45 min.
A5.KCI-3. Implement processes and infrastructure
Each project/programme has a formal meeting structure, which is described in the project/programme plan. This is a part of the management infrastructure. The following is described for each meeting: the frequency, the objective, the participants and who the chairman is.
Examples are:
Project board meetings.
Project (management) team meeting.
Team meetings.
Discussions with the end users.
Based on the organization chart, you determine in advance what discussions and meetings are necessary and desirable. In addition, you have to consider the normal way of holding and running a meeting within an organization. The basic principle is that everyone from the top to the bottom is represented in one or other form of meeting (“linking-pins”). This ensures that everyone receives the necessary information, and is in a position to report on the progress of his work.
As well as the formal meeting structure, an informal discussion structure also exists, which is dependent on people’s needs. This can be a positive, but also a negative, sign. Positive, when the team members develop a certain form of self- management that is complementary to what has been thought out beforehand, but negative when it arises out of necessity, because the formal structure is lacking. In the latter situation, it is advisable to change the formal structure in such a way that this does satisfy the need.
We document all the important decisions we make. As well as the minutes, there are more documents, such as for example [1]:
Technical documents.
Schedules.
Reports.
Records, registers and logs.
Business documents.
We sometimes call the technical documents the specialist documents, and the rest the management documents. It is necessary that all of these documents can be easily found when required, and to assure this, you have to implement document management.
5. The choice for the technology to be used depends on [2]:
The urgency of the information.
The availability of the technology.
The ease of use.
The context.
The sensitivity and confidentiality of the information.
For his choice, the project/programme manager has to let himself be guided by the principle that technology is a means to an end, and not a goal in itself. The more technology, the more risk you run that it will work against you.
If it can be done simply, then it is best to keep it simple.
Application
You can convert the above into actions on the project/programme/portfolio for which you are currently responsible, by carrying out the following steps:
Explain the goal of, and content of, the information processes.
Distribute the internal information.
Avoid redundancy in the information provided.
Name the information to be provided without using IT facilities.
Explain the usefulness on the various meetings.
Explain what you will use the communication infrastructure for.
EXAMPLE A5.1 A wrong technology choice a long time ago
Sometime at the beginning of this century, I was indirectly involved with a project. The project team was in the design stage. The designers had convinced the project manager that a certain tool was the best one for the related design task. When the progress proved to be disappointing, the project manager spoke with the head designer. He said: “The memory in the PC is too small and it is also difficult to copy pictures into Word, and that is the reason we are overrunning.”
To the question whether he should have known that in advance, he answers that this was the first time he has used this tool.
EXAMPLE A5.2 Privacy versus convenience
In 2015 an article appeared about doctors, who exchange patient information via WhatsApp. As answer to the discussion on the privacy sensitivity of this information, the doctors replied that they had already saved many lives due to the speed of this medium.
[1] (2004) Gerard M. Hill, The Complete Project Management Office Handbook, Auerbach Publications
[2] (2013) A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge 5th Edition, PMI
