Project Perfect - Project Management

Change Management White Paper

The management of change is an important discipline in today’s ever changing business environment. Change is never easy, and managing it in a large corporate environment is even more challenging. This new white paper is based on a research report that was conducted in 2004 and deals with the management of change in a large South African banking institution. See more at http://www.projectperfect.com.au/info_change_mgmt.php

Posting Messages on Project Perfect

Each day we receive hundreds of spam posting on Project Perfect Blog. We delete pages of them before they are approved to display. If you are posting a project management message, please make sure your heading is clearly identified as a project management topic to avoid it getting inadvertently deleted.
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Interrgating Microsoft Project

I had an email today from someone who was trying to run reports from Microsoft Project saved as an Access database. The problem was that they had to battle data scattered across several tables, and process it in a sensible manner to understand resource costs on a weekly basis.

If anyone has faced the problem before, we would love to hear from you. There is probably an SQL statement out there that can report by week, and if you are prepared to contribute, we are happy to post it as a free download .... with acknowledgement of the author of course.

Please let us know.

Modifying PM Software

It surprises me how people can purchase a software package and then be surprised that it does not fit their needs, and customisation is a major exercise. You would think that PMs would have a clear idea that when you customise software, expect all sorts of unforeseen issues. I recently came across an organisation who bought a large project management system and are still to implement it fully some six months later. It is being customised to suit their needs, and I suspect the cost of customisation is far more than the license cost.

Selling project management software ourselves, we are well aware of the cost of creating a modified version for one customer. We do in fact try and talk them out of it. If they do want modifications, we ask them to use the software as is for a few weeks first to see if they are really necessary. Often they will find that the way the software is designed will just as easily fulfill their needs.

Beyond the direct cost of changes are the costs of mofifying upgrades, and creating install tools. All these can quickly mount up. If you have a good idea, talk to the vendor and it might find it's way into a future release. Most modifications we do to our software, Project Administrator, are user suggestions.

In summary, think what does not fit when evaluating software. Think about whether you really need the functions, then look at the time and effort to make the changes. If you ask the vendor to make changes they will rub their hands with glee. Not only can they sell you the software, they can sell you buckets of development time.

A Process for Purchasing Software

There are many processes around for developing software but few for selecting a package. This new white paper from Project Perfect gives you a path to follow in order to control the process. Without some sort of software selection methodology, you will likely get run over by vendors.

Read more at http://www.projectperfect.com.au/info_software_purchase_process.php

The value of a Project Schedule

Working recently with a company I came across a number of non Project Management types who did not see the value in a schedule. Such comments as "I know what I have to do over the next few months. Why waste time putting it into Microsoft Project?"

Interestingly, a common complaint was that they didn't have enought resources. I suggested we try two plans. One with current resources and one with what they felt was the required resources. It took some time to put the plans together but the results were interesting.

- Some deadlines were not achievable, even with additional resources.
- In some cases additional resources had little impact on the date of delivery due to concurrent tasks that were fixed time for external providers.

The value started to become apparent when these project leaders could go to their managers and argue the case for new deadlines, or additional resources based on fact. The people may not be converts to using a project management methodology, but they are starting down the track. Now, about risk management......

Project Documentation

I was talking with a Project Manager recently who had completed a small web project. Although it took a year to build a site, there were only 2 full time staff - the project manager and a developer. When asked if they had much documentation, the answer was
"Not much. We worked so closely together, we didn't need to document much."

Pity the person who has to maintain the site. The purpose of documentation is not just to manage the project through to completion. It is to provide the people who support the site information that will enable them to maintain the site.

One decision mentioned was that there would be no advertising on the site. Later, the decision was challenged by a new participant who wanted to put advertising on the site. It caused considerable disruption until the advertising ban was enforced. This is a classic reason to document. If the decision was made, when was it made and who made it. It is easier to defend the decision, if you can say the Project Steering Committee made that decision on a certain date. If you want to challenge the decision, go back to the Steering Committee.

Documentation is a bit like advertising. Someone said that with advertising they were wasting half their money. They just didn't know which half. With project documentation, half may never be used. You just don't know which half.

The People Stream

If you are setting up a project, you typically create a work stream. You need to do a risk assessment, and define the scope. You need to create a project plan which results in tasks and milestones. You end up with a stream of activities to be undertaken by people, but what about the people stream?

By this I mean the activities directly related to managing the people. For example, induction training on the project; kick off meetings; performance reviews; feedback sessions; celebrations of major milestones; briefing sessions. If you extracted all the people management activities from your project plan, you might get a fright when you realize how little you are actually doing to manage the people. Give it a try and see if you are just project managing, or also people managing.

Setting up a Project Folder Structure

One of the less glamorous parts of project management is setting up a project file structure or project folder structure. Not too important until six months down the track when you try to find something. A Google search turned up next to nothing on this topic so we decided to put our thoughts to paper. See it at http://www.projectperfect.com.au/info_project_folder_structure.php

Managing the project sponsor

Have you had trouble managing a Sponsor? This white paper gives a few tips and tricks to help you manage the Sponsor to be a supportive and contributing part of the team.