PPS in brief Practical Project Steering

Description of the model and PPS OnLine

Contents
PPS and the project ...............................................................................................................................3 Management model overview .............................................................................................................4 The steering groups decision-making process...............................................................................5 Project management skills...................................................................................................................6 PPS skills ......................................................................................................................................6 Skill description ...........................................................................................................................7 Templates for various management documents ...................................................................8 Basics of PPS and basic processes ...................................................................................................9 Multi-project management.................................................................................................................10 PPS OnLine: the whole model in one useful package..................................................................11

PPS and the project

The purpose of PPS is to contribute to more successful projects by describing a working method a management model for actively planning, managing and monitoring a project. The method is based on experiences of completed projects and on industry standards. One of the basic ideas is to reach clear and well-accepted agreements: another is to be prepared if problems arise. The central concepts of PPS are personal responsibility, openness and trust. Every member of the project staff must feel that they are participating and see that every action leads towards the common objective. PPS provides a structure for project work, with clearly defined and documented concepts and steps. Support for the day-to-day work exists in the form of various skills containing practical process descriptions, document templates and checklists. These, together with a universal and consistent view of humankind, commitment, benefit and trust, are the characteristics of PPS. PPS is independent of the result that is to be produced by the project, and works well in both large and small projects; PPS is simply applied to suit the particular conditions of each individual project. PPS differentiates between models for business, management and production in the project. This is done with the help of, among other things, different roles, each with responsibility for activities at the respective levels.

In PPS, production is separated from management, which makes PPS independent of the delivered result. PPS therefore works in any industry and company and is easily adapted to meet the needs of small or large, complex projects. PPS focuses on the management model, at the heart of which lie the decision points. It includes different skills and basic processes that clarify the connections to the work at the business and production levels.

Using PPS increases the chances of success, but no model or method can replace personal involvement, expertise and initiative! To facilitate creativity and responsibility in projects, PPS developers have put a lot of effort into creating clarity, simplicity and ease of use of the method. PPS is available in Swedish and English versions, plus an Intranet solution entitled PPS OnLine.

Management model overview

PPS divides project management into: Preparation Execution Conclusion

The diagram above should not be taken to mean that all projects always run in a similar sequence; it only describes a logical division connected to decision points in the PPS management model. Do not confuse the projects management phases with the phases or stages in the production model. Both of these exist and, for each project, must be linked together in the most suitable way. Preparation is intended to define the results the project will achieve, the projects objective and limitations, and how the project work is to be carried out in practice. Matters to be considered include organisation, work forms, project status

reporting method, quality assurance procedures and production model. Execution produces the results that lead to the project achieving its objective. Active feedback, complemented by orderly change management, is used to detect the need for change at an early stage. Conclusion concludes the project and returns resources used by the project. A final report is written with a summary of experience, events and objective fulfilment. Its purpose is for future reuse in new projects.

The steering groups decision-making process

The project is initiated by the production of a project directive by the assignor (project owner). Using this as a base, the project is carried out in an orderly way by passing and taking decisions at eight types of decision points. At each decision point, the steering group decides whether and if so how the project work should continue. As support for the steering group, project owner and project manager, there are checklists for each type of meeting.

The project needs to use different decision points in different ways. There are a number of typical examples of how DPs can be used:

Project management skills

PPS skills
The project manager runs the project with the help of skills that are described in PPS. Skills to use and to which extent they should be applied have to be determined from case to case. In total, about 50 skills are described. In order to support the project manager even more, PPS offers recommendations as to which skills are applicable between decision points and the order in which to use them.

PPS describes the following skills

For the management model: Characteristics review Closing seminar and final report Cross-functional projects Delivery and transferral Detailed planning Deviation and change management Distributed projects Document management Document review Estimates Idea and objective formulation Information distribution Monitoring Multi-project management Planning techniques Project analysis Project directive and project plan Project in the organisation Project organisation Project planning Project review Requirement dialogue Requirement stabilisation Resource planning Risk analysis Situational project management Solution review Start-up seminar Status presentation Steering group Time-oriented projects

For the connection between the management model and the business and production models: Business benefit analysis Production model Business model Tender and contracts Evolutionary production strategy Strategies for the production model Incremental production strategy Waterfall strategy Planning templates For project leadership: Coaching Communication Conflict management Cultural differences Leadership and change Team roles and staffing Meetings

Motivation and incentives Role of the project manager Project team development Self-presentation Stress

Skill description
All skills are packaged in a uniform and easily accessible way. They are described in chapters with descriptive texts, explanatory illustrations with remember comments, step-by-step working method, and finally a checklist. There are also templates and examples of completed documents associated with the chapters. A unique symbol is used throughout the material for each skill.

Templates for various management documents

An essential part of project management is documenting and distributing information about the projects objective, plans and achieved results. PPS consists of a number of document templates that speed up and simplify this task. Standard templates also improve the uniformity of document structure and terminology, making life simpler for readers such as the steering group, project members and stakeholders, and reducing unnecessary misunderstandings. The number of documents to be used and their extent must always be adapted to the needs of the actual project. PPS templates in standard applications are designed for average and/or large projects. For smaller and simpler projects, there are a number of templates that are subsets of the normal templates. This means that they have the same structure but fewer subheadings. Besides the templates, PPS provides examples of pre-written documents for both small and

larger projects. All templates in PPS are created using Microsoft Office. In total there are about 60 documents, divided into: Steering documents Basic documents such as project directive, project plan and final report, together with templates and examples for customer surveys, invitations and minutes, etc. Most of these are in Microsoft Word format. Planning, estimating and follow-up Templates and examples for project schedule and detailed schedule calculations in Microsoft Project and Excel. Project analysis Support templates, such as questionnaires, checklists with review questions, minutes for reviews and analysis of the project.

Basics of PPS and basic processes

PPS considers every person a unique resource each can be developed; each can and will take responsibility. This makes demands on how we lead and share the work. Whenever we work, we undertake to create a result we make a commitment. A common view of the basics is intrinsic to any successful project. A shared and mutual respect for the commitment is essential to a well-managed project. First and foremost, the

customers needs must be determined for each stage of each project. During the project, continuous feedback is required to check that these needs have not changed and that the result really does contribute to them. All this is to ensure benefit and quality for the customer. Mutual understanding in practice means showing respect for the needs of both parties, something that will benefit everybody in the long term.

From the decision to start the project at DP1 to its end at DP8, the work of managing the project towards its objective is continuous. The work is performed according to skills included in the basic processes: commitment, feedback and

management. Basic processes are used at all levels in the project, but with differing degrees of formality: at the higher project levels, agreements etc must take an approved and documented form.

Multi-project management

A mutually agreed management model with common roles, concepts, templates, etc, provides a sound basis for managing several projects in parallel. Information and communication between all those involved is simplified, which can reduce the number of simple misunderstandings. By establishing a project office, the organisation gains support for co-ordination and prioritisation between projects.

Other examples of project support that a project office can contribute are application instructions for the use of PPS, document templates, structures for information management and maintenance of support tools. PPS contains additional roles and skills that reinforce the possibility of managing several projects simultaneously.

Recommendations for multi-project management in PPS

Management model Clearly agree the division of responsibility between the project and the line Establish an overall management forum such as a project council or project office Divide the project portfolio into project programmes, types and classes Planning Clearly defined planning model, different types of plans and construction of project plans Managing the projects priority and status Coverage; focusing on types of resource and key resources Reuse experience; planning templates for various production processes

Management Equal treatment and uniform basis for decisionmaking for existing projects Application instructions for different project types Orderly forms for managing the introduction of new projects

10

PPS OnLine: the whole model in one useful package

The foundation for smoothly running projects is readily available and easy to use IT support for all the project members in their day-to-day work. With PPS OnLine on your intranet, this support is guaranteed for everyone who needs access to PPS. PPS OnLine provides support for the application of PPS in both simple and more complex projects. PPS OnLine users can easily find the relevant document templates, checklists and examples they need in their project work. It also gives guidance when solving the different problems that can arise in a project. PPS OnLine contains all the documentation related to the model, in English and Swedish, in one practical package.

Licensed customers of PPS OnLine have access to the latest edition of PPS, get a discount on course fees, and are assigned a contact person who can and will answer all their questions about the model.

For those who want to use the PPS model jointly with Projectplace on the internet, we have integrated PPS OnLine as a tool within the Projectplace web service.

11

Contact us for further information about: PPS training, scheduled and in-house courses IT support with PPS OnLine Project management consulting Seminars
TietoEnator PPS Kronborgsgrnd 1 SE-164 87 Kista Sweden Tel +46-8-703 63 43, +46-8-703 62 00 www.tietoenator.com/pps pps@tietoenator.com