The importance of an effective document management strategy for
project success
During the life cycle of a typical
project, a project manager can produce up to fifty different types of documents
to facilitate the planning, tracking and reporting of the project. Documents
range from feasibility studies, resource plans, financial plans and project
plans, to supplier contracts, post-implementation reviews, change request forms
and project status reports. The fact is, the manner in which project documents
are managed by project leaders can either be the driving force behind a
project's success or the bottleneck that often places a project in despair
resulting in its failure to meet its time line, budget and scope.
In this
paper, I will be discussing the power behind an effective document management
strategy for project managers and its pragmatic impact on improving your
visibility into a project's status to better respond to the inevitable reality
of change occurring in your day-to-day work.
The
Role of the Project Document
The
primary role of a project manager is to manage the unexpected. The concept of
planning by its very nature is designed to mitigate and manage the unexpected.
As a part of the planning process, most project managers would agree that the
project document plays a central role in strategically developing the best
possible plan and to effectively communicate progress and status updates to all
stakeholders. More importantly, the manner in which the project document is
managed will determine a project manager's effectiveness in responding to the
unexpected.
Prior to
discussing the management of the project document, let us define the
"Project Document" and how it fits within a typical organization's
project management workflow. The project document is a self-contained document
that details your organization's unique steps in initiating, planning,
executing and closing projects. In fact, the chosen project document types, the
format they are produced in and the manner, in which they are organized, in
their very essence, is what makes your organization different in delivering
projects. Experienced project practitioners are excellent in
"Templatizing" their project documents. The reuse of successful
project plans, complex business-case documents, standard contracts, detailed
specification sheets, and project status reports are necessary for a project
manager's effectiveness in balancing the evils of unmanageable paperwork that
can impede their ability to focus on their core competencies of managing the
project and the involved stakeholders. However, a project template is only as
good as the individual managing its use. What sets apart great project managers
from good project managers is their ability to minimize their administrative
role in producing project documents while maximizing their strategic role in
managing the people that will deliver a successful project. In order to achieve
this, project managers must follow some basic rules in developing key project
documents covering all phases of a project's life cycle.
Although
the project document workflow will vary from organization to organization, good
project managers will develop a number of basic project documents in order to
maintain high standards in the delivery of projects. A standardization of the
documentation is typically seen in the following project phases:
- Project Definition or Conception: In this phase the project
charter document is at the heart of initiation. Defining the charter and
the details surrounding the project's objectives are key drivers in building
the project's road to success.
- Project Planning: In this phase, the project
leadership plans for the unexpected. The documents detailing the project
plan, scheduling of resources, client agreements, and risk management,
house the strategic details of the project.
- Project Execution: In this phase, tracking and
reacting are the name of the game. Here the project documents are
delivering the actuals and updates to the project plan. Tracking cost,
time, physical progress and emerging issues are documented in this phase.
- Project Closure: In this phase, documents
will detail outstanding issues and/or deliverables, review of project
outcome, and best practices project management processes to be utilized
for future use.
Once
again, these project phases are guidelines to what document types play a
critical role within the project life cycle. In the upcoming sections of this
paper, I will be highlighting the obstacles created by a poor document
management strategy and how these issues can be addressed with the right
strategy in place.
Document
Mayhem
Paper
Pusher! Bureaucrat! Those are the last words a project manager would want to be
labeled as. The reality is, ineffective project managers can easily fall into
the trap of producing piles of paperwork that can cloud their judgment leading
to the inevitable demise of a project's failure. When poorly managed, the
project document can easily be used to conceal the reality of a project's
status, create confusion and frustrate those who want answers, as well as those
who need to deliver. In fact, the wrong use of a project document can minimize
the strategic value project managers' play in a project's outcome. It is for
this very reason identifying the project document bottlenecks is as important
as the effective use of project documents.
The
primary issue project managers' face when managing the multitude of documents
is the sheer volume of information that is contained in all the project
documents that needs to be shared among all project stakeholders. Although the collection
of project information is essential, many project managers are challenged with
the ability to effectively access the most relevant information across all
project documents to quickly respond to project bottlenecks and provide status
updates to their stakeholders.
The
reasons for this predicament laid in the typical manner most organizations
treat their project documentation. Most project organizations do not have a
document strategy in place to ensure the consolidation of information and the
movement of project documents among project stakeholders. As a result, the
poorly managed project documents produce the following symptoms:
- Lack of Visibility: Project managers and
stakeholders have an unclear picture of project statuses and all related
work. Project documents are treated as self-contained islands of
information that do not exchange information between one and other.
Moreover, these documents result in redundancy of information contributing
to the lack of visibility.
- Weak Security: Poor security measures are
in place with no business rules and workflows to treat sensitive
documents. This can result in critical project information ending up in
the wrong hands and ultimately derailing a project's objectives.
- Loss of Data: Many project management organizations
do not have the processes and ability to store all their project
documentation in a single repository. Typically, the information in these
documents can be potentially lost, difficult to access and can contribute
to the lack of data integrity that could potentially end up in
decision-making reports.
- Limited Collaboration: Project documents (e.g.
spreadsheets) are often managed as unstructured data sitting in emails, on
desktops and in paper format. More often than not, project documents are
not easily shared among project stakeholders that may need to access
information from multiple locations.
Identifying
the issues surrounding document management is an important first step in
eliminating document mayhem in your projects. The next step is to adopt a best
practices approach developed by document management experts whose business is
to streamline the management of documents.
