Stages of Project Evaluation: Basic Principles and Useful Tools

Creating and implementing a project is a long process that requires great attention to detail and diligence from the entrepreneur and his team. In order not to miss important nuances and to note prospects for development, it is necessary to evaluate the project in a timely manner.

In this article I will tell you what this procedure is and why it is needed, as well as how it should be carried out.

What is project evaluation

This is a way of determining the likelihood of achieving the set goals and objectives for the project. With an objective and reliable assessment, it is possible to determine the real status of the project at each stage. Namely: is everything going according to plan; Are additional tools and resources needed? does the work correspond to the planned result, and so on.

Why is it necessary?

The customer pays the team not for its members to work a certain number of hours, but for achieving a specific result. To do this, you must adhere to the terms of reference, project charter, budget, deadlines and other important criteria. Project evaluation allows you to track their implementation and promptly change priorities in tasks.

When is it held?

Project evaluation should ideally be carried out at all stages of its implementation - from planning to closure. And depending on the specific stage at which it is carried out, this process can be divided into two main types.

The first type? is the evaluation of the idea. It is carried out at the time of drawing up a business plan and concept of a future product. Here the team substantiates the essence of the idea and its relevance in the market. This process usually involves a manager, an analyst and marketers. If you can justify it, a decision is made to launch the project, the charter is signed and the recruitment of a team begins.

The second type ?is the assessment of the project itself at the time of its implementation. With its help, you can find out whether the team is within the planned budget and deadlines, and, if necessary, quickly respond to changes. After completing this procedure, usually either changes are made to the documentation, or the project is completely closed (at worst).

It is worth remembering that such an assessment is not aimed at finding the guilty and punishing them. However, if this is not done at all, team members are likely to embellish or hide results, and present biased information in reports. To avoid this, it is recommended to give everyone the opportunity to express thoughts, ideas and even concerns.

Basic principles

The aspects that are considered in each specific assessment are determined by the manager in small and medium-sized projects, and by the controlling department in large ones. They also form a list of criteria that should be analyzed. Among the main processes assessed it is worth noting:

1. Budget – criteria such as cost recovery, compliance of the spending plan with real market demands, and the like are considered here.
2. Product quality , namely, whether it will change after changes made during the implementation process, whether the development meets the required state and international standards, and so on.
3. The need for resources , whether tangible or intangible. In this case, it is worth considering the requirements for additional resources and the compliance of previously established plans with the current picture, as well as the need for redistribution of resources or even the search for new sources.
4. Following deadlines ?– here it is noted whether previously established time frames are being met and whether additional time is required at a particular stage.
5. Additional processes ?depend on the specifics of the selected area and the project plan itself.

The process of defining control points by a manager is called? control system adaptation . It allows you to adjust important indicators to the current environment, optimize the plan and correctly distribute resources. It is important that due to the uniqueness of each stage in the project, such adaptation must be carried out constantly.?

The manager is also required to compare key business documents to look for discrepancies. The main business documents are the business case, which is a description of the project and an analysis of its feasibility, and the benefits management plan.

Project evaluation methods

There are many methods by which you can evaluate a project. The choice of a specific method depends on the specifics of the implementation of a particular idea and, of course, the preferences of the customer. Let's take a closer look at each of them below:

• Expert assessment ?is the most common qualitative method, and is used not only in the project approach. There is an individual expert assessment, when one specific specialist with experience in implementation of similar projects is involved. You can also carry out a collective assessment by organizing a meeting or council of project participants responsible for different areas of the project. Here, each team member presents his assumptions on the complexity, duration of the work, or other estimated parameters, and the manager collects and systematizes these conclusions, while building a general schedule or system of actions.
• PERT (Program Evaluation Review Technique) ?is a quantitative method used in assessing the implementation of individual tasks. With its help, you can determine the specific time to complete each stage of the project. Suitable only for a general assessment; with a more detailed analysis, this method will be excessively labor-intensive and even erroneous. For this reason, it is not recommended to use it for calculating short-lived tasks. Based on this method, you can calculate both optimistic and pessimistic outcomes using the following formulas:

Where:

O ?– optimistic assessment, when tasks are carried out strictly according to plan, and risks are taken into account and should not arise.

P ?is a realistic assessment, when the completion of tasks is taken into account taking into account possible risks that do not have a serious impact on the duration of the project.

P ?is a pessimistic assessment, which takes into account the likelihood of medium and serious risks, due to which the deadlines can be significantly postponed.

Assessment Tools

There are a huge number of tools for assessing various project indicators. From the entire set, we will highlight the most universal Agile tools that can be optimized for any task and your needs, respectively.

• Hierarchy of tasks

This tool allows you to arrange your upcoming tasks in order. First you will need colored stickers or cards, as well as a board or wall to which they will be attached. You can assign a sticker of a certain color to each type of task. Next, all tasks are written out on them, and the cards should be laid out randomly on a table or other surface.

Next, each team member will take one sticker and place it on the scale. Or you can take a card that has already been placed and move it to another location. All actions should be commented on, justified and discussed with other participants. If there are tasks of unspecified size, you can place them in a separate window.

At one such meeting, it is optimal to discuss from 10 to 20 tasks. If there are more of them, you can divide the process into several stages.

• Poker planning

This is one of the most popular and at the same time accurate assessment techniques, which uses a special deck of cards. It should be numbered in accordance with the Fibonacci sequence. Participants will use these cards to vote on tasks.

In addition, you should also add a card with a picture of the question and separately with a cup of coffee. The first is required if the task needs to be further clarified or discussed, and a cup of coffee means a break.

This set of cards is distributed to each participant. The presenter will explain the task, user story, or answer questions. Afterwards, participants choose a card with a value that suits their opinion and place the card face down. This is required so that the decisions of some do not affect others.

Once each team member has made a choice, all cards are turned over. Participants who gave the lowest and highest ratings justify their choice with a brief comment. As a result of the discussion, the team makes a unanimous decision and moves on to discuss the next task.

The main disadvantage of this tool is the length of the assessment.

• Voting by points

A simple and fast method that allows you to evaluate a small number of tasks (up to 10). To use it you will need stickers or cards, as well as chips called dots. Tasks for the project are written out on cards, then they should be placed on the table or board.

Participants must be given the same number of points. Then each of them distributes their points between tasks at their own discretion, taking into account the following rule: the more complex and lengthy the task, the more points are allocated to it.

After each participant has completed the assessment, the dots under each sticker are counted. Only then the tasks are ranked among themselves depending on the collected number of “points”.

Project Evaluation Stages

In order not to miss important details during the implementation of the project, it is necessary to evaluate it at each stage. Accordingly, several basic steps can be established when evaluating any project.

1. Assessing market and audience needs.? It is produced before describing a business idea. Analysis of the needs of the market and target audience allows you to justify the decision to launch a product. Here an understanding and vision of the goals and objectives of the business is formed, as well as possible problems, risks and assumptions that will have to be faced in the future. This stage also allows you to determine the approximate time frame for project implementation and highlight the main performance indicators.
2. Evaluating a business idea. ?This process depends on the specifics of the selected market and the project itself. For this reason, there is no universal method, but you can at least make this process comfortable for others. For example, describe the project idea in simple language so that each team member understands its essence.?
3. Evaluate the project management plan.? Not a single project can be planned so that after the start it is not necessary to reconsider the cost of its implementation, as well as the timing, content and order of tasks. All of this information is usually specified in the project management plan, so it needs to be updated regularly. This procedure can be carried out in different ways - every 2-3 months if the project is short-lived (from 3 to 9 months), or at least monthly if its duration is long.
4. MVP evaluation. ?This is a prototype of a product with a minimum set of necessary options that can be demonstrated to an investor or potential users as a sample. This is usually required to collect feedback and use this information in the future to refine the product. To do this, tools such as customer surveys, launching test landing pages, pre-ordering and much more are used.? An important point? is that the successful completion of the MVP test should not be considered the completion of the entire project. It must continue until a quality product is finally developed and released.
5. Evaluation of the project result.? This is the final assessment, which is an in-depth analysis of the information collected and the results of the project as a whole. To do this, you will need to study planned and actual indicators, identify the best tools, collect feedback from team members, and analyze the result for further development and support of the product.

If you follow the specified sequence and conduct an assessment at each stage, you can minimize risks and errors at the time of implementation.