Maximizing Project Success: A Guide for Project Directors

Accommodation Projects are often lengthy and complicated, however following all the appropriate process areas defined as the knowledge areas in the Project Management Framework across the project’s lifecycle will allow you as a Project Director to move the project through each phase in a well planned and executed way, delivering an exceptional result for your client and your own organization. 

Initiation is defined in the PMBOK® Guide as “the process of formally recognizing that a new project exists or that an existing project should continue into its next phase” and Scope Definition as “subdividing the major project deliverables (as identified in the scope statement) into smaller, more manageable components.

Accommodation projects are often lengthy processes.   When you are onboarded as a Project Director during the project initiation phase there are a number of project management activities you will need to carry out, we will review why they are important and identify some potential issues you may come across and methods for resolving them.

The great news is that we will review the project management framework continually throughout the different modules in this course and you will clearly see how these can be applied to projects both large and small and across various industries and sectors. You will be able to apply these learnings throughout your career!

Let's look at what you need to do to ensure your project initiation runs smoothly!

Let's start with identifying the stakeholder. 

The first one is easy - it’s you the Project Director.

 

What’s your Role in The Project Team

As you can see from above, the Project Director is joining the project once the strategy and the greater extent of the property procurement phase have been completed.   They may have been involved in the property search and took part in undertaking due diligence in conjunction with the professional technical consultants that will be engaged for this project too.

 

This means the following steps have already been carried out in the strategy phase and are available for the Project Director to review, to fully orient themselves with the project

Strategy phase deliverables completed to date

• Needs analysis
• The Strategic Accommodation plans
• Financial Modelling
• Business Case

• Request for lease proposal

Property Acquisition phase deliverables completed to date

• Premises technical review
• Negotiate Heads of Agreement
• Oversee legal drafting of lease and licenses
• Financial modeling and business case

 

The Project Director Role and Key Attributes

• Ensure the Project Team adheres to the high standards of Health and Safety management required by the organization and their customers
• Drive the project team to minimise the cost of labour in delivering a successful project using low-cost resources while minimising defects and rework
• Facilitate the project team’s achievement of goals and objectives
• Financial and contractual responsibility 
• Managing high levels of technical integration between systems
• Maximisation of Customer Satisfaction through responsiveness and quality of service
• Maintenance of the organization’s quality and safety standards
• Manage effective communications with all project stakeholders

What are the skills/knowledge that makes a Project Director, what to look for in selecting them, and relevant to management of the project and resources.

 

SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE ATTRIBUTES RELEVANCE

Sound judgement

Knowledge of business purpose of the project and ability to make decisions within that context

• Able to understand which aspects of the procurement have scope for flexibility on quality, time, or cost, and which do not
• Understand the repercussions of changing specifications to save time or money
• Understand how to improve the value of the project by examining the function of each item or element and its associated cost

Provides directionAbility to keep the project moving towards a successful completion in face of compressed or conflicting schedules and undesirable developments

• Able to ensure suppliers and contractors deliver on schedule
• Is assertive and uses influence to achieve results

Delegates responsibility when required, retains accountabilityCalls in experts when required to supplement their own skills

• Uses professional technical consultants and subject matter experts to assist in drawing up specifications and evaluating proposals
• Uses legal experts when drawing up contracts
• Uses commercial experts with negotiating pricing

Coaches/mentors team

• Knowledge of team strengths and weaknesses and ability to effectively utilize team members to complement and support each other
• Provides active feedback to team members and stakeholders

• Able to mentor and develop others

Issues and conflict resolutionAbility to recognise resistance and overcome it. Ability to control project issues whilst avoiding project disharmony

• Able to deal with disharmony between suppliers/contractors/project team members
• Ability to mediate when required, imposing compromise where necessary

Effective decision making

• Ability to identify key issues and problems and pick the best choice amongst the alternatives
• Ability to make timely decisions and to act reflective of business objectives

Able to understand the key criteria to be used to evaluate procurement activities, and prioritise the desired benefits of the project

 

SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE	ATTRIBUTES	RELEVANCE
Sound judgement	Knowledge of business purpose of the project and ability to make decisions within that context	Able to understand which aspects of the procurement have scope for flexibility on quality, time, or cost, and which do not
		Understand the repercussions of changing specifications to save time or money
		Understand how to improve the value of the project by examining the function of each item or element and its associated cost
Provides direction	Ability to keep the project moving towards a successful completion in face of compressed or conflicting schedules and undesirable developments	Able to ensure suppliers and contractors deliver on schedule
		Is assertive and uses influence to achieve results
Delegates responsibility when required, retains accountability	Calls in experts when required to supplement their own skills	Uses professional technical consultants and subject matter experts to assist in drawing up specifications and evaluating proposals
		Uses legal experts when drawing up contracts
		Uses commercial experts with negotiating pricing
Coaches/mentors team	Knowledge of team strengths and weaknesses and ability to effectively utilize team members to complement and support each other	Able to mentor and develop others
	Provides active feedback to team members and stakeholders
Issues and conflict resolution	Ability to recognise resistance and overcome it. Ability to control project issues whilst avoiding project disharmony	Able to deal with disharmony between suppliers/contractors/project team members
		Ability to mediate when required, imposing compromise where necessary
Effective decision making	Ability to identify key issues and problems and pick the best choice amongst the alternatives	Able to understand the key criteria to be used to evaluate procurement activities, and prioritise the desired benefits of the project
	Ability to make timely decisions and to act reflective of business objectives

 

           

What are other attributes that you would expect to see in a Project Director?

Most of the above are soft skills and they are just as important and key as the technical ability that the Project Director will deploy during their time in the role.  Key attributes are those who have knowledge of fundamental project management processes, methodologies, tools, and techniques and have had a good amount of exposure to formal and informal organizational structures.  

 

Project Directors have a high-level understanding of applications used in the organizations industry and are able to adapt project management processes to the organizations timescales.  They understand the business areas in which the project sits and understand the priorities of the project and the stakeholders.

 

What could be some common issues of not having a clear understanding of your role? 

Jumping Swim lanes

 

Not understanding the clear delineation of roles and responsibilities could lead to the Project Director moving into an area of the project that should be carried out by another stakeholder with the appropriate skills and experience. Not only will this put others' noses out of joint and affect morale, but it could also seriously damage the project's success if stakeholders carry out tasks that are not suited to their skills and experience.

 

Not having the skills required to do the work

This is a large project with many stakeholders who will need to be managed - if the Project Director was unaware of this, they may have applied for the role without having the correct skills to manage a large team, leading to a breakdown in communication and engagement in the project and ultimately the failure to deliver the project.

 

Being sold that the job is simpler than it is

Without a full understanding of the role the Project Director may believe it is a smaller project that can be carried out simply. We know this project has already been in the works for a number of months and still has many phases to go through until completion. Understanding the scale of the project and the scope of your role will allow the Project Director to make a well-informed decision as to whether they fit the needs of the project.

 

Program Structure

Now we have addressed the importance of understanding the roles and responsibilities required to do the work, let's look at the Program Structure.  

As a Project Director, they are in the next reporting line down from that of the Project Sponsor.  This is an example of a Program Structure.  

 

 

Perhaps the Project Director has worked on a project where the Project Sponsor and business owner were the same person, or the developer and the Fitout Project Manager were the same?   

This happens a bit, and there is no one governance structure that project teams follow.  Always remember, projects are different and will have different stakeholders engaged at various times.  That is why it is so important we do checks like reviewing the organizational chart so we can understand the specifics of the project we are on. 

Once the Project Director understands what the Program Structure may look like, they will then need to look at the roles that may sit above and under their own.  

 

Large projects can seem a little daunting but putting the work into understanding what is expected of you, and what skills you will need means you can join the project feeling confident that you are the right person for the job.

 

Next, let’s look at the size of the project - this determines how big the Project Directors' role is!

 

Identifying and Mapping Stakeholders

The organization chart above indicates there are quite a few stakeholders involved in this project, but there are layers underneath this too, as there are many people involved in migrating a business from an old building to a new one.

 

Getting the resources identified and onboarded early in projects is necessary to deliver and understand the relevant resource capability and skill sets that are required in your project team, and whether the organization can provide any of the right resources at the right time. 

Sometimes it is the case that some of the project team members may have already been onboarded before the Project Director was assigned the role and the decisions made by someone else on who is going to fill the key project roles. 

If this is the case in any project, and if the Project Director finds gaps in the skill or knowledge within their team, they will need to lobby for the engagement of outside experts. We will come back to this idea later on. 

It's likely at the time the Project Director was onboarded, they would have sat down with the Project Sponsor and executive leadership team, possibly the PCG - to identify staff and gain approval for these staff members to join the project team.

Why else is it important to identify the stakeholders in conjunction with the executive leadership teams?  

Imagine if a key member of the leadership team had not been included in the decisions, what might be some potential issues?

They might not agree with the decisions being made about the project and who’s involved and throw up roadblocks, especially if they are influential, and this could impact others' engagement and enthusiasm for the project.

 

Stakeholder Register

 

In the stakeholder register that the Project Director will create at the same time as the Project Charter - they will identify the key stakeholders who should be present at the Project Launch meeting.

Let's have a look at an example stakeholder register and see what information we are gathering about the stakeholders that will be best suited to assist this project.  

Remember, stakeholders can be varied across projects, they may include:

• Customers
• Suppliers
• The public
• Project Sponsor
• Internal Client Organisation
• Operational Departments

 

The Stakeholder Register will track the name, position, project role and contact information, which is all basic information. The 2nd part is a little more involved, looking at their requirements, expectation, level of influence and interest of the stakeholders. 

The Project Director will need to ask these questions about the stakeholders:

• WHO are the program's project stakeholders – those involved, impacted, interested?
• WHAT do they know about them?
• WHAT do they need to find out about them?

Why is it important to understand the stakeholder’s level of influence?

Understanding someone's influence level can be helpful in identifying the best person to assist the Project Director to either socialise an aspect of the project with the wider organization, or to help manage a stakeholder expectation. 

Understanding their expectations can also help the Project Director to manage them.

 

I once worked on a project where one key stakeholder's expectations did not align with the project scope - he was constantly pushing for changes to be made and took up a lot of the Project Directors' time.  Because he was influential, he was able to persuade others to resist decisions that had already been made, causing delays.

Because some stakeholders can be more influential and connected than others, and oftentimes, the Project Director may be new to the business - and may not have the background to understand who has the influence in the business - early identification of the stakeholders' influence and expectations will allow the Project Director to better manage the situation. 

The Project Director may need to build their own Resource Management Plan.  This Plan needs to be detailed and includes the quantity of people resources, equipment, and other materials necessary to complete the project.  The Resource Management Plan includes the project organisational chart for the defined resource requirements and defining and documenting job descriptions for each resource identified.

This will identify the gap that the Project Director will need to fill from the market from subject matter experts across any of the identified resource gaps.

 

What are the Inputs to the Resource Management process?

The Resource Management Plan will be informed from key documents like the Project Charter and potentially the scope of work document, project work plan and schedule, procurement plan, the organization's HR policies and procedures, quality management plan, scope baseline, project schedule, requirements documentation, stakeholder register, and risk register.

The Resource Plan should include the objectives and proposed outcomes of the project - in terms of the deliverables being successfully achieved at the end of the project and should include whether this is a product or service - or a combination of both, and how the resource plan looks to support the outcomes.

 

What are some of the top resource management challenges a Project Director may face during their project?  

Here are some examples of common issues that could be avoided by onboarding the correct team and managing them correctly. 

 

Engagement of the Project/Consultant Team

Let’s take a look at the project team.  

Many projects will have a mix of internal staff who are nominated as stream leads and will be complemented by a mix of subject matter experts who may run areas and have a level of technical expertise, such as IT project management.

What are the attributes of the team that you have on your project? 

Even if the project team has already been recruited, the Project Director needs to ensure they have a team that will pursue excellence throughout all phases of the project and not just where they are delivering.   They need to understand the goals of themselves and others in the team and behave as a team.  

What steps can they take to ensure this happens?

• They will sit down with each of the project team members and explore the core capabilities to complete the project.  The Project Director should look at their proposed or nominated project team as they would if they were recruiting.
• Can they finalise the project org charts with clarity of what the roles will do to complete the project successfully?
• Are there technical and non-technical capabilities in the existing project org chart?  

What questions might the Project Director ask the team to check their suitability?

• Do you understand the project milestones, how your role impacts these, and where your major delivery happens in the project?
• Do you understand the project approvals process?
• Do you understand the compliance policy and Scope of Works? (this is particularly important if you have an internal HSE team approving the fitout contractors)

 

I often get asked if it matters if the project team is sourced internally or externally?  

It can often be a problem when organizations assign resources to projects to provide an opportunity for individuals to gain experience in something new or to fill a role.   Project roles should be filled according to the unique set of skills required of the role to complete the project work.  Really the best practice is to hire the best fit for the role - the one that will do the work and deliver exceptional results.  The organization's culture and structure can either support the combination of skills and experience that make up the project team or not. 

However experienced internal staff can bring a lot of organizational knowledge to the project, and it is important not to assume because they are internally sourced, they won't be up to the job, but the Project Director’s responsibility is to evaluate everyone's skills and knowledge areas and identify any gaps. 

As tempting as it is to use internal resources to save project costs, it is not advisable to have a large % of the project team cutting their teeth on the next accommodation project.  It can be disastrous if the project staff are inexperienced, with a minimal number of people leaders, or subject matter experts.   

 

What could be some dangers of this, and how would they affect the project?

# 1 Not having enough experienced resources in the team

Accommodation projects are often complex and require a great deal of specialist knowledge to gain maximum benefits in each phase. A project team that lacks the experience, may not understand the implications of not following the correct processes, or may not have the necessary skills to perform their role - meaning other resources will need to be assigned those tasks - may pose the risk of processes and deliverables not being completed correctly - or on time, affecting the overall success of the project.

#2 Project Team members not understanding the Project Scope

Controlling the project scope is a key factor in controlling costs, overall delivery of the project and its profitability - so it is important that where actual work differs from planned work - the situation is reviewed and the reasons for the difference are understood. Internal staff may not have any project experience and may not fully understand the importance of sticking to the project scope.  

 

Managing requirements involves monitoring the status of the project progress and scope and managing any changes to the scope baseline. This includes making sure all changes, corrective and preventative actions are processed through the change management process, Which we will look at in more detail later on.   Uncontrolled changes are called ‘scope creep’ and are often the cause of project budget overruns. The requirement management process seeks to prevent this from happening. If team members don't understand the scope they may not even identify when scope creep is happening. 

If the proposed project team is not really eligible to be matched to the project roles, the Project Director should speak to their Project Sponsor explaining the gaps and fight hard to engage the experts.

You may now know where the project gets the team/stakeholder information from but what are they comparing it to - to understand if the resources fit?  

This is where the Project Director will also need to understand the 'high-level‘ scope of work

Project Quality

Quality assurances will typically include how the project will be planned and managed throughout the lifecycle of the project. 

This information can typically be provided in the Project Status Reporting which will be prepared by the Project Director and issued to the Project Control Group on a monthly basis.

The project report may be presented in a single-page dashboard method.

Let's have a look at an example dashboard.

Other Updates could include:

• Project Updates from Streams: Fitout, Technology, Change Management, WPS/Relos, Commissioning, User Requirements
• Upcoming Deliverables from the Streams
• Health and Safety Performance
• Program Status
• Commercial Status
• Top Three (3) Risk and Issues
• Any Pending Approvals
• Dates that project streams will provide their updates i.e., on the 15th of every month

Where does this information come from?  

It can come from any of the below plans that make up the Project Directors PMP

• Project Management Plan
• Health and safety plan
• Quality plan
• Financial plan
• Commercial Status
• Communications plan
• Stakeholder engagement and management plan
• Resource plan
• Risk management plan
• Project scope and schedule plan
• Quality control plan

Not all plans may apply to all projects as individual plans, and the Project Director in conjunction with the Project Sponsor should define which elements of project quality will be provided in the reporting.

Let’s now move on and see what work the Project Director will do with the PCG.  

 

Meeting the PCG - What’s Their Role

Once the Project Director has their first meeting with the Project Control Group, things will start to move quickly, there is a lot for the Project Director to catch up on to understand where the project is at, who is involved and what the next steps are.   

• The Project Control Group (PCG) consists of key and major stakeholders who are instrumental in influencing the project.
•  The Project Control Group will often consist of those senior managers in the areas of major business divisions such as finance and operational management.

 

Quick Facts on the Project Control Group

The Project Control Group (PCG) consists of key and major stakeholders who are instrumental in influencing the project.       

Keep in Mind when Appointing...

Industry good practice warrants the establishment of a project structure that has a nominated person or people in control of the project. This is the core project team and is commonly known as the Project Control Group (PCG).

The selection of the PCG is based on those people that understand how project decisions are made and will have an overall impact on the business. Not of just particular units within their business. 

It is often that the COO and CFO are in this Group.

If the PCG is required to approve major expenditures or if there are changes to business strategy or overarching KPIs, then the PCG must request approval from the CEO or Project Sponsor and follow the approval back down the chain.

 

Summary from your Project Director

Since the Project Director has been engaged, they have been working through all data and decisions that were made during the strategy phase, They have caught up with the Property Lead and now know a Building has been selected, 

They have reviewed their roles and responsibilities and created the Resource Management Plan to understand and capture the capacity, skills, and influence of the wider project team. 

A Project Charter

• is a document formed at the organizational level and contains information such as governance of the project, funding of the project and the project scope that is imagined by the organization
• formally authorises the existence of the project and provides the Project Manager with the authority to apply resources to project activities
•  is one of the first control documents that the Project Director (or Project Sponsor) will develop and seek approval of at the start of the project. The scope and applicability of a Project Charter applies to all Projects