EFFICIENT PROJECT START-UP

Transcription

1 EFFICIENT PROJECT START-UP OLAV TORP (NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY) 1. INTRODUCTION The Norwegian Centre for Project Management (NSP) is a forum for cooperation and experience exchange within the field of project management [1]. One of the main activities in NSP is research within prioritized project management knowledge areas and processes, both in the short and long term [1]. From September 2002 until July 2003 NSP was financing a research project focusing on how to succeed with efficient project start-up. The writer was project manager for this project, and project managers from the industry (Statoil, Telenor, Thales Communications (consultants) and PTL (consultants)) participated in the project. Many of the problems occurring in projects are due to failure in the project start-up. The project start-up is a critical point in the project life cycle. When the decision to go ahead with the project is made, a project team will be established, and goal-oriented work to secure the results is started. A project in the start-up phase will compete with on-going projects regarding resources, attention and focus in general. Projects will always try to make the start-up as fast as possible. It is then a challenge to make this process as good as possible, and give the process the right focus. The objectives of the research project were to establish a generic start-up process for projects, and to develop some support tools that would focus on specific parts of the project start-up. The target group of the project was project managers in general (NSP member organizations in particular), and especially project managers dealing with challenges related to project start-up. NSP expected that the project delivered a report describing the research and the results of the research. The project group wanted to deliver something useful for the organizations involved. Therefore, in the steering document of the research project, the deliverables were described to be: A research report A short document giving tips to efficient project start-up A collection of tools to make start-up efficient, either a internet page or a cd The NSP project included a literature study, a questionnaire among participating organizations and work-shops in the project group. Because our objectives were to develop support tools to the project manager, we did not develop an extensive state-of-the-art study. The basis for development was existing tools in participating organizations and experience in the project group. The approach was mainly practical, and the focus in the research was on project management processes, and not product-oriented processes. 2. WHAT IS PROJECT START-UP? Project start-up is defined in different ways in Project Management literature. Samset [2] divide the project into two main phases: front-end and implementation phase. Front-end is what is done in the project prior to the final decision of starting-up the project. The research program Concept ( is putting a lot of research effort into front-end problems. The aim of project start-up is as fast as possible to establish a basis for management and control of a project [3]. A kick-off meeting (or meetings) can be used as an efficient arena for such project start-ups. The meeting(s) should have a meaningful content to make the start-up efficient. Project start-up could be defined as the period of time from final decision to start the project is made until the conditions are formed so that project participants can work efficient with implementation, with the typical result put together in a project hand-book [4]. A challenge when choosing our approach to project start-up was that the participating organizations recruit the project manager at different stages in the project. Based on that project manager was our target group, we defined project start-up to be [5]: Project start-up is a process starting when the project manager is recruited, and terminated when a steering document is developed, and the steering document is anchored in the project organization.

2 3. SIX FOCUS AREAS WITHIN PROJECT START-UP The project group has emphasized establishing and describing a generic start-up process of projects, and developing tools to support project managers in this process. The focus was on project management processes. A number of activities that should be a part of the start-up process were identified. These were merged into six main processes or as we call it, focus areas, within the project start-up, see figure 1. Project basis at the time Project start-up Uncertainty Stakeholders Project goals Organization Systems for plan and control Input to project start-up will vary from organization to organization, and from project to project within one organization. Input should at least consist of a mandate that the project manager has received, and possibly a business case that is to be verified through the project start-up. It could also exist goal statements and more or less detailed plan documents, considering some of the other focus areas within project start-up. All this should be reviewed, and verified, and the project group must through the start-up process achieve a common understanding of the goals and plans. Project basis at the time - What basic demands is the project going to solve, and which terms and assumptions does the project build on? It is essential that the project manager understands what the project owner expects from the project, which deliveries the project is responsible for and terms and assumptions made prior to the start-up. The project manager must go back to the parties that have been involved in the project prior to the start-up to clarify the basis in the project at the time and the project mandate. Figure 1: The project start-up process Uncertainty Which opportunities and risks do the project face, and which flexibility exists? The uncertainty is large at such an early stage. An essential task is to identify and analyze what uncertainty the project will face, and to find out what decisions are made prior to start-up, and what the basis for these decisions was. Stakeholders Which internal and external stakeholders must the project be aware of, and what strategies should the project manager establish against these stakeholders? It is important that the project manager understands the stakeholders of the project, and their needs, demands and expectations. Project goals Which project goals exists and how should they be understood? The project manager must have a clear understanding of the goals of the project before he decides how to go further and who to go with (the project team). If the goals do not exist, they have to be stated. Organization What sort of competence and skills are needed to solve the project? Organization touches many different problems. The project manager should evaluate and take advantage of both professional skills, social skills and personal skills in the project organization. Systems for planning and control What is the scope of work and what is the time and cost frames of the project? When project start-up is terminated, it should be documented what the deliveries from the project are expected to be. It should give an overview of what the deliverables are, when they should be delivered, the quality of the deliveries and how to measure whether or not the goals are achieved. The output of the start-up process will be a steering document some will call this a project plan or a project hand-book. Fangel [4] states that the output of the process should be a document (hand-book) and that there should be conditions in the project that are so that the participants can work efficient together with implementation of the project. An aspect of this is implementing and anchoring the steering document. The research group stated, as a part of the definition of project start-up, that the steering document should be anchored in the project organization. This promotes motivation within the project organization and common

3 understanding of the project problems and how to solve them. This is important and should be given attention in the start-up process. 4. EXAMPLE OF TOOLS WITHIN SOME OF THE AREAS Results from the work were put together in a short hand-book, with a cd enclosed. For each focus area we defined some core-questions to be asked and identified some success factors. The core questions and the success factors were meant to help the project manager ask the right questions, and to focus on important parts of project start-up. We collected/developed 25 tools (templates, presentations, MS Excel sheets and descriptions of analysis methods) that can be used to help the project manager do the start-up of projects more efficient. Regarding the project goals, some core questions to be asked were defined: What are the needs of the project s costumer (if more than one costumer the main)? What goals do the costumer have (if more than one costumer the main)? What are the primary deliverables from the project? Who approve and accept the deliveries? Success factors of the goal-process were defined to be: Clear, precise, time related and measurable goals. Common anchoring of the goals among costumers and the project team. Goals correspond to the frame conditions. The project group has to be motivated to achieve the goals. Core questions and success factors were put up for each focus area. Are the goals SMART? YES YES NO Project Start-Up - project goals Are the project goals defined? Simple goal analysis together with project owner NO PROJECT GOALS Figure 2: Evaluation of the project goals. Is the situation complex? Goal analysis as a group process An example of a tool presented in the work is a simple evaluation of the project goals, shown in figure 1. The evaluation considers whether or not there are goal statements at the present time of the project. If goal statements exist, and the goal statements are SMART 1, you don t need to focus on goal statements in the start-up process. If goal statements do not exist, or if the statements are not good enough, there should be performed a goal analysis in the project organization. If it is a complex situation we suggest a groupprocess to develop project goals. A procedure describing the goal analysis performed as a group process can be found at and in [7] (all in Norwegian). This procedure consist of four main steps, which are: establish the project basis, establish the main goals, establish secondary goals, and at the end establish consensus regarding the project goals, and define the project scope of work considered the project goals. If the situation is not complex, it should be enough for the project manager to develop the goals together with his costumer. 1 The goals are SMART when they are Specific, Measurable, Accepted, Realistic and Time related.

4 Regarding uncertainty, there are collected/developed 6 tools, from a simple procedure of uncertainty management, to a somewhat more complex MS Excel-sheet to support the project manager during performance of an uncertainty analysis. The procedure of uncertainty management consists of the following steps (where at least bullet-point 1 to 4 is a natural part of the start-up process, and the last two bullet-points are more a part of the project implementation): 1. Identification of uncertainties that can affect the project goals. 2. Analysis of probability and consequences of possible outcomes of the most important uncertainties. Probability and consequences could be quantified (probability as a number or in a range from as example 1 5, consequences as cost estimates or in a range from as example 1 to 5). 3. Ranking quantitative and qualitative uncertainties by establishing a top ten -list. The basis for the list appears by multiplying probabilities and consequences. The uncertainty with the highest number would be on top of the list. 4. Planning actions to reduce probability and/or consequences of risks (downside). Increase probability of positive outcomes and their consequences (up-side). 5. Implement actions. 6. Update the uncertainty analysis during the project period. Handling stakeholders is an important task in a project, and a natural part of project start-up. PMI [8] defines stakeholders as individuals and organizations who are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected as a result of project implementation or successful project completion. This includes customers, external parties, and internal stakeholders. There are presented three tools helping the project manager analyzing and handling stakeholders as a part of the project start-up process. Template for a stakeholder analysis is one of the tools, consisting of: 1. Identification who are stakeholders/costumers of the project deliverables? 2. Grouping stakeholders in primary and secondary stakeholders Who is most important? 3. Role clarification what sort of role do the stakeholder have in the project? 4. Effect of the project what effect does the project have on the stakeholder? 5. Evaluation How does the analysis impact further development in the project? The analysis focuses on the primary needs of each stakeholder and positive and negative impact from the project on each stakeholder. Another tool helps the project manager analyze strategies against stakeholders. Based on what impact each stakeholder could have on the project (example: High Medium Low) and what attitude the stakeholder have to the project (for against), one could choose between different strategies: Involve the stakeholder, Monitor the stakeholder s actions, Minimize dependencies and/or Cooperate with the stakeholder. All these analyses could be done by using templates developed in the research project. When it comes to organization, the area covers many different problems in the start-up process. The project manager must consider what resources are needed in the project organization. We have presented 3 tools helping the project manager getting the right people in his project, among them [9]. Regarding systems for planning and control, we have collected two tools: a template to be used to develop a project hand-book, and a document stating demands to content of the steering document. The first one has been in use in one of the organizations involved in the project for a while, and includes everything needed to develop a hand-book. The last one is developed by Ministry of Finance in Norway, and is since 2001 used in all public projects with costs above 500 Million NOK. 5. HOW TO PERFORM THE PROJECT START-UP PROCESS Project start-up is described through 6 processes. These processes will not often be performed in a stated sequence. In a start-up process it is natural to perform these processes partly in parallel. Project manager and the team often have to adjust and adapt their work a number of times during the start-up process. As mentioned earlier, projects could be at different stages when the project manager is recruited. Clearly, the project stage defines the project manager s needs for support tools during project start-up. Complexity is another parameter that should be taken into consideration when deciding the scope of work and the focus of the project start-up. The start-up is the project manager s responsibility, and he has to figure out what tools he needs in his project, and fit those tools to his project, the complexity of the project and the competence in the project organization. We have given some suggestions to the project manager.

5 An important question is whether or not an external facilitator should be hired to help the project manager performing project start-up. Statoil has a separate unit in their organization, supporting the projects with start-up help, while the other organizations participating in the research project do not have such a unit. They would either run the project start-up themselves (project manager) or hire a facilitator to lead the process. Literature says a lot about advantages of using an external facilitator [10] and [11]. The research project concluded that to hire an external facilitator outside the project has so many advantages that it is recommended. Whether or not the facilitator is from another unit in the same organization or hired from an external organization is of minor importance. 6. SUMMING UP The research has resulted in advice and tools to make project start-up more efficient. The results are based on experience with project start-up in member organizations of NSP. Our project has to a large extent had a practical approach, with focus on project management processes. Project start-up is defined with focus on the project manager s tasks. Project start-up is often thought of as a kick-off meeting. Our suggestions are that a kick-off meeting or some kick-off meetings is one arena used for project start-up processes. One has to fill the meetings with meaningful content, and one has to focus on the right things in the project start-up. We have identified activities in the start-up process, and merged this into 6 processes/focus areas of importance in the start-up process. We have given them a content that could help project managers doing their start-up more efficient. Most of the tools are used today. The main results of our research are the way the tools are put together in a systematic way, and the focus on project start-up we have placed during our work. The start-up process, as described in chapter 3 and 4 in this paper is adapted to project start-up as defined in chapter 2. You could however use the same process in start-up of other processes. Statoil has used the same approach when starting up work on site, and starting up Health, Environment and Security work on site. The process described could be developed further, taking advantage of research results in other projects performed of NSP and others. We have identified project close-out, or termination as a field where corresponding research could have been done. Some of the elements of the process suggested are in use today. It would be interesting to test out the whole process in some case projects, and then improve the process, based on experience from the case studies. 7. REFERENCES [1] Asbjørn Rolstadås, Some Norwegian PM Initiatives cooperation between Academia and Industry, 17th World Congress on Project Management, Moscow [2] Knut Samset, Konseptvurdering i tidligfasen, Tapir, Norway, [3] Tor Willy Hetland, Praktisk Prosjektledelse anvendelser, Norwegian Assosiation of Project Management, [4] Morten Fangel m.fl, Effektiv tilblivelse af projekter, Danish Association of Project Management, [5] Olav Torp og Agnar Johansen, Project start-up and termination (in Norwegian only), Norwegian Centre for Project Management, july [6] Olav Torp og Agnar Johansen, Tips and advice to efficient project start-up (in Norwegian only), Norwegian Centre for Project Management, july [7] Agnar Johansen og Mari Standal, Målanalyse, PTL, Norway, [8] PMI, A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, [9] [10] Ole Jonny Klakegg, Trinnvis-prosessen, NTNU Institut for bygg, anlegg og tranport, Norway [11] Lichtenberg, Steen, Proactive Management of Uncertainty using the Successive Principle, Polyteknisk Press, Denmark, 2000.