EXECUTE THE PLAN

When execution of the plan begins, the project manager's focus shifts from planning to understanding what is being accomplished and facili­tating the resolution of problems.

All status reporting must be received by the predefined cutoff. This is necessary to allow time for updating the plan and preparing the sta­tus reports. Timely reporting is an indicator that the plan is being used to control the execution of the work to be done. Late or incomplete reporting is an indicator of potential problems waiting to explode or individuals who have not bought into controlling the project. Do not tolerate it!

Executing the plan includes refining the definition of the work to be done as time passes and as additional information becomes avail­able. The refinements include decomposing activities into smaller units of work, revising estimates of duration, and refining the dependencies. The project manager must ensure that this gets the proper attention and update the project plan to reflect the latest information. This should be done as part of the weekly activity of maintaining the plan.

If the project manager demands timely reporting from the team members, he or she must meet every target for status reporting. It is tempting to shortchange or skip status reports in the heat of the battle, but this is a mistake because of the message it sends to everyone asso­ciated with the project. The project status reports are the communica­tions link to the outside world and should be complete, truthful, and concise. Use them wisely to manage expectations and get the neces­sary support.

INITIATE CORRECTIVE ACTIONS

If a project goes exactly according to plan, the project manager with­held information while developing the plan or was unbelievably lucky. Therefore, deviations from the plan will occur and the response to them is another key to completing the project on time and within budget. The first decision that must be made is whether the activity or devia­tion is important enough to warrant a recovery plan. There must be a recovery plan for any slippage on or near the critical path. A second category of activities that must have a recovery plan are those that are slipping because the definition of the work to be done is changing or required decisions are not being made. These are symptoms of creep­ing scope that must be stopped if the project is to be successful.
Objectives and deliverables that were not critical to the success of the project were identified in the project definition and planning steps. The activities leading to these objectives or the deliverables can be rescheduled out to compensate for the recovery plans for critical ac­tivities.

There are four questions that must be addressed as part of recovery planning:
• What are the feasible alternatives?

• What are the impacts of each alternative?
• Which alternative should be selected?
• Why should that alternative be selected?

Include the answers to these questions in the project status reports so that everyone understands the situation and the decision. They may not like the decision or its impacts, but they will understand how and why it was made. The guidelines in the APICS body of knowledge for recovery from production problems apply to projects as well:

• Don't work on a recovery plan for a task that is not needed because of other delays.
• Always attempt to recover as close to the problem as is practical.
• Don't over commit the project resources.
• Changing the committed delivery date is the last resort, but if it must be done, tell the customer the truth.

CLOSE THE PROJECT

No project is complete until the acquired knowledge is captured and organized in a way that can benefit future projects. If the organization has a format for the project close report, use it. Otherwise, create one and it is likely to become the de facto standard. Organize the report into lessons learned and suggestions for future projects. Within each of these sections, organize the information by project life cycle stage— the steps in the methodology. Most importantly, make the report acces­sible to future project teams because the purpose of the project close report is to save future teams from having to learn the same lessons on their own.

SUMMARY
Anyone can control a project and increase the likelihood of complet­ing it on time and within budget. It requires a structured approach and attention to details. The methodology presented is a common sense approach that can be adapted to both large and small projects. Apply Pareto's Law to each step to focus on the very important few while not getting unpleasantly surprised by the important many. Figure 4 sum­marizes the steps in the methodology and the key components of each step. Use them wisely with a large dose of common sense to achieve the objectives of your projects.

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