BSBPMG522 Undertake Project Work

Application

This unit describes the skills and knowledge required to undertake a straightforward project or a section of a larger project. It covers developing a project plan, administering and monitoring the project, finalising the project and reviewing the project to identify lessons learned for application to future projects.

This unit applies to individuals who play a significant role in ensuring a project meets timelines, quality standards, budgetary limits and other requirements set for the project.

The unit does not apply to specialist project managers. For specialist project managers, the other units of competency in the project management field (BSBPMG) will be applicable.

No licensing, legislative or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time of publication.

Unit Sector

Management and Leadership – Project Management

This section describes language, literacy, numeracy and employment skills incorporated in the performance criteria that are required for competent performance.

Performance Evidence

· Define the parameters of the project including:

· Project scope

· Project stakeholders, including own responsibilities

· Relationship of project to organisational objectives and other projects

· Reporting requirements

· Resource requirements

· Use project management tools to develop and implement a project plan including:

· Deliverables

· Work breakdown

· Budget and allocation of resources

· Timelines

· Risk management

· Recordkeeping and reporting

· Consult and communicate with relevant stakeholders to generate input and engagement in planning, implementing and reviewing the project

· Provide support to team members to enable them to achieve deliverables and to transition them as appropriate at completion of the project

· Finalise the project including documentation, sign-offs and reporting

· Review and document the project outcomes.

Knowledge Evidence

To complete the unit requirements safely and effectively, the individual must:

· Give examples of project management tools and how they contribute to a project

· Outline types of documents and other sources of information commonly used in defining the parameters of a project

· Explain processes for identifying and managing risk in a project

· Outline the organisation’s mission, goals, objectives and operations and how the project relates to them

· Explain the organisation’s procedures and processes that are relevant to managing a project including:

· Lines of authority and approvals

· Quality assurance

· Human resources

· Budgets and finance

· Recordkeeping

· Reporting

· Outline the legislative and regulatory context of the organisation in relation to project work, including Work Health and Safety (WHS) requirements.

Assessment Conditions

Assessment must be conducted in a safe environment where evidence gathered demonstrates consistent performance of typical activities experienced in the management and leadership – project management field of work and include access to:

· Relevant legislation, regulations, standards and codes

· Relevant workplace documentation and resources

· Case studies and, where possible, real situations

· Interaction with others.

Assessors must satisfy NVR/AQTF assessor requirements.

Links

Companion volumes available from the IBSA website: http://www.ibsa.org.au/companion_volumes - http://www.ibsa.org.au/companion_volumes

Your trainer will inform you of the following;

· Where the toilets and fire exits are located, what the emergency procedures are and where the breakout and refreshment areas are.

· Any rules, for example asking that all mobile phones are set to silent and of any security issues they need to be aware of.

· What times the breaks will be held and what the smoking policy is.

· That this is an interactive course and you should ask questions.

· That to get the most out of this workshop, we must all work together, listen to each other, explore new ideas, and make mistakes. After all, that’s how we learn.

· Ground rules for participation;

· Smile

· Support and encourage other participants

· When someone is contributing everyone else is quiet

· Be patient with others who may not be grasping the ideas

· Be on time

· Focus discussion on the topic

· Speak to the trainer if you have any concerns.

Know how to define project

Understand how to develop project plan

Learn how to administer and monitor project

Discover how to finalise and review project

Gain the skills and knowledge required for this unit.

1.1 Access project scope and other relevant documentation

1.2 Define project stakeholders

1.3 Seek clarification from delegating authority of issues related to project and project parameters

1.4 Identify limits of own responsibility and reporting requirements

1.5 Clarify relationship of project to other projects and to the organisation's objectives

1.6 Determine and access available resources to undertake project

Project scope and other relevant documentation may include:

Contract or other agreement

Project brief

Project plan or summary.

Other documents outlining:

Expected outcomes of the project

Inclusions and exclusions from project

Project resources

Quality standards for project

Timeframes for project.

Projects are, by definition, delivering a once-off outcome, involving a group of interrelated activities, with a team of people, within a specific timeframe.

Project definition and project scope

One of the first tasks of a project manager is to determine the scale of the project as the size will determine the level of detail and discipline of project management activities to be applied

No matter how small the project, a clear definition and statement of the areas and boundaries of the project need to be established. The scope of the project includes the outcomes, stakeholders, output work and resources (both human and financial).

The scoping and definition stage is essential for later project success.

If the project is unfeasibly defined and scoped, and not properly linked with the organisational goals and objectives of the business, there is a high risk the project will not be successfully completed

The success of every project is measured differently depending on the organisation’s goals and objectives and can be different for varying members within the one organisation.

For example; the construction of a sports facility - whilst important to be built on time and within budget needs to be also measured by its operational and venue management functionality once constructed and commissioned.

As a start, the following areas define and form the scope of the project:

The outcomes/benefits

The customers/stakeholders

The work/tasks which are required

The resources (both human and financial)

Criteria by which the project’s success will be evaluated.

Once the scope has been defined and agreed upon, the details can be documented in the project business plan/project schedule or, in the case of smaller projects, a project proposal/brief may be all that is required.

Once documented, sign off by the project sponsor/senior manager should be obtained so that a formal agreement exists as to the scope of the project.

Project scope, brief and schedule:

Contract or other agreement

Project brief

Project plan or summary.

Template example:

Stakeholders may include:

Clients or customers (internal and external)

Funding bodies

Management, employees and relevant key personnel (internal and external) with special responsibilities

Project sponsor.

A stakeholder is everybody who is involved in the project or whose work or interest might be affected by the project.

Stakeholders once were regarded more as investors, but the modern or current meaning expands this to include everyone who has some form of vested interest.

Sometimes it does include those who may ‘perceive’ they have an interest, and it now more important for the project manager to filter those perceptions so as not to waste time and energy on those who are more an inquisitive stakeholder than a person with a real vested interest in the project and its outcomes.

Stakeholders may have varied level of interest, involvement, and influence on the project.

It is extremely important to identify all the stakeholders and manage them as Stakeholders can have negative and positive influence on the project.

A broad definition to assist you in filtering stakeholders could include:

A person or organisation who are actively involved in the project

Those whose active interest in your project can exert positive or negative work on the project or the outputs from the project

Those who exert influence over the project or its deliverables.

These stakeholders who could exert those influences include:

Customers

End users

Sponsors

Program managers

Portfolio managers

The project manager

The project team

Other functional managers

Operation managers

Sellers

Vendors

Legal department.

Delegating authority may include:

Customer or client

Funding body

Manager or management representative

Project sponsor.

Project parameters may include:

Project finances or budget

Integration of project within organisation

Legislative and quality standards

Physical, human and technical resources available or required for project

Procurement requirements associated with project

Reporting requirements

Risks associated with project, including WHS

Scope of project

Time lines.

Although there is much written about project management and the processes that support it, there are still many issues that we need to consider in the delivery of successful projects.

There are many frameworks and a great deal of information about project management, however, project delivery is still heavily influenced by the environment in which the project manager is working

The application of any general project management methodology requires an appropriate consideration of the corporate and business culture that forms a particular project’s environment

This is especially important in an environment where there is a dynamic industry and where flexibility, attention to detail and risk management strategies are crucial components for successful delivery.

Seek clarification from delegating authority of any issues

It may not be appropriate to undertake all project management activities to the same level of detail and with the same level of discipline:

For successful project management it is critical to seek clarification from the delegating authority and identify any issues using and following a structured and stringent process

However, it is of paramount importance to balance the process requirements so as to not outweigh the outcome, which can be an issue in some organisations such as government bodies or heavily regulated industries

Project teams must keep the desired outcome in mind when applying their time and efforts to process requirements such as reporting, planning and documentation.

Ultimate responsibility and accountability for the project must be articulated and accepted at an appropriately high level within the organisation.

This involves commitment of organisational management and a willingness to be aware of concerns identified by the project team.

The project manager is the key person around which the project will ultimately revolve.

The project manager is responsible for:

Organising the project into one or more sub-projects

Managing the day-to-day aspects of the project

Resolving planning and implementation issues

Monitoring progress and budgets

Organise reporting requirements.

Monitoring budgets:

It could be argued that establishment of the human and financial resources necessary to deliver the project is the most crucial element for the success of the project

This process must be established during the project definition and scoping stage

Notwithstanding this, it is critical to allow for contingencies during the life of the project in areas such as timeframes, budget and resourcing.

For larger or more complex projects:

Advanced project management knowledge and experience are essential

Detailed knowledge of the business area in which the project is being run is needed

Those project managers who don’t have this knowledge should seek to obtain this

effectively communicate with project team members and clients

Address business issues to ensure concerns are met.

Avoiding scope creep:

Avoiding ‘scope creep' a commonly used term to describe the risk of stakeholders attempting to add extras, such as activities/tasks or outcomes, during the course of the project

If scope creep does occur, the scoping of the project needs to be revisited in order to clearly show your organisation the impact these 'extras' will have on the resources, time, cost, and quality of the project

As the pace of change is constantly increasing and business processes embrace flexibility and ability to change the customer and the project team are often on a learning curve and will only know what the scope should be as they progress through stages of the project.

Prior knowledge management:

A single project rarely exists in a vacuum, even in a small organisation

You can establish links between projects and accurately model the relationship between the different project components

When you have a task that relies on or drives a series of tasks some of which may have been addressed in another project, you can create a task dependency to link the tasks in different projects

A project manager should look at all similar projects that have been undertaken before, or consider re-using documents and processes of a previous project

A great deal of time can be saved doing this and the project can have a greater degree of predictability

Project managers can learn critical success factors and/or problem issues to assist with their immediate planning.

How does your project relate to your organisation’s objectives?

What is the context in which your project will function within the organisations objectives and is this project unique?

Is there a similarity or ‘connection’ between past projects and this project?

Are those connections of benefit or not?

Clarify relationship of past projects to the organisations objectives to see if they match yours?

How will the project change or improve the organisations objectives?

What are the strategic objectives this project is intended to satisfy?

Who has the ultimate responsibility in the solution or outcome?

How do the other stakeholders meet these goals? Do the stakeholder’s goals align with the strategic goals you are trying to achieve through this project?

Are they also designed to meet the organisations objectives as outlines above?

Resources include:

Obtaining goods and services required to deliver the project

Appointing or recruiting staff

Appointing consultants.

Resource determination will include:

Cost

Management of the project

Lead time

Date resources are required

Specifications

Supplier or provider contact details

Procedure (e.g. by a formal tender)

Requirement for expert advice

Responsibility

Alternatives.

2.1 Develop project plan in line with the project parameters

2.2 Identify and access appropriate project management tools

2.3 Formulate risk management plan for project, including Work Health and Safety (WHS)

2.4 Develop and approve project budget

2.5 Consult team members and take their views into account in planning the project

2.6 Finalise project plan and gain necessary approvals to commence project according to documented plan

Project plan may include:

Details of how the project will be managed

Roles and responsibilities

Time lines

Work breakdown structure.

Options to consider when developing a project plan:

The project plan consolidates all the information about the project to date and forms the basis for monitoring and controlling once the project commences implementation

This document is to be signed off by the project sponsor and any key stakeholders.

The level of detail required would be determined in consultation with the project sponsor

There are many ways organisations choose to plan, prioritise and schedule activities pertaining to a project (their ‘project plan’ or ‘project schedule’), and for that matter, the terminology used differs among organisations

Whatever method is chosen, the foundation of project planning is creating a ‘work breakdown structure’, which makes a project manageable by first breaking it down into individual components in a hierarchical structure

Such a structure defines tasks that can be completed independently of other tasks, facilitating resource allocation, assignment of responsibilities, and measurement and control of the project. Some tasks are to be performed sequentially; others concurrently

The documenting of work breakdown structures can be aided by the use of scheduling tools such as Microsoft Project or other project management specific software:

These programs enable the project manager to track progress towards the delivery of each output against identified milestones

Larger, complex projects are most likely to benefit from the use of project management specific software/technology, whereas small to medium size projects can be supported by keeping day to day project plans such as charts, word processor documents, or tabular format task lists and timeframes

Gantt chart

Originally developed by Henry Gantt to track the progress of ship building projects in a specialised chart, the ‘Gantt chart’ displays the progression of a project in the form of a horizontal bar graph. At a glance this tool displays the progress of each activity and it can easily be compiled using spreadsheet or project management software. For larger projects a work breakdown structure would be developed to identify the tasks before constructing a Gantt chart.

For smaller projects the Gantt chart itself may be used to identify tasks:

This tool is one of the most easily understood of the scheduling formats

It lists the tasks with a task bar next to each task showing its time duration.

Simply list the activities and tasks in column A, select an appropriate time interval (days, weeks or months), allocate the dates to columns B onwards and plot the expected time duration (total time from start to completion) under the appropriate column by selecting shading from the Format/Cells/Patterns menus.

When you wish to provide a status report simply colour or shade in black those items that are completed or estimate the percentage complete. This will give you an immediate visual representation as to whether or not you are on schedule. You may wish to add extra columns for assignment of responsibilities etc.

Project roles and responsibilities

It is important to understand who the major players are on the project. List the major project roles, responsibilities and the actual people involved. Add in any additional roles as required.

Examples only:

Project parameters

Basic parameters are the ‘need to know’ facts about your project

Examples only:

Project management tools may include:

Cost schedule control system

Critical path method

Gantt and bar charts

Life cycle cost analysis

Logistics support analysis

Pert charts

Project management software

Risk and issues logs

Spread sheets

Technical resources required for the project, for example WHS management-system tools.

Charts:

Critical path method

Gantt and bar charts

Pert charts.

Critical path schedule:

The critical path is simply all the tasks that determine the end date in your project schedule. If one of those tasks is late by one day, then your project end date will be extended by one day. Oftentimes, there will be tasks that are not on the critical path; this is due to the slack in the project schedule. If you refer to your current schedule, you can examine the Gantt chart and quickly identify the tasks that have some float compared to the tasks that have no slack.

PERT charts:

A PERT chart is a project management tool used to schedule, organise, and coordinate tasks within a project. PERT stands for Program Evaluation Review Technique, a methodology developed by the U.S. Navy in the 1950s to manage the Polaris submarine missile program.

Gantt and bar charts:

A Gantt chart is a project chart in which a series of horizontal lines shows the amount of work done or production completed in certain periods of time in relation to the amount planned for those periods. A Gantt chart is used for the same purpose as a Critical Path Schedule.

Cost schedule control system:

A set of criteria specified by the project manager for reporting the project schedule financial information. By tracking the project costs and schedule, you can assess the status of how well the project is meeting planned deadlines.

Life cycle cost analysis:

Life cycle costing is a method of project evaluation, for which all costs arising from owning, operating, maintaining and disposing of a project are considered.

Life cycle costing evaluates all relevant costs over a period of time of a project.

It takes into account the costs including capital, purchase, energy cost, operating cost, maintenance cost, replacement cost, financing cost and any resale for the disposal over a life time of a project.

Logistics support analysis:

Logistics support analysis, in the context of a project, is a structured approach to creating efficiency and reduce the cost of providing resources and support by pre-planning all aspects of project plan including requirements, constraints and recommendations.

Project management software:

Considerations:

Licensing and Costs

Migration

Collaborative

Platform Independence

Usability

Maintainability.

Spreadsheets

Microsoft templates:

First, it would be wise to see what templates you already have installed in Microsoft Excel

Project scorecard

Project cost summary

Project time performance tracking

Event management project tracker

Project performance tracking and reporting.

WHS management system tools

A Work Health and Safety Management System is a coordinated and systematic approach to managing health and safety risks in a project or other environment.

From individual jurisdictions under the previous OHS laws, it is now changed to a harmonised WHS coverage.

With the harmonised Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws commencing in five out of nine jurisdictions on 1 January 2012, businesses need to ensure they are not only familiar with the legislation, but are also taking measures to achieve legal compliance.

Key changes:

The primary duty holder will be a Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) which includes, individuals, companies, partnerships, non-profit organisations and unincorporated associations

The primary duty of care will be qualified by reasonable practicability

Introduction of officer’s due diligence requirements

Broad nature of the definition of the term “worker”

Introduction of health and safety representatives and their power to issue provisional improvement notices

Requirement for cooperation, consultation and coordination between duty holders

Right of entry for unions to enter workplaces for WHS purposes to advise and assist in WHS or when a contravention of the law is suspected

Inclusion of WHS permit holders, and

Categorisation of offences, increased range of penalty options and increased maximum penalties that may be imposed for a breach of the WHS legislation.

Checklist

Meanwhile, workplace WHS advises businesses that they should have:

Familiarised themselves with the complexities of the new Act, Regulations and Codes of Practice

Audited their existing WHS systems and, where appropriate, updated their policies and procedures to meet the new requirements

Identified their PCBUS (Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking) and their officers

Reviewed corporate government arrangements to ensure that senior management and directors and other officers can meet their due diligence obligations

Given effect to the Act’s mandatory consultation provisions and have in place arrangements for consulting with staff, contractors, volunteers and others

Taken steps (such as holding information and training sessions) to ensure the changes have been communicated to managers and staff so that they are aware of their safety obligations and rights

Developed a change management strategy to demonstrate that they have done, and are doing, everything that is ‘reasonably practicable’ to achieve full compliance.

There are always risks associated with a project:

The purpose of risk management is to ensure levels of risk and uncertainty are properly managed so that the project is successfully completed

It enables those involved to identify possible risks, the manner in which they can be contained and the likely cost of mitigation strategies.

While typically conducted as part of the initial project conception and subsequent definition, depending on the scale of the project, risk management activities should become an ongoing conduct throughout the project life to ensure changing circumstances are tracked and managed.

Once all risks have been identified, a filtering process should be used to determine which identified risks:

Are best left, as the likelihood and seriousness would be so low that mitigation strategies are not required

Need monitoring, but no proactive mitigation strategies are required at this stage;

Are avoided by changing the scope of the project

Are moved to a third party by outsourcing etc. or

Need planned mitigation strategies as detailed in the risk register.

Examples of possible risks include:

Budget blow-outs

Information security breaches

Loss of key project team members

Major milestone timeframes not being met.

The results of this exercise should be documented in a risk register for the project, which is a document outlining all risks identified before and during the project.

Risk mitigation / treatment

Risk mitigation actions or treatment reduce the chance that a risk will be realised and reduce the seriousness of a risk that is realised.

There are two broad types of risk mitigation or treatment activities:

Preventative - planned actions to reduce the likelihood a risk will occur and the seriousness if it does occur. In other words, what should you do now?

For example, if an identified risk is that a construction deadline is not going to be achieved, further resources could be added to prevent this occurring.

Contingency - planned actions to reduce the seriousness of the risk, if it does occur. In other words, what should you do if?

For example, a possible action in response to the previous risk example might be that a timeframe and budget contingency is built into the original project scope and plan.

The risk management plan

A risk management plan should be included as a section in the project business plan and should cover, at a minimum, the following:

The process for identification, analysis evaluation and treatment of risks both initially and throughout the life of the project.

How often the risk register will be reviewed, the process for review and who will be involved?

How risk status will be reported and to whom.

Who will be responsible for which aspects of risk management?

As a minimum, changes in the risk should be reported to the project manager and the Steering Committee as part of the reporting process.

Project risk assessment

WHS in project management

With the national harmonised Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws already rolled-out across most of the country, it’s important to know if your WHS documentation is in line with the new legislative requirements.

WHS is not something that you immediately consider when planning and scoping a project but it is a requirement to understand the basic elements of the legislation.

The general provision of Work Health and Safety Legislation

The principles of a WHS Management System including duty of care responsibilities and supervisor and management responsibilities

The principles of implementing WHS Risk Management in the workplace as well as risk assessment process and hierarchy of control

The importance of procedures for the review of WHS performance in the workplace

Understand the provisions of Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation provisions.

A key requirement of the Work Health and Safety legislation is for the employer to systematically manage risks arising from workplace hazards.

There must also be effective consultation and communication with the workers involved about these risks and how they are to be managed.

The responsibilities under the state and federal laws within Australia make this area part of Risk Management.

Increased liability risk for project directors due to inconsistent and onerous WHS Laws

Added pressure of project directors due to added disclosure requirements

Project Directors/Responsible Persons can be prosecuted for breaches in WHS.

The national WHS strategic reviews that have been undertaken indicate growing concerns that some projects, especially smaller ones, may cut corners when the project is in trouble.

Project directors / managers should demonstrate by the actions they take with WHS and WHS legislation seriously.

Why should a Project director / manager be conscious of WHS?

Strategic and resource responsibilities

Operational responsibilities

Management tools use and reporting responsibilities

Behavioural programme establishment.

Consultants may form an integral part of the project team. Consultants are employed from outside the organisation to provide specialist or other expertise unavailable from internal resources, e.g. legal specialists, probity auditors and financial advisors. A major issue with consultants is to manage their deliverables as to the project timeframes, and to monitor the consultancy budgets closely so to not overspend.

At the workplace coal face, the task of developing an initial budget and seeking approval is a mechanical process of producing a budget that shows:

Income

Expenditure

Result.

What is the goal of a project budget?

One of the key elements of any project proposal is the project budget. It is a pivotal tool that will be used by several different groups involved in the project.

The project manager will use a budget to determine whether the project is on track

Project personnel will use it as a guideline to monitor certain project milestones

The client will use it to determine the success of the effort.

Some expenses, such as salaries, fees, wages, rent, or equipment costs, may seem pretty straight forward. But there are many contingencies and unknowns that may affect how and when the project is carried out and ultimately completed.

Contingencies:

Project’s unknowns or risks contingency

Cost estimating contingency

Design contingency

Bid contingency

Construction contingency

Cost escalation contingencies.

Remember that the most important point to keep in mind is that although a project budget should be based on best knowledge available of the numbers and accurate assessments of the resources needed to complete the task, the bottom line is that a budget is meant to be an estimate.

Link project budgets to key outcomes:

Establish a set of reference baselines

Then, as work progresses, you monitor the work

Then analyse the findings

Forecast the end results and compare those with the reference baselines

If the end results are not satisfactory then you make adjustments as necessary to the work in progress, and repeat the cycle at suitable intervals.

Design

Assuming project income, as opposed to the traditional P-and-L style budget, is based on fees or other revenue not realised until the completion of the project, expenses are the main variable and unique to developing and approving a project budget.

Project expenses:

Examples of how to determine specific calculations for your project budget:

Resource and budget cost plan

Identify cost (project) risks

Budget approval:

Develop your detailed budget estimate and get it approved in the organising and preparing stage after you specify your project activities

Check with your organisation to find out who must approve project budgets. At a minimum, the budget is typically approved by the project manager, the head of finance, and possibly the project manager’s supervisor.

Why consult with team members?

Getting their views:

Make consultation with staff members part of the business culture

Introduce weekly or monthly or as needed strategy meetings with staff

Actually ask for ideas and feedback

Conduct round-table discussions

Hold in-depth brainstorming sessions on a specific project issue

If you hold formal meetings with teams, allow a different employee to chair each meeting

Teams are more motivated if also allowed to follow up on their ideas

Project managers struggle with seeing clearly and quickly what their team is doing at any given point in the project schedule

Project managers can also struggle with finding a quick and painless way to do something about problems that they discover.

Technical and functional expertise:

To complete the task at hand ensure the team make up is suitable. E.g., a group with only marketing experts is less likely to succeed than a group comprised of operational experts and team members experienced in project design or execution.

Problem solving and decision-making skills:

Teams must be able to make decisions and identify the onset of a problem or opportunity, evaluate the opportunity and decide on an appropriate course of action

Team members usually possess some level of these skills and develop them more on the job.

Interpersonal skills:

Skills which enable effective communication and management of any conflict arising will enable the team to develop common understandings of purpose and function. This could include risk taking, helpful criticism, objectivity, active listening, giving the benefit of the doubt, support and or recognising the needs of others.

The challenge for any team though is to strike the right balance between selection based on existing skills and those, which might be developed as a result of team membership.

Commit to a common purpose and performance goals:

A team’s purpose and its performance are closely related. Without a common purpose a team will quickly break apart and operate as a collective of individuals or smaller teams.

Check for these:

Is your team small or large?

Can you convene easily and frequently?

Can you communicate with all members easily and frequently?

Are your discussions open and interactive for all members?

Does each member understand the issues you are addressing?

Do you need more people to get information?

Are sub teams possible or necessary?

Now that you have a complete list of tasks with resources assigned, you are ready to finalise your project.

At this point, you will want to check your project finish date to determine whether it is acceptable.

As a project manager, you may need to reduce a project's total duration at some point

The idea being to get the job done in an acceptable time frame

To adjust the total project duration you will need to identify which project tasks affect the project end date and adjust your critical path schedule.

Print a project summary report:

This will assist those who may need a summarised breakdown of the project to issue appropriate approvals

Produce a baseline plan for your project

Generate and print a cost table or a cost report to distribute to those who are reviewing the project for approvals.

Distribute the project plan to the Project Sponsor and other appropriate stakeholders:

Distribute this in report form:

Schedule a meeting with project sponsor and other relevant stakeholders to review the project plan deliverables

Make any changes from the formal review and finalise the project plan deliverable

Ask the project sponsor to acknowledge if the project will proceed

Obtain signatures from the Project Sponsor and any other designated stakeholder.

3.1 Take action to ensure project team members are clear about their responsibilities and the project requirements

3.2 Provide support for project team members, especially with regard to specific needs, to ensure that the quality of the expected outcomes of the project and documented time lines are met

3.3 Establish and maintain required record-keeping systems throughout the project

3.4 Implement and monitor plans for managing project finances, resources and quality

3.5 Complete and forward project reports as required to stakeholders

3.6 Undertake risk management as required to ensure project outcomes are met

3.7 Achieve project deliverables

Support for project team members may include:

Additional physical, human and technical resources (within allocated budget) if and as required

Encouragement

Feedback

Learning and development

Regular project team meetings

Supervision, mentoring and coaching.

Allocating tasks, prioritising and monitoring resources in accordance with project requirements are all part of project management and best suited in terms of management within a software program such as project manager.

Allocating tasks

The project team is ready, it is now time to allocate tasks.

A project manager can be appointed at any stage of the project but preferably prior to the establishment of the team.

The project manager should document a detailed role or job description for each project task and then appoint a person or persons to fulfil those tasks / roles.

These can also include appointments based on the person’s skills and experience not just seniority or employee status.

Allocating the resources required to meet the tasks:

Although general groups of resources may have already been allocated to the project, a detailed resource assessment is required to identify the:

Types of resources, e.g., labour, equipment and materials

Total quantities of each resource type

Roles, responsibilities and skill-sets of all human resources

Items, purposes and specifications of all resources

Items and quantities of materials and resources.

Assisting to identify team skills and skills gaps:

Basic / fundamental Skills: such as literacy, numeracy, using technology

People-related skills: such as communication, interpersonal, teamwork

Conceptual/thinking skills: such as collecting and organising information, problem solving, planning and organising, learning-to-learn skills, thinking innovatively and creatively, systems thinking

Personal skills and attributes: such as being responsible, resourceful and flexible, being able to manage one’s own time, having self-esteem.

Take action to ensure project team members are clear about their responsibilities

Project roles and responsibilities:

It is important to understand who the major players are on the project. List the major project roles, responsibilities and the actual people involved. Add in any additional roles as required.

Examples only

List for as many team members are required:

You will further clarify the ‘linkage’ of the responsibilities that you list against each team member. Examples may include:

Provide support for project team members, especially with regard to specific needs

Examples only:

Additional physical, human and technical resources (within allocated budget) if and as required

Encouragement

Feedback

Learning and development

Regular project team meetings

Supervision, mentoring and coaching.

Ineffective patterns that can frequently develop in the team:

Conflicts

Missed deadlines due to lack of communication

Individual interpersonal conflicts

"Them" and "us" attitudes between portions of the team

Department or divisions in the workplace

Conflict between the team and others outside the team, including management.

The solution to this dysfunction generally involves the coaching of two or more individuals and then as a group.

Required record keeping systems may include systems for:

Correspondence

Financial data including costs, expenditure, income generated, purchases

Project outcomes

Quality data including any test results

Recording of time spent on project and progress in completing project

Samples, prototypes, models.

There are many different ways to maintain records for your projects:

Using Microsoft Project, for example, would be a simple record of data within the software

Conversely, recording data on Excel spread sheets will provide accessible records.

Project progress report

To generate a project status report for a project, the project manager needs to produce or format a report or use Project or other software showing:

Milestones in the last period, and if they are completed

Milestones due next period

Action items not completed by their due date

Action items due to be completed in the next period

Any commentary prepared by the project manager.

The report can be e-mailed directly to a set distribution list (using Microsoft Outlook). The period can be set by the project manager.

The value of the report:

The value comes from ensuring that at least once a reporting period has been established, the team is encouraged to review due and outstanding items in accordance with those schedules.

Usually this will encourage teams to focus on completing actions and milestones so they do not appear in the report as incomplete. This function acts as a project status report template or a piece of period status reporting software.

Basic project records would include:

Team personnel involved in planning and executing the project

Minutes of meetings and discussions held for planning

Project scope, objectives and relevant statement of the goals of the project and the likely contingency plans

Work record plan showing dates, times and work done

Critical path schedule showing a chronological diary that maps out the progress of the project and shows milestones

All communications via emails and letters relating to the project

Financial budget, summary and associated documentation like goods and services for the project

Lists of specifications, requirements and important features or functions

Drawings or references to drawing numbers or computer generated work

Invoices or purchase orders for all materials relating to the project

Any other record or reference to a computer file or website location

Where are the records kept?

Virtually all electronic accounting systems will produce a report for most of the required information detailed above.

As well, specialist systems like Microsoft Project and similar, will have software for both producing and keeping project records in a personalised design manner.

Another feature of using Project management software is the ease of which additional information in record form can be added at any time, even remotely.

Examples:

Prepared by:

Project Status Report Version Control

Milestone Deliverables performance reporting over last period

Milestone Deliverables scheduled for completion over next period

Project budget / financial status

Project Risk Management Status

Project Issue Management Status

Project Recommendations

Resources may include:

Human

Physical

Technical.

Project financial management is a process which requires:

Planning

Budgeting

Accounting

Financial reporting

Internal control

Auditing

Procurement of goods and services

Disbursement of payments

Achieving the project’s financial objectives.

Like all processes, financial management relies upon management:

Financial management should not be confused with accountancy, which is simply the process of recording the transactions of a business or a project in this case and culminates in the production of the financial statements of the project

Financial management is, as are most forms of management, a dynamic and challenging sector, requiring high levels of business acumen and vision

Cost control as the term implies, requires measurement and analysis of all levels of the project finances, resources (human, physical and technical) and expenditure to ensure that such expenses are incurred at an optimum level to meet the project budget.

As the project manager, you will generally spend much of your time communicating:

You deliver information upward and downward, internally and externally as the various sessions so far have addressed

Daily, you make and receive numerous reports, e-mail messages, phone calls, and other messages to keep your team and your customers up to date about the status of your project.

Basic project records would include:

Team personnel involved in planning and executing the project

Minutes of meetings and discussions held for planning

Project scope, objectives and relevant statement of the goals of the project and the likely contingency plans

Work record plan showing dates, times and work done

Critical path schedule showing a chronological diary that maps out the progress of the project and shows milestones

All communications via emails and letters relating to the project

Financial budget, summary and associated documentation like goods and services for the project

Lists of specifications, requirements and important features or functions

Drawings or references to drawing numbers or computer generated work

Invoices or purchase orders for all materials relating to the project

Any other record or reference to a computer file or website location

Strong communication skills are critical to keeping your team and stakeholders informed, supportive, and enthusiastic:

Have a communications plan in place that outlines reports as required to stakeholders and keeps your project on track and helps avoid confusion.

Identify the different groups with whom you will communicate

Identify:

The frequency of your reports

The details stakeholders actually need as opposed to general and non-essential reporting

The methods you will use to deliver reports

Set up a central network for stakeholders to access online or through an intranet

Create secure storage of all project reporting information.

Reporting formats:

Create templates for presentation, status, meeting minutes, and other important documents

Make sure these follow company-wide standards for all stakeholders.

Provide these to stakeholders as required:

A shared project calendar

Collaboration software

Access to intranet web sites

Access to project databases.

Set up standard procedures:

Set up procedures for communicating with your project team and stakeholders

Create an approval chain for announcements that go outside of the project team

Advise all team members to organise all project-related e-mail messages so that they are easy to locate and refer to throughout the project.

Team members can either file messages in electronic folders or print hard copies.

Prepare for the unexpected:

Consider setting up a project reporting ‘online’ hotline that team members and stakeholders can access when instant communication is required.

Often during the life of the project you might deliver a message that requires immediate feedback. Yet the recipient might be unavailable.

Ask stakeholders to name substitutes who you can contact during those times or when they are unavailable on holiday, at business trips, or unplanned absences

Be flexible:

As the project moves forward, your communication requirements might change.

You may find that some stakeholders need more (or less) project reporting style information

Keep your communication plan flexible enough that you can make changes as required

Do stakeholders want lots of detail or only a pre-determined level summary?

Do stakeholders need a full presentation or additional fact sheets?

Do you know if the stakeholders read e-mail thoroughly or need further personal face-to-face advice on the project?

You will also need to prepare for unplanned communications:

Design the best approach to such messages in accordance to your stakeholders needs

Sometimes an urgent e-mail message to a busy stakeholder might go unread for several days, so a phone call or other form of contact might be more effective

Your communication is more effective when you are aware of the stakeholders different requirements and movements.

Language and global advice:

Outsourcing and new technologies have made global project teams more common place

This can create language barriers and cultural differences between key stakeholders and teams

Be careful when reporting to stakeholders in different countries to avoid misunderstandings

Avoid ‘localised’ slang or references to a specific cultures in your messages

Avoid humour as it can be easily misunderstood across certain cultures.

Keep the quality of your reporting high:

Maintain a consistent level of high quality reporting to sponsors, steering committee members, and stakeholders

Every project team has people with different levels of written and oral communication skills

As project manager, you need to review and approve all reports, presentations, and other formal communications before they are delivered to stakeholders.

Share the load:

Project communication can provide the chance for teams at different levels and functionality to be more involved by having them write some of the reports, memos, or other project status reports

This shares you project management workload and gives team members visibility to stakeholders.

Bring it all together:

Clear and accurate communications are a vital part of any successful project and the planning and process you put in place will benefit both the quality and relevancy of reporting that you deliver to stakeholders.

Discuss in the class the following communication points using an example project from the workplace, or a hypothetical example from the instructor.

Risk management may include:

Changing roles and responsibilities within project team

Negotiating an extension of deadline, or redefining completion or quantities or quality of outcomes

Outsourcing some aspects of the project

Reducing costs

Researching and applying more efficient methods for completing project tasks

Seeking further resources to meet deadline

Sharing of ideas to gain improvements to work undertaken within the project.

Rick management control:

Risk is something that is intangible. You can’t see it or touch it, but you can certainly tell when it has occurred.

Likelihood and consequence:

Risk management has two important elements: Likelihood and Consequence.

In a mathematical sense, risk is most commonly represented as the product of these two.

Risk = likelihood x consequence

Likelihood:

Likelihood represents the chance that something will happen. This can be represented qualitatively as a word, quantitatively as a probability or frequency, or as both.

Consequence:

Consequence represents the impact that a risk may have and is measured in degrees of severity, should the risk occur.

A consequence may be financial loss or gain, legal problems or opportunities, delays in a project, personal injury or damage.

Examples

Undertake risk management as required:

1. Establish the context of the risk potential in your project

2. Identify those risks

3. Evaluate those risks

4. Analyse those risks

5. Treat those risks to ensure project outcomes are met.

Establishing the context

This requires careful consideration of what exactly is the risk?

This involves setting the parameters of the risk assessment. If not done correctly by you or whoever is designated to handle the risk assessment it can waste a lot of time or duplicate areas that have already been covered.

Don’t waste time and resources on an ill-focussed exercise:

Establishing the context of risk in a project example could likely involves three parts:

1. External/strategic context

2. Internal/organisational context

3. Risk management context.

External / strategic context:

Ensure you fully understand the legal, financial, political, and environmental safety and any other related contexts that your project exists within.

When making risk assessments there are always current Standards and other state and federal regulations that apply.

Check if there have there been any recent changes in the laws that relate to risk management, WHS legislation or compliance

Is there any commercial ‘risk’ involved in your assessment that may be better addressed in insurance or self management rather than risk in the traditional sense?

It is also useful to discuss community expectations regarding the risks you are considering to assess and ensure you are very clear on who the stakeholders are.

Sometimes a SWOT analysis can also help with establishing the external context before assessing major strategic risks.

Internal / organisation context:

The internal organisational context is more about the goals and objectives of the project and its focus for the risk involved in those undertakings present in the organisation

The reason for defining this to identify threats and opportunities to achieving objectives

It is also important to clarify the organisational structure involved with various job roles in the project that could potentially be affected by the risk assessment. If it is unclear as to who is responsible for different parts of the organisation, then this ambiguity will also create problems when attempting to assign responsibility for the management of risks at project level

Earlier it has been discussed as the need to clearly define who is responsible for different parts of the project scope

Risk assessments may uncover problems with attempting to assign or re-assign responsibility for the various sectors of the project.

Some consideration should be made in your assessment of risk within the organisation to the culture and attitude toward risk.

Is the organisation’s culture leaning towards being risk takers or risk averse?

Is the project ‘profit’ or ‘financially’ driven to the detriment of overlooking risk?

Is the organisation prepared to provide suitable and adequate resources for the risk assessment?

How long will the organisation be prepared to spend in terms of time to make all necessary risk assessments?

You may need to conduct a workshop with all stakeholders to ensure that you will have all the resources necessary and to draw information from existing sources.

Risk management context

The risk management context involves defining which risk categories apply to the risk assessment

There will not only be safety risks but other forms of operational risk and organisation risk as we have discussed

It is possible to conduct a higher level strategic risk assessment as opposed to just focussing on a project or part of a project, so the context can be different

These risk categories need to documented and then customised so they are meaningful to your particular project.

Consideration should also be given as to how risk will be analysed:

What constitutes a high, medium, low and negligible risk?

What will you do when you identify a high risk?

Who will it be reported to?

What level of risk is unacceptable?

The best way is to develop a risk register:

This is a table format on a spread sheet or a software risk assessment application that contains descriptions on the risk, its causes, impacts, controls, analysis, who is going to undertake the controls and by when

The risk assessor or the project manager if they are different also needs to identify how the risk assessment information shall be kept and circulated

Often it is best kept in a spread sheet, database or increasingly in risk assessment software.

Identifying risks

This is the most important phase of risk management:

If you have not identified the risk, then you cannot assess it and you most certainly cannot effectively control it

This is the phase where you may draw on historical data and the experience of ‘project’ experts in your organisation, (or from outside), to identify risks, causes, effects and controls.

The reason for identifying causes, impacts and current controls in risk identification is when analysing the risk later, each risk should be measured in terms of inherent risk (in its current state with controls), and residual risk (after new controls are put in place).

If there are no changes in the level of risk after new controls are implemented, then the new controls should not be undertaken.

Analysing risks:

Before analysing risks it is important to document any assumptions that relate to each risk.

For example:

Is the analysis focussed on the most foreseeable risks and/or worst case scenarios?

The likelihood of the most foreseeable risks will be higher than the worst case scenario.

Conversely, the worst case scenario should, in theory, have a very low likelihood and a much higher consequence. They will therefore sit in different locations on the risk matrix and may result in being of different priorities.

Analysing risk involves identifying the likelihood and consequence of each risk given its current causes, impacts and controls.

For this activity, it is useful to do this in a project team environment, rather than by a single individual.

Discussion by all team members and stakeholders should be encouraged to ensure any relevant information regarding each risk is shared

It is also useful to have someone with strong facilitation skills to Chair the session

If not, it is easy for these sessions to deteriorate into a ‘talk fest’, with risks being assessed according to the views of the person who speaks loudest.

Evaluating risks

Once the risk analysis is complete, each risk will be given a corresponding risk value. This value will have been calculated using the definitions that were set when establishing the risk management context.

Another method of evaluating risk in table or graph format involves assigning a score to each category:

Through multiplying likelihood and consequence, the resultant risk score allows for representing each risk as a number

The larger the risk number, the higher the assumed level of risk.

Whatever method you may use should be established in advance during the risk management context phase or workshop session with teams and stakeholders.

Risk matrix example:

Depending upon the level of risk and evaluation, one of four treatment strategies may suit your project assessment.

1. Terminate – do not undertake the activity or part that has been risk assessed

2. Transfer – pass risk on to others through contracts, insurance outsourcing etc

3. Treat–reduce either the likelihood and/or consequence

4. Tolerate – monitor the risk for changes but implement no additional control measures.

Deliverables:

A deliverable is a tangible and measurable result, outcome, or item that must be produced to complete a project or part of a project

Typically, the project team and project stakeholders agree on project deliverables before the project begins

Management of deliverables, like most project requirements, are best recorded and documented for reporting purposes in your software program such as project manager.

How to achieve the numerous project deliverables:

Many tasks occur concurrently and repeatedly and continue almost the entire duration of the project

Be clear on your project objectives

As discussed elsewhere; be fully aware of the purpose of the project and what the project will achieve

The project is considered to be successful if the project objectives are met successfully

The ultimate deliverable is the completion of the project.

All projects produce deliverables:

When you have completed creating your objectives and deliverables, go back and make sure that they are in alignment and match the scope and other ground rules you have laid.

You shouldn’t have any objectives that are not aligned to one or more deliverables:

If you don’t include deliverables in your project scope it is unlikely you will achieve the project objectives

Be careful not to build deliverables into your scope that will not help you achieve your objectives

If you have a deliverable without an objective, then you need to ask whether the deliverable is really important to your project. If it isn’t, then remove it from the project.

Assign each deliverable:

Assign each deliverable to a separate phase of the project, and use a milestone that represents the completion of both the deliverable and the phase simultaneously.

For example, a project may have clearly definable sections, so list the deliverables in ‘phases’.

Group similar deliverables:

It can also be more efficient to group similar deliverables or deliverables with the same stakeholders in a phase

This method allows you to schedule a team to work on a project until the deliverable is handed off

Then the team can move on to other projects.

Group deliverables spanning a time period:

Group deliverables that are worked on during the same time period in phases spanning that time period

This is useful for projects where trade-offs can be made in the scope and quality of the deliverable to meet a fixed finish date

There may be phases for each month leading up to the finish date containing the tasks that must be started or completed during that month

Tasks that are not finished by the end of the phase are often completed separately after the team has moved on to the next phase.

Documentation of project deliverables

Using project manager you can create a report on a timeline created to indicate milestones, or, as below, create a simple excel spreadsheet format.

4.1 Complete financial record keeping associated with project and check for accuracy

4.2 Ensure transition of staff involved in project to new roles or reassignment to previous roles

4.3 Complete project documentation and obtain necessary sign-offs for concluding project

Finalise a project:

A project plan is generally deemed finalised when it is formally accepted and approved by the project sponsor and other designated stakeholders

Formal approval acknowledges that all the deliverables produced during the various stages are complete, reviewed and accepted

Signatures on the project plan document indicate final approval

This sign-off marks the plan as the go-forward agreement and can be viewed as a project management milestone.

Key project area

Complete financial record keeping associated with project and check for accuracy:

Assigning staff:

Each new project starts with a default set of roles

They may be the most basic roles that you can assign to staff but each one has a specific purpose.

The basic roles should be created with each new project or, as suggested, reassigned.

First:

1. Choose the project which you will assign roles for.

Second:

2. Select the staff member(s) to whom you will assign the role(s).

Once you have selected the task and staff member re-check the list of the roles for the project, and check any roles for re-assignment or adjustment.

Document the process using a Project software program or manually, as in this example:

Necessary sign-offs may be required by:

Clients

Funding body

Management

Project sponsor.

Project information:

Project completion report

5.1 Review project outcomes and processes against the project scope and plan

5.2 Involve team members in the project review

5.3 Document lessons learned from the project and report within the organisation

Why conduct project reviews and evaluations?

Monitoring versus evaluation

Post-project evaluation

Pre-project evaluation

Ongoing project evaluation

Project completion evaluation

Lessons learned.

Reviewing project outcomes and processes against the project scope and plan provides an opportunity in a formal environment to learn from those experiences.

If you design the review process as a sequence of activities it will result in a conscious and planned attempt to prevent the next project from having to repeat any negative areas uncovered or, adopt the positive ones for future projects.

A review should be conducted for all projects, not just the ones considered complex or with many stakeholders. Often the simple ones will contain both negative and positive features that can be used and are sometimes overlooked because the detail of the project appears too simple.

Projects have to be aligned with the agreed strategic plan. The review process provides this platform.

Review:

Regardless of the size or complexity of the project, a measurement of the project's success against well-defined criteria is necessary. Establishing the criteria helps with the measurements taken during the project and after the project has finished.

These measurements, which have been detailed in the previous session, include determining whether key performance milestones have been met, how well managed the project was, and whether the specified project outputs were achieved and delivered.

Simple steps to take for a post project review:

Create an agenda

Select participants

Prepare for a workshop environment (participation is the key)

Conduct the workshop/review

Present the results

Adopt recommendations.

At least one person should be selected from each stakeholder area or the person themselves need to be included.

The final selection if some people are unavailable should always include those who have a strong knowledge of the processes that were undertaken in the project

The best candidates are team leaders

The success of the project review will benefit from the involvement of as many project participants as possible to evaluate the success and document the lessons learnt

The evaluation criteria developed before the start of the project should be used as a baseline when reviewing the project.

Review against the project scope and plan:

Each participant should be asked to respond to a set of topics that they can be advised of prior to the workshop / meeting.

That way there are no surprises

The subsequent responses should focus on what went right, what went wrong, and what can be improved

After the project outputs have been delivered, a review of the project is needed to assess if the desired outcomes were attained.

The project plan should include a section for conducting this review.

General review categories

Examples only – each project review will have its featured and priority areas:

Some of those categories, and others, may need an expanded review including:

Formal governance and are there any changes needed to the approval process

Was the project team fully accountable for the project results?

Is there a requirement for additional training in project management as a result of this project?

Were the areas of measurement and feedback systems adequate?

Was there regular communication with all stakeholders?

Did the records clearly list tracking of people, skills and time?

Did the use of software, systems, applications used for the project management tools perform adequately?

Is there a need for more improved or different software?

Did the software allow for reporting and formal documentation?

Were the organisation’s resources supporting the project effectiveness and efficiency adequate?

Practical aspects:

A workshop should be conducted as a working meeting

Ideally, the agenda should be covered in a half day time frame. If more time is needed because of a complex project, schedule another meeting a few days later

Each stakeholder should present responses to the topics that were previously distributed.

Set a time limit for each person

Although the workshop/meeting must encourage full participation from all attendees, a time limit is necessary or otherwise those with the personality to stand and talk endlessly will overrun your agenda.

As mentioned earlier, create two lists:

“What went right” – things that you want to carry forward to future projects.

“What went wrong” – encourage specifics.

Focus on the top 5 to 10 problems

Every attempt should be made to obtain the full support of the project’s leadership in implementing the any recommendations to the organisation as quickly as possible.

Document lessons learnt:

Complete a post-project review report either within the software of the project management system you are using or have someone document this separately

The real benefit of the documented report will be the lessons learned and circulated within the organisation for the attention of stakeholders and teams in future projects

As part of the next project evaluation and scoping all reports generated at this review meeting should be mandatory reading for any new projects

A project review concept has great value to an organisation and ultimately to the acceptance of the organisations ability by its clients.

Nearly there...

At the end of your Learner Workbook, you will find an activity titled ‘Major Activity’. This is an opportunity to revise the entire unit and allows your trainer to check your knowledge and understanding of what you have covered. It should take between and 1-2 hours to complete and your trainer will let you know whether they wish for you to complete it in your own time or during session. Once this is completed, you will have finished this unit and be ready to move onto the next, well done!

Congratulations!

You have now finished the unit ‘Undertake project work’

These suggested references are for further reading and do not necessarily represent the contents of this learners guide

· Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling [Hardcover]

Harold Kerzner (Author)

· Project Management

(David L. Cleland and Lewis R. Ireland )

· Radical Project Management [Paperback]

Rob Thomsett (Author)

· The Art of Project Management (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly)) [Paperback]

Scott Berkun (Author)

· Brilliant Project Management: (Revised Edition)

Stephen Barker, Rob Cole