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用制度规范项目管理
文/Neal S. Gray, Judy N. Meadows 译/赵克琛
开发一本项目管理指南来确保全公司范围内的流程可重复性、可靠性和由此带来的附加利益。
大多数公司都希望在不扼杀创新的前提下遵守流程。从公司自己的观点看来，一本项目管理指南（以下简称指南）描述了如何根据业务标准和必要流程来设立、实施和控制一个项目，然后在项目不同的阶段如何应用指南。设计这些方法的目的是保证最大限度的遵守流程并且不过分强调细节的规则。
2001年夏，美国佛罗里达州环境保护部（DEP）面临了企业应用软件的一次主要升级，此次升级设有激进的目标和固定时间的资金支持，他们决定用一种更为正式的方法来管理项目。
在顾问的帮助下，DEP开始着手于一项项目管理改进计划以期在信息服务局（BIS）内部建立和实施项目管理的最佳实践。全面的计划包括用以监控的项目管理培训、创建项目管理办公室和开发一本108页的指南。通过这项计划，BIS提高了项目交付物的符合程度，改进了与内部业务客户的工作关系。
以下是有助于创建项目管理指南的十项建议。
1.把开发项目管理指南的工作作为一个项目来管理。
项目管理指南是一项独特的交付物，有它自己的开发历时和预算。这个项目要有赞助人、项目经理、已分配资源、实施计划和变更处理流程。要开发一份工作说明书和项目计划来定义流程以用于创建指南、交付物、交付日期和所需的角色和职责。
开发这本指南不需要一个很大的团队。实际上，一个人可以承担管理开发指南的职责，领导一个由相关的主题专家（SME）组成的虚拟团队来提供输入和评估。在DEP-BIS，一名关键的指南开发人员与由八九名专家组成的虚拟团队一起工作。
2.清楚地定义这本指南的目的和范围。
你是否需要一本指南来保持项目的符合性、共享信息或者创建最低的行为标准？这本指南只适用于某个部门？事业部？还是整个公司？适用于软件项目还是商业或建筑项目？
对指南首轮开发的范围应该尽可能的限制，仅覆盖一到两个关联密切的部门。以后的开发应逐渐扩展范围。在DEP-BIS，起初，指南的范围关注在BIS的应用开发和地理信息系统部门。此后，尽管还没有将其他的DEP业务部门需求合并到指南里的近期计划，他们也要求把指南应用于他们的项目。
3.邀请公司最优秀的人选参与开发。
你的主题专家通常是在第一线管理着项目的人。你需要他们提供信息以使指南可用且可信。
要让这些专家更快地接受、使用和推销这本指南，这样他们就会有主人翁意识。在DEP-BIS，参与了开发工作的项目主管会鼓励别人接受指南。
4.充分利用公司的最佳实践。
通过记录已有的最佳实践，你可以很容易的向其他项目经理推销这本指南，因为你有证据证明在公司里这些方法可行。首先要识别项目符合指南描述的类别。然后，访问项目的成员以确定那些有效和无效的流程和技术。获取这些项目的项目计划以确认项目管理活动、所需资源和交付物。评估包括状态报告和工作说明书在内的项目交付物以更好的理解产出的结构和所包含的细节层次。
DEP-BIS的一项最佳实践是客户提交和跟踪系统变更请求的方法。尽管BIS内不同的部门处理变更请求的方式有所不同，但他们还是坐到一起为指南定义统一且不乏灵活的流程。
5.应用业界的最佳实践。
商业世界总是充满创意。在你的计划里融入一些新的策略，特别是那些在其他地方被验证为有效的策略。如果不进行这种传播，公司的那些实践会变得陈旧、迟滞和过时。但是要认清公司的局限。在DEP-BIS，SOW很少用于应用开发部门之外的组织，所以SOW的结构和使用规则被适当地按照指南的要求审核和修订。
如果你们公司没有可观的培训经费并且不能容忍突变的学习曲线，那就不要使用不熟悉的方法和技术来开发指南。相比较而言，采纳那些已被有效使用的方法。
6.保持最初版本简洁明了。
即使指南的范围很小，你还是很容易在最初版本里过多的拘泥于细节。集中精力做那些必须完成的活动、任务和交付物。指南应该全面地指明项目管理流程的范围，但是详细的“如何做”技术信息应被指向其他参考资料、单独开发的参考指南或并入后期版本。
使指南紧扣主题有助于尽快地发布最初版本。项目经理可以更容易地理解本指南并为他们独特的项目适当修订指南。一旦公司在这方面取得更多的经验，基于使用本指南的项目反馈就可以作为额外的细节加入到指南里。
7.按照详细的层次开发指南。
首先识别你想要包括的过程域和信息类别（参见附文《项目管理指南规程》）。一旦架构定义完成，就要在描述活动之前澄清流程并取得批准。
每一层次驱动下一层次并使其定型，在每一层次设立检查点有利于专家和其他评审者为下一层次提供有价值的输入和反馈。几名经验丰富的项目经理应该在他们的下一项目阶段使用最初版本。这种方法提供了增量式的接受和批准，并将费时的返工减至最少。在DEP-BIS，指南的最初版本提及了项目管理检查表和服务水平协定，然后更加详细的检查表和特定的标准在随后的版本里加入。
8.迅速地部署指南。
要限定开发指南工作的时间。每轮开发工作不应占用一到两名专职人员超过一到三个月的时间。尽管首轮开发距结束还很远，此指南将成为实现计划的良好开端。Standish Group在研究了诸多信息技术项目后给出建议：每轮开发时间持续较短（三个月或更少）的项目更有可能成功。
DEP-BIS的首轮开发时限时三个月。2001年6月首次公开发布，接下来又有两轮开发。目前，DEP-BIS正在将指南转移到内联网上，以减少打印版本的控制并提供实时更新和更广泛的便利性。
9.将指南推广到全公司。
创建了指南后，你应该向公司推销其实用价值，指导人们使用指南会带来价值。确认那些在公司里有影响力的人，从他们那里获取接受，然后请求他们协助推广指南。特别是当指南使用了公司不熟悉的新技术时，确认培训的需求并提供必要的培训。
最后，激励人们使用指南的动机或者出台一些使用指南的政策。在DEP-BIS，如果一名员工完成了项目管理培训并在当前项目中成功地应用了指南的新需求，那么在他/她的姓名牌上就会贴上一个标签以示成就。
10.建立改进流程。
在已经使用指南的项目里收集反馈和经验教训。建立一种持续改进的机制后，随着时间推移，指南会向前发展以引入公司的最佳实践。经过第一年的几轮开发后，指南会逐渐稳定下来，然后每年评审指南并更新当前的新内容。
DEP-BIS目前使用一种比较非正式的流程：问题和变更请求通过电子邮件发给项目管理办公室以收录于一份问题清单里。在每两星期举行一次的会议上，BIS管理层决定那些必要的变更。
创建一本项目管理指南会引入创新和流程之间的均衡并为如何成为一名成功的项目经理提供指导。
《项目管理指南规程》
目的说明。描述此项流程和步骤的必要性。同时还包括项目管理交付物的目标。
输入。罗列出此项流程和步骤的所有输入。如果不被人熟知，此项应补充简要的解释，包括出处及其重要性。
人员角色。指明项目管理流程应涵盖的人员角色。不同头衔的人可能承担同一角色，而某个人可能扮演不同的角色。
交付物总结。罗列主要的交付物及其组件，它们会包括在活动/任务和工具章节。
活动/任务和工具。通过一两项确定的交付物来描述标准的活动。使用清楚的质量流程工具和角色与职责定义将活动分解为特定的任务。
项目监控和报告标准。描述应用于项目中的所有标准。质量保证审计要使用检查表来评估是否符合标准。以下文档的标准要完备：工作说明书及其定义文档、项目计划、预审检查表和风险评估文件。
对普遍的问题的回答。回答那些反复提出的问题以帮助项目克服最普遍的缺陷。
图表。详细的图表有助于阐明流程。
参考文献。罗列所有有用的书籍、网站和出版物。此项要包含全文出版参考信息和相关标准，如ISO9000、SEI-CMM和PMBOK等。
附录。此项包含指南里未提及但对流程比较重要的深入详细话题。附录可以阐述如何开发SOW、项目评估技术和项目监控工具等。
作者简介：Neal S.Gray系美国马萨诸塞州波士顿市的软件开发和商业咨询公司基恩公司的高级主任顾问。他曾主持过超过250场美国国内外的研讨会，涉及领域包括项目管理、评估、风险管理和项目管理资质等。Judy N.Meadows系基恩公司的高级主任顾问。她是该公司培训中心的成员，负责用于咨询公司提供软件服务的方案开发。
原文：
By The Book
By Neal S. Gray, PMP and Judy N. Meadows
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.
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