Foundation for Project Success

Successful project delivery seems to elude many project managers both professional and amatuer. This post hopes to promote some discussion on how the success of a project is shaped during its initiation.

PRINCE2 (UK Project Management Standard) starts by defining Projects as:

• 'management environment that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to a specified business case'

Another definition provided in the PRINCE2 manual defines a project as:

• 'a temporary organization that is needed to produce a unique and predefined outcome or result at a pre-specified time using predetermined resourcs'

PMI(Project Management Institute) defines a project as:

• 'A temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result'

Either of these standards provide definitions that focus on the temporary nature and the unique product or outcome. This temporary nature and uniqueness often requires people who are going to come together temporarily and collaborate to build or achive the unique result.

Instantly we are thinking (well those who are PM minded); how do we identify the people/resources needed, how do I communicate the need to collaborate and ensure they all understand the objectives, scope of the products/results/outcome, the constraints we have to work within such as time, cost and quality?

The simple answer is you need to conduct some sort of pre-project planning and project initiation in order to answer those questions and establish the temporary infrastructure for the team to operate within. What should be included in the pre-project pleanning and project initiation? Rather than re-inventing the wheel lets turn to an establish Project Management Frameworks such as PRINCE2 to provide us with process definitions , inputs, outputs and the guiding principles already.

The Project Management Framework(PMF) should not cover the specialist techniques used to create the technical products or outcomes as this is the job of other methods. The PMF should focus on the management of the project and its resources being involved in carrying out the project tasks and activities.

PRINCE2 is a useful framework because it has been developed to be a PMF within a contract context and many projects are run within contracting context.

PRINCE is an abbreviation of PRojects IN a Controlled Environment. The controlled environment within PRINCE2 extendeds to include a controlled start, controlled progress and controlled closure. This project control is supplemented by the well defined governance structure that provides a controlled project assurance. (The number 2 on PRINCE2 came about when it released version two. This practice was stopped at Version 2.)

Starting Up a Project (SU)

Prince2 has a process called 'Starting Up a Project' to help start build the foundations for the project. The process produces six key elements:

• Designing and appointing the project management team
• Assembling the project brief
• Establishing the project approach
• Establishing the customers quality expectations
• Setting up the project risk log
• and creating the Plan for the Initiation Stage

There are several tips for scaling the process depending on the possible initiation point:

1. In a standalone project then all the steps of the process can be applied.


2. If the project is part of a program they program can pass down the documentation either as a complete project brief or even a project initiation document (project plan in PMI terms). The program management may have already decided the project approach and the risk log could be included in the program risk log. In this case this process can just be a check to whether any more work needs to be done on the start up products.


3. The 3rd possibility is that the project is very small. In such cases the process can be usually be handled in an informal manner, possibly just taking a few minutes. A project manager should avoid the templates and bypass the process going straight to the Initiating a Project (IP) process.

Initiating a Project

This process aims at laying the foundations for the delivery of the project products/outcomes. It follows the Starting Up a project (SU) process within the framework. Its purpose is to draw up the contract between the project board and the project manager and the organization receiving the products so there is a common understanding of:

• The reasons for doing the project
• What key products the project will produce
• How and when these will be delivered and at what cost
• The scope of what is to be done
• Any constraints that apply to the product/outcome
• Any constraints that apply to the project
• Who is involved in project decision making
• How the quality required by the customers will be achieved
• What risks the project will be facing
• How is the project to be controlled through governance structures
• Who will receive what communications
• The production of plans in detail for next stage and in outline for the rest of the project

The PRINCE2 manual provides advice on scalability similar to Starting Up a Project (SU) the advice depends on the trigger and size of the project.

The processes within IP are:

• IP1 - Planning Quality
• IP2 - Planning a Project
• IP3 - Refining the Business Case
• IP4 - Setting up Project Controls
• IP5 - Setting up Project Files
• IP6- Assembling a Project Initiation Document (PID)

Project Governance

Project Governance is the process of developing, communicating, implementing, monitoring, and assuring the policies, procedures, organizational structures, and practices associated with a given project. The result is a framework for efficient and effective decision-making and delivery management focused on achieving project goals in a consistent manner, addressing appropriate risks and stakeholder requirements.

The Project Board is the group responsible for ensuring project goals are achieved and providing support for addressing project risks and issues.

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Within PRINCE2 there is a process group that the Project Board is responsible for. This process is called Directing a Project (DP) and this process will be discussed in another posting.

Summary

Project initiation provides a firm foundation for a project's success and research by NASA on project planning has shown that project success depends on sound planning during project initiation.

A controlled start depends on establishing the core structures and products that will be used to manage the delivery of the project's products / outcomes. The project initiation is an essential process for all projects however scalability can reduce the tasks from production of documents to review and update when Project Initiation Documents and the associated plans are provided for the project manager to use.

The key to a project's success largely depends on a successful project initiation and the establishment of the project organisation and documents and plans.