Information Gathering
In the early stages of the project one of the most important things a
Project Manager can do is listen to those who are familiar with the
problem/opportunity. Once you have taken the time to read any
materials made available to you and identified the relevant
stakeholders seek their input into the definition of the
problem/opportunity.
You may need to use a variety of techniques to gain the information
you need, some examples of methods you may use are:
Interviews
Research
Surveys
Workshops
You need to plan your approach. Break down the information gathering
into logical sections, this might include for example:
Table 1
Questions type Matching Sample Questions
Direct Questions
Closed Questions
Factual Questions
Leading Questions
Indirect Question
Sample questions
- Any ideas for how we might involve the users in the approval
process?
Cost Savings
Manageability
Disadvantages
Downtime
Security
The ease in procuring and accessing cloud services can also give
nefarious users the ability to scan, identify and exploit
loopholes and vulnerabilities within a system. For instance, in a
multi-tenant cloud architecture where multiple users are hosted
on the same server, a hacker might try to break into the data of
other users hosted and stored on the same server.
Vendor Lock-In
People
Money
Equipment
Facilities
Materials and supplies
Information
Technology
Always start with the people first! Other materials and facilities are
useless without the right project team.
It is important that appropriate team members are selected to fill the
roles that have been identified during the project planning. Each team
member must be aware of what role they will play and what the
responsibilities of that role are. As a project manager you will need
to support the team throughout the project, ensuring that they have
the necessary skills and access to resources that might be required.
Resources in this context might include guidance, direction, review
and technical resources such as software or manuals. Teams form to
perform work as efficiently and effectively as possible. In order to
optimize their performance the team members need to interact with one
another appropriately and conform to expected standards. The team
should work together so that their complementary skills make the team
as a whole better than the sum of their individual skills, this only
occurs when the team wants to genuinely work together and where each
team member understands what is expected of them.
Support
You will need to develop appropriate support plans. These documents
will outline things like:
Maintenance
Before handover is completed ongoing short and/or long term
maintenance needs are to be finalised. This usually consists of
maintenance contracts and/or warranties. Maintenance contracts are
usually put in place for large systems to give the client assurances
about the likely cost of enhancements and the availability of
resources to develop them. This phase in the project life cycle is
often referred to as the maintenance phase: the term “maintenance”
applies to software as well as hardware. It refers to small
enhancements, bug fixes and large enhancements.
Service Level Agreements (SLA) are contracts put in place that outline
what support services are provided, what metrics are associated with
the services, and acceptable and unacceptable service levels. A
warranty is a guarantee that the product or system will function and
perform as specified. Warranties are often available for a set period
of time.
Formal sign-off
Ideally any large or complex project should have a formal project
sign-off. The formal sign-off will occur only when the agreed
deliverables have been provided and accepted through verification
processes that will likely have been defined during the planning or
contract phase. For example the software will be accepted through
formal User Acceptance Testing as detailed in the Acceptance Test
Plan.
This sign-off should be an official document that clearly states:
Informal sign-off
An informal sign-off occurs when a set list of conditions is met. This
may be at a point in time, or when certain events have occurred as
defined in a contract or other agreement. For example if the project
involves setting up a network for a specific event (e.g. a conference)
then once the conference is over the project must be complete.
Conditional sign-off
Ideally a sign-off should be without condition, it should be at the
point in time that the client is absolutely satisfied that their needs
have been met. However this is not always possible. Sometimes there
are factors such as:
In the event that there are a number of issues or known problems that
are being accepted into the production environment to be addressed
during the maintenance phase these may be listed as exceptions to the
sign-off. By providing a list of exceptions, if required, the project
can be officially concluded through the sign-off but with each party
aware of what is expected of it. It must also be clear what the
implications of this are, for example:
What was done well? What could have been done better?
Were the project goals met? If not why?
Would you do things differently if you started the project today?
Were there things in the project plan that were estimated poorly?
Were there any significant tasks not in the plan that you had to
complete to execute the project?
Could you have improved communication to enhance the project?
There are no benefits to ignoring what could have been done better.
By learning from your experience you can enhance your skills and then
even if the project was not a success something positive can come out
of it.