Commonly new project manager completes the templates from the PMO standards and become a bit overwhelmed. A Tip of the Trade is not to lose your common sense and make judgment calls on which component to use and which to leave out.
In order to provide efficiencies and not make everyone re-invent the wheel, a PMO will provide the foundation for standard templates, perhaps meeting minutes, a charter, a scope change, and a risk register. These resources are available to you to help get you on the right track.
Now, it is important to keep in mind that with projects documentation is not a one size fits all mentality. It is for communications to be read, reviewed and understood by an audience. As the project manager, you should feel empowered to be inquisitive and discover all the common subjects. However, you should also discern and make a judgment call if this information is a necessary part of your communications.
For example, once a newbie pm encountered a standard hospital scope template for an application. As a part of the scope documentation we include requirement headers of functionality, technology, and integration. Given this project was to consolidate Financial Classes, technology didn't make sense to use. It was mainly a process improvement project. However, the individual went out and made trips to the workstations in order to assure she had the requirements needed for the workstation, because the form had a slot for the information.
The Take Away
Project Manager need to feel empowered to customize the standard templates to suit the needs of their projects. The templates are to help wisely use their time and facilitate communications between sponsors, stakeholders, and the project team.Subscribe and Share!
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1 Comments to “The Judgment Call and Standardized Templates”
In addition to the templates an organization should have documentation which guides which help to further leverage the template. For example, having a risk management plan template doesn't necessarily help to ensure that the PM has captured all the project risks. Having a guide which outlines the processes the organization follows to identify and rank risks ensures that the PM has captured the risks while documenting them in the risk management plan.
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Welcome to the Healthcare IT Project Management Blog of Elyse Nielsen. This is the place where I share the ideas I have learned, the things I’d like to remember, and my thoughts for a brighter future. Find out more.
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