Administer and Monitor Project

Managing a project usually involves a team. As such, communication is key, and coordination is necessary. The success of the project is heavily dependent on the unity of the team – whether everyone is on the same page regarding the goals that need to be achieved.

When communicating with your team members, ensure that you:

• Use appropriate forms of communication: For example, if a hands-on approach is needed for a task, then face-to-face communication may be most effective. If your team members are in different locations, emails or video conferences may be more viable.
• Use clear language when communicating with project team members: Unclear and vague instructions increase the chance of misunderstanding among the team which may lead to errors and delays.
• Ask questions to probe into issues and listen to your team to confirm understanding: Do not dictate orders. Listen to your teams concerns and ask questions to gain clarity. As people who do the actual work tasks, your team members may be able to provide valuable insights.
• Have one-on-one interactions with team members: Team meetings are good, but make sure to also set aside time for one-on-one interactions. During these sessions, set your expectations and needs. As the project team head, these sessions will provide you with the opportunity to evaluate challenges that the project task may pose upon your team member. Ask your team member which areas they may need help in to complete their task and fulfil their role in the project.

The project’s overview meeting is the starting point for communicating with project team members. This is the initial meeting where goals are established, and the roles and duties of each team member are discussed. Throughout the project, ensure that communication is constant. This can be done through project catch-ups which the team will decide the regularity of; they could be daily, weekly, bi-monthly and so on.

Watch the following video for tips on responding to and managing challenging communication.

Recordkeeping is an essential part of project management. Also called documentation, it makes sure that project requirements are fulfilled and establishes a trail of vital information such as what has been done when it was done, and who has done it. It is an important control mechanism and allows you to ensure that all team members and stakeholders can keep up to date with the project’s progress. Keeping a record throughout the project also ensures accountability, allows for ready access to critical information, and provides an important resource for future projects.

In recordkeeping, you must be mindful of the types of information that must be recorded during the project, the frequency with which the documents must be updated, the individuals tasked with updating them, and the individuals tasked with the reviewing of the records. Different types of information may also be recorded in different documents and trackers.

Types of recordkeeping systems

There are various ways to record, store and retrieve information. The recordkeeping system for project management must suit the needs, circumstances, and resources of the project. Following are different types of recordkeeping systems you can use for your project.

• Manual system: The manual system is a simple, paper-based recording system. The process is straightforward. It can be a tedious way of recordkeeping, but it has certain advantages such as being less expensive to set up and the lower risk of data corruption. Duplicate and redundant copies are also easier to avoid.
• Electronic system: The electronic system involves the use of software programs to simplify the recordkeeping process. It is efficient, requires less storage space, and makes it easy to back up records and keep them in a safe place.
• Cloud-based system: The cloud is a computing model that stores data on remote servers accessed from the internet. A cloud-based system assures you that you can access your data anytime as long as you have an internet connection.

Types of documents and information to be recorded

Throughout the project lifecycle, huge amounts of project-related information are generated and a big number of decisions are made. All these must be properly documented in every stage and every phase of the project. The most important project information can be categorised into three:

• Project management plans: Project management plans include subsidiary plans for project scope, schedule, cost, quality, resource, communication, risk, procurement, stakeholder engagement, and change management plans. Also includes the baselines of scope, time, and cost.
• Project documents: Project documents include the documents created during project initiation, planning, implementation, and closing phases of a project. Some of these documents include the project charter, stakeholder register, project requirements document, requirement traceability document, project scope statement, work breakdown structures (WBS), activity list, activity attributes, milestone lists, network diagram, duration estimation document, project schedule, cost estimation sheet, resource estimation sheet, risk register, statements of work (SOWs), bid documents, issue log, assumption log, lessons learnt register, change request logs, change request forms, status reports, progress reports, project final closure reports and many more.
• Project contracts and agreements: Project contracts and agreements include various contracts and agreements with external customers and also with the suppliers of the project.

Filing project documents

Project documentation should be managed as per the standard organisational procedures for creating and managing documents. Documentation regarding the following issues and activities should be captured in the project files:

• Official correspondence, including email correspondence
• Minutes and papers of project meetings
• Stakeholder contact details
• Project brief/proposal/approval
• Change or variance requests/decisions made
• Issues/risk log and mitigation strategies
• Status reports
• Procurement documents
• Instructions, direction, advice issued and file notes
• Project diary (where applicable)
• Contracts with any external organisations

Usually, there are many versions of official documentation. While there is no need to file the unofficial versions, i.e., draft project proposals and the like, it is recommended to place a version control on said documents. For the version control, include the following information for easy reference:

• name of the project
• revision number
• date of revision
• author
• where the electronic copy is kept.

Further reading

Project records management is an important task. To learn more about recordkeeping and its management, you can access the link below on records management.

Project Records Management in Three Essential Steps

It cannot be denied that managing a project or a business, involves intuition and gut feeling. However, basing decisions purely on intuition and gut feeling is incredibly risky. Monitoring project finances, resources, and quality will provide key insights that will help you arrive at more rational decisions.

Some of these key insights include:

• most and least profitable areas of the project or business
• whether performance is in line with objectives and plan
• performance of the team.

Monitoring and managing project finances

Whether your project is big or small, there will always be one bottom line: finances. Finances involve the identification of costs for the project and the tracking of expenses.

The financial side of project management typically involves four things. These are:

• Estimating costs
• Setting the budget
• Preparing for contingencies
• Tracking expenses

Estimating costs

Before every project can proceed, there needs to be a budget plan. Implementing the project without a set budget plan can have dire consequences which often result in either of two things: not being able to finish the project due to lack of funds or completing the project at a much higher cost than projected.

Usually, you may come into a project with an expectation of the budget. This is the estimate. When doing estimates, the more specific you are, the better. Some important elements that need to be accounted for are the following:

• Vendor bid analysis: When managing a project, there is usually a team that works with you. Sometimes, however, you will find that you need to outsource some of the work or you will need an external contractor for some of the project tasks. In cases where you have more than one contractor, determine which one is best suited for the task at hand. This is the vendor bid analysis.
• Cost of resources: Resources refer to all the elements that are necessary to perform the work tasks needed for the completion of the project. This includes the labour and the materials necessary.
• Cost of quality: Cost of quality is the cost associated with making sure that everything your project produces is of quality. This is based on the principle that it is cheaper to rectify an issue or a problem earlier rather than later. An example of this is the cost associated with field testing.

Setting the budget

Now that you have your estimations, you must create a budget based on them. Just because you have your estimates on hand does not guarantee that you will receive the budget you desire. It is ideal to have the funding as your estimates but that is rarely the case since the funding will also depend upon the different project stakeholders. Once you have the set budget, prioritise accordingly.

Preparing for contingencies

Project estimates are rarely accurate all the way. Thus, there is a need to estimate that uncertainty. A contingency fund is a budget that is set aside for cost overruns. When developing your contingency fund, you need to assess the risks you may encounter in your project. Factor things outside of your control, such as the pricing and availability of resources.

Tracking expenses

In undertaking a project, it is not enough to manage the finances; you have to monitor it too. Track all the money going out by setting up systems such as expense forms and requiring approval for big purchases.

Monitoring and managing resources

Just as financial resources must be managed, so do the non-financial side of resources composed of people, equipment, information, materials, time, and money. Project resource management is, therefore, not limited to the implementation of internal and external resources for the completion of the project but also involves its procurement.

In managing project resources, there are seven factors to consider:

• Resource estimation
  • Estimate based on previous experience from similar projects.
  • The more complete the list of resources, the more accurate your resource estimation can be.
• Data collection
  • Take note of available resources, requirements for resources, and how these resources will be able to meet the demands.
• Resource plan
  • Separate resource plans for each project; details relating to the need, allocation and use of resources from start to end.
  • Get input from team members
• Plan the development of the plan
  • Pattern final schedule from the established start and end dates for each project task.
  • Assign required resources to each activity by matching the activity breakdown against the resource plan.
• Verification of over-allocations
  • Over allocation happens when there are assignments of more tasks than what the resource can handle.
  • Over allocation affects project health.
• Negotiate for resources
  • Smaller projects generally rely on the organisation's internal resources, but bigger and more complex projects may require external resources.
• Monitor the work schedule
  • Keep track of  hourly and daily availability of resources (e.g. human resources, vacations and absences).
  • Make sure that resources are evenly distributed.

Monitoring and managing quality

Project quality management refers to the processes used to determine and achieve the quality deliverables of a project. This means answering the question of whether project outcomes are according to stakeholder standards.

To implement these, three steps must be followed:

1. Plan quality

   Project managers or team leaders must work with their teams to identify their requirements for the deliverable. They must agree on how the process will be documented and how the information will be delivered. Will it be through regular meetings? Reports? A checklist of deliverables that includes tasks and timelines must also be included.

2. Quality assurance

   Quality assurance is making sure that your processes address the issue of project outcomes meeting stakeholder standards. Quality assurance is the system or process that makes sure the quality of deliverables is according to stakeholder requirements. It is also involved in the setting of milestones for completing a deliverable, making sure that deliverables are up to standards through quality metrics or performance indicators, assigning individuals to check on the quality of deliverables and the work tasks that come with it, and applicable timelines for checking the quality of a deliverable.

   Examples of situations wherein quality assurance are exhibited include the following:

   • Inspection and testing: Inspection and testing are carried out upon completion of installation and maintenance of equipment. Should any equipment be found non-compliant with standards, it must be immediately repaired or replaced, and then inspected again. All results must be documented.
   • Equipment: All equipment held is maintained in good condition and capable of safe and effective operation within a specified tolerance of use.

3. Quality control

   Quality control is the process of making sure that the expected quality is met at every phase of the project (i.e., the product or service meets quality requirements specified for the project). By doing quality control, the deliverables are validated, and the cause of poor product quality is identified, thus, enabling the recommendation of necessary actions to take away quality-related problems. In the simplest sense, quality control tests the quality of the output, focusing on finding the fault. This is different from quality assurance in that quality assurance prevents the fault. The following illustrates the difference between quality assurance and quality control.

   

Throughout the project implementation, you may encounter problems such as losses or delays in your deliverables. While some problems will be avoidable or can be planned for, some cannot be anticipated. For those that are foreseeable, they should have been identified in your risk management plan and thus, be efficiently handled if they are encountered.

On the other hand, unexpected risks are more difficult to handle. Since they cannot be avoided because they were not anticipated, you can try to mitigate them by doing something to lessen the impact or transferring the said risks by letting others accept the risks and pay for them (such as by getting insurance). If mitigating and transferring are still not viable, you have no choice but to accept the risks as they are.

Project managers must be flexible enough to undertake risk management as required. This makes project reports essential as they help track the progress and issues for the duration of the project. For risk management, an important document is the risk log. The risk log records all the details of all identified risks as well as the analysis for each risk and the plan for its treatment. Through this, you track issues or risks instantaneously and you can record the status, action, responsibility, and closure of the issue or risk.

Key points

• As you implement and organise your project, ensure that your project team members are clear about their responsibilities and the requirements of the project.
• As the project manager, you need to support your team members and monitor their needs and the quality of the expected outcomes of the project.
• Ensure that you keep careful records during your project and that you meet the requirements set by your organisation in this regard.
• You should set plans for project financing and all resources required and then implement these accordingly.
• Risk management is crucial in project management; you should be careful to ensure that where a risk exists, it is carefully monitored, and action is taken where required.