Project Management Contents

Project Management

Contents

In this section:

1. Scope – project management

2. First steps – things to think about when starting out 3. Initiation

4. Implementation 5. Overview

Project Management

1.

Scope

Project management is the process in between business

planning and final evaluation

Project management can be applied to discrete small or large,

simple or complex pieces of work

Project management encompasses efficient organisation,

clear roles, responsibilities and decision making processes,

within a framework set by timescale and finance

Good project management helps organisations manage risk

and meet obligations and targets

Good project management helps funders, contractors and

other stakeholders feel confident of delivery

Project Management

2.

First Steps

When an organisation has accepted resources to deliver specific objectives within an agreed timescale, some form of project management is required. Project management is often a term used to describe the co-ordinating role in a capital project using external contractors. However, the term and the approaches it describes can be used in any situation that requires pulling together various components to achieve something.

Most organisations start to take project management seriously on major capital projects, or on projects that require an intense period of co-ordination of different strands of input, such as community events.

Who should do it?

All organisations should ensure that the Board of Directors or committee have clear oversight of project management at all times. But ‘managing by committee’ is similar to the phrase ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’. A committee must scope out the project and agree timelines and resources, and it must agree decision making processes throughout the project. But project management implies that the role of Project Manager is clear, and that the Project Manager has appropriate delegated authority to achieve the goals that have been set.

Of course it is possible for a small group of people to take on a collective project management role. This works best when the small group can act together is if they were one person – in other words, their team work is so good that their judgement and decision making is seamless. But if the group members work at odds to each other, cut across each other’s decisions or allow things to grind to a halt because no one makes a decision without the others, then the group is not project managing. Some organisations decide to establish a Project Manager position and include the budget for this in their fundraising. A sense of proportion is required when considering this – if the Project Manager’s salary or fee is more than around a tenth of the overall value of a project, funders may not consider it is really required (this is not so true of ongoing revenue projects or services where management of staff or volunteers and other responsibilities may justify a management role).

Where a committee member or volunteer agrees to take on a project management role, be sure that the time commitment and level of responsibility is fully understood by all parties. Failure to keep on top of a project management role can be costly, in terms of missed deadlines, inefficient management of materials, resources or contractors, and simply making mistakes.

What software package is best?

This question is simply meant to illustrate that many people assume the project management role to be technical, involving the generation of Gantt charts or flow diagrams to plot the inputs, outputs, critical paths, risks and contingencies. If you have people who already know how to use this software, this may be helpful – but only if your board or committee can then make sense of these to support decision making. As with other IT-based resources, ensure key information does not end up locked in packages that only one person can use, otherwise it is useless if something happens to that person. We don’t go into software or charts in this section because project management can be carried out effectively without them.

How to get started on project management

The characteristics of your project are most likely determined by your funding proposal (see Project Development and Fundraising) or your Business Plan (see Finance). Your Business Plan may incorporate a feasibility study or may have been done after a feasibility study has identified the best option to focus on. All of these will provide the broad detail of the project, targets or objectives (the deliverables), the budget and resources, and a timescale. Funders’ decision making timescales often make your plans dated before you start. The first project management task is to look at these again and add detail, and if necessary, renegotiating timescale or deliverables if any circumstances have changed.

Project Management

2.

First Steps

• Is the original budget still workable?

o Have costs of materials or resources changed significantly (e.g. fuel)? o Are there purchasing options that will provide better value?

o Have we got cash flow projections worked out?

o Are quotes and estimates we used to set the budget still valid?

o How can we obtain quotes and estimates to show best value decisions? • Is the timescale still workable?

o Will seasonal issues impact on the start date (e.g. transport of materials)? o Are permissions still valid (e.g. planning permission)?

• Within the proposed timescale, what else is happening?

o What else will the committee be doing during the project period? o What else will the community be doing during the project period? o Is there any clash with stakeholders’ plans?

o Where do Christmas / Easter / summer holiday fall within the project period? • Are the contractors or personnel we envisaged available?

o Is this a good time for recruitment/tendering (e.g. avoiding periods above)?

o What is the domino effect in contractor availability (i.e. one can’t start a task until another has finished a task)

• What are the key risks?

o What risks are outside our control? E.g. weather during the winter season. What could be the impact?

o What risks can we control? E.g. equipment breakdown. What could be the impact? All of these questions (and you will think of more) should help you re-evaluate your original proposal and if necessary revise:

• Targets and milestones

• Timescales, start and end dates

• Cash flow

This exercise is the first phase of project management – specification

Project Management

3.

Initiation

Having agreed the project specification, during the initiation phase a number of further tasks are clarified:

• The role of external contractors

o This is covered in more detail in Managing Contractors

o How many different skills/tasks are required? Are these more economically done as a ‘bundle’ with one contractor, or separately with several contractors? (e.g. one large construction firm or separate building, joinery, electrical and plumbing contractors)

• The role of professional advisors

o Is the complexity of contractor tasks high enough to warrant hiring independent professional advisors to oversee them? (i.e. as an architect or quantity surveyor would oversee a builder) o Could professional advisors be appointed on a retainer, to advise ‘as needed’?

o Will legal advisors be required at any point?

o Should your insurers advise you on your cover for additional liabilities during works?

• Key decision points

o If you are using contractors and advisors, use their experience to tell you what the critical decision points will be in the project. They may be able to tell you, for example, that key issues will emerge at certain points which will impact on the schedule (e.g. once the hole is dug, the decision on type of foundation can be made).

o Contractors should also provide you with a clear timetable of expected tasks, e.g. how long it will take to make a roof watertight, which gives you scope to let the electrician know when wiring might be possible. However always build in contingency.

o Assess the key decision points and decide which need to be taken by the whole Board or committee, and which can be taken on a day to day basis by a project manager. Schedule your own meetings to take any Board-level decisions in a timely way, so that it is not your own meetings that hold up the project, but again, be prepared to be flexible.

• Key reporting points

o Again, contractors and advisors should provide you with a schedule which includes reporting dates. Include these in your own scheduling of Board or committee meetings. Many contractors will prefer to do this verbally direct to a project manager on site meetings or project meetings.

o The project manager is also useful for pulling together contractors into project meetings or site meetings, to gain an overview that can be fed back to the Board. Board or committee members may be interested in attending this meetings but should be aware that contractor time = their money, and bear the ‘cooks and broth’ warning in mind.

o The Board or committee should, however, expect regular reports, as this is the way you will keep your funders informed of progress and your bank manager confident of cash flow.

• The project manager role

o Having external contractors and advisors does not mean a project manager is not needed, someone needs to manage the contractors and advisors and ensure they get the decisions and guidance they need to be effective – and to ensure they provide value for fee to your organisation.

o Having scoped out the task, the scale should now be obvious, helping you quantify the project management time required. The ebbs and flows of the project should also be clear, and if you are employing someone on a freelance or flexible basis you may get more value for money than someone working fixed hours each week.

o Build into their role some of the background administration that will pile up as a result of the project – reporting to funders and drawing down funds on time, checking invoices and payments, monitoring cash flow, ensuring health and safety compliance, minuting relevant meetings, liaison with local stakeholders and so on.

• Start date

o Actually setting a specific start date is an important milestone for your project, so communicate it widely – it already communicates some success to the community and funders, and it signals to contractors you will be equally specific about an end date.

Managing Projects

4.

Implementation

A useful tool for project managers is a work breakdown. This is sometimes what people use project management software for, but it can just as well be a hand-drawn wall chart or mindmap – but think large scale, so that things can be added, moved or crossed off as your thinking develops.

Work breakdown does what it says on the tin – it takes a start-to-finish high level overview of all of the component parts of achieving the deliverables. You may already have started this process if your funder (e.g. Big Lottery) has asked you to identify outcomes and milestones for your project. Don’t get bogged down in too much detail at this stage, that comes later.

Example – Ardruin Historic Site Project

Ardruin Community Company has secured funding to make a ruined castle safe for public access, lay footpaths, steps and ramps to make the site accessible and to protect the surrounding wildlife habitat, and to develop visitor interpretation resources (signs, leaflets and viewpoints with binoculars) to highlight the historic significance of the buildings and surrounding area, and the local wildlife. Before securing the funding, the had acquired the site and planning permission, and obtained permissions from Historic Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Royal Society for Protection of Birds which owns surrounding land.

The work breakdown for Ardruin’s project, initiated in 2007, looks like this: Ardruin Castle and

Nature Reserve Open for Visitors Summer Season

2009 Commission Works Communication and

liaison

Interpretation Marketing Launch

Procurement

Materials and plant storage site

Site Access for contractors

Bird nesting season monitoring RSPB

Rare species review of site SNH Contractor schedules

and site meetings

Planning Officer, works inspectors, sign off

project stages

Design brief

Specialist advice – wildlife and history

Copy and image approval

Signs ordered and quality control

Signs delivered and erected Castle works

Pathways works

Car park works

Design brief

Target magazines publications, Visit Scotland, tourism guides

Copy and image approvals

Distribution schedule

Invitation list

Book band and marquee

Apply for license

Managing Projects

4.

Implementation

The headings in the work breakdown reflect key ‘task areas’ and could also reflect the work milestones.

Detailed Planning

The work break down already raises some issues in terms of timing of the component parts of the overall project – some of which are about weighing up risk and making a judgement, and some of which are about clear dependencies.

For example, Ardruin CC need to make some judgements. They want to book Tartan Amoebas for their opening launch, and they know from the outset that they will have to book them well in advance and avoid the major music festival dates. But can they be sure the project will complete to schedule? If they book a date too soon, they’ll look a bit eggy-faced if they launch in a half-finished project. However, the band isn’t ‘mission critical’ – they can make a judgement call, decide later, and if necessary use a different band.

But several features of the project all have dependencies that need to be managed – the pathways can’t be laid until after the rare species have been checked and RSPB would prefer this task to start after nesting season. The building contractors don’t want path laying until after they have cleared the site in case their plant damages them. The signage can’t be commissioned until the viewpoints have been decided, and can’t be erected until the pathways are complete.

The detailed planning takes each of the tasks in the work breakdown, and makes a detailed plan for each of them:

• Description of task

• Necessary inputs and preconditions • Deliverables • Dependencies • Resource requirements • Skill requirements • Decision requirements • Responsibilities

• Estimated timescales / workplan

Devising a standardised form can help project managers keep on top of a complex project and we would recommend them for a number of reasons:

• They will help in terms of one of the key risks – that you lose a project manager before

completion

• They give contractors and other stakeholders a clear visual of their place in the project – and

the impression that you are serious about the project’s completion; they also give contractors and stakeholders something clear to negotiate and agree

• They can be used as a communication so that contractors know what others are doing • They can make the compilation of reports easier, so that the overall progress can be

Managing Projects

4.

Implementation

Ardruin’s standard form looked like this:

Key dates Completed Task: Interpretation

Deliverables

4 wildlife signs

3 historic interpretation boards (castle) 1 view point map

Visitor signage (car park, castle, Poldubh village) All

Easter 2009

Dependencies

Rare species review Nesting complete Pathway plan decided

Spring 08 August 08 October 2008

Key risks

Failure to agree on pathway plan because of wildlife objections

Delay on pathway construction caused by delays in castle works

Proj. Man. Days 1 1 > 0.5 > 0.5 0.5 0.5 > Resources/skills Procurement designer

Procurement sign manufacturer

Contract schedule and management design Board approval design

Contract schedule and management sign History advice – local history society (free) Wildlife advice – RSPB and SNH (free) Accessibility advice local authority (free) Sign erection (pathway contractor)

Summer 08 Summer 08 October 08 December 08 January 09 November 08 November 08 November 08 February 09 Costs Staff Contractors Other Total

4+ days project manager Design £4000

Manufacture £12000 Erection £3000

Possibly foundation materials depending on sign construction Outline budget £19,000 Responsibilities Board Project Manager Procurement decision Sign location decision Design and content sign off Procurement process

Contractor liaison and management Seek expert advice and include in content Reporting to Board

Invoicing and payments

Key contacts

(complete with approved contractor names and numbers)

RSPB contact John Munro 07765342 [email protected]

SNH contact Sheila Delaney 01683 458672 [email protected]

Highland Accessibility Co-ordinator [email protected]

Managing Projects

4.

Implementation

It is the nature of project management that detailed plans, and work breakdowns, develop and are amended as work progresses. However, using a standardised form helps to track these changes and remind people why decisions were made or changed. One thing is certain – that the effort of creating forms for each task doesn’t pay off if they are not then actively used to help manage the project.

Futher aspects of preparing for project implementation include:

Risk Assessment – people have developed a lot of mystique around this. It basically means you

identify what could go wrong in advance, and develop some plans so that you could a) avoid it or b) handle it if it does happen and c) contain the impact so it doesn’t affect other aspects of delivery. Always ask contractors to do a risk assessment and look at it carefully.

Revising estimates – prices change during projects and unforeseen costs arise. Before starting

your project consider what level of contingency you can afford and on which areas this is most likely to be needed, to help you monitor the situation. Keeping on top of this is crucial to the overall project, as you may need to squeeze one area of a project to support another higher priority area of the project. Keep funders informed of this kind of decision making.

There are four basic elements to project management: communication, monitoring, managing change, and control.

Communication

• Identify contact person(s) within your organisations who can be available during the working day for

quick decisions and who have the delegated authority to make them

• Identify the different liaison roles and delegate these (e.g. Chair to funder; Treasurer to Project

Manager; Secretary to Community Council etc) – ensuring different roles talk to each other and agree key messages

• Meetings – see Effective Meetings • Board/committee – see Governance

• Community and stakeholders – see Community Engagement • Contractors – see Managing Contractors

• Funders – see Project Development and Fundraising

• Standards – failure to have a shared vision of what ‘success’ will look like and to communicate this to

everyone involved and all stakeholders, is a sure way to end up with something people give mixed reviews. Setting clear expectations for standards of work and standards of delivery help to achieve the required standard of results.

Ardruin CC assumed that the community had been ‘won round’ during its consultation, prior to putting in the funding proposal. When the bid was successful and they started work they were surprised to hear objections from an Edinburgh-based historical society that the castle was being converted into a hotel (which had been planned by a former owner prior to Ardruin’s ownership). Ardruin CC had forgotten to provide updates on the project in its newsletter and website. The objections were quickly resolved before they became a stooshie.

Monitoring milestones

• Monitoring needs to provide a step by step assessment of completion in relation to timescale

and budget

• A simple “red | amber | green” tool can be used to help everyone involved keep abreast of

progress – Red = not on time, not on budget; Amber = concerns about time or budget; Green = on time and on budget. The coding can overlay the work breakdown or detailed plans, and status can easily be changed as things develop.

• Celebrating green status throughout the project helps keep people motivated. However, red

and amber status can help focus time in your meetings – prioritise discussion on how the status can be moved to green, don’t waste time on apportioning blame on why they are red or amber (see solution focus in Effective Meetings). Project management is about looking forward to completion, not getting stuck in the past.

Managing change

Change might be required for a number of reasons. When change is required, make a decision as quickly as possible but ensure you have all the relevant information to hand, including the knock on effect on different aspects of the project for each decision option.

• Wrong planning assumptions – this can happen to anyone but happens less with experience,

and is often about over-optimistic timescales, or in the community sector, trying to do too much with tool little money. Again, don’t get stuck in the past, change your assumptions, revise your plans and move on – or seek advice from people with more experience

• Incomplete risk assessment – again, possibly down to inexperience. There are usually

solutions when an unforeseen change is required, but they may be expensive. Check if your insurance, or your contractors’ insurance, covers the risk, and if not, don’t delay in speaking to your funder.

• Surprises – some things can’t be anticipated (see below) and again, early discussion with

your funders and good communication is required.

• Changed requirements – having your Board or committee change their mind about what they

want part way through a project is not a good idea. However, some of the changes above might demand that you change the project requirements, and there may be very limited time for wider consultation before a decision can be made, but pay attention to communicating the reasons for change to all stakeholders, to avoid the potential of resistance to change

• Changed deadline – if one of the dependencies goes awry the ripple effect can reach to all

areas of a project. Keep communicating revised deadlines and maintain a realistic perspective on what can be achieved.

• Mistakes – be forgiving! Stay focused on solutions and move forwards.

• Acts of God (or whatever higher power) – again, insurance is helpful and to an extent,

weather and natural disruption should be seen as inevitable and built into your timescale.

Ardruin CC was taken by surprise when, in spite of earlier surveys showing the work would be straightforward, progress on their project had to stop for three weeks when contractors on the castle

works thought they had found a tomb. Archaeologists finally confirmed the finding was part of a 19th

Century addition to the site of an old poteen still, and gave approval for work to restart. The delay put pathway delivery out by a week, so the project manager had to consider how to catch up. He negotiated with design and sign contractors who were able to accept a reduced timescale for their contracts, so overall, completion date wasn’t affected. The story also made the Scottish news and boosted interest from potential visitors.

Control

Good project management is essentially about staying in control of a wide range of different factors and forces contributing to a project. The result of good control is the ability to make decisions and take action.

Decisions require good, accurate information – access to details within the bigger picture. Action requires motivation, and motivation is quickly lost if complexity, confusion or difficulty with decision making is the main mode of operation within a project.

A laissez-faire approach does not sit well with project management or the idea of control, but the opposite, control freakery, can be just as crippling. Manage contractors and other people, don’t wear their jackets for them.

Finally, good administration (see Governance) and finance (see Finance) will provide the best foundation for your project management. Ideally, have these in place for your project manager rather than expecting them to overhaul all your systems as well as manage the project.