Assignment 11

Two sub-processes that were implemented in Phase I are as following:

a. Select and promote best practices

b. Introductory project health checks

7-Eleven is a retail company. In its initial days in year 2000, 7-Eleven has many projects but to complete them on time and within budget was a big challenge. This is the reason why Project Management Office was created in year 2004. It helps in meeting the schedule as well as budget.

Phase I is the first step that 7-Eleven takes when they get any new project. It involves the idea that included knowledge management and development of project overviews. The reason why the company chose above mentioned two sub processes is because they help in delivering the projects on time. If best practices are chosen then it helps in utilizing the time in the correct direction. In the first phase, the processes that are developed are the identification of the customers targeted by the project and selection of the acceptable practices in the food industry. The project overview at phase one was the estimation of the completion of the project, introduction and development of the health checks that detects the risk that could compromise the project.

Project management meeting is held regularly which covers four important areas: sub-milestone graph, risks, issues and scope changes request. Basically timeline terminology is changed to sub-milestone as many projects are cross-functional with many stakeholders and one milestone date does not fulfill the need of each stakeholder. While working on any project it is important to gather all the information to avoid any misses in later stage. Reviewing the project in initial stage is always recommended. Like for example if project was previously successful it has to be continued in the same manner.

2. What sub-processes were documented in phase II?

The sub processes that were documented in phase II were

a. Project Budgeting and Financial Management

b. Status Reporting Standards

c. Issue Management

d. Progress Measurement, Monitoring, and Control

e. PMO Reports (Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, etc.)

f. Activate Project

g. Portfolio Analysis and Assessment

h. Project Approval and Initiation

i. View, Prioritize, and Approve New Project Requests

j. Portfolio Prioritization

k. Portfolio Budgeting

l. Risk Management

m. Management Meetings

n. Quality Management

3. What do you think was the difference between a process and a procedure?

Process PMOs are one who manages projects while procedure PMOs are the one who delivers the projects.

The disadvantage of process PMO is that the PMO team members can be perceived as the “project policemen” with a “do-the-job-check-the-box” mentality which does little good and is generally disliked by everyone involved while the disadvantage of the project delivery PMO i.e. procedure PMO is that project managers become so focused on delivering the project that they tend to neglect other essential elements in the process.

In a project delivery PMO, the PMO group gets reabsorbed back into the organization because upper management assumes that the problems of project delivery are solved and they are not required for a “stand-alone” PMO group. This is not the case with process PMOs.

4. Why would Phase III be listed as one of the more important Phases?

Phase III is considered to be the most important phase because it contains the processes which are the most essential one for the success of any project. The processes it contains are Project Reporting, PMO Reporting, Project Management, Portfolio management, Project application and initiation.

A good project report is essential to showcase the key points of the project. No matter how good the project is, if you are not good in reporting the project then not only project will be a failure but also stakeholders will not be happy. Before starting any new project, stakeholders are interested in report. Project reporting is the use of formal and informal to communicate the status of the project. It is way where stakeholders and team members expectations can be managed and along with provide the scope, time and budget of the project. The fields it contains are Title, Project name, Start and end date, graph showing the progress of the project and report across all the projects company is working upon. It is an essential part of any project as it manages the expectations of the stakeholders and provides the exact status of the project.

PMO reporting is one of the most important duties of a PMO. It is the key deliverable that is produced every week or month. If a PMO is supporting a single project, the key report is the project status report. Regardless if there is a PMO in place or not, a project manager should be producing a regular project report to keep stakeholders appraised of progress, status, key issues, etc. If a PMO is supporting a number of projects, then it is good to define a common project report that can be used by all projects. This should be supported with guidance on how the information should be populated, especially to define RAG (Red, Amber, Green) status. By doing this it ensures that projects are reporting to the same standard and makes it possible to compare relative performance between projects.

Portfolio management is the art and science of making decisions about investment mix and policy, matching investments to objectives, asset allocation for individuals and institutions, and balancing risk against performance.

A project is divided into six phrases which make it possible to lead it in the best possible direction. Six phases are: