PMIS 471: Managing, Monitoring, Evaluating and Reporting the Project Initiation Phase Performance
Project by definition is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources. In addition, a project is unique in that it is not a routine operation, but a specific set of operations designed to accomplish a singular goal. In addition, the team assigned to deliver a project often includes people who don’t usually work together – sometimes from different organizations and across multiple geographies.
The project initiation phase is the first phase of the project life cycle phases where the project needs to be created and defined to the extent necessary to begin the project’s next phases. This step involves the project setup, and ensures that the organization is clear about the purposes and priorities surrounding the project.
A Project Management Information System (PMIS) like PMWeb will be used to manage, monitor, evaluate and report on all project initiation related processes. Those will include creating the project, project selection scorecard, project charter and aligning projects with the organization’s strategic initiatives.
Creating the Project
PMWeb will be used to create all projects to that the organization would have, regardless of their type, status or size. PMWeb allows capturing all project details such as description, stakeholders, estimated budget, planned start and finish dates among others such as GIS location coordinates. Actually, there is virtually no limit to the number of user defined fields to capture more details on each project, nevertheless, it should be limited to only needed data fields by the organization.
Documenting the Project Selection Decision
It is important for many organizations to document the basis for which the project was selected. PMWeb custom form builder will be used to create the project selection scorecard form which will include all attributes and associated weights that the organization has considered when making the decision on whether a project should be selected for execution or not. The form will be attached with all supportive documents for the project selection and a workflow will be assigned to ensure that the formal approval process is implemented.
The capital projects investment log will provide the organization with a real-time register of all investment opportunities identified by the organization regardless if they were approved, pending approval, rejected, on hold or any other status. The log could include visuals to group projects by status, type, sponsor among others. For organizations who have the interest to visualize this data on a map, the same can be also done as each project created in PMWeb with the Latitude, Longitude and Elevation details for GIS mapping.
Project Charter
For selected projects, the project charter form is the formal document that confirms that the project has been formally authorized for execution. The project charter is a statement of the scope, objectives, budget, critical milestone dates and participants in a project. It aligns the project with the organization’s strategic objectives, identifies the main stakeholders and identifies the main constraints, assumptions and risks that could impact the project. A project charter acts as a contract between the project sponsor, key stakeholders and the project team.
PMWeb custom form builder will be used to capture the information needed to produce the project charter in the final desired output format. The form could include sections for project brief, project technical information, project schedule information, project cost information, project major stakeholders and project major risks.
All supportive documents used in preparing the project charter or are needed to support the project charter submission will be uploaded into PMWeb document management repository and then attached to the project charter. In addition, all relevant records including imported emails will be linked to the project charter.
A workflow can be assigned to the project charter to formalize the submission, review and approval process. The workflow will identify the different individuals involved in the review and approval process, the duration allotted for each and the sequence to be followed in the review process.
Or as an alternative, another form can be created in PMWeb to be used in the Project Charter review and approval. The form will be in the format of a checklist where it will identify the different information and documents needed for the project charter. The form will have two verification fields for each submission item. The first is to be completed by the individual submitting the checklist form while the second will be completed by the checklist reviewer. Similar to all other PMWeb processes, all listed supportive documents need to be attached to form and a workflow will be created to formalize the submit and review steps.
Aligning the Project with the Organization’s Strategy
There is a growing trend among organizations to use Program Management to overcome the challenges of managing strategic initiatives. Programs are necessary to translate strategic vision across the organization to deliver outcomes that are key for benefits realization. Programs allow the organization to translate strategy into actionable goals to measure performance and mitigate the risk of failure.
A program is a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually. It is a temporary endeavor with a definite beginning and end. A strategic initiative could be one program with related projects or could contain several programs with related projects. This will ensure that projects and programs are aligned with the organization's strategy where they will have higher chance to be completed successfully than projects that are misaligned.
PMWeb Program module will be used to capture the details of the identified strategic initiatives. In addition, the program will be linked to all related projects regardless of they were considered for execution, approved for execution, being executed, completed, on-hold or even cancelled or shelved projects.
