John Potter Plymouth Business School University of Plymouth Project Management

Once the context of the project is understood, success criteria identified, plans created and the team assembled it is important to monitor progress It is important to plan ahead to avoid the tendency for the project leader to ‘fire fight’ Project control and monitoring tools need to be appropriate to the project The project team needs to perform to a high standard and cope effectively with changes All stakeholders must remain committed to the project as developments occur As the project proceeds the context or ‘Big Picture’ provides the basis for testing whether all the elements are still on track. Evaluation of progress

Planning is not just carried out at the start of the project but needs to take place throughout its development Continuous cycles of planning, doing and reviewing must take place – the greater the uncertainty and innovation involved the more important is this process Regular meetings need to take place and the SCRUM approach takes particular account of this issue A SWOT analysis can sometimes be useful at various stages – what’s going in our favour (strengths)? Where are we vulnerable – (weaknesses)? What can we capitalise upon to carry us forwards (opportunities)? What can derail us (threats)? Continuous planning and review

 Introspection, progress analysis and reflection are useful tools although for many people who are action oriented they do not come naturally  Learning theory shows that the natural process of reflection is key in promoting effective learning, something the project team needs to engage in constantly  The concept of taking the ‘helicopter view’ whilst addressing specific issues in a ‘split screen’ mode is valuable as part of the ongoing evaluation process

 In the past project control systems were seen as a prerequisite for success in implementing a project  Current thinking is that we need to add three important issues: ◦ The prime role of a monitoring system is not to control the project but to provide information to enable the team to manage the project effectively ◦ The systems must be simple in order to be effective and not an end in themselves ◦ The systems used must have the support of the whole team  The planning review system involves the review phase, discussions with stakeholders, adjusting the plan and then taking action  This leads to the concept of plan-do cycles as in the next slide.

Discussions with stakeholders to agree revisions Plan Do Review by project team in the light of events

 Identification of intermediate targets  Critical event-times or bottlenecks  Costs incurred and resources used  Quality assurance  Performance specifications  Managing the people issues.

 Project risk management is defined by the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) as…  “ the processes concerned with identifying, analysing and responding to uncertainty. It includes maximising the probability and consequence of positive events and minimising the probability of adverse events to the project objectives  The Association of Project Managers defines project risk as….  “the factors that may cause failure to meet the project’s objectives …or limit the achievementof your objectives as defined at the outset of the project  Risk may present from a number of sources as we will see in the next slide. Project Management Institute (2009) A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK Guide.

 Natural risks – use statistics, probability data and draw on the experience of others as well as yourself.  Product liability risks – thorough planned testing, product recall and effective quality management  Technical risks – build in extra budget, prototypes, milestone performance reviews  Business risks – good leadership, use experts where appropriate and be aware of the early signs of possible problems  Personnel risks – build in contractual agreements, make it a good place to be, no strike agreements  Psychological risks – have a good coach and mentor, talk through issues with colleagues.

 Poor risk assessment and lack of effective PRAM (project risk analysis and management)  Lack of project management authority  Poor estimating  Poor planning  Ineffective project team management  Unclear objectives  Poor monitoring and control  Lack of learning from mistakes.

Slack. N., Chambers. S. & Johnson, Right. (2001) Operations Management. Prentice Hall Briner, W, Geddes, M, Hastings,C (1990) Project Leadership. Gower: Aldershot, England. Project Management Institute (2009) A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK Guide. References

This resource was created by the University of Plymouth, Learning from WOeRk project. This project is funded by HEFCE as part of the HEA/JISC OER release programme.Learning from WOeRk This resource is licensed under the terms of the Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales license ( The resource, where specified below, contains other 3 rd party materials under their own licenses. The licenses and attributions are outlined below: 1.The name of the University of Plymouth and its logos are unregistered trade marks of the University. The University reserves all rights to these items beyond their inclusion in these CC resources. 2.The JISC logo, the and the logo of the Higher Education Academy are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution -non-commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK England & Wales license. All reproductions must comply with the terms of that license. Back page originally developed by the OER phase 1 C-Change project ©University of Plymouth, 2010, some rights reserved Author John Potter InstituteUniversity of Plymouth TitleEvaluation of progress, risk and and project issues both hard and soft Date Created 10/06/2011 Educational Level Level 5 Keywords Learning from WOeRK Work Based Learning WBL Continuous Professional Development CPD leadership and management UKOER LFWOER Text for audio