The planning phases of project management

In the early stages, the project management process consists of developing a series of successively more refined plans and programs for the execution of the project. In the later stages, the process consists of ensuring adherence to those plans, subject to such modifications as are approved in accordance with the plans.

Plans include not only the basic design for the project, but a comprehensive statement of its rationale and objectives and the prescription of a method for carrying out the project that maximizes the prospects of those objectives and will be attained within the budget that has been approved.

Basic techniques of project management may be easily summarized. First, the overall project should be subdivided into small, self-contained modules or phases, each of which is tied to a specific deliverable. Essentially, each such phase may be viewed as a distinct or discrete stage in the project.

Ideally, no phase should take more than six months to a year from its design to completion. In the IT area, concern is required with respect to each phase, since rapid changes in technology or evolving user requirements may make the system obsolete even before its completion.

To avoid the problem of vampire programs and activity traps, there should be review and “bail-out” or “off-ramp” points at regular intervals, to allow the project to be discontinued where it becomes evident that the objectives which served as its rationale can no longer be obtained, or can only be obtained at a cost disproportionate to perceived benefit.

Typically, the phases of a project may be broken down into:

Preparatory: Covering such aspects as a requirements analysis and the development of a business case for carrying forward with the project.
Consultation: Involving extensive consultation to determine the detailed requirements for the project, to define the specific project objectives and fix milestones for completion.
Planning: Covering such aspects of the project as scope definition, the creation of a work breakdown structure, quantity estimating and costing; final budgeting, and scheduling, risk management process to be incorporated into the process; developing the tools for development of communications plans, team building and stakeholder management.
Contract award: Incorporating procurement management, quality management and the development of a project execution management plan.
Construction: Monitoring and control phase, covering tracking and evaluating process, reporting, changing management.
Take-over phase: Confirming conformity to the plans and specifications, taking delivery, acceptance and administrative closure, putting the project into operation.
Close-out phase: Building upon the experience (identifying the lessons learned) and factoring those lessons into future decision-making.
Operating phase: Warranty support, takeover of full responsibility for the project, ongoing user support and facility management; life cycle management.

While goals for project management are essential, it is not a cure for all manner of ills, and it will only work to the extent the right person is put in charge and given the resources to carry out the responsibility. Bad project management can cause project failure.

On occasion, the individuals who are designated as project managers will lack the necessary training and experience to carry out this role. As a result, they are unfamiliar with and undisciplined in their use of, the tools and techniques of system analysis and design. One of the most common causes of project failure is taking short cuts through or around this methodology.

Although budgetary control is an integral aspect of project management, it is not simply to count beans. A project manager must know enough about the subject-matter of a project to be able to understand the performance implications of budgetary decisions.

The project manager must have sufficient understanding of the methodologies that are being employed, the tasks and activities that are carried out about the project and the overall strategic requirements behind the project to be able to make informed decisions as to what may be skipped without adverse impact and what the long-term implications of other options may be.

Stephen Bauld is a government procurement expert and can be reached at swbauld@purchasingci.com. Some of his columns may contain excerpts from The Municipal Procurement Handbook published by Butterworths.