A Guide for Capital Project Mamnagers

A Guide for Capital Project Mamnagers

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  1 The Five Immutable Principlesof Project Success Produced in conjunction with Glen B. Alleman A Guide for Capital Project Managers
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  2 3 Understanding the5 key principles to project success will help project managers deliver on time and on budget when tackling projects of any size, in any domain. The concepts discussed throughout this guide present a framework, to allow the reader to search for answers in any number of different scenarios and situations. Contents ▪▪ WHAT DOES PROJECT SUCCESS MEAN? ▪▪ FIRST PRINCIPLE: Identify Needed Capabilities – what does done look like? ▪▪ SECOND PRINCIPLE: Establish Technical and Operational Requirements Baseline – how do you get to done? ▪▪ THIRD PRINCIPLE: Establish Performance Measurement Baseline – is there enough time, money, and resources to get to done? ▪▪ FOURTH PRINCIPLE: Perform Continuous Risk Management – what obstacles will be encountered on the way to done? ▪▪ FIFTH PRINCIPLE: Execute the Performance Measurement Baseline – how do you measure the progress of the project from beginning to done? ▪▪ CHECKLIST SUMMARY ▪▪ FINAL WORDS Project Management Expert Glen B. Alleman Niwot Ridge Consulting, LLC Foreword 5 6 10 14 18 22 26 28
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  4 5 What DoesProject Success Mean? The successful management of capital projects, requires initiating, planning, executing, and managing resources effectively to complete specific deliverables within time and budget. To keep pace with the demands of capital projects, many project leaders will enlist the help of unified project management tools, which can transform management of even the most complex mega projects. These tools, however intelligent, are only as useful as the framework they inhabit, which is where understanding the 5 principles of project success becomes important. These five principles enable project leaders to envision the entire project from start to finish, manage resources and risks effectively, and clearly measure and convey progress to decision makers. The five principles are expressed as a series of questions that relate to "done" – where done represents the successful completion of the project within time, budget, and attaining all project requirements. 1. Do you have a clear and concise description and understanding of what done looks like? 2. Do you have a plan or strategy to reach done on time, on budget? 3. Do you have the resources needed to execute this plan? How much time and money is needed to reach done? 4. What could possibly go wrong? Have you defined how you’re going to remove, avoid, or handle risks? 5. Do you measure progress to plan in units meaningful to the decision maker? This guide provides a high-level description of the five immutable principles of project success, including detailed infographics and best practices and processes critical to producing actionable information for project leaders.
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  6 7 Identify Needed Capabilities ▪▪We need the capability to remove 1½ hours from our supply chain ordering process once the merger of our two firms is complete. ▪▪ We need the capability to change the Wide Field Camera and the internal nickel hydride batteries, while doing no harm to the telescope. ▪▪ We need the capability to dock four oil tankers at the pier and unload their cargo in 18 hours, while operating the ground transportation system concurrently. ▪▪ We need the capability to control the Hell Fire Missile with a new touch panel while maintaining existing navigation and guidance capabilities in the helicopter. FIRST PRINCIPLE WHAT DOES DONE LOOK LIKE? Identifying system capabilities is the starting point for any successful project. Capabilities enable project leaders to envision what the completed project will look like, what will be required of that project, and what done looks like. EXAMPLES OF POTENTIAL CAPABILITIES: ▪▪ How are capabilities delivered? ▪▪ What are the technical and operational requirements needed to implement each capability? EVEN AT THIS EARLY PLANNING STAGE, THERE ARE QUESTIONS THAT REQUIRE CONSIDERATION: Without defining the requisite capabilities, it is unclear whether the mission will be a success, and without a clear and concise description of what done looks like, it is impossible to provide these requisite capabilities on, or near, schedule and cost. This is where a Capabilities Based Plan (CBP) can be employed to help identify programme needs, allocate resources, and track activities and outcomes. The paradigm of a CBP recognises the interdependence of systems, strategy, organisation, and support in delivering the capability. As well as the need to examine options and trade-offs, in terms of performance, cost, and risk, to identify optimum development investments. An effective CBP relies on use- cases and scenarios, as well as the project leader’s prowess, to provide the context to measure the level of maturity for each capability. ▪▪ Why is this requirement present? ▪▪ Why is this requirement needed? ▪▪ What business or mission value does fulfilling this requirement provide? Project leaders may not know the answers to capability questions in the early stages of the project. But by utilising a CBP they can help to provide a home for all the requirements, enabling them to answer the questions of:
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  8 9 Customer Needs Priorities Scenarios Capability Goals Capability Partitions Future Priorities Operational Concepts Whereare We Now? What Should We Do? Capability Assessment Identify Capability Mismatches Solution Deployment Options Investment Balance Affordable Capabilities Plan Resource Constraints Mission Priorities Current and Planned Capabilities ABSTRACTED FROM: “Capabilities-Based Planning – How it is Intended to Work and Challenges to its Successful Implementation” – Col. Stephen K. Walker, United States Army, U. S. Army War College, March 2005. Performance-Based Project Management Copyright © Glen B. Alleman, 2012, 2013. Identify Needed Capabilities Checklist PRACTICES Identify capabilities needed to achieve the project objective or an end state for a specific scenario to accomplish a mission or business outcome. PROCESSES TO IMPLEMENT Define capabilities as operational concepts Define capabilities with scenarios or use-cases Assess needs, cost, and risk of the capabilities simultaneously Define explicit, balanced, and feasible alternatives.
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  10 11 Establish Technical andOperational Requirements Baseline SECOND PRINCIPLE HOW DO YOU GET TO DONE? Poorly formed requirements have been shown to contribute as much as 25% to the failure modes of programmes and projects. Project requirements are conditions or tasks that must be completed to ensure project success, and must be defined prior to the start of work so that they are incorporated into the project design. If the requirements are poorly defined, the design may not satisfy necessary criteria, which will result in failure in getting to done. System Requirements Analysis (SRA) is a structured, organised, process for determining project requirements, and this process must be used in order to reduce the chance of failure. By accurately identifying the necessary project requirements it’s possible to create a sound basis for project design. The project requirements are meant to align the project’s resources with the objectives of the organisation, proving a blueprint for project leaders to work from. For this reason, to ensure that project leaders are successful it’s critical that these requirements are be quantifiable, relevant, and detailed. The requirements engineering process breaks down the statement of customer expectations through a systematic explanation of what that system must do to satisfy that expectation. It is critical to ensure that this customer expectation is the ultimate system requirement from which all other requirements and designs flow.
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  1312 Process Interface Requirements Process Speciality Requirements ProcessEnvironment Requirements SOW&Plans Enterprise Mission Statement Process Functional Requirements Process Performance Requirements Customer Need Statement Product Functional Requirements Product Performance Requirements Specifications Process Interface Requirements Process Speciality Requirements Process Environment Requirements Establish Technical and Operational Requirements Baseline Checklist PRACTICES Elicit Technical and Operational requirements needed for the capabilities to be fulfilled in the order that maximises business value. PROCESSES TO IMPLEMENT Perform fact-finding Gather and classify requirements Evaluate and rationalise requirements Prioritise requirements Integrate and validate requirements There are two fundamental classes of requirements: ▪▪ Process Performance Requirements ‒ defines how the work processes are used to produce a beneficial outcome to the customer. ▪▪ Product Performance Requirements ‒ defines the product specifications and how they are related to the process requirements. Most requirements methods focus on product specification; however, considering the importance of customer expectations, it is far better to focus on process performance requirements. Concentrating on the fact-finding, classification, evaluation and rationalisation, prioritisation, and integration and validation of this requirement is key to success. Technical and operational baseline requirements are imperative because they define the work packages, planning packages, and the work efforts needed to produce the deliverables from the project. After all, it is these deliverables that fulfil the needed technical and operational capabilities to the customer and are the catalyst to get to done. Originally from: Systems Requirements Practices, Jeffery O. Grady, McGraw Hill, 1993.
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  14 15 Establish Performance MeasurementBaseline THIRD PRINCIPLE IS THERE ENOUGH TIME, MONEY, AND RESOURES TO GET TO DONE? The Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) is the primary assessment document for assuring the credibility of the project plan. The PMB is critical to project success and it is the baseline of the cost, schedule, and deliverables for each work package in the plan. Constructing the PMB requires knowledge of the business and technical requirements, skill in developing the work packages that produce the deliverables for these requirements, and discipline in assembling the cost, schedule, and relationships between the work packages. Without understanding which resources are required, work packages cannot be created and the PMB will not be accurate. The discipline of PMB creation requires the most focus for the planners and project controls staff, because, without it, the development of a credible PMB is just not possible. The PMB is where the Measures of Effectiveness (MOE) and Measures of Performance (MOP) are defined, and where progress to plan is assessed. This is because, as stated previously, MOE and MOP are the units of measure meaningful to the customer. Deliverables can be defined in two ways: ▪▪ What the customer has paid money for. ▪▪ Containing the business or technical capabilities – the associated value that fulfil the requirements of the business plan. The critical success factor in building the PMB is the decomposition of the system requirements into technical capabilities, then into deliverables that enable those technical capabilities, and finally into the work packages that produce those deliverables. Defining the decomposed deliverables from the needed system capabilities in a work breakdown structure is critical because the decomposition process must be iterative and incremental. Assessment of the validity of this decomposition requires a significant amount of thought, and it is likely that the first decomposition will not be the overall best approach.
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  16 17 Establish Performance MeasurementBaseline Checklist PRACTICES Establish a Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) ‒ a time-phased network of work activities that produces project deliverables for the planned cost. PROCESSES TO IMPLEMENT Decompose scope into small work packages Assign responsibility for deliverables from the work packages Develop the budget for the work packages Assign work package measures of performance and effectiveness Set the Performance Measurement Baseline A credible plan and schedule for the delivery of the needed capabilities on time and on budget has three baselines ‒ technical, schedule, and cost: Perform Functional Analysis Technical Baseline Schedule Baseline Cost Baseline Determine Scope and Approach Develop Technical Logic Develop Technical Baseline Approve PMB Develop WBS Define Activities Estimate Time Durations Sequence Activities Finalise Schedule Finalise Apportioned Milestones Identify Apportioned Milestones Determine Resource Requirement Prepare Cost Estimate Resource Load Schedule Determine Funding Constraints
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  18 19 Perform Continuous RiskAnalysis FOURTH PRINCIPLE WHAT OBSTACLES WILL BE ENCOUNTERED ON THE WAY TO DONE? Continuous risk analysis and management provides tangible benefits to increase the probability of project success. Utilising powerful and intuitive schedule and cost risk analysis for complex projects can: ▪▪ Prevent problems before they occur, by identifying and dealing with them early. ▪▪ Improve quality, by focusing on project objectives and consciously looking for issues that effect quality throughout the project lifecycle. ▪▪ Enable better use of resources, for early identification of potential problems. Continuous risk management can help project leaders to identify the obstacles they’re likely to encounter and how to overcome them. However, manual risk assessment can often be a long and arduous task made-up of many different stages. This is why project leaders will often use project management tools that deliver advanced risk analysis and progress through risk stages far more quickly. THE STAGES OF RISK MANAGEMENT: Identify Identify and classify risks in a risk register. Manage this risk register through a risk management board. Connect these risks and their handling in the master schedule. Analyse Convert risk data into risk decision-making information. Use this analysis information as the decision basis for the project manager to work on the “right” risks. Plan Turn risk information into decisions and actions (both present and future). Develop actions to address individual risks, prioritise risk actions, and create an integrated risk management plan. Track Monitor the status of risks and actions taken to mitigate risks. Identify and monitor risks to enable the evaluation of the status of risks themselves and of risk mitigation plans. Control Risk communication lies at the centre of the model to emphasise both its pervasiveness and its criticality. Without effective communication, no risk management approach can be viable.
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  20 21 Perform Continuous RiskManagement Checklist PRACTICES Apply Continuous Risk Management to programmatic and technical risks with risk handling processes to reduce, remove, or prevent impacts on the project’s probability of success. PROCESSES TO IMPLEMENT Identify risks Analyse risks Plan risk response Track risk management activities Control or accept risks Risk communication lies at the centre of the model to emphasise both its pervasiveness and its criticality. Without effective communication, no risk management approach can be viable. Technical risk management is formed of six interconnected processes which enable project leaders to make better informed decisions: Identify Analyse Communicate Plan Track Control Formulation of objectives hierarchy and technical performance measures Proposing and/or identifying decision alternatives Risk analysis of decision alternatives, performing trade studies and ranking Deliberating and recommending a decision alternative Decide and implement decision alternatives Tracking and controlling performance deviations Stakeholder expectations, requirements definition and management Design solutions, technical planning Design solution, technical planning, and decision analysis Technical planning and decision analysis Decision analysis, lessons learned, knowledge management Technical Risk Management Track C ontrol Ind entify Analyse Plan Communicate Originally from: Software Engineering Institute, Continuous Risk Management, Dorofee, AJ et al., 1996
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  22 23 Execute thePerformance Measurement Baseline FIFTH PRINCIPLE DO YOU KNOW HOW TO MEASURE PHYSICAL PROGRESS ON THE PROJECT? With an established Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) the proper execution becomes critically important. The execution process is the project beat. This means that the processes are performed in a repeated and regular manner – on at least a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. It is this business beat that creates actionable information for the project manager, on a time scale that allows corrective actions to be taken to stay on schedule, on budget, and assure technical compliance. An execution process helps the project leader to accurately measure the progress of the project, because the tangible, physical deliverables are defined in the work packages created during the planning process. No matter the duration of the performance assessment, a measure of physical percent complete (PPC) is mandatory if the project manager is to receive actionable information. The measures of PPC can be applied on weekly boundaries in a variety of ways: ▪▪ Have short-duration tangible deliverables ▪▪ Have apportioned milestones to measure progress to plan from the deliverables ▪▪ Have tasks on a short deliverable cycle and record 0%/100% complete at the end of each week This approach provides the answer to the question: ▪▪ How long are you willing to wait before you find out you’re running late? To put it simply, the answer to this question must be short enough to take corrective action to stay on schedule. In all cases, a measure of PPC is mandatory if the project manager is to receive actionable information to stay on schedule getting to done. The important process here is to have an agreed-on measure of performance that is defined before the work starts.
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  24 25 Execute the Performance MeasurementBaseline Checklist PRACTICES Execute the Performance Measurement Baseline while assuring planned technical and operational performance is met. PROCESSES TO IMPLEMENT Perform the authorised work in the planned order Accumulate and report work package performance Analyse work package performance Take corrective management action Authorise and perform the work according to the plan (BCWS) described in the network of work packages and planning packages held in the scheduling tool Accumulate and report performance data using earned value (BCWP) and other measures of increasing maturing based on the assessment of physical percent complete Analyse the performance data derived from the earned value metrics and make any adjustments to the network of work packages Take management action for any variances to ensure all deliverables produced by the work packages are on time, on budget, and on specification Maintain the performance management baseline (PMB) throughout the programme's duration for all earned value parameters
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  26 27 Checklist Summary PracticesProcesses Identify capabilities needed to achieve the project objective or an end state for a specific scenario to accomplish a mission or business outcome. Define capabilities as operational concepts Define capabilities with scenarios or use-cases Assess needs, cost, and risk of the capabilities simultaneously Define explicit, balanced, and feasible alternatives. Generate Technical and Operational requirements that are needed for the capabilities to be fulfilled in a manner that maximises business value. Perform fact-finding Gather and classify requirements Evaluate and rationalise requirements Prioritise requirements Integrate and validate requirements Establish a Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) ‒ a time-phased network of work activities that produces project deliverables for the planned cost. Decompose scope into small work packages Assign responsibility for deliverables from the work packages Develop the budget for the work packages Assign work package measures of performance and effectiveness Set the Performance Measurement Baseline Apply Continuous Risk Management to programmatic and technical risks with risk handling processes to reduce, remove, or prevent impacts on the project’s probability of success. Identify risks Analyse risks Plan risk response Track risk management activities Control or accept risks Execute the Performance Measurement Baseline while assuring planned technical and operational performance is met. Perform the authorised work in the planned order Accumulate and report work package performance Analyse work package performance
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  28 29 Final Words Tosummarise, if a project leader has no plan or available resources, if risks aren’t handled correctly, and if there is no way to measure the progress of the project, then there can be no confidence that the project is going to succeed in getting to done. Without these elements, the probability of success is zero. The five immutable principles of project success that have been explained in this guide can, and should, be applied to all aspects of project management. Combining these principles with a good leadership will guarantee that project success is achieved. To aid project leaders further, utilising unified project management tools can help bring together planning, scheduling, risk analysis, and execution to ensure complete project and portfolio management and help projects get to done. To find out more about how project management tools can help you to manage projects successfully, contact Safran today.
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  30 Glen B. Alleman GlenB. Alleman is an author, speaker, consultant, and project management expert with over 30 years’ experience working on software intensive projects. Over his career, Glen has worked within a range of industries including Enterprise IT, Space, Defence, Nuclear, and BioPharma, and is the current Vice President of the Program Planning and Controls consulting practice Niwot Ridge. Niwot Ridge Consulting, LLC +1 303 241 9633 [email protected] Find on LinkedIn Safran Safran Software Solutions are unified project management experts and providers of world-class project management and project risk software. With two decades of experience creating planning and project controls software, their experience, expertise and support has ensured project success for many businesses spanning a range of industries. www.safran.com