Delivering IT Projects

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First Day

Posted by Cathryn in : Project Management , trackback

Freelance Project Managers are expected to come onto a project and be ready to get into the driver’s seat immediately. They join a project midstream, at any stage in the project lifecycle and with the project in any state from well-run to completely out of control. It can be like getting on a moving bus at the back, and trying to get to the drivers seat before it all crashes.

Most, but by no means all, companies will make some sort of plan for the first few days. At best this will be a well-organised handover from an incumbent project manager. At worst, the new Project Manager arrives into chaos and is left to sort it all out.

When coming into a new project, at whatever stage and state its in, it is essential to quickly:

• Establish it’s current state
• Get to know the people involved
• Make sure basic processes and procedures are in place.

The first few days are a time for learning about the project, listening and working out how you are going to manage it. Be nosy and energetic, and find out as much as you can.

If you have the chance, get some documentation beforehand and arrive with a plan of action for the first few days. You client may already have something arranged for you, but they’ll be impressed at your proactive attitude.

The ‘essential’ project management documents are perhaps open for debate, but include:

• Project Initiation Document
• Project Plan (including schedule, resource plan, and budget all up to date)
• Risks and issues register
• Change log
• Project diary

If any of these are missing, you will need to create them. These may or may not exist, and their quality may be very variable. Client documentation standards are variable, making it very useful to have your own templates to use if they don’t have them (or use mine).

As soon as you can, start to set up meetings with the people you need to get to know. Meet the project sponsor before agreeing to take on the project if you can, or at least make them your first port of call. This relationship is critical to your personal success as well as the success of the project.

You will want to meet the team as quickly as possible. I prefer to do this in a team meeting, to see them together and get an idea of how they interact. After meeting as a group, one to one meetings with those who report directly to you will tell you far more about the state of the project than any monthly report.

Outside the core project team, your meetings should be focused on starting to build the relationships you will need to deliver the project, understanding each stakeholders view. The list of people to meet will vary depending on the project and the company in which you are working. For a commercial IT project, it is likely to include:

• Key users
• Key external suppliers, account managers and professional services / consultancy services managers
• Line managers of permanent staff team members
• IT operations manager
• Head technical architect
• Security manager
• Change and release managers
• Project office, or whoever is responsible for project management standards in the client
• The accountant responsible for project budgets

As you go, build up your own registers of risks and issues, and note any gaps in dealing with corporate processes. These discussions often reveal surprising omissions, such as the project planning to launch a new system on the same weekend as IT was intending to use to upgrade power in the data centre, or a project which has never had its budget formally approved by the corporate finance department.

There are basic processes which you must have, depending on the methodology you are using. Make sure they are in place, and set them up if they are not. Take a good look at the existing processes before you make any changes. There is no point in disrupting everyone else’s work patterns, and it will be much easier to get people to accept the changes you do make if you have good reasons rather than just stamping your imprint on the situation.

After doing this, you’ll be well established as the new project manager. Good luck!

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