At Jones and Palmer we strive to deliver all of our projects using project management techniques, without it the costs of production for both print and web would spiral out of control. We would struggle to meet delivery deadlines, therefore it is key to understanding the fundamentals of what a project consists of, project management techniques used and roles allocated within the project to administer the project from start to finish.
A project is defined by Prince2 as being:
‘A management environment that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to a specific Business Case’
A project will usually consist of the following characteristics:
- A defined life cycle (e.g. a project plan, detailing deliverables)
- Defined and Measureable business products (e.g. a Content Management system, or development on a CMS)
- A set of activities or tasks to achieve business products (resource plan, often linked to the project plan)
- Set resources
- An organisation structure, set roles and responsibilities to manage the project
On many occasions individuals start projects without taking into account any of the above and the projects fail because;
- The job in hand exceeds the estimate (financial and timescale)
- Expectations set to the client at the beginning of the project do not meet the end product
- There is no business case or requirements capture detailing the client expectations
- Lack of communication between involved parties in the project
- Lack of leadership and direction, leading to poor decision making
- Bad scheduling, leading to tasks not being completed on time
- Lack of quality control and testing, leading to unacceptable products and refusal of acceptance from the client
So what can a project management method do for your project?
It can organise your tasks in to a chronological list, providing project managers with the visibility of task dependencies, and estimates of time/effort required for each task. This can then be matched against the budget or quote.
It allows the Project Managers to manage risks more effectively and to foresee the possible risks or issues.
It allows us to set clear milestones, client expectations and involvement – therefore the client will understand what is required of them and when and ultimately what the final product will be.
We can prevent project scope creep by creating stages within a project and running a comprehensive change management process– thus making a larger project more manageable.
Overall everyone knows what their involvement is and when they are to be involved.
Having detailed some of the theory behind using project management techniques, mentioning PRINCE2 in particular, a good Project Manager is someone who can put the theories into practice to achieve the objectives.
Practice is perfect
‘A Project Manager is often a client representative and has to determine and implement the exact needs of the client, based on knowledge of the firm he/she is representing. The ability to adapt to the various internal procedures of the contracting party, and to form close links with the nominated representatives is essential in ensuring that the key issues of cost, time, quality, and above all, client satisfaction, can be realised.’
As a client it is unlikely that you will see the project manager until the work has been requested i.e. you have agreed to the contracts. It is at this stage that we will emerge requesting all kinds of detailed information in order to kick the project off, as mentioned before a good project manager will follow a documented method such as Prince2.
The information that is gathered from this start up stage will be collected into a project brief – these are the requirements that are used as the benchmark for the project. I cannot stress enough how important it is to ensure that these requirements are correctly captured, they form the basis of the project, and ultimately are what we have costed for and agreed to deliver.
It is one of the many responsibilities of the Project Manager to measure the project status against these requirements, and check that we are meeting what was originally requested. It is all too common that projects are not compared against the original brief, and the original requirements are not met. This can result in one of two things:
- Unhappy clients - their original requirements have not been met, the Project Manager has done their own thing and not listened to the requirements
- Very happy clients, but a very unhappy finance director as the Project Manager has exceeded the set budget and given the client a product that is worth more than the work requested.
The Project Manager will not just leave it there – working with you for the duration of the project – the Project Manager will plan and schedule all the resources to meet your budget and timeframe. A good Project Manager will provide you with a clear indication of what is to be expected of everyone working on the project (including you), detailing the dependencies and risks should these deadlines be missed.
The key to a successful project is excellent time management and clear communication. If the client fails to understand what is required of them, the project is really a non starter. It is the responsibility of the Account Director and Project Manager to advise the client on this.
Account Director Vs Project Manager
In many organisations the Account Director is just the sales person trying to make a quick sale, with the Project Manager stepping in to implement the work that has been agreed, and all too often it is the Project Manager having to justify to the client the contract and what has been agreed.
You will be mistaken for thinking that these two roles, the Project Manager and Account Director sound very alike, but they are not – there are differences;
- The Project Manager manages the project rather than the relationship between the supplier and the client, that is not to say that Project Managers do not care about their clients, they have the same objectives as the Account Director – providing the client with a defined product that meet requirements and stays within the budget. Their primary objective is ensuring the delivery of the project.
- The Account Director may be managing a large account that has several projects underway, it would be unfair to assume that anyone could single handily manage all the projects. It is therefore allocated to a devoted Project Manager to become their life over the coming weeks.
- Project Managers will put into place project management methods in order to assist in the delivery of the project.
- Whilst the Project Manager ensures that the project does not go over budget it is the responsibility of the Account Director to initiate and agree the budget from the client.
Project Managers, these days, are specialists not only in project management techniques but also in the product that they are implementing and the industry that they find themselves working within. With companies competing to be named preferred bidder on tenders, it is not only the Account Director that is expected to understand the potential client’s plight, organisation structure and business model, but also the Project Manager. In many cases the Project Manager will be implementing a solution based on the clients requirements, receiving this information second hand can often reduce the validity of the information, sections can be missed for example.
Project Manager’s today are expected to understand best practice processes, new legislation, current legislation – in summary they are expected to be able to ‘talk the talk and walk the walk’.
The Project Manager’s role can be summarised in 6 bullet points below:
- Communicate clearly to all involved any issues, risks, scope creep, etc
- Manage the project against the plan by running quality checks, schedule the resources to work on the plan, and ensure they know the requirements
- Provide regular briefs to the Account Directors' on the progress of the project
- Advise on meeting best practice
- To stay calm in the face of adversity!
Project Managers are a special type of person, they are excellent communicators, they can understand what I call 'client talk' and then translate that into 'technical talk' for their project team. When faced with an issue they look for other alternatives that will help to reduce the impact upon the project.
Managing projects with Jones and Palmer
When planning a project we believe it is essential to set the following:
- Objectives - Without a clear set of objectives the project goals will never be met – this is known as ‘moving the goal posts’.
- Understanding your business – this helps meet your requirements in terms of design and content.
- Project roles and responsibilities - The Project Manager's role is essential when launching a new project, they act as the liaison between the project board (Client, Account Director) and the project team.
- Planning – the budget must be set first, and then plan the schedule to meet this – remembering to plan contingency options as something will always slide.
- Implementation – ensure availability of resources prior to starting the project.
- Review – at the end of a project it is key to review the product against the original objectives to check they have been met.
This article was written by Heather Fox (Website Project Manager). We welcome your feedback and thoughts and would love to hear any questions you have.
Worth a read...
Read more about Jones and Palmer's project management.
Jones and Palmer is focused on the development and delivery of corporate and investor communication media.
Established in 1906, Jones and Palmer has, for the last 40 years, printed annual report and accounts for public listed companies and currently has over 150 plc clients. We are the UK’s largest on-site manufacturer of investor websites and printed annual reports.