Post date: Mar 19, 2014 9:35:13 PM

·         Free Project Management Excel Templates

·         How to Start a Project in Excel

·         How to Manage a Project in Excel

·         What is Project Management?

·         Excel Use Cases

·         Pros and Cons of Excel

·         Excel Compatibility with Other Applications

·         Excel for Task Management

·         Managing Risks in Excel

·         Managing Issues in Excel

·         Managing Project Budgets in Excel

·         Timesheet Tracking in Excel

·         Creating Project Dashboards in Excel

·         Excel for Team Management

·         Excel for Advanced Project Management

·         3 Reasons to Stop Using Excel to Manage Your Projects

·         Should You Move off Excel?

Project Management Resources

 Status Report Template

 Project & Task Tracking Template

 Risks Tracking Template

 Issue Tracking Template

 Project Budget Template

Work Schedule Template

 Timesheet Template

 Project Management Dashboard

 Gantt Chart Template

Here is the Right Way to Select a Vendor

There are times when all organizations look for vendors to fill certain needs. This could be for consulting, supplemental staffing, software, equipment, etc. The vendor selection process is not hard, but it may be time-consuming to complete. For more complex procurement needs you should consider starting with a procurement management plan.  The following process can be used in most any vendor selection process.

1. Gather and Rank the Vendor Selection Criteria

It's hard to select a vendor if you are not sure what your requirements are. Ask questions such as:

• • How will we use the vendor?

  • What problem will the vendor solve?

  • What deliverables will they produce?

  • Will we need references?

  • What are our pricing constraints?

Each requirement should be weighted on a numeric scale, or high/medium/low, to reflect the relative importance of some requirements over others (other weighting scales can be utilized as well). Your sponsor and major customers and stakeholders need to review and approve this total list of requirements and weighting. This is the criteria you will use to select the vendor. 

2. Create Vendor Long List (Optional)

Look for any and all vendors that might meet your needs. This can be done by searching the web, looking at trade magazines, talking to other companies, etc. The purpose of this step is to gather a comprehensive (but not exhaustive) list of vendors that you want to consider further. If you think you already know the particular vendors you are interested in, this step can be skipped, moving directly to the short list.

3. Create Vendor Short List

Perform an initial, high-level evaluation of the long list, looking for obvious reasons to

eliminate some of the alternatives. The purpose of this step is to create a short list of potential vendors that look like they will have a reasonable chance of meeting your needs. You send your Request for Proposal (RFP) to this smaller list of vendors.

4. Evaluate the Proposals

At this point, the interested vendors on your short list have sent proposals in response to your RFP. You then evaluate these proposals against the selection criteria you created earlier (above). You can interview the vendors, set up demonstrations, make vendor site visits, etc. Usually some type of numerical calculation is made based on how well the vendor meets each requirement, multiplied by a weighting factor. The vendor with the highest score across all requirements should be the one that best meets your needs. When you have completed this step, you should have a first and second choice.

5. Make Final Selection and Negotiate Contract

At this point you should have all the required information to make the choice. In many organizations, the project team makes the final recommendation and then turns the process over to a formal Purchasing or Procurement organization to negotiate a contract. If that process does not proceed in a satisfactory manner, you should be prepared to move down to your second choice, and your third, as long as those options still meet your minimum requirements.

10 Essential Skills for Project Managers

New technologies and new ways of working are demanding new skills for the traditional role of PM. In fact, PMI has updated its requirements for project management certification as part of their new Talent Triangle, promoting new skills in business management and soft skills leadership, to name a few.

Whether you're a certified PM or just someone running projects, here are the top 10 essential skills you need to succeed:

1. Change Management

Should this really be first on the list? Absolutely! 

Change is a constant, and having no process will result in chaos quickly. But we're not talking about clogging the pipeline with a process that can slow a project down. Set simple rules that define how changes are considered and acted upon, and you'll better manage your project's schedule and scope.

2. Planning

A classic skill for all project managers, right? Well... depends on whether you are talking about planning for planning's sake, or planning for the best, most efficient project. Use the latter as your goal. Start with templates. Don't reinvent the wheel, and don't get stuck in the planning vortex. 

3. Reporting

Take reporting to the next level by using automated reports in your PM tool. Set a reporting schedule with your stakeholders so you aren't bombarded with last-minute requests. And insist your team keep their task updates and timesheets regularly updated. 

4. Tracking

You don't need to micromanage your team to track effectively. Insist your team update their tasks and timesheets into the PM tool as a routine, daily task, so you always know the real-time status of the project. Then, you'll be better armed with the information to address any delays before they derail the project. 

5. Strategy

Isn't this the job of the sponsor? Perhaps in the days of yore. Today's project manager needs to think like a CEO and regularly make sure their project is aligning with the core strategy of the organization. It's a requirement in today's business culture, not a nice to have.

6. Communicating

Are you good at communicating? How do you know? You measure your project, so why not measure your own effectiveness? Reflect on your performance. Study good communicators and learn from the best. At a minimum, find 3 ways you can improve your communication - and tackle those today. 

With diverse, global and remote teams, it's more important than ever to carefully manage resource availability and performance capabilities. Make sure the right people are doing the right job at times that work for them, wherever in the world they are. 

9. Stakeholder Engagement

Notice we didn't say stakeholder "management." Gone are the days of top-down control. Engagement is the new normal with any key stakeholder group, be they end users, c-suite, or the public at large. Invite stakeholders in early and often to your project to get buy-in, minimize impacts and to deliver the best possible project or product.

And MOST importantly...

10. Project Management Software

You can't afford to not be up-to-date on the best tools and technologies used in project management... and you can't just stick with the status quo. Why? Because your competitors and your peers are going to surpass you. You must become an expert in all the features of your PM tools, know which tools are the best for your team and effectively manage rolling out new tools and integrations on your project.

In short, you must be the expert in the tools you use, and you must extend the tools to your team if you want to succeed. If your current tool isn't being used by your team, it's time to get a new one that does.

What Are the Phases of a Project?

Greetings!,

A project can feel overwhelming at first. That's why it's broken down into smaller, more manageable parts. These are called the project phases.

What Are the Phases of a Project?

There are four basic phases to any project:

·         Initiation

·         Planning

·         Execution

·         Closing

Let's consider each a bit more in detail to fully understand what they mean and what a project manager is responsible for in each phase.

Initiation Phase

This is where you meet with the future stakeholders of the project and gather data to create the core documents, such as the business case or project charter, as well as feasibility studies, a rough budget and resource plan. Then meet with the leaders of the project and present these documents for approval.

Planning Phase

Now you're going to create a schedule for the project and begin to assign your resources, such as assembling a team and figuring out what materials, software, etc., you'll need to complete the project. You'll also further break down the project into tasks and set those tasks up in the planning tool, so you can track their progress when the project begins.

Execution Phase

The project has started in earnest and you must monitor its progress daily to make sure it's staying on schedule. That means managing the risks that you planned for, if they in fact arise, and those which you hadn't planned for. You'll also need a communication plan to make sure you're clear getting your points across to those who need to hear them. And there is reporting, back to the stakeholders on the progress of the project and more detailed ones to your team.

Closing Phase

When the project's done, it's not over until you close out all the contracts. You'll need to hand off all the deliverables, as well. Then it's important to archive all the paperwork. It can help you with historic precedent when you're starting the cycle all over again with another similar project.

Hope that helps with managing your project!

Start Your Project Off Right with a Kickoff Meeting

The purpose of the kickoff meeting is to formally notify all stakeholders that the project has begun and make sure everyone has a common understanding of the project and their role. Like all formal meetings, there should be an agenda. There are a number of specific things you want to cover at this meeting:

• • Introduce the people at the meeting.

  • Recap the information in the Project Charter, including the purpose of the project, scope, major deliverables, risks, assumptions, etc.

  • Discuss the important roles and responsibilities of the project team, clients and stakeholders. If there is confusion about the role of any person or organization, it should be discussed and clarified now.

• • Go over the general approach and timeline of the project. This gives people a sense for how the project will unfold. In particular, you will want to ensure that people understand what they need to be doing in the short-term to support the project.

  • Answer any outstanding questions. The purpose of the discussion is not to rehash the purpose of the project, but to allow people to voice specific questions or concerns they have as the project begins.

  • Confirm that the project is now underway. If the project has not started yet, it should now be ready to start immediately.

In general, the project team, sponsor and major stakeholders should be in attendance. If this results in too many people for comfort, you can consider having only the major players attend. You can then meet with others in subsequent mini-kickoff meetings or you can send the relevant meeting information to the people who could not attend.

Although most kickoff meetings can be conducted in an hour or two, others might require a day or two. The longer kickoff meetings are especially important if the project is very complex or controversial.

It is said you never have a second chance to make a good first impression. This is true with the kickoff meeting. You are using the meeting to help set expectations for the project. If the meeting is unorganized, chaotic or a waste of time, the participants will probably carry those perceptions into the project as well. The project manager needs to make sure that he has prepared well for this meeting and that it goes smoothly.

Measure Business Value According to the Business Case

One of the holy grails of portfolio management is to be able to accurately capture the business value produced by a project. In some cases the value is obvious. For example, sales could increase, inventory levels could be reduced or fewer people may be needed in a process. However, in many projects, the business value can be difficult or impossible to quantify exactly. Some common problems of measuring business value include:

• • The project produces soft benefits, such as improving client satisfaction or product quality.

  • The project involves infrastructure that is used by large groups of people. For instance, how much more productive will people be if you double the memory in their desktop computers? What is the quantifiable value provided with a new internal phone system?

  • The project results in an increase in the amount of information people have available. It's hard to know exactly how the information gets leveraged to produce better decisions.

  • Things improve as a result of multiple projects over a period of time, but it is hard to know exactly how much value each project delivered.

  • The results are improvements that are hard to meaningfully roll-up to a measurable level. For instance, eliminating steps in a process. That process takes less time, but the time gets taken up by other work.

The best approach to determining the business value of a project to look at the Business Case that was completed before a project began. Look at how the benefits were quantified in this document to see if you can actually measure similar results when the project completes. If there are hard benefits identified, the metrics should be able to show how much value was delivered. If there were soft benefits identified, you will probably need to stick with anecdotal, survey and indirect evidence of the value provided.

The benefits of the project typically do not start until the project is completed, so these metrics must be captured after the project ends. At that point the project team has usually disbanded. Therefore, the customer organization (the organization gaining the value of the project) should take the lead in capturing the follow-up metrics to validate the business value.

The business value of the project should be measured for as long as the benefit payback period in the Business Case. For example, if the Business Case benefits were proposed over three years, the value of the project solution should be measured over three years to see if the proposed benefit was achieved.  

Practice Five Parts of Configuration Management

Configuration is one of the many aspects of project management. It is applicable to certain projects that track myriad of components.  There are two major definitions for configuration management.

• 1. It can be a term given to the identification, tracking and managing of all the assets of a project. This definition would be especially relevant on software development projects where the configuration refers to the collection of artifacts, code components, executables, etc.

  2. It is also a term given to the identification, tracking and managing of the metadata that describes the products that the project is creating. In this definition, the configuration is basically the detailed specifications of the product. For example, if you are manufacturing a laptop computer, the configuration would refer to the size of the hard drive, speed, DVD specifications, etc.  

The following items make up the Configuration Management Process.

• • Planning. You need to plan ahead to create the processes, procedures, tools, files and databases to manage the configuration. You also may need to gain an agreement on exactly what assets are important, how you will define them, how they will be categorized, classified, numbered, reported, etc. The results of this up-front planning are documented in a Configuration Management Plan.

  • Tracking. You need processes and systems to identify when assets are assigned to your project, where they go, what becomes of them, who is responsible for them and how they are disposed. Since a project has a concrete beginning and end, ultimately all the assets need to go somewhere. This could be in a final deliverable, into the operations/support area, scrapped, etc. You should be able to dissect each major deliverable of the project and show where all the pieces and parts came from, and where they reside after the project ends.

  • Managing. Managing assets means they are secure, protected and used for the right purposes. For example, it does not do any good to track purchased assets that your project does not need in the first place. Also, your tracking system may show expensive components sitting in an unsecured storage room, but is that really the proper place for them? Managing assets has to do with acquiring what you need and only what you need.

  • Reporting. You need to be able to report on the configuration, usually in terms of what you have and where they are, as well as financial reporting that can show cost, budget, depreciation, etc. If you are tracking configuration metadata you should be able to report out a complete set of the current product specifications. 

  • Auditing. It is important that the integrity of the configuration process be validated periodically through audits of the status of configuration items. This can include physically inspecting or counting these items and comparing them against the expected results of your configuration management system. You will also want to audit the configuration change process to endure that the appropriate processes are being followed.

If you practice configuration management on your project, it is suggested that you have a specific person identified as the configuration manager. This may be a part-time role, depending on how much asset tracking and management your project does. This person is responsible for the overall process, with focus on the planning, management and auditing responsibilities. 

Ten Tips for Effective Status Meetings

Status meetings are a good way to maintain effective communication on a project. There are some simple rules and etiquettes that will make them more production and valuable to the attendees.

• 1. All individual meetings should have an agenda that describes the major aspects of the meeting and the timeframes. Regularly scheduled, ongoing status meetings do not need a published agenda every week if they stick to the same agenda format. Instead they use a "standing agenda" which is understood to be the same for each meeting.

  2. Someone should document the key points of the meeting. This will be the facilitator or originator unless other arrangements have been made. This person is sometimes called a “scribe”. The scribe should recap all outstanding action items, including who is responsible, what is expected, and when the action item is due.

  3. There should be a meeting facilitator. This is usually the project manager unless other arrangements have been made.

  4. Make sure the participants know ahead of time of anything they need to bring to the meeting or any advance preparation that needs to take place.

  5. Only invite the people that need to be there. Others may dilute the effectiveness of the meeting.

  6. The meeting should start on time, with some allowance for those that may be coming from another meeting.

  7. The person who requested the meeting should explain the purpose and the expected outcome.

  8. The facilitator needs to follow the agenda and watch the time to make sure everything gets covered.

  9. Take any lengthy discussions offline or to a separate meeting that focuses on these items with the people that are most interested.

  10. The scribe or facilitator should recap the notes and any decisions that were made and send them to attendees and other appropriate stakeholders.

Is There Too Much Problem Solving?

There can be a temptation to engage in problem solving when you have all the key people together at one time. However, the concern about problem solving is that usually only a few people are engaged in any one problem, while everyone else is unengaged and wasting time. While you have everyone together, use the time to discuss general status, issues, scope and risk. Only use problem solving if the problems are of interest to most of the team members. 

Long meetings are usually the result of too much problem solving. If you find that problem solving is extending the meeting, try to reduce the time allocated to the meeting. For instance, if you meet for two hours per week and find you are engaging in problem solving try reducing the time of the meetings to 90 or 60 minutes. Keep the status meetings short with a tight agenda to be most effective.

But I like to go one step further and use Milestones as motivators for the team. In addition to the usual project milestones, I'll also create quarterly milestones to mark when we're ¼ the way, ½ the way and ¾ of the way through the project. I'll also set up calendar reminders for myself to email the team at each of these milestones to remind them of what a great job they're doing. 

These three tricks are simple ways to get more of Gantt charts. I hope you find them useful for your next project!

How to Plan Your Project 

with a Gantt 

There are many ways to plan a project, but the Gantt chart is a staple for anyone looking to track their project's timeline in a visual way. 

While they might look complex, they're actually quite simple to create, when you use an online project tool. 

Let's look at how you can plan your project using an online Gantt chart:

1. Start Adding Tasks

To the left of the Gantt is a simple task list. Well, it's simple in that you simply start adding a list of tasks. But with an online task list, like the ProjectManager.com example below, the Gantt task list automatically populates the visual timeline as you add start and end dates to each task. 

You might also notice some icons on the task rows. Those represent discussions, files and attachments on each task. You can see how with an online Gantt chart, the chart does the work of visualizing your work for you, plus you get a way to collaboration around each task, as well.

2. Customize your Gantt chart.

You can customize your Gantt chart to highlight different programs, departments, team members or task types, or simply to reflect your style. This will be not only helpful for visualizing team work at-a-glance, but will help you define your work, your way. 

3.  Link Tasks Together

Tasks can be linked together when they are related to each other in some way. For example, if one task shouldn't start before another one begins, you would want to link those tasks together on the Gantt chart in case the first task is overdue. The Gantt chart then automatically calculates the linked tasks to adjust timelines accordingly. 

4. Add Milestones

Milestones help you mark significant phases in a project, or key dates for stakeholder meetings or deliverable hand-off dates. When you set a milestone in your project, it shows up as a diamond in your Gantt chart so you can always see when upcoming milestones are due.

5. Collaborate!

Online Gantt charts enable teams to collaborate. ProjectManager.com also has built in collaboration tools that sync up to the Gantt so that when a team member updates their task and attaches a file, that file is also found on the Gantt task line. Everything is connected, and nothing is lost on the project.

Here are Eight Techniques to Manage Virtual Teams

There are two types of teams - co-located and virtual. Co-located teams have the ability to get together face-to-face when needed. Virtual teams are not able to do this. They cannot communicate as easily or effectively. Therefore, there are different techniques required to manage virtual teams.

·         Establish team objectives. The team members need to know and understand what it is that they are doing together. If people only understand their own role and their own work, they will always just be individual contributors.

·         Remind everyone they are a team.  If the team members think they are all working independently, they will act independent.  If they know they are part of a team working on common objectives and deliverables, they will tend to feel better about their work and be more active in their collaboration with other team members. 

·         Obtain the right technology. The technology is there to support virtual teams - there is really no reason to be without it. This includes fast access to the Internet, audio conferencing, video cams, collaborative software, shared directories, etc.   

·         Look for opportunities to socialize. Team members located together have opportunities to socialize throughout the day. Virtual teams don’t usually have this same opportunity to interact with each other, so it is more important for the project manager to look for ways they can bond.  This might include getting everyone together one time in a face-to-face setting perhaps a Project Kickoff meeting. 

·         Be sensitive to cultural difference. It is possible that your virtual team all thinks and acts the same way. However, more and more virtual teams consist of people from multiple countries and multiple cultures. If you are the project manager on this type of team, make sure you have some appreciation for the differences in how people work and how they behave.

·         Communicate, communicate, communicate.  The project manager needs to be extra proactive in his communication to make sure everyone understands what is expected. People can start to feel isolated if they do not receive regular communication. It is hard enough to keep everyone informed on a regular project.  The communication lines on a virtual team must be opened up especially wide. The project manager can provide this steady stream of communication.

·         Adjust and compromise on time differences. The project manager needs to recognize that what is convenient for the project manager is not always convenient to the team members. For instance, if you are a manager in a global company it may not be practical to start all project meetings at 9:00 am. That may be convenient to the manager but it can result in resentment from people in other global locations that need to stay very late for these meetings.  

·         Give people shorter assignments. This is not the time to give people long assignments and hope that they are completed by the deadline.  Instead of assigning a six-week activity, for instance, the project manager should assign the work in three two-week activities. In the former case, you would not know for sure if the work was done for six weeks. In the latter case, you can tell every two weeks if the work is on track.

These techniques will help your virtual teams be as successful as your co-located teams. 

Use These Eight Steps to Create a Communication Plan

All projects should report status. However, on many projects status reporting is not enough. Those projects need a more holistic communications approach. A Communication Plan (also called a Communications Management Plan) is the way to frame the overall communication approach. The following eight steps tell you how to create one. 

1.     Determine the project stakeholders. In some cases, these are stakeholder groups such as a project steering committee. In other cases, there may be a single person such as the sponsor.

2.     Determine the communication needs for each stakeholder. The project manager can categorize the communication needs into three areas.

3.     For each stakeholder, brainstorm how to fulfill the communication need. For each stakeholder, determine the information they need to know, how often they need an update, and the best manner to deliver the information. At this point, be creative. For instance, all stakeholders still need an updated project status. The Steering Committee may need an executive briefing to provide strategic direction every other month. A quarterly newsletter may need to go out to the entire client organization for informational and marketing purposes. 

4.     Determine the effort required. Estimate the effort required to create and distribute each of the identified communication options outlined in step 3. Also determine the potential benefit of the communication to the recipient and the project team.

5.     Implement mandatory communications. Regardless of the prioritization, implement any communication options that are mandatory for the project. This will definitely include project Status Reports, but there may also be government-required reports, legal reports, etc.

6.     Prioritize the other communication options. Implement the communication options that provide high value and require low effort from the project team. Also evaluate those options that have high value and require a high level of effort from the project team. Some of these might make sense to implement while others may not.

7.     Add the resulting communication activities to the schedule. This will include assigning frequencies, due dates, effort hours and a responsible person(s) for each communication option implemented.

In addition, larger projects can also create a lot of documentation. This documentation can easily get out of control. The process of managing documentation is much easier if the project manager takes care to plan what the documents will look like, where they will be stored and how they will be controlled. This is done in a separate Document Management Plan. 

Create Schedule Management Plan

The Schedule Management Plan describes the process used to develop and manage the project schedule. Not all projects need a Schedule Management Plan, but if your project has a complex schedule that requires special handling, you may find this plan helpful.

The components of the Schedule Management Plan can include:

Roles and responsibilities. You can describe different roles and their ability to access the project schedule.

• • Schedule owner. This is probably the project manager.

    • • Who can update? Normally the project manager, but on larger projects it could be more complex. For instance, a Project Administrator might make the initial schedule updates based on the project status reports and then provide this draft to the project manager for final updates. It is also possible that team members will update the status of their assigned activities and the project manager will perform final analysis after those updates.

      • Who can read? Usually the schedule is not considered confidential - anyone can read it.

  • Update frequency. You should describe the timing of schedule updates. In many projects the schedule will be updated on the Monday morning. You should also comment on whether the schedule will be updated weekly or bi-weekly. It is recommended that you update the schedule weekly.

  • Progress feedback. This describes how the schedule feedback will be delivered. In many cases this will be in the team member status report. However, it is possible that the progress update will come during a team meeting or through an email.

  • Schedule change review and approval. This is where you define the process required to evaluate and approve proposed schedule changes. It defines the authority for accepting and approving changes to schedule. This approval process does not include internal activity deadlines. It applies to changes in the overall project deadline. It is possible that the project manager may have some discretion to exceed the deadline date by some number of days or weeks, but after that threshold some formal body may need to approve the change.

  • Tools. Describe about any scheduling tool that will be used on this project, who will have access to the tool and what various people can do with the tool (read the schedule, update schedule, etc.)

  • Reports. Comment here on the types and names of reports you are using to manage the project, who will receive them, the frequency of the reports, etc. 

  • Schedule integration. Normally each project keeps an independent schedule, but in some instances your master schedule is the result of a roll-up of other underlying schedules. It is also possible that your schedule could be integrated and rolled up to a higher-level program or portfolio schedule.

The Schedule Management Plans must provide value to the project manager. If your schedule is not so complex you probably do not need to create the Schedule Management Plan. On the other hand, the project manager should create a Plan if it provides value on projects with large and complicated schedules. 

Eight Steps to Use Projects to Close Organization Gaps

A project approval process is part of portfolio management. In many companies, the project approval process starts during a yearly business planning process. Projects are submitted, evaluated and approved for the following fiscal year. The following process represents a very simplified and high-level view of what is involved.

1. Complete Future State Analysis: Evaluate the future state of the organization and the marketplace. Questions include: What is the vision for the organization in three (to five) years? What will the marketplace be like? Where will the competitors be? What capabilities need to be in place?

2. Complete Current State Analysis: Evaluate where the organization is today. Questions include: What are the strengths and weaknesses? What is the primary mission and strategy? Are you winning or losing in the marketplace?

3. Create Gap Analysis: What has to happen to move the organization from where it is today to where it needs to be in the future? What skills need to be built? What capabilities need to be in place? What information systems need to be developed or purchased? What processes need to be implemented?

4. Propose projects to close the gap: What projects must be funded to get the organization from where it is to where it needs to be? This ends up being a wish list of work, including both IT and business initiatives.

5. Create a business case for each project: The business case provides enough preliminary information so that the projects can be prioritized later. This could include:

• • Assigning a sponsor.

  • High-level business requirements and major deliverable.

  • High-level estimated effort, cost, and duration.

  • High-level cost-benefit analysis. 

  • Describe how the project aligns to goals and strategies.

  • High-level risk analysis.

6. Prioritize the projects: Prioritize the projects based on business value and alignment to goals and strategies. This is not always an apples-to-apples comparison, since there are many reasons why a particular project might be of value. Even though all of the projects provide value to the business in some way, some projects may be rejected altogether while those remaining will end up on a prioritized list.

7. Determine which projects will be funded: The projects with the highest priority to the organization are put forward for funding. This could include the entire prioritized list, or some subset. For instance, the organization may have 20 prioritized projects, but may have funding for only 10. Projects that do not get funded go on a portfolio backlog.

8. Initiate the project: After the project is approved, at some point it will be ready for executing. The business sponsor should revalidate the business case to ensure the project is still viable. The organization must be prepared to commit the resources required to complete the project. If those items are all in place, and the organization is still in agreement to proceed, then you can start the project planning process.

Agile 101 - Define Your Technical Architecture

(Please note that this article is a little Information Technology-centric.)

"Technical Architecture" refers to hardware, software, databases, connectivity, etc. Project-level architecture consists of the technology required for the project solution to run as intended. It is a key component of an IT project life-cycle. It is important that the team figure out as soon as possible the overall architecture model. For example, the team should know if the solution is a web application, a data warehouse, a mobile app, a high-transaction back-end system, etc.

The project technical architecture is developed very early - for instance in the setup sprint. On an Agile project, the architecture could be defined on a whiteboard or flipchart. It is important that the information be shared with the team for additional ideas and concerns. For example, you would need to define the following areas:

• • Hardware. Identify the hardware your solution will run on and any other hardware that will be needed. You will also note if your solution will interact with cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), fax machines, scanners, bar code readers, etc.

  • Software. Identify any software and tool requirements. This would include things like the client and server operating systems, browser type, third party software packages, etc.

  • Interfaces. The major interfaces should be noted. Interfaces include other applications, vendors, clients, etc. where data is being passed to and from your solution.

  • Network. The network that is needed to support the solution should be diagrammed. This includes modems, lines, routers, hubs, etc.

  • Firewall/security. If your solution needs to run outside of your internal network, you will probably need to design with a firewall. In fact, you may need two firewalls (or more) to protect company data from unauthorized outside access.

  • Datastores. Identify the major datastores and the specific package/vendor involved. For instance, if you utilize a database, identify the specific software (Oracle, SQL Server, etc.). Do the same for data marts, data warehouses, major files, etc.

  • Tiers. Many solutions are created using a two tier (client-server) or three tier approach. Web solutions, for instance, are typically designed in three tiers.

In general, the more complex your project architecture is, the more potential problems you will encounter over time. Every piece of hardware and software, and every programming connection between, is subject to failure and bugs. The best solutions for long-term stability are the simple designs that gain as much functionality using as few "moving parts" as possible.

It is important that the project technical architecture be created by experienced staff because the architecture sets far-reaching structure based on a limited amount of information. The architecture does not have to be perfect the first time. However, it is important that the architecture be close. It is also important that it be flexible. The architecture is subject to change throughout the project. However, the later in the project that architecture changes, the more costly and time consuming it will be to the project.

5 Ways to Measure Your Project's Success

Time, cost and quality: those are the three things (the "Triple Constraint") every project manager is taught to measure in order to evaluate their project's success. But is that all there is?

I've found that we need to look a little more broadly. In a recent article, I outlined 5 key things you need to measure. They are: Schedule, Quality, Cost, Stakeholder satisfaction and Performance to the Business Case. Let's look at each of these in more detail.

1. Schedule

Of course, you want to get your project delivered on time. But you can only do that if you are monitoring your schedule regularly. You cannot simply "set it and forget it." 

I recommend you review your schedule weekly as part of your regular tasks. Check your milestones and ensure they are still falling on the dates you assigned. Also, be sure to note any task slippages and find ways to mitigate impacts to the schedule. You'll find it's much easier to get ahead, if you're monitoring it regularly.

2. Quality

You don't need to wait until the project is complete to do a quality audit. Set clear benchmarks with your team to ensure quality controls are implemented at every phase of the project.

3. Cost

Keeping tabs on your planned versus actual costs is vital for all projects. But you can go beyond simple cost tracking. Forecast your estimated costs at regular intervals during the project using your team and your project management tools. Be sure to communicate your forecasts with your senior leadership or project sponsor, particularly if you uncover variance. 

4. Stakeholder Satisfaction

So here's where I start to expand upon the traditional "Triple Constraint" of time, cost and quality. Your project is only successful if your stakeholders find value in the outcome of your project. Whether your stakeholders are internal executives or end users, their response to your project is integral. 

So how do you do that? Well, you don't wait until the project is over! You keep stakeholder communication a constant priority and get feedback early and often, where possible. When stakeholders feel a part of the project, they will also have more engagement (and usually support) by its end. 

5. Performance to Business Case

At the start of your project, you set out to plan against your business case. You had defined deliverables and clear goals to align with your organizational strategy. Set up calendar reminders to revisit that document. How are you performing against that original case? When your project is done, you can do a more formal review. But be sure to crack open your early documentation to make sure you're hitting all of the intended targets. 

And finally...

I also advise people to really use their project management tools. It's why we write so frequently on the topic on our blog and in this email newsletter, and of course it's why I set out to develop the best online tools for project managers.  

Too few project managers use the features in their tool that can truly impact their project's success. Set up your dashboard to monitor costs in real time. Generate reports on planned and actual schedule. Use the collaboration features to invite in stakeholders to the project. 

Finally, use good ole' fashioned calendar alerts to remind you of all these measures to help make all your projects a success.

Here are the 5 elements of a good Gantt chart:

1. Drag & Drop

As you fill out your tasks in the spreadsheet, you'll see your Gantt populating to represent how long that task will take to complete. But it's really handy if you want to change the date of the task delivery right on the Gantt. 

Find a tool where you can just drag & drop the task bar to extend or shorten its date, and then have that data populate magically on your spreadsheet. It saves time and sanity.

2. Milestones

When you're planning your project, it's helpful to think of several key milestones to define either key project phases or just key dates in the life of the project, like the start of quality testing, for example. In some Gantt chart tools, a milestone can be represented as a little diamond over a key task. 

This little diamond is your friend. It can help you see at-a-glance when key parts of your project are coming up. You might even want to plan meetings around those milestones. Just a suggestion. 

3. Color-Coding

You can use colors to represent any number of things: the person the task is assigned to, different project phases like planning or QA, client-focused tasks, or anything else you can think of. 

Look for a tool that allows you to set the colors as you see fit. It can actually be... fun!

4. Task Dependencies

Some tasks are dependent on others and can't be started until one is complete. When that first task is running behind schedule, however, it's vital to be able to accommodate changes to the downstream and dependent tasks to make sure they don't start ahead of time. You can link tasks together in some online Gantt charts to help manage tasks when they become complex. It's really simple to do.

4. Collaborative

This is probably the most important element of a good Gantt chart. Rather than have the project spreadsheet or Gantt on someone's desktop (where no one can see it) look for an online Gantt that the whole team can participate in. 

And they don't actually need to know how to use the Gantt chart! 

Amazingly, your team can simply update tasks in their simple task list, by adding photos, videos, notes or documents, and those are automatically added to the Gantt as an attachment on the task itself! In this way, the whole team is connected to the Gantt and your project is updated by the whole team. 

It's Easier Than You Think!

A Gantt chart is a staple for anyone managing a project, yet people either love 'em or hate 'em. With collaborative online Gantt chart software, the Gantt is updated automatically whenever a team member updates a task in their task list. 

Those that hate the Gantt, never have to look at it. 

But those that appreciate the planning power and time-savings of the Gantt, never want to look away.

Use these Seven Components for a Risk Management Plan

The Risk Management Plan describes how you will define and manage risk on the project. This document does not actually describe the risks and the responses. This document defines the process and techniques you will use to define the risks and the responses. The information in this plan includes:

• • Roles and responsibilities. This section describes the leading and supporting roles in the risk management process. The project manager typically has overall responsibility for risk management, unless the team is large enough that this role can be delegated to another team member – perhaps a specialist. Third-party risk management teams may also be able to perform more independent, unbiased risk analyses of project than those from the sponsoring project team.

  • Budgeting. Discuss your budget for risk management for the project. Since you may not know enough to request budget for risk management you can also describe the process that you will use to determine a risk management budget estimate.

  • Timing. Defines when the initial risk assessment will be performed, as well as how often the risk management process will be conducted throughout the project life cycle. Results should be developed early enough to affect decisions.

  • Scoring and interpretation. You should define risk scoring and interpretation methods appropriate for the type of the qualitative and quantitative risk analysis being performed. Methods and scoring must be determined in advance to ensure consistency.

  • Thresholds. The threshold level is how you determine which risks are important enough to act upon.  The project manager, client, and sponsor may have a different risk threshold. The acceptable threshold forms the target against which the project team will analyze risks.

  • Communication. Describe how the information on risk will be documented and communicated. This includes the risks themselves, the risk responses and the risk status. 

  • Tracking and Auditing. Document how all facets of risk activities will be recorded for the benefit of the current project, future needs, and lessons learned. Also describe if and how risk processes will be audited.

Other sections can be added to the Risk Management Plan as needed.

Every project does not need a Risk Management Plan. But if your project is high-profile, political, very large or generally risky, you may find thinking through the risk management process will provide value to your project. 

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