What is best practice project management?

What is Best Practice Project Management?

Best Practice Project Management refers to approach used by that wish to run projects as efficiently and as effectively as possible.

This article is based on internationally accepted principles of Best Practice Project Management, summarised as follows:

Projects are unique, time-limited undertakings.

Each project has distinct characteristics that distinguish it from other projects (e.g. what is being built?).

Each project has common characteristics that associate it with other projects (e.g. many projects can be managed in the same way).

Project management differs from or functional management.

Project Management consists of methods and techniques, applied using a project team, led by a Project Manager with specific roles and responsibilities which differ from traditional management structures.

Project work should proceed in a spirit of controlled caution, based on the principle that reducing the risk of failure increases the chance of success through the use of a Project Plan.

Best Practice Principles — The Project Manager

The Project Manager will usually be responsible for the following regular activities:

• …initiating each part of the project, ensuring that all involved know what is expected of them
• …reviewing risks, issues and exceptions
• …holding regular team meetings
• …holding regular meetings with direct reports
• …meeting personally with team members to ensure good communications and understanding
• …regular liaison with customers and other stakeholders
• …scheduling and supporting regular quality reviews
• …holding regular project progress meetings and producing progress reports
• …ensuring that resource use is accurately monitored
• …maintaining the project plan, monitoring tasks and activities
• …reviewing expenditure against the plan, reviewing changes
• …maintaining the project file

Best Practice Principles — Projects — A common set of characteristics (or challenges?)

Project work is by the special challenges that it presents to both those involved in doing the work and those waiting to benefit from the results.

The most commonly cited challenges common to all projects are:

• the integration of many different skills and disciplines in one, temporary, team
• the delivery of outputs and benefits that are not always properly understood at the outset, and sometimes not required upon completion
• the problems, both practical and political, of managing an initiative that often crosses (rather than within) the functions in an
• the need for project managers who can tackle people management, task management and change management simultaneously

Best Practice Principles — Overview of the roles in a project

All projects will have:

a person who has the idea for the project and someone who might use or benefit from the project outputs

…the stakeholders

a person who champions and provides management support for the project

…often known as the sponsor

a person who manages the project

…the project manager

people who do the work

…the project team

Best Practice Principles — What does a Project Plan look like?

The Project Plan is concerned with providing a basis for management and control of the project work.

Typically a project plan is a collection of documents containing information about:

• What the project is setting out to accomplish and Why — the objectives and business case for doing the project
• How the work is going to be done — the strategy or approach, plus a schedule of work
• Who is responsible for doing what — including the project team and other resources
• Details of start and end dates — for the whole project and each part or ‘stage’
• Approximations of cost — ranging from firm to very approximate
• Recognition of risks and actions to take to reduce them — reviewed as the project proceeds
• Identification of dependencies beyond the project — for instance, other related projects

The form and volume of the project plan will differ from one to another. However, it is useful to adopt a consistent structure for all plans to promote good communications. This is key to the success of any project.

Best Practice Principles — Risk reduction — the concept of ongoing reviews

Best Practice promotes the concept that projects are most effectively managed when broken down into a series of component parts. In Project Architect the Project Management Process is broken down into 5 Stages for Complex projects and 3 Stages for Simple projects. The actual Project Work is broken down into as many Phases as the Project Manager wishes.

To help to reduce the risk of failure, it is usual to introduce reviews (what has been done?/what to do next?) between each Stage and occasionally each Phase of Project Work.

The purpose of these reviews is to monitor the actual progress of the project relative to the progress predicted in the project plan and to make any changes needed.

Steering is the term used to describe the process of information collection, analysis and decision making which will guide the project towards the outcomes required.

Based on the best practice guide at www.projectarchitect.net