Year: 2015

Setting up a Project SharePoint Site Part 2: Announcements

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Using SharePoint Announcements web part  is a good way to convey small amounts of important information on your site’s pages. I like to use Announcements mainly on the home page and the project status dashboard page.

You can set an expiration date for each announcement which is useful if the information will no longer be of value after a certain date. You can leave the expiration date blank if you wish the announcement to be “sticky” (i.e. will never disappear from the page).

Here are some example uses for announcements:

  • The “Welcome!” announcement. This is placed on the home page with no expiration date and orients the user as to where they are, how the site is used, and who to contact for questions.
  • The “Latest News” announcement on the home page. This contains a brief status update and I usually set the expiration to one week.
  • The “Project Summary” announcement on the project status dashboard page. This contains the project name, number, sponsor name and project manager name. It also gives a brief description on the project.
  • The “Project Status Update” announcement on the project status dashboard page. This is usually filled out by the project manager with input from the main point of contacts from the business and IT sides.

Ask your project team members for ideas in which to leverage announcements for your specific needs.

Setting up a Project SharePoint Site Part 1 – The Home Page

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

The Home Page of your project SharePoint site is the initial landing page for collaborators and stakeholders. As such, I like to keep it clean and uncluttered. Here are the elements I like to include:

Heading (Top of Page):

  • Project logo (if you have one) and the official name of the project

Left Side of Page:

  • SharePoint populates the home page left side with the navigation to lists, Document libraries, calendars, etc. You can customize the order in which things appear and use Security to determine if they appear at all for some users. I recommend listing the most useful or most used items first.

Center of Page:

  • The “Welcome!” announcement. This is placed on the page with no expiration date and orients the user as to where they are, how the site is used, and who to contact for questions.
  • The “Latest News” announcement. This contains a brief status update and I usually set the expiration to one week.
  • “Calendar of Events”. I use this to show key upcoming events such as regularly occurring meetings, key milestones and any other event of interest.
  • “Upcoming Time Off Calendar”. This one shows the upcoming planned time off for key project contributors.

Right Side of Page:

  • Project Logo (larger than in the heading, if you placed it there.
  • External Links. I list quick links to other key sites of interest to the project stakeholders.

That’s it for the home page. You do not want to overwhelm your visitors with information on any one page as that will discourage them from using the site. For some users not used to using SharePoint, you may have to use some formal “Change Management” to get them on board.

Setting up a Project SharePoint Site – Overview

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

If your company uses Microsoft Windows for your computers, chances are you also have the free version of SharePoint available to you (ask your Windows administrators). If you do, SharePoint is a wonderful tool to use to assist in Project Management and to enhance communication and collaboration on a project.

In the upcoming posts I will address the following topics:

  • Part 1 – The Home Page
  • Part 2 – Announcements
  • Part 3 – Key Lists
  • Part 4 – Document Libraries
  • Part 5 – Calendars
  • Part 6 – The Project Status Dashboard
  • Part 7 – Security

I am not going to describe the mechanics of working with SharePoint. Microsoft has plenty of online resources and courses to help you with that. I will focus on how you can take advantage of SharePoint features and functions to assist your project management.

The Project Status Update Meeting

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring , ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

One way to monitor and track the status of your project is to conduct a recurring project status update meeting. For most projects, weekly will suffice. Attendees should be the work stream leaders and key contributors. This meetings should be structured and have a standard framework that the attendees know in advance so they may prepare. Like all meetings, they also should be efficient. Stay on topic and finish early if possible.

Here is a recommended framework:

  • Accountability:Review the task commitments planned for the prior week. For the ones not completed, get to the root cause of why. If there were obstacles preventing completion, work to remove them. That is an important part of the PM’s job. If the task is taking longer than planned, discuss with the team options for getting back on track.
  • Commitment: Plan the tasks for the upcoming week. Assign owners and get commitment dates directly from the task owners.
  • Awareness: Review the major milestones for the current month and the upcoming month. Make sure everyone has their “eyes on the prize”.
  • Issues: Review the high impact issues. Determine how the team can collectively help resolve them.
  • Risks: Review the high exposure risks. Determine if the probability or impact as changed. Ensure that the risk mitigation plan is being followed and the risk contingency plan is still sound. Ask if any new risks have arisen.
  • Availability: Review planned time off for key team members. Make the sure the schedule accounts for this time and there is a backup plan.
  • Open Forum: Ask each attendee if there is anything else they wish to discuss. It should be a topic of general interest to all or most of the attendees. This is important to make the team members know they have a voice in the project.

For larger projects I create a form for each work stream with the structure above. I update it at the status meeting and distribute it to the work stream owners at the end of the meeting. The work stream owners update the form by end of day two business days prior to the next meeting and send it to me. This has worked very well and I highly recommend this process.

Project Status Reporting

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring , ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Your Project Status Reports, like all communications, will vary with the audience. For large projects, your two main audiences are the Executive Steering Committee and the Project Sponsors. All status reports should have heading level information such as the Project Name and Number, a brief description, and the date and author(s) of the report.

Listed here are the elements I recommend including on the status report, with the designation “ESC” if you should include this item on the Executive Steering Committee report and “PS” for inclusion on the Project Sponsor report.

  • The Project Health Scorecard (defined in the posts preceding this one) – ESC, PS
  • High Impact Issues – ESC, PS
  • High Exposure Risks – ESC, PS
  • Upcoming Major Milestones and dates – ESC, PS
  • Key activities completed since the last report – PS
  • Upcoming key activities – PS
  • Upcoming dates where key project team members have a planned absence – PS
  • Call-outs (comments of significance you want to include in the report but don’t fit into the other categories) – ESC, PS

You can use MS Word, Excel or PowerPoint to format the report. Make it pleasing to the eye and uncluttered. In a future post, I will show you how to design a status report page on your SharePoint Project Site.

The Project Health Scorecard Part 6: Risk

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring , , , ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Here is the suggested guidance for the status of the Project Risk Health:

Your Risk Health is Green if:

  • Issues and risks are documented in a central repository
  • Risks have triggers, mitigation and contingency plans for high-exposure and high-impact risks
  • Risks are reviewed on a regular basis by the project manager and risk/issue owners;

Your Risk Health is Yellow if:

  • Issues and risks are defined in a central repository but not reviewed on a regular basis by the project manager and risk/issue owners AND/OR…
  • Risks have no mitigation and contingency plans associated with the high-exposure items

Your Risk Health is Red if:

  • Issues and risks are not documented in a central repository
  • Risks are not formally managed.

The Project Health Scorecard Part 5: Resources

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring , , ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Here is the suggested guidance for the status of the Project Resource Health:

Your Resource Health is Green if:

  • Stakeholders are attending required meetings
  • Resources are meeting their commitments
  • The team matches the skill-sets defined in the project roles matrix

Your Resource Health is Yellow if:

  • Stakeholders are not always attending required meetings, OR
  • Stakeholders are not always meeting their commitments, OR
  • Some parts of the team do not match the skill-sets defined in the project roles matrix.

Your Resource Health is Red if:

  • Stakeholders are not defined, OR
  • Stakeholders are consistently not attending required meetings, OR
  • Resources are not meeting their commitments, OR
  • Critical parts of the team do not match the skill-sets defined in the project roles matrix

The Project Health Scorecard Part 4: Value

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring , , ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Here is the suggested guidance for the status of the Project Value Health:

Your Value Health is Green if:

  • The business objectives are stated in the project charter
  • The business objectives are measurable
  • The value in the business case will still be achieved
  • There are no compromises from the original scope and schedule that affects the value of the solution.

Your Value Health is Yellow if:

  • The business objectives stated in the project charter may not be achieved
  • There are compromises (e.g. a smaller testing window) from the original scope and schedule that somewhat affect the value of the solution.

Your Value Health is Red if:

  • The business objectives stated in the project charter cannot be achieved
  • There are compromises (e.g. a smaller testing window) from the original scope and schedule that have a major affect on the value of the solution.

The Project Health Scorecard Part 3: Scope

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring , , ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Here is the suggested guidance for the status of the Project Scope Health:

Your Scope Health is Green if:

  • You have an approved Project Charter
  • Scope is defined
  • There is a defined scope change request process

Your Scope Health is Yellow if:

  • You have an approved Project Charter
  • Scope is defined but there are significant change requests pending Executive Sponsor review and approval

Your Scope Health is Red if:

  • Scope is not defined
  • OR scope is defined and there is no scope change process
  • OR the scope change process is not being followed.

The Project Health Scorecard Part 2: Budget

Professor of Project Management Project Execution and Monitoring , ,

Executing Monitoring and Controlling

Here is the suggested guidance for the status of the Project Budget Health:

Your Budget Health is Green if:

  • You have an approved budget
  • It is actively managed
  • The current forecast is within the approved budget

Your Budget Health is Yellow if:

  • You have an approved budget
  • The current forecast is greater than the approved budget but corrective action is defined and likely to resolve the problem.

Your Budget Health is Red if:

  • You don’t have a budget
  • OR you have a  budget and the forecast is greater than the current budgeted amount and corrective action is not possible