Project monitoring in BRM 2/2

Yesterday I covered project monitoring, the documents needed and the tools that the project manager can use to achieve the correct output. Today I will try to give further explanation on why project monitoring is necessary. Imagine driving going to a wedding in a distance town where you have never been to before. You will definetly need a GPS and also ensure that you leave in good time. You don’t want to arrive late and walk in to the wedding ceremony, long after the bride and the groom are through with the wedding. This is similar to project monitoring, where you need the correct tools, GPS, to ensure that the project manager has a proper control on the pace of the project. It helps to dictate the pace and acts as an indicator on the status of the project. It is the pulse telling us how much alive the project is. Without project monitoring it won’t be possible to know the problems which rise during execution phase and may need better solutions for progression to be realized. Effective monitoring helps in knowing if the intended results are being achieved as planned, what actions are needed to achieve the intended results during the project execution, and whether these initiatives are creating a positive impact towards the project execution. In a nutshell, it can be said:

Assessment of project outcome: To know how the objectives are being met and the desired changes being met.

Process planning improvement: It helps in adapting to better contextual and risk factors which affect the research processes, like social and power dynamics.

Learning promotion: Gives insight on various approaches to participation which influences the outcomes.

Better understanding of stakeholders perspectives: Through direct participation in the process of monitoring and evaluation, the PM is able to learn about the people who are involved in the research project. This gives better understand of their values and views, as well as design methods to resolve conflicting views and interests.

Enhance accountability: To assess if the project has been effectively, appropriately and efficiently executed, so that they can be held accountable.

But how does the process actually work like?

3 Ways to Track and Re-Plan a Project

Rarely do projects flow as envisioned in the plan. There is always someone sick, a missing resource, dependency that is not available and so on. It is therefore important as a project manager to ensure that there is a fall back plan when needed. The following three approaches can be suitable in ensuring that in such times, the project management is not caught flat-footed.

1. Check and understand the progress of the project: Before starting to re-plan your project, you should be sure of the current state and status of the work. Setting up a meeting for the whole team together to get to know about the updates of the current work, upcoming tasks and issues will be beneficial. Also, recognize the important milestones in this meeting.
2. Search for and Manage Exceptions: Stay on a look-out for exceptions like risks, issues and change requests. Open issues will have to be resolved so that roadblocks can be removed, and a risk mitigation plan will have to be developed.
3. Re-plan the project: You have an idea of how to re-plan the project. The following steps will help you do so:

• Keep the important project documents updated, which includes the project charter.
• Share the new plan with the shareholders.
• As per the demand, re-assign the work. Communicate with the team members regarding the new assignments and send automated reminders to them.
• As required, make changes on the project site with the updates reports and dashboards.

In conclusion, project monitoring is important in making the project management plan work to meet the project objectives. It is a part of the project and project management, not an addition to it. Given the data about the team, the project and the prediction of overdue, project managers can customize the project plan and address issues before they happen. With project monitoring, you can identify the most efficient way to manage your resources and continually assess your project status, so you can ensure your project success.

Project monitoring in BRM 1/2

Project monitoring in project management is a very important task that helps the project manager to keep track of the progress and remain alert to any changes both internal and external. PMBOK defines it as

“The process of tracking, reviewing, and reporting the overall progress to meet the performance objectives defined in the project management plan “

This is vital for decision-making activities within and outside the project team. As a developer, I have always been fascinated with tracking project development in JIRA and see how the sprints progress as they move from one phase to another and draw closer to the closing date. I have learnt however that in project management, its something different altogether though they have lots of similarities. It is normal to see project managers do it, for the sake of fulfilling the project management plan but without really being keen on it’s effectivness. Some of the areas where project monitoring can be found useful include: Clarification of the project’s objectives, linking of activities to objectives, reporting of project progress to management and helps the management to be aware of the projects status and potential risks.

This is a key motivator to both management and the sponsor to complete the project within the given budget and time. In the development of a software, this will typically start from the time the project manager helps the team why they have to develop the software to the time the software is actually released as a deliverable. That is, from the time the stakeholders understand what the project is about to its development completion. It is normally a continous process addrssing any performance issues that may rise along the way to the future project status.

A project manager needs to master his area of domain and know which data is necessary for making decisions. Decision-making without a proper foundation makes it difficult to convince the stakeholders of its viability and may also be ineffective. Enter project management and it means that decisions are sound and reliable based on the outcome of the monitoring process. Just like at home where you would keep an eye on a toddler, monitoring them closely on their movements, so is project management. It is the toddler, that you would not let go closer to a staircase alone, or to the washing machine. As a project manager, you will certinaly not let the project unnecessarily be exposed to risks that may be costly. To have a better and proper monitoring of the projects, the following input documents are necessary; project management plan, project documents, work performance information (project scope, control resources etc), agreements made (procurements) and any other cordination documents such as risk register and risk reports. With such input, there should be enough information to make well-informed and sound decisions on

1. Whether tasks are being carried out correctly as expected.
2. Are there unforeseen risks such as potential price rise on components or products?
3. How does the team velocity rate against project workload?
4. Are there project components that should be changed or dropped? And what will be the impact of such changes?
5. Does the project still mirror the projected strategic goals?

And nothing good comes easily. Project monitoring is a tedious task, that requires concentration and keenness. Having automated tools and technologies can however simplify the process. Many software platforms today, provide addition add-ons that provide such excellent services. To improve the project managers effeiciency in project monitoring, the project manager should consider using their expertise to make the correct judgement, perform data analysis (cost benefit analysis, trend analysis, alternatives analysis etc.), decision making tools and collaborations in meetings. These are some of the avenues that data from the first step can be used to keep the projects well monitored. Several aspects of project monitoring should be considered, including but not limited to:

1. Parameter of project planning such as effort, costs, schedult, timeframe etc.
2. Stakeholder committments. Could be external or even internal customers.
3. Project risks that arise along the way as well as opportunities that may show up including people, tools, processes etc.
4. Data Management: Monitor all the configuration items, including software, hardware and project documentation.
5. Progress reviews: Conduct and manage the project progress reviews with the help of different techniques which includes the work progress of team members, client meetings, milestones reviews, etc. Based on these activities, various status reports are created, which are shared with the stakeholders as well.

As the project manager keeps track of all these aspects of the project, it also enhances the projects capability of delivering deliverables within the expected time frame and budget. It also increases stakeholder confidence to know that the project is sailing as planned. Tommorrow I will shortly focus on this area and explain how to actually track a project as a project manager. Don’t miss out.