Develop a project management guidebook to ensure a repeatable andreliable process – and the fringe benefits that come with it – acrossyour organization.
Most organization want consistency without stifling creativity. Usingan organization’s own terms, a project management guidebook describeshow to set up, implement and control a project according to businessstandards, including the required processes and how they apply atdifferent project stages. The procedures are designed to assure thehighest degree of consistency – without enforcing overly detailed rules.
Faced with a major upgrade to an enterprise suite of softwareapplications that had aggressive targets and time-boxed funding insummer 2001, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for theState of Florida, USA, determined that it needed a more formal approachto managing projects.
With the assistance of a consultant, the DEP embarked on a projectmanagement improvement program for establishing and implementing bestpractices for project management within its Bureau of InformationService (BIS). The overall program included project management trainingwith mentoring, the creation of a project management office anddevelopment of a 108-page guidebook. As a result, BIS has seen improvedproject delivery consistency and better working relationships withinternal business customers.
Here are 10 tips to help you get started on creating your organization’s project management guidebook.
1.Guidebook development is a project. Manage it.
The guidebook is a unique deliverable, often with its own time frameand budget. This project must have a sponsor, project manager, assignedresources, a plan of attack and a process to deal with change. Developa statement of work (SOW) and a project plan to define the process thatwill be used to create the guide, the deliverables and their due dates,and required roles and responsibilities.
Development does not require a large team. In fact, one person couldtake responsibility of managing and developing the guide supported by apart-time team of subject matter experts (SMEs), who provide input andreview. At DEP-BIS, one person was the key developer of the guideworking with a part-time group of eight to nine SMEs.
2.Clearly define the purpose and scope of the guidebook.
Do you need guidebook for consistency across projects, to educate onbest practices, to share information or to create a minimum standard ofaction? Is it for a single department or division, or is it for theentire company? Is it for software projects or is it to be used onbusiness and construction projects, too?
The scope of the first iteration should be fairly limited, covering nomore than one or two close organizations. Future iterations – and therewill be others – can expand the scope. At DEP-BIS, the guidebook scopefocused on BIS’ Application Development and Geographic InformationSystems groups. Since then, several DEP business areas have requestedcopies of the guide to use on their projects even though there is noimmediate plan to incorporate their specific needs in the guide.
3.Involve your organization’s best people.
Frequently, your SMEs will be the people in the trenches managing andworking on projects. You will need their information to make theguidebook useful and credible.
You will get much faster buy-in by these people to use and promote theguidebook because they will feel ownership. At DEP-BIS, the projectleaders that had participated in guidebook creation encouraged buy-in.
4.Take advantage of your organization’s best practices.
By documenting existing best practices, you can easily “sell” the guideto other project managers because you already have proof that thesemethods work in your organization. Identify projects in yourorganization that are of the type being addressed in the guide.Interview team members from those projects to identify processes andtechniques that were effective and those that were not. Obtain copiesof the project plans to identify processes and techniques that wereeffective and those that were not. Obtain copies of the project plansto identify the project management activities and tasks performed, theresources required and the deliverables produced. Review projectmanagement deliverables, including status reports and SOWs, to betterunderstand the structure of the outputs produced and the level ofdetail included.
At DEP-BIS, a best practice was the way customers submitted and trackedsystem change requests. Although multiple groups within BIS handledproject requests somewhat differently, they worked together to define aconsistent but flexible process for the guide.
5.Apply industry best practices.
The business world is rich with ideas. Incorporate new strategies inyour plan, especially if they have proven to be useful elsewhere.Without this cross-pollination, an organization’s practices can becomeold, stagnant and dated. But recognize your organization’s limitations.At DEP-BIS, because there was little or no use of SOWs outside theapplication development group, the SOW structure and rules of use werereviewed and tailored appropriately of the guide.
Unless your organization has a large training budget and tolerance fora steep learning curve, do not develop a guide using unfamiliartechniques and approaches. Instead, base your guide on a practicalapproach that can be used effectively by your organization.
6.Keep initial versions simple and concise.
Even with a fairly small scope, you easily can include too much detailin the first cut. Focus on the activities and tasks that must beperformed and the deliverables that must be produced. The guide shouldcomprehensively address the full breadth of the project managementprocess, but detailed “how-to” information on techniques, for example,can be provided via pointers to other sources, a separately developedresource guide or incorporated into later versions.
Keeping your guide to the point will allow you to release the initialversion quickly. Project manager will understand the guide more easilyand tailor it to meet the specific needs of their unique projects. Onceyour organization gains more experience, additional detail can be addedusing feedback from projects that have used the guide.
7.Develop the guidebook by detailing layers.
Start by identifying the process areas and categories of informationthat you intend to include (see sidebar “Chapter and Verse”). Once thestructure is defined, define and gain approval on the processes, forinstance, before describing the activities. Each layer drives andshapes the next layer – having a checkpoint for each allows your SMEsand other reviewers to provide valuable input and feedback for the nextlayer. Several of your more experienced project managers should use thefirst cut on their next project phase. This approach providesincremental buy-in and approval and minimizes time-consuming rework. AtDEP-BIS, the initial cut of the guide mentioned project managementchecklists and service level agreements, but detailed checklists andspecific metrics were added in subsequent versions.
8.Deploy it quickly.
Timebox our development initiative. An iteration of the guide shouldtake no more than one to three months with one to two dedicatedresources. Although far from complete after the first iteration, theguide will be a good start toward consistency. In its studies ofinformation technology projects, The Standish Group suggests thatiterative projects with short duration (three months or less) are morelikely to be successful.
The timeline for DEP-BIS’s first iteration was three months. Since theinitial July 2001 rollout, two iterations have followed. DEP-BIS now ismoving the guidebook to an intranet site to eliminate the need forprinted version control and to provide more timely updates and wideravailability.
9.Market the guidebook to your organization.
As you create the guide, you must sell its usefulness to theorganization. Educate people on the benefits of using the guide.Identify and get buy-in from those in your organization that areinfluential. Solicit their help in promoting the guide. Identifytraining requirements and provide for needed training, especially ifthe guide introduces new techniques that are not well understood byyour organization.
Last, implement incentives for using the guide or form policiesrequiring its use. At DEP-BIS, a sticker placed on a name badgesignaled that an employee completed project management training and wasa successful user of the new guide’s requirement in a current project.
10.Establish a process for improvement.
Start collecting feedback and lessons learned from the projects thatuse the guide. By establishing a mechanism for continuous improvement,the guide will evolve to incorporate your organization’s best practicesover time. After the first year and several iterations, the guide willstabilize. Perhaps yearly, review and update the guide for currentrelevance.
DEP-BIS is using a fairly informal process where by issues and requestsfor changes are sent to the project office via e-mail to be included onan issues list. At a biweekly meeting, BIS management decides if achange is necessary.
Creating a project management guidebook will help bring balance andprovide insight into the “how-to” of being a successful project managerwithin the bounds of your organization.
Neal S. Gray, PMP, is a senior principal consultant with Keane Inc., aBoston, Mass., USA-based software development and business consultingfirm. He has conducted more than 250 U.S. and international seminars inthe areas of project management, estimation, risk management andproject management competencies.
Judy N. Meadows is a senior principal consultant with Keane Inc. She isa member of Keane’s Center for Excellence with responsibility fordeveloping methodologies used by the consulting firm to deliversoftware services to its clients.
Chapter and Verse
Each project process should have several common sections.
Purpose Statement. Describes why the process or phase is necessary. Itincludes the purpose of the intended project management deliverables.
Inputs. Lists all inputs to this process or phase. If not commonlyknown, the item can be supplemented with a brief explanation, includingwhere it comes from and why it is important.
Personnel Roles Required. Indicates which roles should be involved inthe project management process. Many people with different titles mayplay the same role or a single person may play more than one role.
Deliverables Summary. Lists the major deliverables and theircomponents, which are listed in the activities/tasks and techniquessection.
Activities/Tasks and Techniques. Describes the standard activities withone or more tangible deliverables identified. Activities are brokendown into specific tasks with clearly identified quality process andtools and roles and responsibilities.
Project Control and Reporting Standards. Describes the standardsapplied to all projects. Quality assurance audits use checklists toevaluate compliance. Standards for statement of work and definingdocuments, the project plan, pre-audit checklists and risk assessmentsare included.
Answers to Common Questions. Includes the many reoccurring questionsand associated responses for this part of the project to help overcomethe most common pitfalls.
Figures. Detail drawings or charts that help illuminate the process flow for this area of the project management process.
References. Lists all books, Web sites and publications that theproject organization found useful. This may include full publicationreference information to relevant standards such as ISO 9000, SEI-CMMand A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide).
Appendices. Further details specific topic areas that are important tothe process but are not placed elsewhere in the guidebook. Appendicescan illustrate topics such as how to develop a SOW, project estimatingtips and techniques, project control and monitoring tools.作者: xixiaojing666 时间: 2008-7-24 09:29