What does this entail? |
Obtain feedback from other project managers and learn from their experience |
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Updating |
Information is added as soon as possible. |
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To provide your input |
1. |
Send an e-mail to the PROJEKtUS office (see contact information) detailing your comments and experience. |
2. |
Once the e-mail has been received, the input will be processed and made available here. |
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LESSONS LEARNT |
General |
1. |
The application of project management principles helps to systematise thoughts and processes. |
2. |
Thorough preparation contributes to the smooth implementation of the project. |
3. |
Gap analyses done before the start of the project contribute to the project's success. |
4. |
Do noy attempt to change too many business processes during a project. |
5. |
Project structures and forums support timely decision-making. |
6. |
The application of project management principles is experienced as "strange" within a university context. This complicates the role of the project manager. |
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Initiation and Planning |
1. |
A project plan must be well-considered and well-defined. |
2. |
Thorough project planning is time-consuming and provision must be made for that when planning time. |
3. |
Define the full scope of the project. |
4. |
Depending on the nature and duration of the project, it might not be possible to plan the whole project in detail. Break up the project into phases and make every phase dependent on the outcome of the previous phase (incremental planing). |
5. |
Break tasks up as far as possible so that a single person is responsible. It facilitates measurement of progress and determining bottlenecks. |
6. |
Early planning and more realistic objectives in terms of time reduce the pressure on staff during the project. |
7. |
The owners of business processes as well as key staff members must be available and involved in detailed planning right from the start. |
8. |
Users must focus on the detail of the proposed solution thereby ensuring that the proposed solution will satisfy the needs. |
9. |
Revise the proposed solution - pay attention to both the detail and the total image. |
10. |
Use the latest information or documentation for planning. |
11. |
Remember to plan and to allow time to correct mistakes. |
12. |
In order to prevent delays in the decision-making processes, an agreement should be reached with the roleplayers during the early planning stages of the project when their inputs are required. Subsequently they can adapt their schedules to the project in time. |
13. |
The project schedule must take into consideration that time will still be spent on daily tasks. |
14. |
Make provision for the time that will be required to clarify key deliverables with interested parties. |
15. |
The project plan must be as detailed as possible before the budget is drawn up. |
16. |
Decide in advance which aid will be used for project planning and for what else it will be used, e.g. to record progress. |
17. |
Come to an agreement with the project owner in advance about the level of detail required for the project plan. |
18. |
Project management aids or packages must be easy to use. |
19. |
The use of MS Project promotes analytical thinking regarding tasks. |
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Planning: Technology Projects |
1. |
Standardise the hardware and operating systems for optimal cost control and better provision for emergencies. |
2. |
Determine whether a system is mission-critical. If it is, it must be taken into consideration during planning. |
3. |
The implementation of new technology is associated with growing pains that impact negatively on the project schedule. |
4. |
Make provision for separate testing, development and production environments. |
5. |
If commercial systems are purchased, it is crucial to obtain information from EXPERIENCED consultants. |
6. |
Devote a lot of attention to capacity planning, load tests and simulations and to tuning performance. |
7. |
Technical design specifications, including report specifications, must be discussed with the users in advance so that they understand what it is all about and can see an effective solution from a business perspective. |
8. |
Before a technology project is placed in production, tests must first be done to ensure that the system can handle the load. |
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Roles: General |
1. |
Roles and responsibilities in terms of internal and external staff must be defined very clearly form the outset. |
2. |
It makes sense to identify team leaders for larger projects and to delegate certain responsibilities to them. |
3. |
Ownership of the project and insight into the project's objectives must be promoted at all levels and not only at senior level. |
4. |
If team members are responsible for daily tasks as well as for project tasks, project tasks enjoy higher priority and there is insufficient time left for project tasks. |
5. |
Ensure that senior management accepts responsibility for project dependencies that fall outside the control of the project team. |
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Roles: Project Owner |
1. |
Project owners must be knowledgeable regarding project management in order to understand their role and to provide the required support to the project manager. |
2. |
It is of critical importance to the success of a project that the project owner accepts his/her responsibility and exercises it effectively. |
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Roles: Shareholders |
1. |
Do not assume that the persons involved understand what the project is about - present information sessions and make documentation available. |
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Roles: Project Manager |
1. |
The project manager must be trained in project management before the project starts. It lresults in more appeciation for the approach and also better planning. |
2. |
New project managers should have an experienced mentor to keep him/her on the right track. |
3. |
US must identify willing project managers and train them to become experts. |
4. |
The US must not appoint project managers who are not willing to do what is required of them, or who are appointed only on the basis of the positions they fill. |
5. |
Project managers must be allocated to projects judiciously and with their consent even before the projects have been fully conceptualised and approved. In this way they can accept ownership of the projects right from the start. |
6. |
Project managers must receive regular feedback and training. |
7. |
The role of the project manager must be defined clearly in realtion to the team members and he/she must have the necessary authority to act. |
8. |
Environmental heads must accept that the project managers in their environment cannot handle project management as well as their normal working load.Project managers must be relieved from thier normal working load for the duration of the project. |
9. |
The project manager must be involved in all the facets of the project including drawing up the budget. |
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Roles: Consultants |
1. |
Better productivity and more effective solutions are achieved if external staff are first oriented regarding the technical and business environment. |
2. |
Ensure that agreements have been reached with the consultants regarding each deliverable, as well as clear starting and final dates. |
3. |
Allow enough time to organise the contractual aspects. |
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Time Management |
1. |
Detailed guidelines regarding time management and the completion of time sheets must be determined when the project is initiated. |
2. |
Team members must have enough time available to participate in a project. |
3. |
Make provision for overtime because of the load that additional project tasks can place on the team members. |
4. |
The University's staff are not used to completing time sheets. Ensure that the need for time sheets are explained right at the beginning of the project. |
5. |
The level of detail on the time sheets is very important. It must focus on gathering enough information in order to manage tasks, monitor progress and to identify underutilised team members. |
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Financial Management |
1. |
Distinguish right from the start between project costs (completed within a specific time) and running costs. |
2. |
Do not commence with a project until the project and its associated costs have been approved. |
3. |
Ensure that the financial administration is sound to avoid overexpenditure. |
4. |
Financial reporting must focus only on the project if possible and not on the financial year. |
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Human Resources Management |
1. |
Team members and key staff members should also receive training in project managemnent methodology and related templates. |
2. |
Consistency regarding the composition of a project team for the duration of the project is a very important factor. |
3. |
Dedicated staff members must be allocated to projects if possible, or otherwise budget for a consultant. |
4. |
People must be willing to do the work and accept responsibility for specific tasks. |
5. |
Internal staff members must be oriented regarding a new product, functionality and models. |
6. |
Create a common dictionary containing definitions of the terms to be used during the project. |
7. |
Contracts must be finalised before the project commences. |
8. |
Staff members must be selected based on their abilities and willingness to fulfil their role in the project. |
9. |
Knowledge transfer must be included in the contracts concluded with outside consultants. |
10. |
Knowledge transfer is important to prevent dependency on a few resources. |
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Communication |
1. |
Project managers must understand the importance of communication for their projects. |
2. |
Project managers must accept responsibility for communication. |
3. |
The projects must reach their set targets in order for effective communication to take place. |
4. |
A lot of attention must be paid to internal communication and demonstrations. |
5. |
Schedule more time for communication and change management. |
6. |
Key messages must be repeated over and over again by different people through different media. |
7. |
Visible support of the project owner is important. |
8. |
Inputs from a commnication specialist is useful. |
9. |
More targeted marketing can be used. |
10. |
Creating an identity for the project can make a big contribution to the communication. |
11. |
Be aware of a culture where people do not accept the responsibility to be informed and to read communication documents. |
12. |
Timely and fast access to professional services such as formatting of documents, web design, production of marketing materials and printing is necessary. |
13. |
Ensure that the right people take responsibility for communication after completion of the project. |
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Risk Management |
1. |
Assess the possible impact of the project on the environment to ensure the minimum disruption. |
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Status / Progress |
1. |
Schedule progress meetings at the beginning of the project and KEEP to the schedule! |
2. |
Persons involved must regularly be reminded of outstanding tasks. |
3. |
Ensure that the reporting cycle, i.e. when the reports must be compiled, takes the arranged schedule for status meetings into consideration - sufficient time must be availble to compile the reports. |
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Quality Control |
1. |
Training in the theory of test planning and testing is required for members of the staff and the teams. |
2. |
Planning for quality control and testing must be done in the greatest detail. |
3. |
Test segments must represent business requirements and must ensure testing of all possible scenarios. |
4. |
Sufficient time must be scheduled so that the users themselves can test the system. |
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Quality Control: Internal Audit |
1. |
Involve the auditors from the start - a positive and pro-active contribution is required, not only reactive control. |
2. |
Auditors must be well-informed about the area where their services are required, but not necessarily about the specific application. |
3. |
Auditors must have proven experience regarding similar projects and must not use the project as a training session. |
4. |
Do not change auditors during the project. |
5. |
Include the audit deliverables in the project plan so that they can be managed during the implementation of the project. |
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Quality Control: Data Migration |
1. |
Incorporate mechanisms and sufficient time in the project plan to ensure that data are throroughly cleaned. |
2. |
Put control mechanisms in place to ensure that changes to the applications (during the implementation of the project) are also reflected in the migration needs. |
3. |
Ensure that the quality control is done thoroughly - people are working under great pressure and mistakes are made. |
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Administration of Deliverables |
1. |
Guidelines regarding the guides where information is stored, must be very explicit from the start. |
2. |
Ensure that all documentation is up to date including business process documentation and technical specifications. |
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Change management: General |
1. |
The implementation of change management can contribute to the creation of a new culture in an organisation. |
2. |
An organisation's preparedness to change must be evaluated in advance. |
3. |
The existing organisational culture and business processes can impede effective change mangement actions. |
4. |
A change management methodology should preferably have already been established in an organisation before a project commences. |
5. |
The change management plan must be flexible enough to be adapted based on the reportback received. |
6. |
The team leader for change management must be involved right from the start and also on an ongoing basis during planning. |
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Change Management: Change Leadership |
1. |
Trained change leaders must be used in every environment. |
2. |
Change leaders must be contracted to fulfil their roles. |
3. |
Change leaders must be involved right from the start of the project. |
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Change Control |
1. |
Impact analyses must be done for all changes. |
2. |
An effective change request report must be compiled and must be updated regularly. |
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Training |
1. |
If there is a training component attached to a project, accurate manuals and intensive training are required. Case studies must also be included in the manuals. |
2. |
The creation of manuals must be planned as part of the project. |
3. |
Sufficient time must be scheduled for the creation of manuals, the presentation of training sessions as well as for follow-up training. |
4. |
Training opportunities must be marketed effectively - individual invitations are the most effective. |
5. |
The framework and basic information for the manuals can be compiled earlier during the design phase. |
6. |
All team members should verify manuals for comprehensiveness and accuracy. |
7. |
Training must focus on business processes rather than on system functionalities. |
8. |
If practical exercises are required, longer training sessions must be scheduled. |
9. |
If practical exercises form part of the training the presenter must get assistance. |
10. |
Training scenarios must be properly planned and constructed to be effective. |
11. |
Ensure that the training facilities are available and are booked in advance. |
12. |
Resources such as computers and data projectors required for training must be obtained before the training commences. |
13. |
Use a smaller but dedicated group of presenters. |
14. |
Electronic manuals can be very effective and save money. |
