CHAPTER 1
Initiating the Project Plan

So, you want to be a project manager-or maybe you already are one. Either way, you continually end up doing projects as part of your job-nothing really big, just a bunch of small-to-medium-sized projects that eat up your days. You're most likely very good at organizing, getting things done, and managing multiple projects simultaneously. But you're always feeling a little behind the eight ball, frustrated by the time and energy you expend on these projects. This book will help you set up a planning methodology for small-to-medium-sized projects that will give you back time and energy while you continue to get your projects done on time and on budget. In this chapter, I'll describe the process for project initiating and introduce the project plan document. Project initiating is the steps you go through to get approval to even get started. This is when you first use resources to begin planning the project. But first, I'll define the types of projects-both small and large-you can work on and how their sizes can put constraints on planning.

Small vs. Large Projects

How do you decide whether you have a small or large project? You could easily say this book project is a small project. It's not just physically small, but it's financially small and on a short schedule whereas a retrofit of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is a large project both physically and financially, and it's on a really long schedule. In this section, I'll discuss some of the differences between how Project Managers (PMs) manage small projects vs. large projects so you can determine which type of projects you may have been assigned.

In many ways, managing large projects is easier than managing small projects. For large projects, the PM is usually managing one major project at a time. It's easy to escalate and resolve issues on larger projects because the project is visible and many people understand the importance of the outcome. The team is usually dedicated to the project, and often bonuses are tied to the project's success. Large projects usually have formal procedures and reports for project management, including a charter; a cost-benefit analysis; a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis; and a dedicated PM. With large projects, it is easier to dedicate the team's attention to brainstorming the project's risks and requirements, and your organization may even provide you with standard corporate benchmarks to help you plan.

In large projects, things are more defined than in small ones. Small projects seem to start with set due dates that don't allow for project initiating and planning time, which results in project management processes that combine Initiating and Planning. What this means to a PM is that while you are collecting information and getting formal approval to initiate the project, you are also planning how you will complete it. Resource assignment and documentation tend to start in a more casual way than they would in a large project. Large projects may start with documentation such as work orders, Statements of Work (SOW), sales orders, contract addendums, or service orders. These documents are usually standard company forms that define the requirements, deliverables, and estimates for size and delivery dates for the requested work. Project management is usually not as rigorous for small projects, and the expected turnaround is usually rather short.

Small projects are also temporary, are unique, and have a start and end date that meets the formal definition of a project. However, they're often overlooked as projects requiring project management discipline. This is because they often look repeatable because they have requirements that are similar to other projects. Projects that fall into this category are new products, new customer implementations, customer conversions, software releases, and annual events. It's critical that you jump on the project early and initiate project planning, or else the days will slip by, the end dates don't move, and you'll have to manage the project in chaos.

PMs who manage small projects are responsible for juggling and managing many projects in various stages of completion. The sponsor and team members are also involved in many projects. The sponsor may be a manager who is responsible for all projects of a certain type. Consequently, priorities may conflict, especially if the team is also responsible for production support or corrective maintenance. The corporate value of these projects is usually cumulative, so it's difficult to see the impact of missed schedules and budget overruns until year's end. Surprisingly, the attitude from management can often be, "Planning is a waste of time since we do these kinds of projects all the time." But this shouldn't be the case, and it's the job of the PM to reinforce the discipline pertaining to planning for the organization. After all, time spent planning up front will assure you a better chance of project success because the stakeholders and project team are all on the same page as far as the project goals and so on. It can potentially save you time in rework later as well as prevent the requirements from taking on a life of their own. How do you do that? Let's start with project initiating.

Initiating a Project

The beginning of a project is when an organization decides to do something new, such as create a product, a building, or an operation. This could be triggered by a market need, a customer request, or a government regulation. Who, what, where, when, how, and how much are just the beginning questions to ask about the project. Before you start planning the project, you need to complete the initiating, the first process group of the project life cycle. In the initiating phase of the project, the PM begins to collect answers to those and many more questions prior to the project kickoff. Let's discuss initiating in more detail.

Understanding the Initiating Process Group

In the initiating process group, someone (an individual in the organization, a group in an organization, or the organization itself) decides to do a project. How a project is initiated depends on the size of the project and your corporate process. Often there isn't a clear line of demarcation between the initiating and planning process groups. What's clear, however, is that a project needs to have a sponsor, some level of project definition, an approval to start, and a PM.

NOTE

If you need further explanation or a refresher on the standard project management processes, refer to Appendix A of this book.

All projects should have a sponsor: the person who ultimately has decision-making authority and who also has the responsibility over the project budget and the ability to assign resources. The sponsor can make your job easy or difficult depending on whether you can partner with them in managing the project or whether you have to spar with them on every step of the way. A strong, supportive sponsor can increase the credibility of your project and grant you authority over it.

TIP

As we all know, it isn't always possible to partner with your project sponsor. Sometimes the two of you will clash. As the PM, you'll need to bend to the sponsor's style to keep the project on track, which may involve, as we say in the business, "flexibility."

Sometimes you don't have a single sponsor; you have a sponsor committee or a group of managers responsible for prioritizing and managing the budgets of many projects. Sponsor committees add unnecessary complexity to every project because these committees can turn a simple decision into a major event.

TIP

If you have any influence, keep away from a sponsor committee situation and recruit a specific sponsor for your project.

How do PMs get assigned to projects? They may come to you in a variety of ways, both formal and informal. A formal project assignment may be a meeting with the sponsor and/or your boss where the sponsor explains the scope and expectations of the project and reviews all the project documentation. The project might also be assigned to you in an informal manner, such as through a conversation in a hallway or over lunch in the cafeteria. It all depends on how your organization operates.

The problem with a casual method of assignment is that you don't know your authority or responsibility over the project, and you can't be sure that the assignment is real. The main issue with these handoffs is that they often occur after project initiating, which is in your best interest as PM to be directly involved in. Should you jump on the project during planning based on a casual conversation? Probably not. If in doubt, go to your boss and verify the assignment.

TIP

I prefer to be identified as the PM early in the project so that I can be involved during initiating. Unfortunately, the PM selection is considered a deliverable of initiating, so oftentimes a PM doesn't enter the picture until the planning phase. My advice is to do your best to avoid being assigned to a project after initiating. Just know that sometimes you can't avoid it.

Preparing for Planning

During initiating of a small project, you need to get into the habit of planning...