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How to Effectively Analyze and Report Status
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Written by Dr. Andrew Makar
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Tuesday, 26 January 2010 20:45 |
Is your project feasible?
The best way to find out whether your project is feasible is to complete a Feasibility Study. This process helps you gain confidence that the solution you need to build can be implemented on time and under budget. So here's how to do it in 5 simple steps...
Completing a Feasibility Study
A Feasibility Study needs to be completed as early in the Project Life Cycle as possible. The best time to complete it is when you have identified a range of different alternative solutions and you need to know which solution is the most feasible to implement. Here's how to do it...
Step 1: Research the Business Drivers
In most cases, your project is being driven by a problem in the business. These problems are called "business drivers" and you need to have a clear understanding of what they are, as part of your Feasibility Study.
For instance, the business driver might be that an IT system is outdated and is causing customer complaints, or that two businesses need to merge because of an acquisition. Regardless of the business driver, you need to get to the bottom of it so you fully understand the reasons why the project has been kicked off.
Find out why the business driver is important to the business, and why it's critical that the project delivers a solution to it within a specified timeframe. Then find out what the impact will be to the business, if the project slips.
Step 2: Confirm the Alternative Solutions
Now you have a clear understanding of the business problem that the project addresses, you need to understand the alternative solutions available.
If it's an IT system that is outdated, then your alternative solutions might include redeveloping the existing system, replacing it or merging it with another system.
Only with a clear understanding of the alternative solutions to the business problem, can you progress with the Feasibility Study.
Step 3: Determine the Feasibility
You now need to identify the feasibility of each solution. The question to ask of each alternative solution is "can we deliver it on time and under budget?"
To answer this question, you need to use a variety of methods to assess the feasibility of each solution. Here are some examples of ways you can assess feasibility:
- Research: Perform online research to see if other companies have implemented the same solutions and how they got on.
- Prototyping: Identify the part of the solution that has the highest risk, and then build a sample of it to see if it's possible to create.
- Time-boxing: Complete some of the tasks in your project plan and measure how long it took vs. planned. If you delivered it on time, then you know that your planning is quite accurate.
Step 4: Choose a Preferred Solution
With the feasibility of each alternative solution known, the next step is to select a preferred solution to be delivered by your project. Choose the solution that; is most feasible to implement, has the lowest risk, and you have the highest confidence of delivering.
You've now chosen a solution to a known business problem, and you have a high degree of confidence that you can deliver that solution on time and under budget, as part of the project.
Step 5: Reassess at a lower level
It's now time to take your chosen solution and reassess its feasibility at a lower level. List all of the tasks that are needed to complete the solution. Then run those tasks by your team to see how long they think it will take to complete them. Add all of the tasks and timeframes to a project plan to see if you can do it all within the project deadline. Then ask your team to identify the highest risk tasks and get them to investigate them further to check that they are achievable. Use the techniques in Step 3 to give you a very high degree of confidence that it's practically achievable. Then document all of the results in a Feasibility Study report.
After completing these 5 steps, get your Feasibility Study approved by your manager so that everyone in the project team has a high degree of confidence that the project can deliver successfully.
About the Author
Jason Westland has been in the project management industry for the past 16 years managing projects of up to 2 billion dollars. If you would like to find out more about Jason or about his new online project management software visit projectmanager.com.
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Written by Dr. Andrew Makar
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Friday, 11 December 2009 09:18 |
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Have you explored integrating your project schedules with a PPM solution like CA's Clarity or Microsoft's Project Server? I recently published an article on Tech Republic that addresses some of the issues integrating a project schedule and the appropriate level of detail.
You can integrate and update a Microsoft Project schedule with a project portfolio management (PPM) tool such as CA Clarity or Microsoft Project Server. By doing so, you can achieve resource management, schedule management, time keeping, and objective project and portfolio metrics. When you incorporate standard reporting templates and integrated project schedule data, you quickly obtain a standardized view of the projects executing across the portfolio using real-time data. However, the other side to consider is if a detailed plan is the right level to integrate with a PPM solution. In other cases, a milestone level plan is sufficient as it doesn't require the resource management constraint.
Before integrating a Microsoft Project schedule with a project portfolio management (PPM) tool, there are five questions you should ask yourself.
Your can read the article here:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-manager/?p=2646
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Written by Dr. Andrew Makar
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Thursday, 10 December 2009 07:48 |
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I had the opportunity to interview Rally Dev on their latest advances in deploying Agile program and project management across the enterprise. You'll be impressed with the integration and social media features Rally has introduced to connect with customers thoroughout marketing, customer support, and product development lifecycles. They've got some cool tools...and they let you run a full Agile project at no cost using their community edition.
You can read the article at:
http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/articles/253119.cfm
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Written by Dr. Andrew Makar
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Thursday, 10 December 2009 07:42 |
As a project manager, how to you improve your project management competency? The industry is full of options to provide training and learning opportunities ranging from in-seat training classes, project management organizations, conferences, on-the-job training, mentoring and various books and magazines targeted to our profession. You can't forget all the websites, discussion forums, e-zines and blogs that produce daily content filled with tips and advice on project management execution.
Since project managers are tasked with successful project delivery, there simply isn't enough time to review all these training sources to learn new ideas and improve existing skill sets. Is there ever a good time to take training during a project? If we are lucky, we have a small amount of time between meetings to skim a few project management websites in addition to checking ESPN.com for last night's sports scores. The other challenge is that all of these activities are outbound activities that require you to search, sort and scour the Internet for relevant content.
Wouldn't it be easier if someone just sent you all the information that you needed to know?
I recently published an example on how you can use a variety of social media tools to improve your PM competency at Gantthead.com. Read more the article at:
http://www.gantthead.com/content/articles/253203.cfm
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Written by Dr. Andrew Makar
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Friday, 04 December 2009 10:19 |
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In October, for the first time in what I considered a successful 14 year career, I was fired. HR had a friendlier term and referred to the action as a "redundant position that was being eliminated" as part of the company's "profit optimization initiative." Call it what you want - job elimination, headcount reduction, downsizing or a "profit optimization initiative" - I no longer had a revenue stream. I was fired.
To say I was surprised is an understatement, despite all the economic indicators in the Detroit area where unemployment had risen to 28%. I had survived three waves of downsizing across two Fortune 500 companies. I had a proven track record of successful project delivery and was often asked to help turn around troubled projects and programs. In a company that leveraged outsourcing, I was convinced they couldn't outsource leadership. Despite all of this I was still fired.
Fortunately, 40 days later, I was hired
I published a Unemployment Rescue Kit on TechRepublic that provides some tactical advice and a Career Contact Matrix to help find employment in continuing War for Talent.
Read more at http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/career/?p=1534&tag=results;CR1
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