This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Executing the Project
Executing the project refers to implementing the plan and performing the work of the plan to create the deliverables.
The PMBOK® Guide, Sixth Edition, processes of executing in integration management are
Direct and Manage Project Work
Manage Project Knowledge
The PMBOK® Guide, Seventh Edition, discusses execution and delivery of the project in the following Performance domains:
Project Work Performance Domain
Delivery Performance Domain
We discuss the main contents of these Processes and Performance domains as they relate to the PMP exam.
First, let’s examine the purpose of executing the project. The main purpose of execution is to deliver the business value of the project.
The exam content outline (ECO) mentions two tasks related to business value as follows:
Process Domain Task 1: Execute the project with the urgency required to deliver business value.
Business Environment Domain Task 2: Evaluate and deliver project benefits and value.
With two ECO tasks mentioning value, you can see the significance that PMI places on this term for the PMP exam.
It is important to understand what is meant by business value.
What Is Business Value?
Business value is the net quantifiable benefit derived from the business endeavor that may be tangible, intangible, or both. The reason for doing a project in the first place is to realize the business value, and this value varies depending on the project. For example, the benefit of one project may be to increase market share, whereas the benefit of another may be to improve processes. Benefits can also be intangible; for example, the benefits of a homeowner building a house are that the owner moves into their dream home.
Some examples of tangible benefits include
Financial
Market share
First to market
New customer
Technological
Improvements
Social
Equity
Some examples of intangible benefits include
Goodwill
Brand recognition
Reputation
Strategic alignment
When does the business value get realized? It depends!
The time frame determining when business value will be realized is dependent on many factors. On a predictive project, the business value generally is realized after the close of the project, whereas on an agile project, the business value is realized at the end of each sprint. The benefits of a process improvement project may be realized at various increments throughout the project, whereas a new product development project aimed at increasing sales, profits, and market share may not be realized for several months or even years after the start of production.
At a project level, business value needs to be defined and understood during the early stages of the project. The project charter documents what success and failure mean on the project.
What Does Project Success Mean?
Is project success achieved by being within schedule and budget? Is that the true measure of project success?
For the most part, many people will say yes to this question. For many project managers, the classic success criteria for a project are being within schedule and within budget.
However, is that really a true and accurate measure of success? There is no right or wrong answer to this; it depends on many factors and situations.
For example, let’s say a new product development project was expected to increase sales by $5 million a year, and this project finished 10 percent ahead of schedule and 5 percent under budget. At this point, you would be congratulating yourself on a job well done; however, if the sales ended up so low that the company went out of business, would this be considered a success now?
On the other hand, if this same project ended up 10 percent behind schedule and 20 percent over budget, you would initially be concerned by these metrics and might need to explain to senior management what went wrong. But if the sales doubled expectation, then would you consider this a failed project? Absolutely not.
So, measuring project success and failure based on budget and schedule alone may not always be the best metrics to use. You need to look at the overall picture and consider the business value. Success on a project should be determined by whether the business value was attained.
There are various different ways of measuring business value, such as
Benefit-Cost Ratio
Return on Investment (ROI)
Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
Present Value (PV)
Net Present Value (NPV)
On adaptive projects, business value is realized at the end of each sprint when the product owner approves the deliverables, which in turn creates the potentially shippable product increment. Two important terms related to this are
Minimum Viable Product (MVP): This is the smallest collection of features that can be included for a product to be considered functional. These are the bare-bones, no-frills type of functionality required for the product or system to work. As an analogy, these could be considered the must-haves of the MoSCoW analysis. The aim is to do the minimum amount of work to deliver value to the customer.
Minimum Business Increment (MBI): This is the smallest amount of value that can be added to a product or service that benefits the business. The aim is to deliver the highest value first.
Now that you understand business value, plus the success and failure of a project, let’s further discuss the execution of the project within this context.
The Project Work Performance domain of the PMBOK® Guide, Seventh Edition, results in the efficient and effective project performance where the team uses appropriate processes and tools to complete the work and produce the deliverables. The project work keeps the team focused and the project activities running smoothly by managing the workflow; effectively and efficiently communicating with stakeholders; and managing materials, equipment, supplies, logistics, and vendors.
The project manager and the project team should regularly review the processes and procedures to identify any inefficiencies and bottlenecks and resolve issues and impediments. The team might use lean systems such as the value stream map to identify such bottlenecks and use continuous improvement tools such as retrospectives and lessons learned to make small, incremental, and continuous improvement steps. The project manager has the responsibility to maintain the team’s focus on the work and ensure the sense of urgency is instilled to deliver the work in a timely manner.
Now let’s discuss the two PMBOK® Guide, Sixth Edition, processes of executing in integration management.
Direct and Manage Project Work
The project manager is the visionary leader of the project and as such must constantly communicate the goals and value to stakeholders throughout the project. The project manager must also ensure that deliverables and goals are met throughout the project by ensuring that the team is consistently performing the appropriate tasks to meet those goals and expectations. The project manager must therefore instill a culture of urgency throughout the project to ensure deliverables are being met and stakeholders agree with the timeline of these deliverables.
Direct and Manage Project Work is the process of implementing the plan and leading the execution of the plan. The project manager leads the team through the execution of tasks and activities. The result of executing the work is to create the deliverables of the project, which then are tested as part of the quality management process (discussed in Chapter 11, “Project Quality”).
Another major result of this process is to create the work performance data that will be analyzed and compared to the plan to create the work performance information and summarized in the work performance report.
Let’s look at these terms in detail:
Work Performance Data (WPD): This refers to raw observations or actual results. This data provides no context and must be analyzed to understand what it means. For example, a page of numbers collected by market research may be meaningless without any analysis. For a project, an example might be, “We have spent $50,000 so far on this project.”
Work Performance Information (WPI): This is the interpretation of the data, and it provides some meaning to what the data means. For example, after the pages of numbers from the previous example have been analyzed, the interpretation of those numbers is the work performance information. A project example is, “We are $5,000 over budget.”
Based on the previous example, if you have spent $50,000 so far but should have spent $45,000, you are $5,000 over budget. In this example, the $50,000 is the work performance data (actual results), the $45,000 is the plan, and the $5,000 over budget is the work performance information. To get the work performance information, you should always compare the actual results with the plan.
Work Performance Report (WPR): This is a representation or a summary of the work performance information in a physical or electronic report format that is used for decision-making and shows the status of the project. Because the information contains the data and the plan, it could be regarded as containing all three.
Manage Project Knowledge
Learning new knowledge, reusing existing knowledge, and transferring knowledge are important skill sets for team members and critical success factors for collaboration and project success.
Team members must not hoard knowledge but should share their knowledge with other team members and stakeholders as needed. This aids in collaboration and engagement. When we all learn from one another, we all develop new skills and understanding, and we all win.
Knowledge transfer also includes passing on information and knowledge to other stakeholders, such as the ongoing operations team. At the end of the project, the project team will pass on pertinent information to the production team or operations team so that they understand the capabilities and weaknesses of the deliverable. This information will be in the form of documentation, meetings, work shadowing, and training the production staff.
There are two classifications of knowledge:
Explicit Knowledge: This knowledge is tangible and easily codified into words, pictures, numbers, chart, graphs, reports, and so on. For example, this book is considered explicit knowledge.
Tacit Knowledge: This knowledge is more intangible and personal, based on beliefs, thought processes, insights, and experiences. This type of knowledge is more difficult to express and codify. For example, your experience as a project manager and your approach to resolve an issue based on your past experience are tacit knowledge.
Knowledge management refers to both explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. You should always learn new knowledge and reuse existing knowledge (lessons learned).
Knowledge transfer refers to both explicit and tacit knowledge. Knowledge within an organization exists on three levels:
Individual Knowledge: This is mostly tacit knowledge but can include some explicit knowledge.
Project Knowledge: This is mostly explicit knowledge because it refers to project documentation.
Organization Knowledge: This is mostly explicit knowledge because it refers to the organization’s documentation (OPA). This term also refers to such knowledge as the skills and experiences of employees that can be reused across the organization.
Tacit knowledge generally resides within the minds of individuals, and it is not possible to force people to share their knowledge and experiences. Consequently, creating an atmosphere of trust among team members is important so that they are motivated to share their experiences and knowledge. Even the best tools and processes will not work if people are not motivated to share what they know or pay attention to what others know. Effective transfer of knowledge includes both knowledge management tools and documentation as well as interactions and networking between people.
A key artifact of Manage Project Knowledge is the lessons learned register, which documents what went well, what went badly, and what improvements can be made. However, that is not the only artifact for knowledge management. All project documentation is a form of knowledge transfer, so all project documents are used for managing project knowledge.