2.1 Identify the components of an effective Project Management plan

SECTION-2 BE ABLE TO USE PROJECT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES IN A CONSULTANCY INTERVENTION

2.1 Identify the components of an effective Project Management plan

What is project management? How does it differ from simply "management" and how does project management in the workplace differ from a personal project such as refurbishing a house? And, of course, could it be the type of career that will suit you?

Project management is essentially aimed at producing an end-product that will effect some change for the benefit of the organisation that instigated the project. It is the initiation, planning and control of a range of tasks required to deliver this end product, which could be a physical product, it could be new software or something less tangible like a new way of working.

A key factor that distinguishes project management from just management is that it has this final deliverable and a finite timespan, unlike management which is an ongoing process. Because of this a project manager needs a wide range of skills; often technical skills, certainly people management skills and good business awareness.

For all but the simplest projects a formal approach to managing a project works best. The control imposed by a formal approach is essential when there are complexities such as new technology, inter-dependent tasks, teams spread across several departments or companies, or where teams are located in different parts of the world; all common occurrences in many business projects.

Because every project will involve some type of change, change management is an integral part of the PM process. And because there is change there are likely to be risks so risk management is also thrown into the project management mix.

So what have I said already about projects that require formal management? According to experts Barker and Cole (2009) they:

• Produce something new or altered: tangible or intangible

• Have a finite timespan: a definite start and end

• Likely to be complex in terms of work or groups involved

• Require the management of change

• Require the management of risks

Projects crop up in almost all industries and businesses, for instance:

• Transport and infrastructure

• IT

• Product manufacture

• Building and construction

• Regulatory changes in finance and law (Kerzner: 2013)

There are standard project management processes used to plan and control tasks, budgets and schedules, to communicate between the different people involved and deal with risks. These processes are usually ongoing throughout the project.

There are also various phases of a project that will have a defined start and end within the overall project lifespan. For instance, the requirements gathering phase often occurs in the early part of the project.

So a project has a range of processes that occur throughout its life (monitoring, controlling, communicating etc.) and a range of phases (initiation, requirements, planning etc.) that occur roughly chronologically.

Project management processes

Monitoring

Planning is carried out in the early stages of a project but there should be ongoing monitoring to ensure the project remains on budget and schedule; that resources are available, and the expected benefits can be delivered. Estimates, deadlines and milestones may need to be altered as the project progresses.

Control

No project is without problems, but the project manager needs to control them, so they do not adversely affect the end result. The control phase also deals with risk management.

Communication

Good communication is one of the most important factors affecting project success. Many problems can be avoided if there is open, honest communication between everyone involved on a project; written and verbal, formal and informal.

People management

A project manager is responsible for managing the individuals working on the project as well as the tasks and risks. In complex projects there may be segregated levels of people management, but every project manager will have some responsibility for individuals. That includes motivating people, delivering constructive feedback etc.

The Project Management Lifecycle - Project management in 5 phases

The most prominent frameworks for Project Management, including that issued by AMBOK, the association for project managers, illustrates five PM process phases. Here is a typical PM lifecycle diagram:

Figure 4: Project Management Lifecycle:

Source: https://www.orangescrum.com/tutorial/introduction-to-projectmanagement/project-management-life-cycle

Let’s look at each phase in more detail and these are elaborated in the useful book by Harold Kerzner (2013) titled: Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling.

Initiation

This first stage of a project defines the business case, the justification for the project, which will be used to ensure the project stays on track. It also states what the project is intended to achieve, how that will be achieved and the scope of the work; this is important for controlling subsequent change requests. In this phase, those involved in the project will be assigned their responsibilities.

Planning and Requirements

The planning and (resource) requirements documentation describes the aims of the project in detail including timescales and constraints. It should also define the criteria that will constitute a successful project and will be used to manage the expectations of the stakeholders. Many projects use an iterative process to reach agreement on the requirements, although some projects take an 'agile'

approach to project management. (You should familiarise yourself with the

‘Agile’ model of Project Management by way of further online research, if you are not already familiar with this model.)

The project plan includes details about how the project work will be carried out, how it will be monitored and controlled, how communication will be facilitated and information about costs and timescales. But once a project is underway it is typically the project schedule where most attention is focused. All tasks need to be scheduled in the most efficient order to ensure tasks with inter-dependencies are completed when required and to enable several tasks to be performed in parallel. There are many project management tools available to assist with scheduling, one of the most common being the Gantt Chart that we will demonstrate in a few paragraphs time.

Execution

The person or group assigned to carry out a task will need to know, in detail, what the task involves as well as any dependencies and timescales, and will also need to understand the criteria by which each task is deemed complete. Leadership and close management, support and mentoring at this stage is absolutely vital (Grout and Fisher: 2011).

Closure

Once there is an approved end product the project can be formally closed and a final review held to learn from both the successes and the mistakes and take that experience forward to the next project.

There are many different techniques and tools that a project manager can use to control a project schedule on a day-to-day basis and for managing dependencies, change and risks. However, it is important to distinguish between techniques and tools, so you understand the technique before using a software tool. The ability to use a software tool is not necessarily an indication of a detailed knowledge of, or effective use of, the technique behind it. You can also use Excel to make your own plan - even for something as 'simple' as organising your Christmas dinner prep.

Figure 1: Simple Gantt project schedule:

(Source: Contextures.com)

What is a Gantt Chart?

The underlying concept of a Gantt chart is to map out which tasks can be done in parallel and which need to be done sequentially. If we combine this with the project resources, we can explore the trade-off between the scope (doing more or less work), cost (using more or less resources) and the time scales for the project. By adding more resources or reducing the scope the project manager can see the effect on the end date.

A Gantt chart displays information visually as a type of bar chart in a clear and easy-to-understand way and is used for the following activities:

• Establish the initial project schedule

• Allocate resources

• Monitor and report progress

• Control and communicate the schedule

• Display milestones

• Identify and report problems (Kerzner: 2013)

To create a chart, you need to know all of the individual tasks required to complete the project, an estimate of how long each task will take and which tasks are dependent on others. The very process of pulling this information together helps a project manager focus on the essential parts of the project and begin to establish a realistic timeframe for completion.

Disadvantages of a Gantt Chart

But Gantt charts are not perfect and all too often they become overly complex with too many dependencies and activities. This is a trap many new project managers fall into when they start using planning tools. It is much better to produce a clear and simple plan that shows the main work packages in summary, than a plan with so much detail the overall impression of project progress is lost. Let the work package manager put together the day-to-day detail of the activities within a work package, while the project schedule concentrates on the interfaces between project teams.

Neither are they good at showing the relative priorities of individual tasks and the resources expended on a task. Tasks are prioritised more to scheduling, not their importance to the project. For example, they can clearly show the elapsed time of a task but cannot so easily communicate how many people may be needed to complete that task. So, if not backed up by other data they can give a misleading impression to stakeholders. This is where using additional techniques such as a precedence diagram (sometimes called a PERT chart), for instance, becomes useful

A precedence diagram is another powerful project management technique which is particularly useful for identifying complex inter-dependencies and showing relative priorities of activities and, hence, highlighting the tasks most critical to project success. If you are not familiar with this, please now conduct your

own further online research.

Good examples of Gantt charts for business:

Software tools such as MS Project, Asana. TeamGantt and Airtable are often used by advanced consultants to draft project plans within Gantt charts. It is worth recalling that project plan charts are always a product of specific business

goals and cultures and therefore, although templates can be very useful, they sometimes do require much more advanced adaption by project management experts and qualified PMs. Nevertheless, we provide some examples for you to learn from below:

3 Simple Gantt chart examples can be seen at the popular Project Engineer website (2020): https://www.projectengineer.net/3-simple-gantt-chart-

examples/

Summary video

Now let’s take some time to watch this useful video by Project Management expert Chris Croft (2013) who summarises – in his video called Project Management in 8 Minutes - some of what we have learned so far:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkuUBcmmBpk

Reflective EXERCISE

Imagine that you are an IT consultant. Devise a Project Management Plan using a Gantt chart for introducing five cyber security measures within your workplace, or an imagined workplace. Write your answers in your course notebook.

Case study: Applying Project Management principles to the real world. The example of PM approaches rolled out in data security projects …

The following piece of work applies the key concepts and rules of project management to the increasingly important sphere of business data security. Here we will show just how project management rules can really help to execute a major project. Most crucially, we explore how to make the business case for a project; in this case a data security project.

For security and IT projects to be effective, IT and security professionals need to implement solid project management practice. An experienced project management team (not necessarily made up of technical specialists) can help ensure that client projects are executed smoothly, stay on budget and are completed within the timeframe that was agreed upon.

In your opening presentation to decision-makers, take time to explain 5 core benefits of practicing project management within the sphere of your chosen change management field. For a data security project, we might offer the following rationale to the Executive Board:

1. Streamlined Project Execution – overview of changes, outputs, outcomes and timelines 2. Strategic Alignment of systems – key financial saving 3. Optimized Resource Allocation – duplication eliminated 4. Continuous Improvement – dashboard monitoring and management 5. Problem Resolution and Risk Management – compliance adhered to

Benefit #1: Streamlined Project Execution

According to a project management survey by consulting firm McKinsey & Co., “executives discovered that adhering to project management methods and strategies reduced risks, cut costs and improved success rates”. The business benefits of a project management office (PMO) go without saying, and similar credit goes to the value of project management for cybersecurity projects specifically. Strict project management practice can help your data security project to be on budget and on schedule.

An overall project manager will also enforce that your project has clearly-defined deliverables, that it is executed with the agreed-upon results in mind, and that related findings, changes and important steps are communicated to all relevant stakeholders in a timely manner.

Benefit #2: Strategic Alignment

For a cybersecurity project to be successful, it must be aligned to the overall business strategy and goals.

If you don’t have a solid business reason for why your organization should implement this project, chances are you won’t be able to prove its effectiveness and importance down the road.

In fact, your data security projects should be aligned with:

• the amount and relevance of data you process, • your level of threat exposure, • your risk appetite, and • the applicability of regulatory requirements.

A data security project manager can keep your cybersecurity projects in check and make sure that they are executed with overall corporate goals in mind and can deliver measurable return on investment (ROI). Often, it is this high-level overview that IT and security professionals tend to oversee in their hectic dayto-day jobs (Bingley: 2015).

Benefit #3: Optimized Resource Allocation

The cyber security skills shortage has hit a record high in recent years, and is projected to worsen in the coming years, according to ISACA’s study “State of Cybersecurity 2018”. If you are one of the few lucky companies out there with qualified cybersecurity resources, you will know that their time is very limited, to say the least.

A cybersecurity project manager will be able to optimize resource allocation, make sure that critical resources are working on critical projects, and make sure to assign projects to the right resources.

By optimizing resources, IT and security professionals can ensure that cybersecurity projects are executed with optimal performance in mind and that resource capacities are respected. Lastly, your executive team will be happy to

know that you’re managing your cybersecurity project in an efficient manner that won’t waste resources.

Benefit #4: Continuous Improvement

As the saying goes, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”. A solid project management practices for your cybersecurity projects can help your organization learn from mistakes, avoid similar mistakes in the future and thereby facilitate the continuous improvement of processes, procedures and projects.

Often overlooked in the busy schedules of IT and security professionals, proper documentation about a project will not only serve as business intelligence, but also save time and resources for similar projects in the future.

A project manager will include begin with and run lessons-learned (isomorphic) discussion to identify natural elements of a successful cybersecurity project.

Benefit #5: Problem Resolution and Risk Management

Lastly, project management is important because it ensures that your cybersecurity project risks are properly managed, mitigated and communicated.

Before the start of a cybersecurity project, a good project manager will identify and list the potential risks of the project, communicate them to the main stakeholders, and provide and evaluation for whether the project should be executed or not – despite its risks. Once the project has started, a cybersecurity project manager will keep these risks in mind, look out for additional risks along the way and keep all involved parties informed.

If problems arise, a project manager can play the role of a mediator between internal teams and resources, but also between the internal and external spheres. Having an objective instance involved in your data ecurity project will ensure that potential problems (e.g. delays, confusion about deliverables, budget deviations) are uncovered, addressed and resolved in a professional and timely manner.

Summary

During this section we showed the importance of structured Project Management. We identified the components of a successful project plan, the PM lifecycle, as well as some popular software tools that help consultants and project managers in their work. Then we took the increasingly important sphere of data security and applied an imagined project management approach in order to discuss the benefits of undertaking such work in the first place. Now, as we reach the final section of this module, we will need to take into consideration a central feature and influencer of business planning: access to finance and budgeting.

Further Reading:

Barker, S., and Cole, R. (2009) Brilliant Project Management, what the best project managers know, do and say. London: FT Press Kerzner, H. (2013) Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. London: John Wiley & Sons

Grout. J, and Fisher, L. (2011) What You Need To Know About Leadership. Chichester: Capstone Press

References:

Barker, S., and Cole, R. (2009) Brilliant Project Management, what the best project managers know, do and say. London: FT Press Kerzner, H. (2013) Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. London: John Wiley & Sons

Grout. J, and Fisher, L. (2011) What You Need To Know About Leadership. Chichester: Capstone Press

Bingley, R., (2015) The Security Consultant’s Handbook. Ely: IT Governance Press