 Welcome to the Unit 6 Review for Strategic Project Management. My name is Dr. Lucinda Stanley. For the past few units, we have been looking at the phases of the project management lifecycle. We'll continue that here in Unit 5. But first, a bit of a reminder of how this works. There are seven units in this course. In Unit 1, we learned what a project is, who makes the decisions to take a project on and what the triple constraint theory is. In Unit 2, we were introduced to the project lifecycle. In Unit 3, we looked at the initiation phase. In Unit 4, we looked closely at what goes into planning a project. In Unit 5, we looked at executing or implementing the project based on the plan we created in the planning phase. And here in Unit 6, we're going to look at the monitoring and controlling phase of the project. Having a plan for communication with and between the stakeholders is fundamental to a successful project. Communication happens throughout the implementation phase and must be defined in the planning phase. In the planning phase, we developed a number of many plans such as those for budget and timelines for milestones and deliverables. We based those plans on our best guess about how much it was going to cost and how long it was going to take to accomplish a task. Now that the project is underway, we monitor those costs and times to make sure we're sticking pretty close to our estimates. We also need to monitor and record how any changes, remember we talked about those in Unit 5, are impacting our planned budget and timelines. There's a lot of data coming at us while the project is being implemented. So as a project manager, we need to use a variety of tools to help us keep track of the important elements. While we're using those tools, we can use them to see how the planned budget or schedule is deviating from what's actually going on in terms of costs and times used. A specific tool many project managers use is the earned value analysis, a simple numerical calculation to help us compare the planned execution with the actual execution. There are also a number of project software tools that can help a project manager to calculate the earned value as well as a number of other metrics that the project manager may be looking at. Just a reminder about why learning outcomes are important. Every resource in the course can be tied back to one of the learning outcomes, which means that all assessments, including the final exam, are directly linked to the learning outcomes. Once you get to the end of the course, review the learning outcomes and see which ones you feel confident that you know. If there's some you're not sure about, it's a good idea to go back to the units that covered that outcome and review the material. This will ensure that you have all the knowledge that you need to be successful in the exam. So in this unit, we'll look at some definitions and review some concepts based on the learning outcomes. While you'll find many more vocabulary words in the study guide in this review, we're going to concentrate on these few to keep an ear or an eye out for them as they come up. Remember this graphic from the Unit 2 review? As we noted in Unit 3, we're going to be seeing this over the next few units as we look at each of the five processes of the project lifecycle. Initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling and closing. In Unit 6, we're concentrating on the monitoring and controlling phase. Keep in mind that while these phases are being discussed linearly, meaning one after the other, and the graphic shows them proceeding from one to another, the monitoring and controlling phase actually happens simultaneously with the execution phase. So that's why you see a small arrow pointing back to the execution phase and two arrows pointing to the two phases at the same time. We've already talked about the various stakeholders in a project, the team members, sponsors, vendors and suppliers. Communicating with them is an extremely important part of project management. The right people need to know the right things at the right time. In the planning phase, we devised a plan for communicating with each one of the stakeholders as the project is executed. We may not communicate with each stakeholder in exactly the same way or with exactly the same information. As you can see in this table, not every stakeholder will need to be told everything. Team members are involved in the daily execution of the project, so have the need to know the most information. Sponsors need to know the major accomplishments of the project or when particular elements are about to be worked on. Vendors need to know when to start their part of the project and what supplies have been ordered to help them accomplish their task. Suppliers only need to know when to deliver the materials they're responsible for. In addition to understanding who needs to be told what, the project manager must choose the best method for that communication. Synchronous meaning real time such as meeting face to face or a telephone call or asynchronous meaning not in real time such as email, letter or even information boards. The project manager will choose the best method synchronous or asynchronous to communicate the specific information. For example, the project manager may hold a daily meeting with team members to tell them in real time the plan for the day. He or she may hold a meeting once a month to go over progress with the sponsors or they may prefer to receive weekly reports that they can go over at their leisure. Vendors and sponsors are typically communicated with by telephone or email when placing an order for their services or materials while using email for updates may be sufficient after the initial communication. As we've discussed already, while project managers do their best to create very comprehensive plans during the planning phase, often when the project actually gets underway, vendors implementation or execution changes happen. In Unit 5, we discuss change control boards. These are the people who approve changes to the original scope of the project or the budget or sometimes the schedule itself. The change control boards are not looking at just individual changes but also changes across the project. They keep track of all changes and how it's impacting the triple constraint, scope, cost and schedule. This way they compare what the original plans called for and monitored how those plans have changed. Another way project managers monitor and control a project in the execution phase is to keep track of limited or constrained resources. In the project, the project manager probably created a list of resources that would be needed for the project, both human and material. They likely made sure there would be plenty of both types of resources in order to complete the project. But things happen. As the project is implemented, those resources they identified may be assigned to other projects or may become more scarce than they were before the project began. It's important for the project manager to keep an eye on the needed resources to make sure that sufficient resources will be available when they are needed for the project. This may mean changing to a different material, a different vendor, or tap into another avenue for the necessary human resources. Let's take a deeper look at that. One way for a project manager to make sure that the human resource they have identified for a project is available when they are needed is to do what's called resource loading. This means they identify a percentage of the work that must be done for the project by each individual. Hopefully that means that percentage of the person's weekly hours will be devoted to the project. They may assign up to 100% of the individual's time. However, if the person is in demand for other projects as well, this could mean that they may be scheduled for more hours than they have available, which means they are overloaded. The project managers must work together to make sure that doesn't happen. Another way for project managers to monitor the progress of the project is to look at what's called KPIs or key performance indicators. These could be anything the project manager identified in the planning phase as good indicators that the project is on target for successful completion. Probably the most used KPI is the budget. Comparing and monitoring the planned budget with the actual budget, but you know what, it could be any number of things, and it is often more than one thing that the project manager will monitor. There are a number of boundaries that exist for monitoring and controlling a project. We've already talked about changes to the scope of the project, but we must also consider the other two parts of the triple constraint, the cost and the schedule. As we've said, the project manager will likely monitor how much the cost of the project differs from the planned cost. The project manager should also know if they are over or under budget. A schedule of variance is when the project manager will compare the planned amount of work and the actual amount of work, including the time it takes to complete the work. Just looking at the cost and schedule of variances may not be enough for a project manager to determine if changes or corrective actions need to be taken. If the project has lost some time in one phase of the project but is made up time in another, it could be they are still on good timeline for completing the project successfully. By monitoring the KPIs, the project manager will know when they need to step in and make some alignments or take corrective action. It may mean the project manager needs to go to the stakeholder who approved the project and ask for more time or more money. The stakeholder is going to want to know why, so the project manager should have some relevant reports to produce that show how the project is off from the plan and how adding money or time is going to put the project back on track. One of the most important reports that a project manager can use is the earned value analysis. The earned value analysis is a series of calculations that compare project and actual costs and work performed. Project managers will use the Schedule Performance Index, or SPI, to determine if a project is on schedule. It seems like a lot of math, doesn't it? But wait, there's more. Project managers will use the Cost Performance Index, or CPI, to determine if a project is on budget. Still a lot of math, huh? Luckily, there is an easy way for project managers to calculate these numbers, so they have them for reports for their stakeholder. Project management software, such as Microsoft Project or Smartsheet, or really any number of other project management software programs, have all of the SPI and CPI calculations built into them. All the project manager has to do is load the data into the program and the program will do the math and produce a variety of reports the project manager can then use to share information with the stakeholders. These are some of the most common reports that project managers will use to help them control and monitor the progress of a project. From a burn-down chart that will show how much of the project work has been completed and is in track with the original plan to cost information and critical tasks, these reports help the project manager monitor the progress of the project. In this unit, we talked about key performance indicators, earned value analysis, and how project managers can use project management software to monitor the progress of the project. These are also used to help control cost or time overruns or issues with project scope or resources. The project manager can use these tools to determine when or if it's necessary to take action to make adjustments to areas of the project. In this unit, we looked closely at the monitoring and controlling phase of the project lifecycle, which happens simultaneously with the execution phase. We learned how a project manager uses the plans created in the planning phase to compare to the plan of what's actually happening in the project, thereby keeping track of anything that may keep the project from completing successfully. By using a variety of tools and metrics, the project manager can compare planned versus actual and intercede when things look like they may interfere with completion. In unit 7, we're going to look more closely at the closing phase of the project lifecycle.