Lesson 5: Managing Your Project: Part 1
Step 5: Assessment
One thing that we’ve been careful to maintain since we started our course was that the Project Manager is a part of a team, and that it has been the team that has discussed ideas and picked solutions.
The reason I’ve brought this whole team thing up again is because our current step, assessment, involves getting all of your requisite stakeholders to accept the project plan, and officially do so by signing a piece of paper (the piece of paper is usually called the Project Charter, and is a summary of all of the mini-plans in your big project plan, while the act of signing is typically referred to as signing off).
If you have maintained open lines of communication between key stakeholders and have developed a thorough and realistic project plan, then you should not find too many obstacles to having the project plan approved. However, there is a real possibility that some stakeholders might not accept the plan, and then it is the task of the senior project team to respond to this. If the disagreement falls within the domain of something the Project Manager controls, then it is her/his responsibility to resolve this situation before moving to the next step. However, if the situation is beyond the scope of the Project Manager’s duties, then it is her/his responsibility to route this concern to the Project Sponsor (the person paying for the project) or Project Coordinator (the person who supports the project at a senior level and is expected to move political mountains), who will be expected to take action to resolve the situation.
An example of the latter case often emerges when putting a project together within a functional organizational structure. Sometimes in these environments, a disgruntled functional manager withholds support of a project plan because, while the project may be good for the organization-at-large, the actual activities will draw resources away from the functional manager’s domain, and into the Project Manager’s domain. If this happens, it is the responsibility of the Project Manager to escalate this issue to the Project Sponsor or the Project Coordinator to address the situation and clear this hurdle, one way or another.
References used in this section (these books are available for order via the Resources link above):
The Project Manager’s Desk Reference, by James P. Lewis. Chapter 2; Chapter 3.
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, by the Project Management Institute. Chapter 3.
