Project Execution

Doing the work

Prepared by:
Md Walee Zaman, PMP, CSM
Implementation, Technology
Robi Axiata Limited
 The Project Life Cycle
Monitoring & Control

Initiation Planning Execution Closing

Project Charter,
BC, Stakeholder
Project Acceptance
Benefit Register, Doing the work
Management Plan Handover
Mgmt Plan Creating a High
Performing Team
Project Charter/ Vision Scope Management Plan Issue Log
Stakeholder Register Schedule Management Plan Change Log
Team Charter Cost Management Plan Lesson Learned
Quality Management Plan
Procurement Management Plan
Risk Management Plan
Communication Management
Resource Management Plan
Stakeholder Engagement Plan
Integration Management Plan
 Project Execution: Doing the Work

Topic to be covered
• Execute Project to Deliver Business Value
• Manage Communications
• Engage Stakeholders
• Create Project Artifacts
• Manage Project Changes
• Manage Project Issues
• Ensure Knowledge Transfer
Execute Project to Deliver Business Value

Projects are commissioned to deliver value

Execute Project to Deliver Business Value
Examination of Business Value

• Projects produce business value.

• Exactly what is of value to the business and to which extent

requires examination, evaluation, and confirmation.

• The business value can be:

o Financial
o Improvements
o New customers
o First to market
o Social
o Technological
 Evaluate and Deliver Project Benefits and Value
Business Value

Business value is an informal term that goes beyond economic value.

Components of business value include:

• Shareholder value—in a publicly traded company, the part of

capitalization that is equity as opposed to debt; for example, the
number of outstanding shares multiplied by the current share price.

• Customer value—the value received by the customer of a product

or service.

• Employee knowledge—an asset of the business, a frequently

overlooked component of business value.

• Partner value—the value of a business’s partners.

 Evaluate and Deliver Project Benefits and Value
Benefits Management Plan

• This plan is prepared before the project is initiated, and it is

referenced after the project has been completed.

• It is not a subsidiary component of the project management plan,

but instead is a business document.
 Evaluate and Deliver Project Benefits and Value
Benefits Management Plan

A benefits management plan is a document that describes how and

when the benefits of a project will be derived and measured.

• Target benefits—the expected tangible and intangible business value

to be realized from the project.
• Strategic alignment—how the benefits align with the business
strategies of the organization.
• Timeframe—when the benefits (short-term and long-term) will be
realized, usually by project phase.
• Benefits owner—the person or group that monitors, records, and
reports the benefits.
• Metrics—the direct and indirect measurements of the realized
benefits.
• Risks—the risks associated with achieving the targeted benefits.
 Evaluate and Deliver Project Benefits and Value
Benefit Cost Analysis

• Benefit Cost Analysis: A systematic approach to estimating the

strengths and weaknesses of alternatives used to determine
options which provide the best approach to achieving benefits
while preserving savings.

• Return on Investment (ROI)

• Present Value (PV)
• Net Present Value (NPV)
• Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• AB Testing
• Monte Carlo Simulation
• Decision Tree Analysis
 Execute Project to Deliver Business Value
Find the minimum viable product(MVP)
• In order to determine a usable product for the customer in each
increment, the core value must be understood.

• The bare minimum sought by the customer is referred to as the

minimum viable product (MVP) .

• When outcomes are too abstract or too far off, teams can get
discouraged or overwhelmed.

• Minimum Viable Products ignite shorter-termed urgency and a feeling

of accomplishment.
 Execute Project to Deliver Business Value
Assess opportunities to deliver value incrementally
• One means of delivering value sooner rather than later is via
incremental delivery.

• Early and regular incremental releases lead to higher customer

satisfaction and increased market share.

• Delivering the product incrementally allows users and the

business to provide feedback to the project team.
 Execute Project to Deliver Business Value
Creating a Culture of Urgency

• The urgency to accomplish goals in projects need to integrate in the

project environment and culture.

• The project manager can lead the way by articulating the project's
importance and vision.

• The project team can promote the culture in their daily actions,
responsiveness, and attentiveness.
 Execute Project to Deliver Business Value
Product Roadmaps & Releases
• A high level visual summary of the product or products that includes
goals, milestones, and potential deliverables.

• Roadmaps are progressively elaborated over time as more

information is known
 Evaluate and Address Internal and External
Business Environment Changes
Product Roadmaps & Releases

• Traditional projects have a single release at the end of the project.

• Agile projects might have multiple releases of different aspects of the

solution as they are ready.

• After the initial release is executed, the product owner identifies

additional releases of the solution.

• Release planning driven by the ability to enable business value.

 Execute Project to Deliver Business Value
PMs Role to Deliver Business Value
• Assess opportunities to deliver value incrementally.

• Examine the business value throughout the project.

• Support the team to subdivide tasks to find the minimum

viable product.

• Collect and analyze data to make informed project decisions.

 Manage Communications

Approximately 90% of a project managers time is spent in

communicating.
 Manage Communications
Guidelines to Effectively Manage Communication throughout the Project

• Determine the communication needs of project stakeholders.

• Make sure your communications management plan includes all key elements.

• As a rule of thumb, project team members require more detail on a more

frequent basis. Senior management typically requires summary information on
a less frequent basis.

• Communicate project information and updates effectively.

• Confirm communication is understood and feedback is received

• Determine the appropriate communications technologies to use for

communicating project information.
Engage Stakeholders
 Engage Stakeholders
Stakeholder Engagement Strategy

• Develop a strategy to involve each project stakeholder based on needs,

expectations, interests, and potential impact on the project.

• Strategy can be used to effectively involve stakeholders throughout the lifecycle of

the project.

• Enables the right-level of management to the number of stakeholders.

• Enables development of appropriate management strategies to engage

stakeholders.

• Creation and maintenance of relationships between the project team and

stakeholders.
 Engage Stakeholders
Stakeholder engagement assessment matrix
 Engage Stakeholders
Manage Stakeholder Engagement
Manage Stakeholder Engagement involves activities such as:

• Review the stakeholder register for information needed to plan appropriate ways to
engage project stakeholders.

• Review the organizational culture, structure, and political climate to help in

determining the best options to support a better adaptive process for engaging
stakeholders.

• Review the lessons-learned database and historical information, as they provide

insight on previous stakeholder engagement plans and their effectiveness.

• Use expert judgment to decide upon the level of engagement required at each stage
of the project from each stakeholder.
• Hold meetings with experts and the project team to define the required
engagement levels of all stakeholders.
• Addressing any risks or potential concerns related to stakeholder management and
anticipating future issues that may be raised by stakeholders
• Clarifying and resolving issues that have been identified.
Create Project Artifacts
 Create Project Artifacts
Project Artifact

• A project artifact is any document related to

the management of a project.

• The project team will create and maintain many

artifacts during the life of the project

• Artifacts are normally living documents

• Updated to reflect changes in project

requirements and scope.
 Create Project Artifacts
Project Artifact
Project artifacts include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Acceptance Criteria
• Assumptions
• Business Case
• Change Requests
• Constraints
• Lessons learned
• Minutes of status meetings
• Project Charter
• PowerPoint (or other presentation software) slide decks
• Requirements
• Scope
• Scope Baseline
• Subsidiary project management plans
 Create Project Artifacts
Project Artifact

Agile projects have several artifacts that do not exist for waterfall
projects:

• Product Backlog
• Product Increment
• Product Roadmap
• Product Vision Statement
• Release Plan
• Sprint Backlog
 Create Project Artifacts
Storage/Distribution of Artifacts

• Artifacts should be stored in a location that is accessible to the people who

use them.

• Small projects where team members are in a single location might use a
simple, paper-based storage system with documents in notebooks and/or file
boxes where they can be accessed easily.

• Cloud-based document storage and retrieval systems are appropriate for

larger projects

• The system chosen to distribute project artifacts should also be based on the
size and complexity of the project
 Create Project Artifacts
Project Artifact Management

• Artifact management includes the procedures used to create,

store, retrieve, and distribute project documents.

• An effective Artifact management system includes these

provisions:

• A way to produce and control documents without

unnecessary administrative overhead.
• Standardized formats and templates.
• A structured process for the review and approval of
documents.
• Version control and security.
• Timely distribution of documents.
Manage Project Changes
 Manage Project Changes
Project Change Management

• A component of the project management plan that establishes the change

control board, documents the extent of its authority, and describes how the
change control system will be implemented.

• Answers the following questions:

• Who can propose a change?

• What exactly constitutes a change?
• What is the impact of the change on the project's objectives?
• What steps are necessary to evaluate the change request before approving
or rejecting it?
• When a change request is approved, what project documents must be
amended to record the actions necessary to effect the change?
• How will these actions be monitored to confirm that they have been
completed satisfactorily?
Manage Project Changes
Project Change Management
Manage Project Changes
Change Management Workflow
 Manage Project Changes
Approved Change Requests

• Approved change requests: Requests that have been received

and approved in accordance with the integrated change control
plan and are ready to be scheduled for implementation.

• Approved changes can include:

• Corrective action—adjusts the performance of the project

work with the project management plan.
• Preventive action—ensures future performance of the
project work with the project management plan
• Defect repair—modifies a non-conformance within the
project.
• Update—modifies a project document or plan.
Manage Project Issues
 Manage Project Issues
Issue
• A current condition or situation that may have an impact on the
project objectives.
• In other words, it is an action item that the project team must
address.
• Common areas include:
• Scope change control
• Schedule control
• Cost control
• Project variance analysis
• Quality
• Risk
• Procurement
• Communications
 Manage Project Issues
Risks vs Issues

Risks Issues

Focused on the future Focused on the present

Is documented in the Risk Is documented in the Issue

Register Log

Can be positive or negative Will always be negative

Response is called a “risk Response is called a

response” “workaround”
 Manage Project Issues
Issue Log

• A document where information about issues is recorded and

monitored.

• It is used to track problems, inconsistencies, or conflicts that

occur during the life of the project and require investigation
 Manage Project Issues
Issue Resolution

• As issues arise, promptly add them to the issue log.

• Each issue should have an owner who is responsible for tracking

the progress

• The due date should be realistic and every reasonable attempt

should be made to meet it.

• Issues should be a regular topic of every status meeting, with the

goal to keep the number of open issues to a manageable number.

• Don’t hesitate to escalate an issue to the project sponsor if it

begins to have a major effect on the project.
Ensure Knowledge Transfer to Project Continuity
Ensure Knowledge Transfer to Project Continuity
Types of Knowledge

• Explicit knowledge: Knowledge that can be codified using

symbols such as words, numbers, and pictures.

• Tacit knowledge Personal knowledge that can be difficult to

articulate and share such as beliefs, experience, and insights.
Ensure Knowledge Transfer to Project Continuity
Lessons Learned
• Knowledge gained during a project can be useful to subsequent
phases of a project and to other projects.

• Both positive and negative experiences that occur throughout

the project life cycle.

• Reinventing the wheel is both time-consuming and costly.

• The amount of time and effort on documenting lessons learned

can pay big dividends in the future.
Ensure Knowledge Transfer to Project Continuity
Lessons Learned Register

• The lessons learned register can include the category and description of the
situation. The lessons learned register may also include the impact,
recommendations, and proposed actions associated with the situation.

• The lessons learned register may record challenges, problems, realized risks and
opportunities, or other content as appropriate.

• The persons or teams involved in the work are also involved in capturing the
lessons learned.

• Knowledge can be documented using videos, pictures, audios, or other suitable

means that ensure the efficiency of the lessons captured.

• At the end of a project or phase, the information is transferred to an

organizational process asset called a lessons learned repository.
Ensure Knowledge Transfer to Project Continuity
How to Manage Lessons Learned

• If your organization has a Project Management Office, follow its guidelines

on documenting new knowledge.

• Be alert to new sources of project knowledge and follow the

communications management plan to convey that knowledge to
stakeholders.

• Proactively seek new knowledge.

• Compile a lessons-learned register throughout the project’s lifecycle and

• Add it to a lessons-learned repository(OPA) with registers from other

projects.
Manage Compliance Requirements
 Manage Compliance Requirements
Compliance Requirements

• Most projects have aspects of their solutions that are subject to

legal or regulatory constraints.

• The requirements for compliance must be identified, tracked, and

managed throughout the project.

• Might include requirements for specific practices, privacy laws,

handling of sensitive information, and many other areas.
 Manage Compliance Requirements
Compliance Requirements

• Nonfunctional Requirements: The project manager may find certain

compliance requirements are documented as nonfunctional

• PM needs to track and manage to ensure that the solution provides

not only the expected functionality but also meet nonfunctional
requirements

• Availability—How and when is the service available?

• Capacity—What level of service performance, speed, and throughput is
required?
• Continuity—If there were a disaster of some kind, how quickly could the
service be recovered to support operations?
• Security—How well is the service and its information protected from security
risks and threats ?
 Manage Compliance Requirements
Compliance Categories

There are many different types of compliance categories that may be

necessary based on a particular industry and solution scope.

• Environmental Risk
• Workplace Health and Safety
• Corrupt Practices
• Social Responsibility
• Quality
• Process Risks
 Manage Compliance Requirements
Guidelines to Measure the Compliance of a Project

• Use QA outputs to confirm deliverable and process compliance

and identify the needs for corrective actions.

• Establish a clear Quality Management Plan and execute it on an

ongoing basis to identify any noncompliance issues as early as
possible.

• Establish where external audit teams can confirm and validate

use of appropriate processes and procedures and how audit
results can enable the team to identify improvements.

• Leverage effective QA tools and techniques to assess quality

deliverables and identify improvements, corrective actions, or
defect repairs required.
Evaluate and Address Internal and External
Business Environment Changes
 Evaluate and Address Internal and External
Business Environment Changes
Internal Business Environment

• Organizational changes can dramatically impact the scope of a

project.

• Project manager and project sponsor need to have visibility into

business plans, reorganizations, process changes, and other
internal activities.

• Internal business changes might cause:

 Need for new deliverables
 Reprioritization of existing deliverables
 Elimination of deliverables no longer required
 Evaluate and Address Internal and External
Business Environment Changes
External Business Environment

• PESTLE is an acronym to identify the external business

environment factors that can affect the value and desired
outcomes of a project.
 Evaluate and Address Internal and External
Business Environment Changes
Change Control Boards

• A Change Control Board (CCB) is designed to manage project

change requests.

• The CCB represents key stakeholders and assesses change in terms

of cost, risk, and value impact.

• Recommend approval of the change request.

• Depending on the scope of the change and established tolerance

thresholds, either the project manager or project sponsor can then
approve the change
 Evaluate and Address Internal and External
Business Environment Changes
Backlog Reprioritization
• Product owner re-prioritizes the backlog as stories or
requirements change.
• The business value determines the priority of the changes.
 Evaluate and Address Internal and External
Business Environment Changes
Product Owner Duties
• Role is to help the project team prioritize work based on the value
that the capability will provide to the business.

• Accountable for the ultimate business value of the solution

• Creates and socialize the product vision.

• Coordinates different business needs into the product backlog.

• Responsible for defining and prioritizing the user stories

• Answers team questions about the needed solution.

• Provides timely feedback to the team..

Employ Continuous Process Improvement
 Employ Continuous Process Improvement
Continuous improvement

Continuous improvement: An ongoing effort to improve products,

services, or processes.

PM needs to:

• Assess existing organization continuous improvement

framework.

• Plan continuous improvement methods, procedures, tools.

• Recommend and execute continuous improvement steps.

Employ Continuous Process Improvement
Quality Theories for Improvement
 Employ Continuous Process Improvement
Continuous Improvement Tools
• Lessons Learned Register is an important component of each
project. Use it as a source of improving the processes in other
projects. Avoid filing it away at the end of a project and not
referring to it.

• Retrospectives Common in agile projects at the end of each

iteration. Help the team look back at an iteration and plan
improvements for the next one.
 Practice Questions

Q1. You have just finished prioritizing project risks based on the probability of
occurrence and impact to the project. Which action should you do NEXT?

A. Perform a quantitative analysis

B. Perform a brainstorming session
C. Perform a reserve analysis
D. Perform a qualitative analysis
 Practice Questions

Q2. You have been contacted by the manager of the marketing unit within
your organization to build a digital signage platform for them to use. The
manager has told you that they want to spend $75,000 on the project and
would like to have delivery of the project in 3 months. After working on the
project for 2 months and having a working prototype, you contact the
manager of marketing and are told they don’t have the budget anymore and
not to start the project. You have already spent $50,000 on the project and
need to have the costs recouped within your business unit. How could this
situation best have been avoided?

A. It is normal to have budget shortfalls in an organization and it cannot be

avoided
B. Have clear sponsorship and budget signed off within the project charter
C. Bill the business unit up front for project costs
D. Ensure legal signs off on all inter-departmental projects
 Practice Questions

Q3. Your project team is creating a new smartphone application. The project
has a budget of $1,500 per week and has an estimated duration of seven
weeks. The project is currently one week behind schedule, and $1,000 over
budget. What is the planned value at the end of the sixth week?

A. 10500
B. 6000
C. 9000
D. 7500
 Practice Questions

Q4. You are instructed to attach new arms on any of the widgets that have
broken arms. What BEST describes what you are doing?

A. Applying a preventative action

B. Implementing defect repair
C. Performing a corrective action
D. Fulfilling a product scope change
 Practice Questions

Q5. You run into the senior product manager. She asks you how the inventory
management project is going and have being meaning to speak to you, she
has a customer that wants to make a minor tweak to the reporting feature.
What should you do in this situation?

A. Ask for more information

B. Adjust the product backlog
C. Politely decline
D. Involve the product owner
 Practice Questions

Q6. Jim is managing a project that has been underway for several weeks. A
problem has been encountered that may cause a conflict between some of
the project stakeholders. Where would you document who is responsible for
resolving the problem?

A. Communications management plan

B. Issue log
C. Stakeholder engagement plan
D. Stakeholder register
 Practice Questions

Q7. As the project manager, you are responsible for the successful
completion and closure of the projects that your organization initiates. You
are currently at the closing point on a large software development project in
which several obstacles were overcome. These obstacles included difficulties
in vacation coordinating, poorly described quality metrics, and lack of proper
communication planning. You want to ensure that these mistakes are not
repeated in future projects. Where would you document this information?

A. Lessons learned documentation

B. Project records
C. Quality management plan and communications management plan
D. Project management plan
 Practice Questions

Q8. A project team is working to develop a new product. The product is to be

improved upon with each version building upon a minimum viable product.
This is your first project that you will be managing that uses this method of
delivery. This project should be delivered based upon the greatest business
value first. You want to ensure that new feature requests are properly
prioritized for each version of the product. Several methods can be used to
negotiate the prioritization of user stories. How can you best decide on what
method to use?

A. Decide as a team
B. Verify what method is typically used based upon historical documentation
C. Pick the one you are most familiar with
D. Use the poker method
 Practice Questions

Q9. It has been determined that the schedule baseline is no longer accurate
and requires modification. Which action must be taken to modify the
baseline?

A. Create the new baseline using a scheduling tool

B. Update the baseline using project management software
C. Obtain the latest work performance information
D. Issue a change request
 Practice Questions

Q10. A project sponsor asks the project manager to change production materials
because these materials could cause health problems to consumers.
What is an appropriate step for the project manager to take?

A. Follow the project change control process to thoroughly investigate the matter.
B. Immediately implement the change and submit a change request for formal
documentation.
C. End the current work and enact the change control process.
D. Reject the change because the request is outside of scope.