Chapter 12: Communication and Documentation

Project communication takes various forms, including personal communication, meetings, presentations, reports and project documentation. Communication can be face to face or through some medium, including phones, voice mail, email, text messages, videoconferencing, document development systems, or shared web 2.0 tools. It can be formal or informal. Personal communication can be with verbal or written. Verbal communication can be face to face or via phone or computer. Information can be communicated in a more accurate and timely manner through verbal communication. Such communication provides a forum for discussion, clarification, understanding, and immediate

Body language and tone are important elements in verbal communication. Body language and customs are reflective of cultural of cultural diversity must be considered in communications. Verbal communications should be straightforward, unambiguous, free of technical jargon, and not offensive. Asking for or providing feedback enhances understanding.

Personal written communication is generally carried out through internal or external correspondence. Such means can be used to communicate effectively with a large group of people, but should not be used for trivial matters. Written communications should be clear and concise and should be used mostly to inform, confirm or request.

Listening is an important part of making communication effective. Failure to listen can cause a breakdown in communication. Common barriers to effective listening include pretending to listen, distractions, bias and closed-mindedness, impatience, and jumping to conclusions.

Written reports are often required during a project. The two most common types of project reports are progress reports and final reports. Progress reports often cover accomplishments since the prior report, the current project status, any potential problems that have been identified and corrective actions that are planned, and goals that should be accomplished during the next reporting period.

Final reports provide a summary of the project and often include items such as the customer’s original need, the original project objective and requirements, a description of the project, benefits resulting from the project and a list of deliverables produced. All reports should be clear, concise and readable. They should be written to address what is of interest to the readers not the writer.

Chapter 11: The project Team

A team is a group of individuals working interdependently to accomplish the project objective. Team work is the cooperative effort by members of a team to achieve this common goal. The effectiveness, or lack thereof, of the project team can make difference between project success and project failure.

When a project is initiated, one of the first things the project manager must do is obtain and assemble a project team. Team members are assigned based not only on their expertise and experience but also on availability. Project teams should be kept as small as feasible throughout the project.

Project teams evolve through various stages of development. Forming, the initial stage of the team development process, involves the transition from individual to team member. During this stage, individuals on the team begin to get acquainted. During the storming staff, conflict emerges and tension increases. Motivation and morale are low. Members may even resist team formation. However, after struggling through the storming stage, the team moves into the norming stage of development. Relationships among team members and between team and the project managers have become settled, and interpersonal conflicts have been resolved for the most part. The fourth stage of team development and growth is the performing stage. In this stage the team is highly committed and eager to achieve the project objective. The members feel a sense of unity.

The project manager should schedule a project kickoff meeting with the project team as early as possible during the forming stage of team development to inform the members, reduce anxiety, manage expectations, and inspire the team. It provides an opportunity for team members to get to know each other.  The project should provide an overview of the project and discuss roles responsibilities, processes, procedures, and expectations.

Characteristics often associated with effective project teams include a clear understanding of the project objective, clear expectations of each person’s role and responsibilities, a results orientation, a high degree of cooperation and collaborations, and a high level of trust. Barriers to team effectiveness include unclear vision and objectives, unclear definition of roles and responsibilities, lack of project structure, lack of commitment, poor communication, poor leadership, turnover of project team members, and dysfunctional behavior.

Chapter 10: The Project Manager

It is the responsibility of the project manager to make sure that that the customer is satisfied that the work of the scope is completed in a quality manner, within the budget, and on time. The project manager has primary responsibility for providing leadership in planning, organizing and controlling in the work effort to accomplish the project objective. In terms of planning, the project manager has to clearly define the project objective and reach agreement with the customer on this objective. In terms of organizing the project manager must secure the appropriate resources to perform the work. In terms of controlling, the project a manager needs to monitor actual progress, compare it with planned progress and take immediate corrective action if actual progress falls behind planned progress.

The project manager is a key ingredient in the success of a project and needs to possess a set of skills that will help the project team succeed. The project manager should be an effective leader who inspires the people assigned to the project to work as a team to implement the plan and achieve the project objective successfully; be committed to the training and development of the people working on the project; be effective communicator who interacts regularly with the customer, project organization’s upper management and other stakeholders; and have good interpersonal skills. It is important that the project manager develops a relationship with each person on the project team and effectively use interpersonal skills to try to influence the thinking and actions of others.

Effective project managers can handle stress and have a good sense of humor. In addition they are good problem solvers who recognize that the best solution often emerges from differences of ideas, viewpoints, experiences and opinions. Negotiating skills are also essential for project managers. Good project manager also manage their time well.

Project managers’ competence can be developed through experience, learning from others, interviewing effective project managers conducting a self-evaluation and learning from one’s own mistake, getting a mentor, participating in education and training programs, joining organizations in which these skills can be applied.

Chapter 9: Closing the Project

Lessons Learned

The purpose of identifying and documenting lessons learned is to capitalize on the knowledge and experience gained on the project to improve performance on future projects. The project organization should establish a knowledge base system that includes an easily accessible repository that encourages project managers and teams to retrieve lessons learned or by key words.

The project team should not wait until the end of the project to capture and document lessons learned; it should done on an ongoing basis throughout the planning and performing phases of the project. This can also help to improve performance during the remainder of performing the project. A system should be set to capture these learning moments and to maintain a list of lessons learned during performance of the project. With such a system, some items will not be forgotten. Otherwise, if the project was for a long duration, some key people involved in situations that might have provided good lessons learned early in the project may no longer be associated with the project when the project moves into the closing phase, and therefore might not be available to share their experience.

Information regarding lessons learned and associated recommendations internal post-project earned evaluation meetings and from feedback from the customer or sponsor should also be incorporated into the organization’s lessons learned knowledge base.

An important consideration regarding lessons learned is to ensure that they are documented, communicated, and used by project managers and teams on future projects. One way to do this might be to require it to be an agenda item at the initial kickoff meeting for a new project. Lesson learned can also be a good topic for any internal project management training that is conducted by the project organization.

Chapter 8: Managing Risks

Control Risks

Risk control includes implementing risk response plans and monitoring risks. Risk response plans should be implemented as appropriate when their trigger point is reached. Implementing risk response plans often requires spending additional materials and so forth. Project prices and budges should include a contingency reserve to pay for additional costs associated with implementing response plans.

Risk monitoring involves regularly reviewing the risk assessment matrix throughout the project. During the project, it is important to regularly review and evaluate all risks to determine if there are any changes to the likelihood of occurrence or the potential impact of any risks. These factors can determine if a particular risk has increased in priority for attention or if the risk has diminished in importance. Furthermore, new risks may be identified that were not considered as risks earlier in the project but now need to be added to the risk assessment matrix. For example, early tests of the prototype f a new product indicate the product may now not meet the original performance specifications.  Another situation may be that because of previous delays in the design phase, the construction phase of a facility expansion is now scheduled to take place in the middle of the hurricane season. During a project, the customer may initiate changes to the project work scope, schedule, or budget that could affect the assessment of previously defined risks or result in the identification of new risks.

Project meetings are good forum for regularly reviewing, updating, and addressing risks. The agenda for project status review meetings should include an item regarding risk assessment. Particular attention should be given to reviewing the trigger points for each risk to determine if any risk response plans ore on the verge of having to be implemented.

Chapter 7: Determining costs, Budget and Earned Value.

The total project cost is often estimated during the initiating phase of the project or when the project charter or a proposal is prepared, but detailed plans are not usually prepared at that time. However, during the planning phase of the project, specific activities are defined and a network plan is created. Once specific activities are defined, then estimates can be made of resources, durations and costs for each specific activity. Resources include people, materials, equipment, facilities, and so forth. The estimated activity resources are used for estimating activity costs. The estimated cost for each specific activity can include the following elements:

1.      Labor costs. These are the estimated costs for the various types or classifications of people who are expected to work on the project such as painters, designers and computer programmers. The labor costs are based on estimated work time (not necessarily the same as the activity estimated duration) and the dollar labor rate for each person or classification.

2.      Materials costs. These are the estimated costs of materials that the project team or contractor needs to purchase for the project, such as paint, lumber, piping, shrubbery, carpeting, electrical cable, paper, art supplies, food, computers and application software.

3.      Equipment costs. Some projects require equipment that must be purchased as part of the project. Equipment can include items such as computers and machinery. For example, a project to construct a clinic would include the purchase of various types of medical equipment. Or a project to upgrade a manufacturing facility may include the purchase of new production machinery. Or a new office might include the purchase of new computer systems.

4.      Facilities costs. Some projects may require special facilities or additional space for the project team, for security reasons, to store materials, or to build, assemble, and test the project end item (deliverable). If such facilities are required, the estimated costs for renting the space need to be included.

5.      Subcontractors and consultants cost. When project teams or contractors do not have the expertise or resources to do certain project tasks, they may outsource some of the work to subcontractors or consultants to perform those activities. Examples of such tasks include designing a brochure, developing a training manual, developing software, and catering a reception.

6.      Travel costs. If travel (other than local travel) is required during the project, the costs for travel, such as airfare, lodging, and meals, need to be included.

7.      Reserve. In addition to the above items, the project team or contractor may include an estimated amount for contingencies to cover unexpected situations that may come during the project, such as items that may have been overlooked when the initial project scope was defined, activities that may have to be redone because they may not work the first time (redesigns), or a high probability or high impact risk that may occur. Often there is a separate budget (management reserve set aside for contingencies at the project level rather than for specific activities.

Chapter 6: Resource Utilization

The consideration of resources adds another dimension to planning and scheduling. It is necessary to estimate the types and quantities of resources required to perform each activity. Resources can include people, materials, equipment, tools, facilities and so forth. A resource requirements plan shows the expected utilization of resources by time period during the time span of the project.

In many projects, the quantities are limited. Several activities may require the same resources at the same time, and there may not be sufficient resources available to satisfy all the demands. If sufficient resources are not available when required, some activities may have to be delayed until a later time when resources are available. Therefore, resources can constrain the project schedule.

Resource-Limited Scheduling

Resource-Limited Scheduling is a method for developing the shortest schedule when the quantity of available resources is fixed. This method is appropriate when the resources available for the project are limited and these resources limits cannot be exceeded. 

For a large project that requires many different resources, each of which has a different limit of availability, resource-limited scheduling can get very complicated. Various project management information systems are available that can assist with this process.

Resource-Limited Scheduling will extend the project completion time, if necessary; keep it within the resource limits. It is an iterative method in which resources are allocated to activities based on the least slack. When several activities need the same limited resource at the same time, the activities with the second slack time have the first priority. If resources are left over, the activities with the second least slack have the next priority and so forth. If other activities need the resources but the resource has been totally allocated to higher-priority activities, the lower-priority activities get delayed; as their slack becomes worse they eventually move up the priority ladder. This delaying of activities can extend the project completion time.