project management phase guide

Procedure for Project Management as a Guideline: TIPS to REMEMBER and SUCCEED
ALS – PARTNERS Ltd
S O L U T I O N S * I D E A S * S O L U T I O N S * I D E
A S
Dr A G Kimmance PhD; MSc-Eng; BSc-Eng (Hons); MCIOB, MAPM, AHEA
BEST PRACTICE
Project Management
GUIDELINES
FROM SIMPLE
PROJECTS THROUGH
TO
MAJOR CHANGE
PROJECTS

S O L U T I O N S * I D E A S * S O L U T I O N S * I D E
A S
Why Write THESE guidelines and Who Wrote It?
Dr Andrew Kimmance is a founding director of ALS- Partners, a consultant in Civil
Engineering and Construction Project Management, a previous lecturer at the University of
Lancashire (UCLan) and Loughborough, a Charted Engineer and Royal Member of the
Charted Institute of Building (CIOB) with project management accreditation. He has a HND in
Civil Engineering, BSc-Eng (Honours) in Construction Engineering with Management, MSc-
Eng in Manufacturing Industrial Engineering with Process Management, and a PhD in Civil
Engineering with Construction Management at Loughborough University where he was
formerly construction-managing director in the Civil and Building Engineering Department,
researching computer-integrated information modelling systems to support construction
management processes and part time lecturing. Previously he has 30 years experience in
Civil & Construction Engineering and Management with International Organisations
incorporating a wide range of consultancy practice, coupled with extensive operational
expertise in project management and construction/building professions.
His research interests include project management, computer integration, information
systems, product and process modelling, and virtual reality applications for improving
collaborative communications in the construction industry, and have been accredited with
numerous scientific publications for leading International journals in these fields.
Dr A G Kimmance PhD; MSc-Eng; BSc-Eng; MCIOB; MAPM, AHEA

He believes the modern day manager needs project management skills to deliver the
organisations’ agenda. He therefore decided to write this guide to help support them. The
writing of this guideline fits nicely with his consultancy motto “Helping organisations
deliver projects effectively.” The word project can be misleading. Many people think of
large scale building works or changes in information technology. Your project may not be as
big as those quoted; preparing and writing a report, developing an internet product alongside
marketing and sales plan, relocating an office. They all need careful planning.
These Guidelines are based on some of the finest and most effective techniques devised by
provident scholars and project managers, and are based on the unique Construction Project
Management System STAR - Systematic Technique for Analysing the Requirements
needed in Construction Project Management. The STAR system model is in the process of
being used in the consultancy practice and is a tried and tested flexible model for offering
services.
This guideline should help you in many ways:
• Providing you with a structure to manage your projects
• Giving practical advice based on over 20 years of running workshops and projects
• Answering many of the questions posed by people involved in projects
• Using it to check current project management practices in your organisation
You, as the reader may be a one person business or working in a global company with many
thousands of workers. This guideline is written for all of you!! We mention senior managers. If
you work alone, you are the senior manager! Please adapt the content to fit your situation.
Andrew has worked in the Building, Civil Engineering and Construction Project Management
fields for many years. He is passionate about these fields with focus on project management
and formed a building and consultancy partnership in 1983. Since then, he has lectured in
construction project management, written articles, and spoken at conferences and managed
many projects for various international organisations.
Good luck with all your projects and we would be delighted to receive feedback about the
content of this guideline as well as how you have managed to apply it.
Happy Reading 

STAR
Systematic Technique for Analysing the Requirements
STAR - Systematic Technique for Analysing the Requirements is a generic Project Management
Framework aimed at identifying the clients requirements needed to deliver a project safely, on time,
PROJECT
MANAGEMEN
T

within budget, and to the highest possible standards while taking the scope, contractual and
environmental constraints (standards, regulations, specifications) into consideration.

Construction Project Management Guideline
I. Project Initiation Phase (One)
There are many explanations of what the life cycle of a project is but as guidance, the
Initiation Phase is the first generic stage in a project. In this phase a project/business
problem (or opportunity) is identified and a business case or scoping report which
provides various solution options is defined. A feasibility/concept study is then
conducted to investigate the likelihood of each solution option addressing the business
problem and any requirements, and a final recommended solution is put forward.
Once the recommended solution is approved, a project is initiated to deliver the
approved solution.
The next step is to appoint a project manager and develop the ‘Project Charter’, which
outlines the objectives, scope and structure of the new project. The Project Manager
begins recruiting a project team and will establish a Project Office environment.
Approval is then sought to move into the detailed planning phase.
The Project Initiation Phase is the 1st phase in the Project Management Life Cycle,
as it involves starting up a new project or many projects as it may be. Basically, you
can start a new project by defining its objectives, scope, purpose and
deliverables to be produced. You will also hire your project team, setup the Project
Office and review the project, to gain approval to begin the next phase.
Overall, there are six key steps that you need to take to properly initiate a new
project. These Project Initiation steps and their corresponding templates are shown in
the following diagram.
The Project Initiation Phase is the most crucial phase in the Project Life Cycle as it's
the phase in which you define your scope and hire your team. Only with a clearly
defined scope and a suitably skilled team can you ensure success. Project Initiation
Templates used in Microsoft Office or PRIMAVERA software will help to do this, by
providing all the template plans needed to initiate new projects in today’s market.

These templates describe in depth, the steps taken to initiate a project. They also
include loads of practical examples, tips and hints. Using these templates, you’ll
always have a head-start and should never have to start-from-scratch.
Activities Steps: By following the guidance activity procedure steps described
below and using the Microsoft project management or primavera templates, you can
quickly and easily create all of the deliverables needed to initiate your new project.
1) Develop a Business Case
2) Undertake a feasibility Study
3) Establish the Project Charter
4) Appoint the Project Team
5) Set–Up the Office (departments)
6) Perform a Phase Review

Typical Project Management Life Cycle using a project Gate Review Process

project management phase guide

5. Where appropriate, involve finance people in putting the business case
together. They can be great allies in helping crunch the numbers which should
give credibility to your business case.
II. Defining Your Project (Feasibility)
6. Produce a written project definition statement (sometimes called PID) and
use it to inform stakeholders – see point 13. This document is ‘your contract’ to
carry out the project and should be circulated to key stakeholders.
7. Use the project definition statement to prevent creep. Use it to prevent you
going beyond the scope of the project through its use in the review process.
8. Identify in detail what will and will not be included in the project scope. Avoid
wasting time by working on those areas which should not be included – identify
these in the PID.
9. Identify who fulfils which roles in your project. Document them on the PID.
Include a paragraph to show what each person does.
10. Identify who has responsibility for what in the project e.g. project
communications is the responsibility of AD. This helps reduce doubt early in the
life of the project.
11. Think ‘Team Selection’ – give some thought to who should be in your team.
Analyse whether they have the skills required to enable them to carry out their
role? If not, ensure they receive the right training. Check they are available for
the period of the project. NOTE: this includes any contactors you may need to
use

12. Form a group of Project Managers. The Project Manager role can sometimes
be very lonely! Give support to each other by forming a group of Project
Managers.
13. Identify who the stakeholders are for your project – those affected and
‘impacted’ by the project. This should be an in- depth analysis which needs
updating regularly.
14. Recognise early in the life of the project what is driving the project. Is it a drive
to improve quality, reduce costs or hit a particular deadline? You can
only have 1. Discuss with the sponsor what is driving the project and ensure
you stick to this throughout the project. Keep “the driver” in mind especially
when you monitor and review.
15. Hold a kick off meeting (Start up Workshop) with key stakeholders, sponsor,
and project manager project team. Use the meeting to help develop the PID
(see Tip 6). Identify risks and generally plan the project. If appropriate hold
new meetings at the start of a new stage.
16. Ensure you review the project during the Defining Your Project Stage – involve
your sponsor or senior manager in this process. Remember to check progress
against the business case.
II. Project Planning Phase (Two)
The Project Planning Phase is the second phase in the project life cycle. It involves
creating a series of plans to help guide your team through the execution and closure
phases of the project.

The plans created during this phase will help you to manage time, cost, quality,
change, risk and issues. They will also help you manage staff and external suppliers,
to ensure that you deliver the project on time and within budget.
There are 10 Project Planning steps you need to take to complete the Project
Planning Phase efficiently. These steps and the primavera templates needed to
perform them are shown in the following diagram (2). When using the primavera
software package you can click on each link to learn how these templates will help you
to plan projects efficiently.
The Project Planning Phase is often the most challenging phase for a Project
Manager, as you need to make an educated guess of the staff, resources and
equipment needed to complete your project. You may also need to plan your
communications and procurement activities, as well as contract any 3rd party
suppliers.
In short, you need to create a comprehensive suite of project plans which set out a
clear project roadmap ahead. The Primavera Project Planning Template suite will help
you to do this, by giving you a comprehensive collection of Project Planning templates.
By using these project planning templates, you can quickly and easily plan your
project.
Figure 2: Procedure activity steps in the project Planning Phase 2

III. Delivery Planning Stage 2
17. Create a work breakdown structure (WBS) for the project. A WBS is a key
element you will need to develop your plan. It lists out all of the activities you
will need to undertake to deliver the project. Post it notes can be a great help in
developing your WBS.
18. Group tasks under different headings once you have a list. This will enable you
to identify the chunks of work that need to be delivered, as well as put together
the Gantt chart and milestone chart.
19. Identify dependencies (or predecessors) of all activities. This will let you put
together the Gantt and milestone charts. Ensure you write them down
otherwise you are trying to carry potentially hundreds of options in your head.
20. Estimate how long each activity will take. Be aware that research points out that
we are notoriously bad at estimating. You estimate a task will take 3 days.
Identify how confident you are that you can deliver in 3 days by using % e.g. I’m
only 40% certain I can deliver in 3 days. You should aim for 80%. If you do not
believe you can achieve 80% then re-calculate
21. Identify the critical path for the project. The critical path identifies those
activities which have to be completed by the due date in order to complete the
project on time.
22. Communicate, communicate, and communicate! Delivering a project effectively
means you need to spend time communicating with a wide range of individuals.
Build a communication plan and review it regularly and include it in your Gantt
chart.

23. Are you involved in a major change project? If you are, think through the
implications of this on key stakeholders and how you may need to influence
and communicate with them.
24. Conduct Risk Assessment – carry out a full risk analysis and document it in a
risk register. Regularly review each risk to ensure you are managing them,
rather than them managing you. Appoint a person to manage each risk.
25. Develop a Gantt chart and use it to monitor progress against the plan and to
involve key stakeholders in the communications process.
26. Draw up a milestone plan. These are stages in the project. You can use the
milestone dates to check the project is where it should be. Review whether
activities have been delivered against the milestone dates and take a look
forward at what needs to be achieved to deliver the next milestone.
III. Project Execution Phase – Construction Stage
(Three)
The Project Execution Phase is the third phase in the project life cycle. In this phase,
you will build the physical project deliverables and present them to your customer for
signoff. The Project Execution Phase is usually the longest phase in the project life
cycle and it typically consumes the most energy and the most resources.
To enable you to monitor and control the project during this phase, you will need to
implement a range of management processes. These processes help you to manage
Requirements, Scope, time, cost, quality, change, risks and issues. They also help
you to manage procurement, customer acceptance and communications.
The project management activities and Primavera templates which can help you
complete them are shown in the following diagram (3).

Figure 3: Procedure activity steps in the Construction Phase
These Primavera Project Execution Templates provide you with all of the documents
required to monitor and control the Project Execution (construction) phase within a
project. It will also help you manage risk, changes, and quality, costs, time and
requirement issues more effectively than before.
To deliver a project successfully, it is critical that you monitor and control the time
spent by staff. By using this Time Management Process, you can ensure the
completion of Timesheets; measure actual time spent on the project and identifies any
potential task slippage early. You will also be able to keep your Project Plan up-to-
date by recording the total time spent against each task listed.

IV. Project Delivery – Monitoring and Reviewing Your Project
(Project Governance) Stage 3
27. Have a clear project management monitoring and reviewing process – agreed
by senior managers - the project sponsor and the project Board, if you have
one.
28. Ensure your organisation’s corporate governance structure and your project
management monitoring and control structure are compatible. If you do not
know whether this is the case then seek senior management involvement.
29. Be aware early in the project what will be monitored, how they will be monitored
and the frequency.
30. Keep accurate records of your project not only for audit purposes but to ensure
you have documents which enable you to monitor changes.
31. Use a Planned v. Actual form. It is easy to create – it allows you to monitor how
you are progressing with specific tasks – time and money. Link these forms into
milestone reviews.
32. Identify with your sponsor the type of control that is needed – loose or tight or a
variation of these, e.g. tight at the start, loose in the middle, tight at the end.
Ensure the system you develop reflects the type of control intended.
33. Agree a system for project changes – have an agreed system for monitoring
and approving changes. Use change control forms and obtain formal sign off
(agreement) by the sponsor, before action a change. Look for the impact of the
change on the project scope as well as the “key driver” - quality, and cost and
time.

34. Appoint someone to be responsible for project quality especially in larger
projects. Review quality formally with the client at agreed milestone dates.
35. Make certain you have agreed who can sanction changes in the absence of
your sponsor. If you haven’t agreed this, what will you do in their absence?
36. Set a time limit for project meetings to review progress. Have an agenda with
times against each item and summarise after each item at the end of the
meeting.
37. Produce action points against each item on the agenda and circulate within 24
hours of the meeting. Use these action points to help in the creation of your
next agenda.
38. Review the items on the critical path checking they are on schedule. Review
risks; review yours stakeholders and your communication plans and whether
you are still on track to deliver on time, to budget and to the required quality
standard.
39. Set a tolerance figure and monitor e.g. a tolerance figure of ±5% means as long
as you are within the 5% limit you do not have to formally report. If exceed the
5% limit (cost or time) then you need to report this to the agreed person –
probably your sponsor
40. Report progress against an end of a stage – are you on schedule? Time, cost
or quality? Ensure that if something is off schedule the person responsible for
delivering it suggests ways to bring it back on time, within budget or to hit the
right quality standard.
41. Develop an issues log to record items that may be causing concern. Review at
your project meetings.

42. See whether you are still delivering the original project benefits when reviewing
your project. If not, consider re-scoping or if appropriate abandoning the
project. Do not be afraid of abandoning a project. Better to abandon now rather
than waste valuable time, money, and resources working on something no
longer required. If you close a project early – hold a project review meeting to
identify learning.
43. Produce one-page reports highlighting key issues. Agree the areas to include
with the Sponsor before writing a report.
44. Use a series of templates to support the monitoring process, e.g. milestone
reporting, change control, log, planned v. actual.
45. Apply traffic lights to illustrate how you are progressing – red, amber and green.
Use these in conjunction with milestone reports.
46. Engender honest reporting against specific deliverables, milestones, or a
critical path activity. If you do not have honest reporting imagine the
consequences.
4. Project Closure Phase (Four)
Following the completion of all project deliverables and acceptance by the customer, a
successful project will have met its objectives and be ready for formal closure. The
Project Closure Phase is the fourth and last phase in the project life cycle. In
this phase, you will formally close your project and then report its overall level of
success to your sponsor.
Project Closure involves handing over the deliverables to your customer, passing the
documentation to the business, cancelling supplier contracts, releasing staff and
equipment, and informing stakeholders of the closure of the project.

After the project has been closed, a Post Implementation Review is completed to
determine the project’s success and identify the lessons learned.
The activities taken to close a project and the templates which help you to complete
each activity are shown in the following diagram (4). Again when using primavera you
can click the diagram links using (wizard) to learn how these templates can help you
to close projects efficiently. Project Closure is the last phase in the project and must
be conducted formally so that the business benefits delivered by the project are fully
realized by the customer.
Figure 4: Closing out the project phase Four
The first step taken when closing a project is to create a Project Closure Report. It is
extremely important that you list every activity required to close the project within this
Project Closure report, to ensure that project closure is completed smoothly and
efficiently. Once the report has been approved by your sponsor, the closure activities
stated in the report are actioned.
Between one and three months after the project has been closed and the business
has begun to experience the benefits provided by the project, you need to complete a
Post Implementation Review. This review allows the business to identify the level
of success of the project and list any lessons learned for future projects.
Closing a project is not as easy as it seems. You need to first ensure that the project
closure criteria have been fully satisfied and that there are no outstanding items
remaining. You then need to identify a release plan for the project deliverables,
documentation, supplier contracts and resources. Finally, you will want to initiate a
communication plan to inform all project stakeholders that the project has now been
closed. Each of these activities and many more are described in this Project Closure
Report, ready for immediate download.

V. Closedown down and Review Stage 4
47. Agree well in advance a date to hold a post project review meeting. Put this
onto the Gantt chart.
48. Invite key stakeholders, sponsor, and project team to the post project review. If
the date is in their diary well in advance it should make it easier for them to
attend
49. Focus your meeting on learning – identifying what you can use on the next
project. Share the learning with others in the organisation.
50. Check whether you have delivered the original project objectives and benefits
and not gone out of scope.
51. Make sure that you have delivered against budget, quality requirements and
the end deadline.
52. Understand how well you managed risks and your key stakeholders. Use
questionnaires to obtain feedback.
53. Prepare a list of unfinished items. Identify who will complete these after the
project and circulate to any stakeholders.
54. Hand over the project formally to another group (it is now their day job) - if
appropriate. You may need to build this into the project plan and involve them
early in the plan and at different stages throughout the project.
55. Write an end of project report and circulate. Identify in the report key learning
points.
56. Close the project formally. Inform others you have done this and who is now
responsible for dealing with day to day issues.

57. Celebrate success with your team! Recognise achievement, there is nothing
more motivating.
General Tips
58. But what is a project? Why worry whether something is a project? Why
not use some of the project management processes, e.g. stakeholder analysis
or use of traffic lights to manage your work? They key principle is to deliver the
piece of work using the appropriate tools. We use the term project based
working to describe this approach.
59. Get trained! Use in-house training by senior management for all personnel
(computers & IT sessions, seminars, brain-storming and problem solving
sessions, lots of team meetings (after hours), teaching programmes, etc.
Research points out that only 50% of supervisors and management personnel
have received regular project management training, while 55% of people have
received any training.
60. Ensure you have the buy-in of senior managers for your project. You will need
to work hard to influence upwards and get their support.
61. What about the day job? Projects get in the way and the day job gets in the way
of projects! Many people have found that by applying project based working to
day to day activities and by being more rigorous on project work, more is
achieved.
62. Identify early on in the life of the project the priority of your projects. Inevitably
there will be a clash with another project or another task. Use your project
management skills to deliver and your senior management contacts to check
out the real priority of the project.

63. Discover how project management software can help. But, you will need to
develop the business case, produce a project definition alongside planning
what will go into the software. Many project managers use simple Excel
spreadsheets or charts in word to help deliver their project.
64. Remember it is team work; therefore use team focused methods such as
concurrent engineering CE principles at the start of projects.
Good luck in delivering your project!

Project Management with STAR
STAR was designed to help people and organisations deliver projects effectively. Its
philosophy was developed by Dr Andrews early in the project management
consultancy history and is still with the consultancy today. The aim of STAR systems
is to implement and integrate work in organisations:
 Demystifying project management with professionals at all levels
 Developing core skills – of project managers, their teams and project
sponsors.
 Providing written guidelines and protocols for staff to deliver projects in
consistent and effective way.
 Helping those involved in the project management process to recognise
the need to further develop their people skills as well as their project
management skills.
The consultancy practice has a range of qualified staff that supports the delivery of
the above philosophy. They are all well trained and work flexibly with clients.
What does ALS-Partners Project Consultancy do?
The following list is a range of services that can be offered to our company,
partners and clients. Please note that we customise much of what we do to meet
organisational and individual needs. Our services include:
 Delivering practical project management training:
 designed to ensure project managers and project team members
understand the processes and skills to deliver effectively
 customised to meet specific needs – really targeting organisational needs

 working with project teams focusing on delivering a specific project –
alongside developing their team skills
 running PRINCE, Project management, primavera qualification
programmes or training workshops
 Developing in-house project management systems i.e. a customised
project management system ensuring consistency of approach - complete
with templates
 Running training sessions for project sponsors and project board members
– to help develop their role effectively
 Carrying out audits of projects – after project completion, end of stage or
an audit of internal project management approaches.
 Organising and running start up workshops for groups pre project –
ensuring projects get off to a really effective start
 Developing effective business cases.
 Effective project leadership training.
 Working with senior managers identifying the key projects for the
organisation and their priority
 Individual coaching support to project managers and project sponsors
 Developing programme management strategies and establishing project
(programme) support offices
Do get in touch to discuss your needs:

By telephone: +44 (0) 1704 631042
By email: dragkimmance@yahoo.co.uk
By mobile: +44 (0) 7961310369
These notes on project management have been design to be used as a guideline only, and have
been produced for open distribution to anyone. Please feel free to pass it onto friends or
colleagues. I would be delighted to hear how you used this book and how useful it has been in
supporting the delivery of your project.
Finally, good luck with all of your projects. We would be delighted to talk with you about any
project management issues you may have. Do call +44 (0)1704 631042 or email me on
dragkimmance@yahoo.co.uk or AGKimmance@UCLan.ac.uk

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