Milestone 1 Review
Define Phase Complete
Introductory Information
Processes related to the capturing and reporting of actual costs within the Project
Management System (PMS). These costs are not considered reliable given the current processes in place. Need to rapidly mature these processes so that senior leadership and project managers can properly evaluate cost performance.
All IT investments that are considered developmental must participate in using Earned Value Management and report the results in the Monthly Performance Reviews. These projects define the scope of this project; i.e. focus on the procedures these projects follow in capturing their costs.
What problem is this project trying to solve?
Critical to Quality
There are five inputs that are critical to quality:
Timesheets depend upon two critical inputs: Hours and Rates
Expense Entries depend upon three critical inputs: Vendor Invoices, Employee Expenses and Procurement Credit Card entries.
Each of these inputs can represent a CTQ, such as accurate base rates for timesheets or accounting for all hours each week for timesheets.
Not yet, we have to sample the data to fully understand how high the error rate is. However, our discussions with System Administrators indicates that most projects are not fully
compliant with entering all timesheets. This problem also exists with expense entries; i.e. not all vendor invoices are entered. So we suspect that the error rate is extremely high.
What are some of the CTQ’s for this project?
Project Deliverables
Thought Process Map – Outline of critical questions that need to be answered and possible techniques for analyzing the problems.
Stakeholder Analysis – How to engage each stakeholder so that this project is successful. SIPOC Diagram – Map the overall process and input streams
Critical to Quality – Define what is critical to the quality of cost data
Operating Definitions – A basic level of performance, what has to be measured, and the measurement results (to be determined in the next phase)
The project team submitted all work products to the PMO Staff for review and approval. We also sought out guidance from the CIO Leadership Council members; especially those who are Six Sigma Black Belts since this project is following the DMAIC Six Sigma approach.
What are some of the work products during this phase of the project?
Project Goals and Objectives
Timesheet processing – making sure a control procedure is in place to make sure timesheets are getting processed.
Vendor invoices – making sure all projects have a control procedure to properly capture vendor invoices.
The current plans are to start implementing solutions in January / February 2008. Since training and SOP documents will have to be distributed, you probably will not notice improvements until mid year 2008.
What are some of the process areas this project will improve?
Project Performance
The project is on schedule overall, but is somewhat behind in the Define phase. This delay is due to collecting data to feed the next phase – analysis. Once we get a good sample of data, we can move quickly. The remaining phases are expected to be on schedule since the analysis is fairly straight forward and the solutions are fairly straight forward. The
implementation and monitoring or control phases of the project can get passed over to the Project Management Office (PMO) once the project nears completion. We will setup the control plan and implementation plan and transition these over to the PMO.
The project remains on budget and we do not expect to go over-budget at this time. We included an extra FTE (full time equivalent) for systems support. This may not be required after the analysis phase.
Total costs incurred to date (as of August 31, 2007) . . . $ 69,300 (13% spent)
Is this project on schedule according to the project plan?
