Lessons Learned and Wash Up's

Project delivered what happens next

When a project has completed there is still things to do, both for the ongoing development for the business that you are delivering for and for your own personal development.

All good project management books will tell you about the formal project framework requirements of closing a project although you will find it difficult to get engagement once a project has been completed, as the natural order is to look back rather than forward. However I firmly believe that to keep innovating you need to learn from things that don't go smoothly and to plan.

This week I have completed two different wash up activities, whilst both looking back at project delivery they serve different purposes one to help with strategic direction for a next phase of integration and the other to identify how a process improvement can be implemented better.

Executive Summary

A 2 page summary highlighting the following:

What the issues were

Solutions for the next stage

Working at this level, no need to go into detail, remember the sponsor should be aware of these issues and this is a recap. If you have kept a good RAID log through the project this activity is relatively easy to put together.

Detailed wash up

This activity brings together all the stakeholders who have been involved in the project and runs through the following themes:

Communication of project strategy and deliverable

Testing Procedure and feedback

Process Improvements

Actions to complete before fully BAU

From the wash up this week, there was an obvious problem identified as it was clear that the senior management who had signed off the change had not clearly communicated to the users what was happening and why, a vital lesson learned for my next project.

Getting close to delivery date

Unless your are very lucky, the normal scenario in any technology project, that when you are getting very close to the deadline day there will be still a lot of tasks to do and very likely there will be lots of pressure on achieving the target date.

Very often the target date will have customer implications or cost implications if it is not met.

As the project manager you will probably be under huge pressure, but you must ensure that the last minute chaos does not compromise all the good work that you have done so far.

Here are 5 things to remember when you enter this period:

Replans and Timescales

The easy tasks have probably already been done, the straightforward test, the simple code or the basic job descriptions. Remember the last tasks always take longer than you think so plan and communicate accordingly.

Cutting Corners

Or to use its project language title de scoping, there will be the inevitable request from either the sponsor or steering group to see what can be dropped from the remaining project tasks. If you can it is a good idea to create a separate work stream to manage this activity including the documentation that de scoping will bring such as manual processes or new change requests. If you fail to document a key stakeholder will claim they were unaware of the decision or implications of the de scope.

Stay Firm

You know better than anyone else how your project is ran, how hard your team are working, as you reach the critical phase, lots of suggestions will be made on how to finish quicker and meet the deadlines, depending on the seniority of the stakeholder some will need investigating, however be firm and back your team, making changes at a late stage rarely pays dividends.

Other Workstreams

Make sure you keep up to speed with any other Workstreams in your programme, if they are also struggling with the deadline date, if gives you leverage in your planning, and it is good information to communicate to your team so they know they are not alone in being up against it.

Prompt communication

Make sure that any issues or risks that occur are communicated immediately at this time waiting for a formal governance structure is to late. Quick responses to progress requests also give assurance that you are in control.

Working with your BA

The relationship between the Project Manager and a Business Analyst is one that can be complex but if works well can create a great project team and that will result in excellent project results.

Communication

It is always best in my experience to keep the BA fully up to date with the project as a whole not just on their specific piece of work, not only does it make them feel part of the project but it helps them understand some of the pressures you are under as a PM, and they may also be able to give some valuable input into the other areas of the project.


Challenge the Assumptions

The role of the PM is not just to tick off the milestones and document the deliverables but to ensure that the project delivers to the highest possible quality, on each part of analysis the project manager should act as a critical friend reviewing the analysts work and challenging their assumptions.


Clarity in Expectations

As in all aspects of management you need to be very clear in what you are expecting and keep to your agreed scope, give clear timelines and with all project planning give yourself some contingency to allow the BA deliver on time.

Existing/Contract Resources

Whilst there is some excellent contract BA's around, the best BA's I have worked with have all being long time in the organisation, they are the ones that have seen it all before, have the knowledge of the organisation and its systems and will importantly know the hidden pitfalls of delivering complex change.


Next Week- Creating the perfect Steering Pack