Manage and control project
Purpose
Throughout the project, the project participants are coordinated and managed. The project status is continuously monitored, planning is updated, and information to that effect is communicated to project steering.
Basic idea
Management and control of the project are based on the planning. The planning describes how the set objectives will be achieved (target).
The project manager fleshes out the tasks and outcomes defined in the planning with work orders. This makes the work processes transparent and reduces the risk of misunderstandings. Under the traditional approach, the project manager handles and coordinates solution-specific concerns with the user representative; under the agile approach, this does not apply. The project manager provides for a functioning project organization appropriate to the circumstances, manages and supports the project participants, and coordinates the dependencies between the works.
The project's progress is periodically checked on the basis of the planning and the degree of outcome completion. The current project status (actual) is surveyed and compared with the planning (target/actual comparison). The effort, costs, and deadlines for the further course of the project are estimated and portrayed as a forecast. In the event of actual or predicted deviations from the planning, the project manager takes measures, supported by the user representative, to ensure that the set objectives are achieved. The impact of the measures is continuously assessed.
Information on the project status and forecasts is collected and compiled by the project management and communicated to project steering by means of reporting.
HERMES specific
The project initiation order forms the basis for management and control of the project during the initiation phase.
In the subsequent phases, the information on project management and control and on the rules governing reporting is recorded in the project management plan. Reporting consists of reports and project meetings. Reports include the project status report as well as the phase and release reports created in other tasks. Further reports may be needed depending on the requirements of the core organization.
The work orders are assigned in advance to the responsible project team members based on the roles.
The solution requirements, the detailed specifications, and the release plan (in the project management plan) are continuously updated during agile solution development.
If significant project changes are required, they are handled in the manage changes task.
Basics
Activities
- Have changes identified during the initiation phase relating to the project initiation order approved by the project sponsor.
- After execution release, continuously update the project management plan.
- Hold kick-off meeting with everyone involved and create a project culture.
- Provide infrastructure.
- Plan and commission the tasks, outcomes, and resources.
- Determine framework conditions and specifications for reporting; define reporting with reports and project meetings in the project management plan and agree on them with the project sponsor.
- Draw up project status reports according to the requirements and prepare, conduct, and post-process meetings, and take minutes; record decisions.
- Continually coordinate project progress and important findings with the project sponsor.
- Manage project staff and ensure goal orientation and common understanding of procedures and outcomes.
- Issue work orders and coordinate with the user representative where necessary; coordinate the interdependencies between orders.
- Check progress (incl. QA measures and risks) by comparing actual values with planned values and making forecasts; analyze deviations from what was planned and initiate measures.
- In agile solution development, update solution requirements, detailed specifications, and release plan (in the project management plan).