IN THE CONSULTING WORLD, one of the key project management challenges is tracking all ongoing activities and assigning appropriate resources to the project before the schedule slips, the budget overruns, or the client's expectations get out of whack.
This challenge is further compounded by the fact that project management activities are usually focused on delivering results for a broad assortment of clients. Another compounding factor is that the project management discipline is leveraged in “presales” and “solution delivery” activities:
“Presales” includes activities that occur in the sales cycle prior to the client's formal acceptance of a proposal for services.
“Solution delivery” includes the activities described in the proposal for services, which the client has formally accepted.
To address these challenges, MA&A Group Inc. defined a set of project management processes to align with presales and solution delivery activities.
Planning and Scheduling Phase
The planning and scheduling phase focuses primarily on presales activities that occur within the consulting organization. During this phase, consultants meet with the prospective client to gain a better understanding of the client's problem and begin crafting potential solutions. The primary focus of this activity is to develop a statement of work (SOW). In our process, we have a predefined SOW format that includes subsections on objective, scope, inputs, responsibilities, assumptions, project management process, and project plan (or schedule).
David B. Berry, PMP, is director of consulting services for MA&A Group Inc., an IT consulting firm specializing in project management services. He can be reached at [email protected].
Exhibit 1. The project snapshot is a key tool to manage several concurrent projects, as well as an effective mentoring tool. Using basic earned value metrics, the snapshot provides project managers with a view on the status of each project. This information is then shared with team members, helping them understand the organization's expectations and increasing project management consistency across the consulting organization.
The project management process included in our SOW is a predefined procedure that describes how the project status will be reported to the client and how we will manage inevitable changes to scope.
The SOW is normally developed in an iterative fashion with the client, the general content usually going through one or two revisions before the client signs off. The project plan (or schedule) included at this point often defines the specific consulting resources to be used on the project and identifies generic client resources that must be applied for project success. We normally do not schedule actual client resources at this point, since the real project start date is often impacted by the client's internal approval process. We usually include a startup activity in the project plan that includes the task of scheduling resources, refining scope (if necessary), and gaining client approval on the working schedule.
The thorough definition of a SOW during the sales cycle has both advantages and disadvantages. For example, disadvantages are that considerable time may be spent on activities that are not funded; and a clear definition of costs, the level of client involvement, and tight scope management can sometimes scare off the client. Advantages are that expectations are clearly communicated before the project starts, enabling a win-win for both parties. A framework for project success is established, change management processes are discussed and defined before they're needed, and clients with unreasonable expectations usually go somewhere else!
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Other key presales activities include definition of a project profit and loss, review of the “business” aspects of the proposal prior to delivery, and review of the “technical” aspects of the proposal prior to delivery.
At this point, we've gone through considerable effort (much of which may not have been funded) to define a successful project approach. Next, if the client accepts the proposal (i.e., formal document sign-off), we move into the control and end phase.
Control and End Phase
During the control and end phase of our project management process, we focus on administrative setup, project startup, execution and control, and project end. Each of these activities is described in more detail below.
Administrative Setup. During administrative setup, the project is defined within accounting systems, and resources are assigned to facilitate the appropriate allocation of time to approved projects.
Another key task that is completed here is the creation of the project workbook. A three-ring binder is created with sections for status reports, project snapshot, issues log, project correspondence, statement of work, change control documentation, deliverables, and project resource time reports.
The project workbook is a key tool in the project management process and is intended to provide the full, up-to-date history of what has transpired on the project. It is critical that the basic step of creating the shell workbook occurs at this point; otherwise, important information may be misplaced and the complete project story gets lost.
Project Startup. The project is planned in detail at this point, but some resource scheduling still needs to occur, such as placing real client names in the schedule and confirming their availability. Other activities that are usually scheduled at startup include a final scope and objectives review with the client's project sponsor, and of course, a kickoff meeting. Once the final schedule has been defined and approved by the client sponsor, the plan is baselined within the project toolset and a copy of the original baselined plan is filed in the project workbook.
Project Execution and Control. Project execution and control activities include completing assigned tasks, recording progress, managing scope, and confirming results. These key activities are either performed or managed by the consulting project manager; they are the basic “blocking and tackling” tasks that experienced project managers perform (to varied levels of success) every day.
To support our project managers, we have instituted a regularly scheduled project review meeting. All consultants assuming the role of consulting engagement project manager are expected to attend the meeting and bring with them their project workbook and updated project “snapshot.” A sample project snapshot is shown in Exhibit 1.
The project snapshot includes basic earned value metrics to provide the project managers with a view on the status of each project. It is a key tool in managing several concurrent projects and also serves as a mentoring tool.
The list of basic questions in the snapshot are asked and answered each week. You'll notice that the responses are either yes or no (“maybe” isn't an option). The benefit of this black-and-white methodology is that it forces project managers to step back each week, take inventory of how their project is really progressing, and identify the key project management issues.
During our review meeting, each project manager brings his or her updated project snapshot and distributes it to the other project managers. Then, as a team, we review the status of each project. The advantage of this approach is that it allows everyone to receive a thorough re-view—the feedback is from peers, not just the boss. More importantly, however, it really gives everyone who is managing a consulting engagement the opportunity to be the “reviewee” and “reviewer.” This helps them to better understand the organization's expectations of project managers and increases the consistency of how projects are managed across the consulting organization. One last benefit of the project snapshot is that it encourages project managers to think about how to deal with upcoming obstacles; they know that if they answer “no” to any of the questions, their boss and their peers are going to ask what they are doing to correct the situation.
Project End. We finally made it—the end. At this point, we've got some housekeeping activities to perform. First, we need to make sure we've provided the client with the deliverables as specified, gained their acceptance (and received their sign-off), and of course, performed our last update to the project workbook.
Now, we need to file the project workbook in the library, receive “lessons learned” from team members, and perform administrative closeout activities in accounting. Many of these activities are internal activities that the client never sees.
After the project has been officially closed with the client, we do one last important step—we issue the “Customer Satisfaction Survey,” which is a formal survey conducted with the client to get feedback on how we performed. It's best to introduce this activity 30 days after completion—soon enough to remember the results, but long enough after to have time to reflect on what has been accomplished. This activity is usually administered by someone besides the project manager so that the client isn't inhibited about providing an honest evaluation.
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