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ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved 1
The Best of Project Control
A selection of professional insights from the Blog archive
ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved 2
Since 2008 our project management professionals have been sharing knowledge,
experience and learning with online readers via the Project Manager Blog.
Their collective wisdom provides a wealth of how to, top tips and best practice advice,
for project managers, teams and businesses.
To make their writings more accessible we’ve created a series of “Best of” project
management topics available free to download and share.
Here is a collection of excerpts and insights from blog posts that discuss ways to
effectively monitor and control projects and if need be rein things in when projects or
people get out of control.
Enjoy!
Jason Westland CEO
ProjectManager.com
A Project Plan Tool to Monitor Schedule Performance .............................................................................. 3
How to Control Scope.................................................................................................................................. 5
What is Project Management Without Control? ........................................................................................ 6
Project Management Tools to Gain Control of your Projects ..................................................................... 8
5 Things You Need to Monitor During Projects ........................................................................................ 11
Keeping Projects Under Budget ................................................................................................................ 11
Projects: How to Track and Manage Them ............................................................................................... 11
30 Day Free Software Trial ........................................................................................................................ 12
ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved 3
A Project Plan Tool to Monitor Schedule Performance
There is a project plan tool you can use that can help prevent a project from slipping
into a coma. This project tool is called a Milestone Report. The Milestone Report does
just that, it reports out on milestones that have been reached, are about to be reached,
or may even be running behind on a project. There are a number of useful applications
of this project plan tool:
Identify Resource Constraints: A common theme
you hear across most companies is that there are
not enough people to get the work done. It’s almost
as if everyone has gone to the same class
somewhere where they learned to say “we can’t do
this because we don’t have enough people” as the
first words out of their mouths. Sometimes this may
be the case.
Often it is not quite true. People may feel as if they
don’t have enough time to get the work done, but
with a bit of focus and careful planning they can pull
it off. One of the benefits of the Milestone report is that it can objectively identify
those legitimate circumstances where a resource or team is so taxed that they really
can’t get everything done that needs to be accomplished.
Identify Problems with Project Coordination: A second benefit of using the
Milestone report as a project planning tool is that it can help identify problems with
project coordination. What can occur on most projects is that a key deliverable may
be finished. But, it stalls out because the next team was not aware that it was ready.
This can cause a delay of hours, days, and sometimes weeks as something sits on the
shelf waiting to be worked on. The milestone report can eliminate this from
happening as everyone will know the exact date that a key deliverable will be
complete.
Uncover Cost and Budget Issues Early On: A budget can quickly be blown if the
project manager does not stay on top of the expenditure details. A few modifications
to this report will enable everyone to know whether project expenses are on track or
if they need to be reined in a bit.
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Defining Milestones with this Project Plan Tool
The first thing you need to do in putting together the Milestone report is define what
you consider to be a milestone. A rule of thumb is that the higher up the executive
ladder this report is being used, the higher the level of milestones that have been
reached. For example, milestones that could be reported out at an executive level could
be Phase based. These would be the major phases such as Initiation, Planning,
Execution, Control, etc. If there are no problems with the project, all an executive really
needs to know is which phases are done, what percentage is complete in the current
phase, and when is that expected to be complete.
You may want to make your milestones a bit more granular if the Milestone report is
being utilized by middle management or team members. The milestone they may be
concerned about is whether or not a certain document has been complete (such as a
Business Requirements document) or if QA has finished the first cycle of testing.
Just make sure that whatever you come up with as a milestone is as tangible as
possible, simple to track, and easy for people to understand.
How Does this Project Plan Tool Look?
There are myriad variations of this project planning tool. Below is one implementation
of this tool you may consider. Down the left side of the report you will include the
milestones you have defined as important. This is why it is important to think through
your definition of a milestone. It is these milestones that you are going to track your
project against. Across the top of the report and for each milestone, you will then
include:
Brief Description (if necessary): Ideally, the title of the deliverable you have chosen
should be sufficient in describing this particular item or task. If not, you can include a
brief sentence or two describing the activity. This will be helpful if there are a
number of people that come and go on the project.
Who is Responsible: This is the “throat to choke” column. While not a particular fan
of that expression, it does have some meaning in the context of this project planning
tool. This is the person who is ultimately responsible for that milestone to be met. If
it’s an entire Phase of a project that is being reported on then it may be a functional
manager. If it’s a document, test plan, or coding that needs to be complete then it
can be the resource themselves. This is the person that can answer any questions
ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved 5
about that particular deliverable or will have more details as to why it may be
running behind.
Planned Start Date: Include the original date this task, deliverable, phase, or
milestone was to begin. This can be pulled directly from the original project plan.
This original date serves as a benchmark to compare the other dates against.
Actual Start Date: This field reports on when the task or milestone actually began.
This does not need to be taken as a negative or assumed that it’s always going to be
late. It could be that this particular item began before the planned start date. That’s
good news that the rest of the team will want to know about as this affects when
they will be able to start working on the deliverable themselves.
Planned Finish Date: This can be updated from the original project plan as well. This
will reflect on when that particular phase, deliverable, or milestone was originally
thought to be complete.
Actual Finish Date: This is the date that the milestone was met. This is important to
know as it affects the start date of any activities that were linked to this particular
deliverable.
Notes: It’s always good to have a column for Notes to shed any further color on the
situation, provide insight into the budget, or other relevant information that will help
the recipient of the report.
Something else you may want to include in this project plan tool is projected start and
finish dates. These would be your best estimates of when a deliverable that may be
either ahead of or behind schedule could begin or end. You can use the Milestone
report as a project plan tool to monitor the health of your project schedule. By keeping
up with the dates in such a way you’ll be able to keep your project out of Intensive Care
and well on its way to a complete recovery!
How to Control Scope
There are 3 basic elements that you need to know about controlling project scope.
Learn about them here http://youtu.be/DuthRT6j6i4
This first one is making sure that you know the scope.
The second one is in training your team in how to identify and manage those scope
changes.
Lastly, it’s all about communications.
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What is Project Management Without Control?
There are a number of reasons why perfectly good projects will suddenly take a turn for
the worse and careen out of control. The following are a couple of these reasons:
The Project Plan Was Not Fully Baked –
Everyone is so eager to get started on a
new project that they run full speed
ahead without pausing to reflect on what
it will truly take to get this project done.
People feel a couple of whiteboard
sessions with some workflows and
diagrams sketched out are enough to
answer the question of what is project management and enough to get started. It
doesn’t take too long to realize there was an entire set of functionality that was
missing, or requirements that were overlooked, or technology not clearly understood
that begins to raise its ugly head on a project that is about to take a turn for the
worse.
Strong Personalities and Hidden Agendas – What is project management without a
bit of controversy and drama? A project may come onto your radar as a project
manager with one set of objectives. It may be to introduce a new product line to the
company or expand into a previously untapped market. These are noble and
reasonable objectives and goals. The next thing you know, an astute, strong willed
executive gets wind that this project is underway and uses it to his advantage. He
uses this project as an opportunity to highlight some of the flaws and shortcomings
of some of the departments that have not been cooperating with him recently. Next
minute, this project is revised and warped enough that it no longer holds true to its
original purpose, but rather to further the career of someone with a strong
personality.
Scope Creep – Ah, the nemesis of any project manager. There’s an expression that
no good deed goes unpunished and scope creep is the epitome of where that
punishment is delivered. A client may wonder what project management without
some sort of flexibility is. They ask for a little bit extra here, a small feature request
over there, and a bit of an accelerated time line to top it all off. You want to keep
them happy, but the moment you say “yes” to any of the above requests without
proper change control documents in place, you own the problems that ensue. Your
ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved 7
project will now be careening out of control as clients forget the favor you attempted
to do for them by bending the rules a bit and only focus on what has not been
delivered. The result? A project that is out of control.
You Are Spread Too Thin – A final reason projects can get out of control is because
you are spread too thin as a project manager. When you started with the company
you had 3 good sized projects to manage. This kept you comfortably busy and
pushed the performance envelope for you. But, what is project management without
adding more responsibility to a person that is already busy? The next thing you know
you have 5 projects, then 7, and then 9 projects to manage! You were comfortably
busy managing 3 projects, but 9 are way too many and projects begin to lose control!
How to Keep Projects Under
Control
It can be hard to regain control of a project once
it is officially out of control. It’s like the snowball
that is rolling downhill and getting larger and
larger with every revolution it takes. The
following 4 steps will help you get back in the
driver’s seat and get control of your project
again.
Confirm – You need to take the time to pause
and reflect with the resources that are
responsible for executing on the project plan that they are clear with what needs to
be accomplished. This is an interim check that needs to occur on a frequent basis.
You should not assume that everything is on track as a project manager without
making sure that everyone understands what is expected of them and confirms they
understand their role.
Assess – The second step falls into the category of “trust but verify”. What is project
management without a bit of skepticism? You can take a resource at face value, but
it is your responsibility to verify that what they are saying is indeed the case. It isn’t a
matter of not trusting your team; it’s more a matter of making sure your definitions
are exactly the same. For example, they may consider a task to be “complete” once
they have finished what their job is on that particular deliverable. Your definition of
“complete”, however, is that it has passed the necessary quality checks to certify it is
ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved 8
ready to go. Misaligned interpretations of the definition of “complete” are the
beginnings of a project that can quickly get out of control.
Modify – The next step you need to do to get a project back under control is to
modify tasks and activities in order to get a project back to where it needs to be.
Confirm that your project team knows what they are responsible for, and then verify
that the project is in good shape. If you determine that it is on the path of getting out
of control, then you need to modify your project plan to get things back on track.
This may mean that you need to add more resources or cut some areas of
functionality in order to get the project back under control.
Inform – It is your responsibility as a project manager to inform project stakeholders
of any modifications that you have made in the previous step. This is especially
important with project sponsors and executives who are counting on the results of
the project to be delivered. Can projects get out of control? Absolutely! There are a
number of factors that lend themselves to projects getting out of control. It’s your
job as a project manager to take the necessary steps to get your project back on
track and keep the importance of project management at the top of everyone’s
mind!
Project Management Tools to Gain Control of your Projects
Many different types of energy exist throughout nature. Two particular types include
Kinetic Energy and Stored Energy.
Kinetic Energy is the ability to move. Kinetic Energy is the energy of motion and
allows for the ability to do work.
Potential Energy, on the other hand, is the same as stored energy. This is when an
object has the potential for creating energy but it has not been released yet.
An example that is frequently used to show the difference between the two – and their
inherent relationship – is that of a roller-coaster. The higher the roller coaster goes up
the track, the more potential it has for releasing energy. Once it has reached the top of
the hill and paused for a second, it then has the greatest potential to release that
energy. As soon as the coaster goes down the track the energy is released in the form of
Kinetic energy, or the energy of motion.
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Kinetic vs. Potential Project Managers
Early on in a project manager’s career, they are focused on a whole lot of motion. They
have two speeds…fast and faster. These project managers are running from meeting to
meeting, providing updates, completing status reports, updating risks, working with
project management tools and keeping up with every incessant detail about the projects
they are managing.
This is exactly what needs to happen in the early days of a project manager’s career, as
it sets a great foundation for the future. The problem is that you can’t (and probably
shouldn’t) keep up with this frenzied and frenetic pace your entire career. Not only will
this wear you out, but you’ll also look funny doing it. This is where you change gears
from kinetic energy to potential energy.
Based upon the experience acquired in your kinetic younger years, you now carry with
you much wisdom, insight, and judgment. You have moved from the role of being a
kinetic doer to being a leader with a whole LOT of potential energy to get things done –
with or without project management tools. Let’s look at some of the project
management tools that project managers will use during different parts of their careers.
Project Management Tools of the Kinetic Project Manager
The following are some of the tools that a newer project manager would have at their
disposal.
Software – This could be existing software that a company already has in place or it
may be one of the initiatives of a project manager that is new to an organization to
implement a new project management software program. This tangible project
management tool makes sure that everything is running smoothly and according to
plan.
Reports – Project Managers early on in their careers love generating lots of reports.
They have a report for everything, as they should. They get dig into the details of
numbers, open cases, quality scores, and anything and everything that any
stakeholder at anytime would want to know about a particular project.
Meetings – Regularly scheduled status meetings are one of the project management
tools that are a mainstay of a project manager early on in their career. This provides
the opportunity to make sure everyone is up to speed with the reports that have
been generated from the software about the projects that are being managed.
ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved 10
Lots of Paperwork and Copies – What’s a meeting without tons of handouts? Project
Managers early on in their career will make sure that everyone has every scrap of
paper that will be necessary for them to know where a project stands and help them
make the right decisions on moving the project forward.
Long Presentations – Early on in a project
managers career they will have a tendency to
create long and detailed presentations. They
are convinced that everyone loves the details
as much as they do and they want to share this
with everyone at any and every opportunity
they get.
Education – Anything related to education at
this point is primarily centered on learning and
taking away nuggets of wisdom to help them do their job better.
It is with this flurry of kinetic activity that a newer project manager will be rightly
engaged.
Project Management Tools of the Potential Project Manager
After many years, this kinetic energy can now be converted into potential energy. They
(the Project Managers) are not going to be running around like crazy all day. However,
when you really need to get a problem solved you can tap into their potential energy to
release a flood of kinetic energy. The project management tools that a project manager
uses at this point are very different.
Influence – This is when you can bring in the big guns i.e. when there are problems
on a project. Once a project manager has made it to this point in their career, it is
sometimes just a single request or word that will help resolve a problem that has
plagued a less experienced project manager for days or weeks. An experienced
project manager will bring with them a cache of experience, battle scars and pain
that they can reflect upon. Over the years they have done countless favors for others
and can reasonably and justifiably call those favors in when they need to get the job
done.
Big Picture Thinking – At this stage of a project manager’s career they are not
encumbered with the details. They look at the big picture. They look at trends. They
ProjectManager.com © 2013 All Rights Reserved 11
look at “it’s good enough” in order to move on with the work at hand. They focus on
those things that really matter and let others worry about those things that don’t
matter one bit.
Meaningful Escalations – This quality ties into the project management tool of
having influence above. If something does come to a grinding halt in one area, it
takes one phone call or one email to move mountains. It goes something like this…”I
know you told this person that it would take 2 weeks to finish this, but you and I both
know that the actual time to get it done is just a matter of hours. Can’t you just
shuffle something around, get this done and we’ll be out of your way. And, if you get
any heat for this, just have them come see me.” Now that’s a meaningful escalation
that doesn’t even need escalation!
Education – At this point in a project manager’s career, their education is focused on
teaching and giving and helping others do their jobs better.
5 Things You Need to Monitor During Projects
Now everybody knows about the triple constraint of time, cost, and quality governing
what you can deliver on scope but a lot of people forget about managing and
monitoring the external dependencies. Learn how to monitor your projects by watching
this video presented by Content Director Devin Deen http://youtu.be/CTg_9K5K6hE
Keeping Projects Under Budget
Devin Deen, Content Director here at ProjectManager.com talks fundamental things
that you can do as a project manager to make sure that you do manage and control that
project budget and make sure that you deliver under or on budget
http://youtu.be/oXhgwn-girI
Projects: How to Track and Manage Them
Want to learn how to track and manage your projects? Watch the following video and
see Devin Deen, Content Director here at ProjectManager.com talk about how to track
and manage projects and the six things that he does in all of his projects.
http://youtu.be/AQnu_zxCETI
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