1. Roland Gilbert BSc MRICS; Prince 2 Practitioner
Managing projects
Roland Gilbert
BSc MRICS; Prince 2 Practitioner
© Newway UK Consultants Ltd All rights reserved. .

2. What is project management?
Definition
Project management is the application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills and experience to achieve the project objectives.
General
A project is a unique, transient endeavour, undertaken to achieve planned objectives, which could be defined in terms of outputs, outcomes or benefits. A project is usually deemed to be a success if it achieves the objectives according to their acceptance criteria, within an agreed timescale and budget.

3. Elements of a Project
Time
Cost
Scope
Quality

4. The core components of project management are:
defining the reason why a project is necessary;
capturing project requirements, specifying quality of the deliverables, estimating resources and timescales;
preparing a business case to justify the investment;
securing corporate agreement and funding;
developing and implementing a management plan for the project;
leading and motivating the project delivery team;
managing the risks, issues and changes on the project;
monitoring progress against plan;
managing the project budget;
maintaining communications with stakeholders and the project organisation;
provider management;
closing the project in a controlled fashion when appropriate.

5. When would you use project management?
Projects are separate to business-as-usual activities, requiring people to come together temporarily to focus on specific project objectives. As a result, effective teamwork is central to successful projects.
Project management is concerned with managing discrete packages of work to achieve objectives. The way the work is managed depends upon a wide variety of factors.
The scale, significance and complexity of the work are obvious factors: relocating a small office and organising the Olympics share many basic principles but offer very different managerial challenges.
A good distinguishing factor is often to look at the nature of the objectives.
Objectives may be expressed in terms of outputs (such as a new HQ building), outcomes (such as staff being relocated from multiple locations to the new HQ), benefits (such as reduced travel and facilities management costs) or strategic objectives (such as doubling the organisation’s share price in three years).

6. Why do we use project management?
Investment in effective project management will have a number of benefits to both the host organisation and the people involved in delivering the project. It will:
provide a greater likelihood of achieving the desired result;
ensure efficient and best value use of resources;
satisfy the differing needs of the project’s stakeholders.

7. Project stages Step 1 - Starting a project
Step 2 – Initiating a project
Step 3 – Running a project
Step 4 – Closing a project
Step 5 – Benefits realisation
Key control - 1
Project Brief
Key control - 2
Project Initiation Document
Key control - 3
Progress report
Risk Register
Key control – 4
Change control
Key control – 5
Lessons learnt
Key control – 6
Post project review

8. Time management Plan the key tasks
Add time to each and dates where critical
Add resources needed for each task
Create interelationships
Create programme incorporating these using Excel or Microsoft Project etc
Include risks and float
Use a baseline and monitor progress against and report variances to bring back on track

9. Microsoft project example

10. Quality Management Define the design brief or quality objectives
Create quality outcomes or
Build a quality specification
Monitor quality outputs during project delivery to ensure compliance and adjust if needed
Identify defects and manage rectification
Operational systems training
Handover meeting with client/ user

11. Quality specification example

12. Cost Management Establish high level budget at feasibility
Build detailed budgets as design/ requirements are developed
At tender stage reconcile supplier actual costs to budget & report
At start of project delivery have regular cost reports to report on changes and agree cost changes as you go & report on potential cost changes to allow for good management
During project delivery pay suppliers regularly
At end of project delivery agree final costs and identify savings and pay final costs.

13. Cost report example Project Name LEP Budget Value
Tender/ Target Cost Value
Variance - Tender to Budget
% Variance
Variations/ CE's
Forecast Outturn Cost
Variance - Outturn to Budget
Notes:
A284 Lyminster Bypass £0
A259 Corridor Capacity Enhancement, East Arun
West Horsham SDL
Enterprise Link Road, Bognor Regis
A2300 Corridor Capacity Enhancement, Burgess Hill
A29 Realignment, Bognor Regis
NCN2 Strategic Cycle Route package

14. Key Control Documents Project brief Business case PID Tender documents
Contract documents (if needed)
Risk register
Change control forms
Progress reports – monthly or similar regular programme, quality and cost reports
End of project do final cost report
Post project create lessons learnt report and savings register/ benefit realisation

15. PM Information sources
General PM information
Business Innovation and Skills PM Guidelines 2010
Association for Project Management
Project Management Institute
Formal PM systems & processes e.g.
Prince 2 PM methodology (OGC)
AgilePM/ ITil – for IT development and management
MSP/AgilePgM – for large programmes of work
M_o_R – management of risk

16. Summary