Methodology

General Guidelines for managing projects are essential tools for any modern organization. An agreed project management methodology will bring understanding and common procedures to be pursued and put into practice by all project participants. A publication like this publication is based on the Global Project Management standards.

Projects are comprised of processes that can be organized into five groups as follows:

Initiation, Planning, Execution, Controlling and Closing. Planning, Execution and Controlling

These processes are iterative in nature. Although a project is usually drawn with discrete phases and discrete processes, it is important to note that in an actual project there will be many overlaps.

PM Manual Phases Summary.

Inception. Interfaces with strategic planning, and should end up with an idea feasibility study, a business case, a high-level project plan, and a project charter.

Initiation and Development. Studies sponsor requirements should come up with an initial project scope statement, a high-level WBS, a project plan, and a Request For Proposal (RFP).

Tendering. Develops a procurement management plan and awards the contract.

Execution. handles the most active part of the project life cycle. Here the project is developed, rollout, and preliminarily tested against the original requirements.

Closeout. It begins with the final acceptance test where contractor's deliverables are measured against a set of operational criteria's in the Final Acceptance Test (FAT) manual. It also deals with the Final Acceptance Certificate (FAC) and the administrative closeout of the exercise.

Project Roles & Responsibilities

Throughout this section of the Manual, reference is made to specific project roles that must be performed at various times throughout the life of the project. The Project Roles and Responsibilities section provides an overview of the various jobs required on projects development and their corresponding duties.

A project management office (PMO) is a group of project management experts in charge of:

• Establishing IT process methodology and supporting procedures;
• Facilitating communications among project participants;
• Finding out project management gaps;
• Tracking and reporting project results to executive management; and
• Monitoring the management of lessons learned on passed project.

The Project Team is responsible for planning and executing the project. It usually consists of a Project Manager and a variable number of Project Team professionals, who are assigned to perform tasks according to the proposed Project Schedule.

The Project Manager is the interface between executive management and the contractor and is responsible for the success of the project. The Project Manager also creates a Project Plan, manages its execution with the help of the PMO, and secures approval and acceptance by the Customers and stakeholders.

Project Team Members are responsible for securing project cost, schedule, scope, risk control and quality according to established levels of expenditure as outlined in the Project Plan and directed by the Project Manager, at the level of effort or participation previously defined for them. On larger projects, some Project Team members may serve as Team Leaders, providing administrative and technical leadership.

The Project Sponsor is a manager with demonstrable interest in the outcome of the project and is responsible for securing spending authority and resources for the project. Ideally, the Project Sponsor should be the highest-ranking manager possible in proportion to the project size and scope. The Project Sponsor champions the project in the Performing Organization, and is the ultimate decision-maker for the project.

The Project Sponsor provides support to the Project Manager, approves major deliverables, and signs off on approvals to proceed to each succeeding project phase. The Project Sponsor may also elect to delegate any of the above responsibilities to other personnel inside or outside the Project Team.

Customers comprise business and/or functional units that have identified the need for a product or service.  Customers can be at all levels of an organization. Since it is not feasible for all the Customers to be directly involved in the project, the following additional roles are identified:

Customer Representatives are members of the Customer community that are identified and made available to the project due to their subject matter expertise. Their responsibility is to accurately represent their business units' needs to the Project Team, and to validate the deliverables that describe the product or service that the project will produce. Customer representatives may also be designated to make project decisions on behalf of major business units that will use, or will be affected by, the product or service the project will deliver. They are responsible for achieving consensus of their business unit on project issues and outputs, and communicating it to the Project Manager.

Customer Representatives are also expected to bring back to the Customer community all the information about the project. Towards the end of the project, Customer Representatives will test the product or service the project is developing, using and evaluating it and they will provide essential feedback to the Project Team.

They attend project meetings as requested by the Project Manager, review and approve process deliverables, and provide subject matter expertise to the Project Team.

Consumers include all the people that will use the product or service the project is developing. Internal Consumers of the Performing Organizations may also be Customers.

Internal Stakeholders include all the people that are in any way affected by the new product or service within the Performing Organization. This would include the Project Team, the Performing Organization Management, Customers, as well as Customer co-workers who will be affected by the change in Customer work practices due to the new product or service.

It is necessary to identify all the Internal Stakeholders needed to be involved in reviewing and approvals of deliverables in their area of responsibility, i.e. the Security Department, the Network Department, CD Operations Department, etc.

External Stakeholders include all the people outside the Performing Organization that are in any way affected by the new product or service. Consumers may also be External Stakeholders.

Vendors are individuals or business organizations providing products or services the project requires and they may also become another member of the Project Team.