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Project
Processes: Just as organizations have business processes,
so does a project. These include the all-important processes
for developing the project results, and processes for communication,
risk management, meeting management, reporting, vendor management,
decision making, issue escalation, configuration management,
and so on. These processes should be documented as standards
agreed to by the project manager and team leads so all project
participants can conduct their activities in the same manner.
These well-documented processes can be used from project to
project, thus eliminating the need to develop them from scratch
each time.
Project Structure:
The structure of any organization defines the boundaries of
functional responsibility and assigns people to those responsibilities.
A common structural tool is the organization chart.
A project should have an organization chart, but also have
documented descriptions of the roles and responsibilities
of all project participants. This can be derived from
the project's work breakdown structure. The sponsor,
key stakeholders, the project manager, and the team leads
all contribute to the development of the project's structure.
Project Information:
Information is the circulatory system of any organization.
It's the same in a project environment. Without information,
no one knows what's going on. At the onset of a project,
its "information system" should be defined - who needs information,
what information do they need, and when and how is that information
transmitted. The sponsor, key stakeholders, the project
manager, and the team leads, as information producers and
users, must participate in the development of the project's
information system.
Project Technology:
Technology facilitates organizations and projects in many
ways. A project's participants should consider how to
leverage the organization's existing technology infrastructure
to enable effective and efficient work and communication.
As with information, a project should define its technology
requirements, and strive to satisfy them with the infrastructure
already in place. Occasionally, a project must acquire
new technology to facilitate its work. Technology decisions
are made by the project manager and team leads.
People:
A project's participants are one of its critical success factors.
Without competent skills and experience at the right place
when they are needed, a project flounders. A project's
staff must be selected from requirements. Based on a
definition of the project's expected end result, a set of
skills and experience requirements can be defined for those
people who will perform project management and technical tasks.
Once a project has defined its skills requirements, specific
people can be considered whose skills and experience satisfy
the requirements. The sponsor and key stakeholders should
develop requirements for selecting the project manager.
The project manager should develop requirements for the team
leads, and the team leads should develop requirements for
their team members.
Project Infrastructure:
A project must have physical space, equipment, and material.
As with people, the infrastructure requirements must be defined
before the infrastructure resources can be acquired.
The project manager and team leads work together to establish
the requirements, and the project manager (or a project administrator)
acquires the resources.
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page three]
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