Project Management methods and techniques can help you to manage an Assignment and the associated changes competently. You use “a group of related activities carried out to achieve stated objectives within
specified time, cost and quality constraints’.Assignments (and therefore) Projects are unique, whilst they may have a vague beginning they should have clearly defined objectives. They must result in change.
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Project management vs assignment management
Project Management and Assignment Management is not the same. Project Managers usually concentrate on end products only. Consultants, Account Managers and Assignment Managers are more likely to deal with the complete product or service life cycle. This means that they are involved in the total cost of ownership and the “partnership development as well. That said, you need to ensure that some parts of your assignment are run as a project.
Project Size
Typical project management techniques are unlikely to apply unless the project:
- Involves a team of people – usually three or more.
- Takes more than one month elapsed time.
When projects get big – say over 100 staff years’ effort – your concerns are more likely to be:
- How can you effectively co-ordinate the efforts of large teams?
- How can you ensure the project’s deliverables will still be relevant?
Projects in Practice
You may meet people who claim to be a ‘Project Manager’. They could be Systems Analysts with projects to develop bespoke software or install packages, Business Analysts responsible for Business Change projects involving training and the like.
Often their projects’ are closely related and therefore not a collection of projects but a collection of sub-projects, this means that you really have a major project and no Project Manager!
Where do ‘Assignments ‘come from?
Assignments like projects are initiated to meet a business need, whether it results from the competition, legislation, expansion or merely the need to cut costs. The needs that drive individual projects arise from business goals as defined in the business strategy.
Often the business strategy will throw up the need for a single, independent easily managed project. Just as often, however, the strategy results in one or more programmes of projects. The entire programme must be managed as an integrated whole to ensure the business goals are achieved and the predicted benefits are delivered.
Dividing the work up
Suppose your assignment is to be part of a programme to set up a new distribution depot. At the top level is the Programme. This would be broken into Projects e.g. Build Depot, Stock Control – Install Package, Write Procedures, Stock, Depot, Load Data, and Train Users.
Whether the hardware and network requirements for Stock Control would be separate Sub-projects or whether these requirements would be amalgamated with Order Processing would depend on the total programme plan.
Assignment Delivery
At the delivery stage you give the client agreed and identified products. These products are included in “Project Delivery”. Project Delivery is a part of Phase 7. Implement the Agreement
In this phase you:
- Validate change plans, agree on knowledge transfer needs, commit to “Best and Final Offer” sign service agreements and contracts.
- Ensure final compliance against the legislation, ethics, codes of practice etc
- Manage transition and implement recommendations.
- Ensure you have correct priority, benefits, change and skills transfer plans
As it is likely that you will be delivering a product or service we suggest that you consider the following and the associated products needed:
- planning for the change-over
- educating and training the staff
- creating the master files
- changing to the new system
This is in addition to any other quality, specialist or management products such as those highlighted the project delivery framework.
Planning for the Change-Over
The planning stage is fundamental to success. To reduce conflict, everyone should be fully briefed form the earliest possible date.
Recommended steps in preparing the delivery plan
- Identify the main activities.
- Break down each activity into separate tasks.
- Put into sequence recognising dependencies and parallel operations.
- Establish the time for each task, bearing in mind the resources which are expected to be available.
- Determine the logical control points.
- Establish the procedure for the collection of feedback.
- Initiate, measure progress at the selected control points and re-adjust the remaining stages of the plan as necessary.
Tasks identified by the plan
These will vary according to the delivery means. Items within the plan might include:
- agree on a delivery date for a solution
- establish and implement any organisational changes
- train staff
- establish testing and acceptance criteria
- fix changeover date(s)
- decide the changeover method
Educating and Training Staff
The way in which the staff perform is dependent on how well prepared they are.
Education: Establishing the required attitude and approach to the task. It provides the staff with an overall view of the solution its aims, benefits and organisational implications, and identifies the
importance of their role within the total framework.
Training: deals with the detail of their specific responsibilities and duties, including processing cycle, need for accuracy, etc.
Changes resulting from the recommendations or solution delivery
Change may be done in a number of ways. If your assignment concludes with a new business system then you might recommend the following:
- Parallel Running: The old and the new approaches are run in tandem over a specified period of time.
- Pilot Running: The new approach is operated in a specially selected and controlled environment until operational impacts are completely evaluated to the Client’s satisfaction.
- Phased Approach: The system is introduced on a limited scale, proved at that level and further units are added later. An example of this may be where a system is introduced department by department or geographic area by geographic area. Alternatively, a ledger is brought on a section at a time A to D, E to K, L to R. S to Z.
- Direct Change: The old system is discontinued and the new system is installed; sometimes known as BIG BANG. The confidence of the user department has to be established before the change over date.
Evaluation and Implementation
You must go through formal selection, testing and evaluation procedures before rolling out into the business