 9: Do not be afraid If you need more money and you have exhausted all other options, then ask for it. Do not be afraid to tell your Project Sponsor that you have reached this point. Remember, there are quite often very valid reasons for needing more money throughout the project.

Tip 10: Balance time, cost and quality evenly Remember, your goal is to deliver the project on time, to cost and quality. Never compromise time and quality to bring your project in under budget. It is a challenging job, but always try and balance time, cost and quality fairly. You can do it!

If you would like help managing projects within budget, then these 2 products will give you all of the templates and methods you need...

	Project Management Templates
	Project Management Methodology

How to Deliver Projects On Time

As a Project Manager, you are always pushed to deliver your projects on time. Not a day goes by that you don't worry about whether you are on, behind or ahead of schedule.

To help you to boost your chances of success, we've described here...

How to Deliver Projects On Time

On a project, it is easy to get bogged down with the details, and forget about the "helicopter view". Other than completing Project Status Reports at the end of each reporting period, many Project Managers adopt the approach that their own knowledge and experience alone will ensure that the project delivers on time.

But the reality is that all project managers need to complete some basic steps throughout the project, to make sure that it is "on track", otherwise it is easy for a project to go off the rails.

So what are the steps that a Project Manager needs to complete to make sure that the project is delivered on time? We have listed them for you here...

Step 1: Plan to succeed
There is an old project saying: "Plan not to fail, don't fail to plan". By creating a detailed Project Plan with fixed delivery milestones that your customer agree with, you will gain a firm basis for measuring the progress of the project.

Make sure that your plan includes delivery milestones every month where possible and that the Work Breakdown Structure is detailed enough to show all of the critical tasks that must be completed. Non-critical tasks can be re-scheduled later, but tasks which are on the critical path must be completed by the due dates specified.

Step 2: Clock the time spent
Almost every Project Manager these days has implemented Timesheets for tracking time. But how many actually record that time in a Time Sheet Register and update the Project Plan with the time spent per project task?

By doing this, you can allocate a set amount of time and effort to complete every task on the Project Plan, and easily identify when you are late. If staff spend more time than that allocated and the task is still not complete, then you will need to investigate why this has occurred and resolve the problems identified. This process is called the Time Management Process and it ensures that staff complete tasks where possible, in the timeframe allocated to them.

Step 3: Create a helicopter view
It is harder than it looks. To accurately monitor and report on the project at a helicopter level, you need a crystal clear picture of the project delivery against a schedule.

You need to know for every task in your project plan, whether it is under / on / over schedule and what the overall impact on the project is. You also need to have identified the critical path and determined whether the tasks on this path are on track.

Only with this detailed knowledge can you gain a sufficient "helicopter view" to be able to report accurately to your Project Board or Sponsor. Remember, by keeping your sponsor accurately informed of the project progress, you will ensure their full support.

Step 4: Going "Belly Up"
So you have done all this but your project is going "belly up" (i.e. slipping). What then? Well the first step is to investigate the reasons why. It may be that the scope of the project has grown from that originally agreed, or you have encountered complexities that were not identified when you started, or that the plan was too aggressive in the first place.

Regardless, you need to 1) Stop 2) Investigate 3) Resolve 4) Report. To resolve the problem, you may need to formally redefine the scope of the project, hire additional resources to help out, or agree with the customer on a new delivery timeframe. You will also need to update the Project Plan with any additional tasks required to fix the problems, and then you will need to report on the new status to your Sponsor.

Step 5: Getting the right mix
Almost every project team will encounter unforeseen changes, risks and issues. Your level of success will depend on how you manage these when they arise. By implementing these project processes below, you can ensure that your mix of changes, risks and issues are easily manageable:

	Change Management Process
	Risk Management Process
	Issue Management Process

To help you deliver projects on time and keep your Project Sponsor happy, use these two great project management solutions now...

	Project Management Templates
	Project Management Methodology

Using software to help you manage projects

To deliver projects successfully, it is fair to say that most Project Managers use software tools to help them out. But which tools do you need, when should you use them and what do you use them for? In this newsletter, you will find out all about...

Using software to help you manage projects

If you Google the term "project management software" then you will find something like 196 million search results! So which tools do you need and how should you use them to boost your chances of success? To help you out, we have described here the 5 typical groups of project software used, why they are used and how:

Type 1: Planning Software
The most common type of software tool used by project teams, is project planning software. Managers and teams typically use it to create a Gantt chart of their "Work Breakdown Structure" (WBS).

But it should also be used to schedule resources and financial expenditure, as well as equipment used and materials consumed. Dependencies within and between projects should also be listed.

Sample Providers: MS Project, Primavera

Type 2: Methodology Software
After planning a project, you need to implement a suite of processes to ensure its success. These processes together form part of a "methodology" for the project's execution. Such methodologies exist and are easily downloadable. They help you to implement processes to manage the project's; risk, changes, issues, time, cost, quality, staff, customers and suppliers.

By implementing such a methodology, you can improve your project efficiency and improve your chances of success.

Sample Providers: MPMM

Type 3: Tracking Software
Ok, so you have created a plan and implemented a suite of project processes. You are now ready for the execution phase of the project.

To help you monitor and control the project's execution, most managers implement some form of tracking software. This software helps you to:

	Monitor and record changes, risks and issues
	Keep track of time and money spent
	Control the quality of deliverables
	Report and communicate project status
	Keep the project "on track" at all times

As with the other types of software specified here, using this type of software to monitor and control the project's progress is critical to success.

Sample Providers: Mercury, Tenrox

Type 4: Collaboration Software
On all projects, collaboration between project staff is key. They need to meet to discuss the project progress, current risks and issues, work outstanding and the plan going forward.

There are now a range of software providers that help your team to collaborate more easily, using MSN messenger, intranets, extranets and forums. They allow your team to identify and resolve issues quickly. They promote positive communication and they help you build a "team spirit" even if your team are spread across different physical locations.

Sample Providers: BaseCampHQ, AceProject

Type 5: Administration Software
Admin is often one of the most time consuming tasks for a manager. You need to create documentation, keep accounts up-to-date and administer risks and issues. Yet it is typically the area that you can gain the greatest level of efficiency in, using smart software tools.

By implementing templates to generate documentation quickly and software for your accounts, you can save an enormous amount of time administering, leaving you free to focus on the people side of running a project.

Sample Providers: Method123 for templates, Oracle Projects for accounting

We hope this has given you a brief overview of the types of project management software available in the market so you can reduce the 196 million software search results to just a few!

If you are interested in viewing two great project management solutions, then check these out now...

	Project Management Templates
	Project Management Methodology