Implementing and Controlling
- Mur - Lee Murphy
A guide to best practice and key thinking in implementing and controlling a project, with recommended tools and techniques.
Having completed the planning and initiating phase, the project is ready to move to the implementing and controlling phase. At this point, there are a number of important factors that must be considered.
Quality control
One major consideration is quality control. Project quality should be determined with reference to customer expectations (be they internal or external customers).
As far as assessing quality is concerned, there are a number of useful tools and techniques available. Industry and competitor benchmarking can provide a useful comparison. In addition, cost/benefit analysis is an excellent way of assessing the financial viability of individual activities or projects.
Flow charting and fishbone analysis are two excellent techniques for examining the causes of problems.
Finally, there are a great number of quality audits and tools on the market currently. These range from programmes organised by trained in-house specialists to quality systems run by accredited agencies.
Regardless of the form the quality management takes, the key lesson is to agree on levels of quality early on, and to continuously monitor throughout the project to ensure that these are being met.
Human resource management
Another key element of project management is efficient human resource management. Obviously the initial assignment of duties is of great importance to the whole process. The decision-making process will encompass specialist skill sets, organisational structure, union arrangements and managerial preferences.
At this stage, it will be useful to conduct a stakeholder analysis as a means of assessing skills and expectations.
Relevant skills will also include recruitment policy, reward and incentive schemes, and team building.
Depending on the complexity of the project, it may be preferable to write a formal staff management plan. This will describe the staffing needs of the project in terms of numbers, skills and time-commitment, and will allow the project manager to plan ahead.
Communication
Communication is another major part of the process. Fundamentally, this will involve identifying stakeholders’ needs, particularly when and how much information they will require.
Clearly there will be some scope for the use of information technology. However, more traditional methods (such as update meetings and progress presentations) can also be effective.
In managing communications, the project team will need to establish a uniform filing system, formal lines of distribution and written communication templates. Nowadays, many of these tasks can be fulfilled by an organisational intranet, which communicates the project programme to as many people as need to access it. The intranet has the added advantage of cutting across departmental lines and providing excellent transparency and accountability.
Risk
The project team will also have to carefully consider potential risks. A useful tool in this process is a risk analysis matrix.
Although risk management begins at the outset, it should, like communications and HR, be a recurring priority throughout the project.
Interviewing stakeholders and brainstorming are two important techniques for identifying potential risks. Once risks have been identified, contingency plans should be formulated in the event that they arise. The amount of attention paid to individual risks depends on how risk averse the team is, cost estimates of the potential risks and the likelihood of individual problems arising.
There are three main risk response strategies:
- avoidance, by the early elimination of the threat
- mitigation, or reducing the likelihood of the event
- acceptance
The decision to adopt one of these strategies depends entirely on the financial impact of the potential risk and on its likely effect on the success of the project. Useful tools which can be employed within these strategies include contingency planning, alternate strategies and insurance.
The key thing to remember about the entire process of implementation and control is that all of the behaviours ought to have been set out in the original plan. While teams should be prepared to improvise if circumstances change, sticking to the original plan will increase the likelihood of success.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons NASA/James Blair (accessed 21 October 2014).
