State of Louisiana Department of Social Services ACESS A Comprehensive Enterprise Social Services System Project Control Standards and Procedures Deliverable AC09 SEPTEMBER 1, 2004 VERSION 1.1 State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 1 of 29
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 DOCUMENT CONTROL... 4 2.0 OVERVIEW AND PURPOSE... 5 3.0 DELIVERABLE CREATION, REVIEW AND ACCEPTANCE PROCESS... 6 3.1 Deliverable Template... 6 3.2 Pre-Submission Review Process... 6 3.3 IBM QA Review... 7 3.4 Deliverable Submission... 7 3.5 DSS Deliverable Review... 7 3.6 IBM Response and Resubmission... 8 3.7 DSS Deliverable Acceptance... 8 4.0 COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT... 9 4.1 Status reporting... 9 4.2 Meetings... 9 4.2.1 Team Lead Status Meeting... 10 4.2.2 Change Management Team Meeting... 10 4.2.3 Development Team Meeting... 10 4.2.4 Technical Team Meeting... 11 4.2.5 Project Management Meeting... 11 4.2.6 IBM Team Meeting... 11 4.2.7 DSS Team Meeting... 11 4.2.8 Executive Steering Committee Meeting... 11 4.2.9 Meeting Structure and Communication... 11 4.2.9.1 Meeting Leader Responsibilities... 12 4.2.9.2 Meeting Participant Responsibilities... 12 4.2.9.3 Meeting Schedules and Notification... 13 4.3 QWEB Team Room... 13 4.4 Project Work Plan... 14 4.5 Quarterly Deliverable Updates... 14 5.0 STATUS REPORTING... 16 5.1 Weekly Status Reporting... 16 5.2 Bi-Weekly PMO Reporting... 17 5.3 Monthly Status Reporting... 19 5.4 Quarterly Status Reporting... 19 6.0 PROJECT WORKPLAN... 22 6.1 Time Reporting... 22 7.0 PROBLEM / ISSUE MANAGEMENT... 24 8.0 RISK MITIGATION MANAGEMENT... 25 9.0 SCOPE AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT... 26 State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 2 of 29
10.0 INVOICING PROCEDURE... 27 APPENDIX A: COVER LETTER AND DELIVERABLE COMPLETION DOCUMENT - EXAMPLE...28 State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 3 of 29
1.0 DOCUMENT CONTROL Summary of Changes Version # Version Date Nature of Change Date Submitted 1.0 July 28, 2004 Original July 28, 2004 1.1 September 1, 2004 Revisions from State Incorporation September 1, 2004 Document Change Approvers Function State of Louisiana ACESS Project Director IBM ACESS Project Manager Name Don Moore Rick Valentine State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 4 of 29
2.0 OVERVIEW AND PURPOSE The Project Control Standards and Procedures document contains the project-wide processes and procedures to facilitate appropriate levels of control and consistency across activities, tasks, work products, and deliverables to facilitate successful execution of the ACESS project. Some of the processes included in this document reference other project management processes that have been developed under separate deliverables. These processes are referenced here to provide an overall view of the project control standards and processes that have been implemented for the ACESS project. The types of processes included are: Deliverable creation, review and acceptance Communications Management Project status reporting Project work plan maintenance Problem and issue management Risk mitigation management Scope and change management Invoicing procedure State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 5 of 29
3.0 DELIVERABLE CREATION, REVIEW AND ACCEPTANCE PROCESS A fundamental aspect of effective project management is up-front agreement with project stakeholders as to what will be delivered. Gaining a common understanding of project deliverables prior to investing the time and effort to create them provides these benefits: Improved project task planning Only the tasks necessary and sufficient to create the deliverable are entered into project plans and scheduled. Reduced rework This approach can reduce the amount unplanned re-work activities after production of the deliverable is well underway, helping to keep the project moving on schedule. Multiple project participants are able to base their activities on a mutually agreed upon understanding of a deliverable: Team Leads can define tasks and schedule resources to create deliverables; other Team Leads will also be able to define tasks and schedule resources to complete work that uses those deliverables as inputs; Project Managers approve deliverables that adhere to acceptance criteria. This section provides the procedure for deliverable creation, review and acceptance for the ACESS project. 3.1 Deliverable Template The document template for ACESS project deliverables is located in the QWEB team room at Project Office Deliverables Mgt Templates ACESS_Deliverables Template_V2.0.doc. This template provides standard document cover page, table of contents, page header, page footer and fonts for section headings and text. All document deliverables for the ACESS project follow this template. 3.2 Pre-Submission Review Process The purpose of the pre-submission review process is to gain consensus on the topics and depth of content to be included in the deliverable. This helps to ensure that the deliverable contains complete and appropriate subject matter and that State s expectations are met when the final deliverable is submitted. It also establishes additional information standards leading into the acceptance process for the State. Prior to creation of detailed deliverable content, the Team Lead responsible for the deliverable will develop the high-level deliverable outline and table of contents and review the contents with the IBM Project Manager and other participants deemed appropriate. The Team Lead will then request and schedule a review of the outline with the ACESS Project Director. The ACESS Project Director will identify the team members who should provide input to the contents of the deliverable and coordinate their participation in the deliverable outline review. During the deliverable outline review, the IBM Team Lead will walk participants through the deliverable outline, explaining the contents to be included in each section. The State team members will provide input regarding any additional topics or content required for the deliverable and also identify any existing content that may not be required. Upon completion of the deliverable outline review, the parties should reach agreement on the content necessary for State acceptance of the deliverable when the deliverable is submitted. State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 6 of 29
3.3 IBM QA Review The purpose of the IBM QA review is to verify that the deliverable adheres to the deliverable standards established for the project. The IBM Project Manager or Deputy Project Manager will review each deliverable to: Verify that the appropriate deliverable template has been used Check the document for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting Verify that the deliverable contains the agreed upon scope and contents. Verify deliverable content is consistent with and complements other deliverables with related or similar content. If major quality issues are identified, the document will be returned to the owner for revisions. Otherwise, the reviewer will make the required modifications and prepare the deliverable for formal submission. 3.4 Deliverable Submission Each deliverable will be formally submitted to the ACESS Project Director by the IBM Project Manager or Deputy Project Manager. The deliverable document will be placed in a three-ring binder along with a cover letter and deliverable completion document (DCD) signed by the IBM Project Manager or Deputy Project Manager (See Appendix A for sample cover letter and DCD). The hard copy deliverable will be delivered to the ACESS Project Director and posted to the QWEB team room in the Project Office Deliverables Mgt room. When the deliverable is posted to the QWEB team room, a notification e-mail will be sent to the ACESS Project Director and State Deputy Project Director. Deliverables delivered prior to 3 PM are allowed to be dated the date of delivery, otherwise deliverables are to be dated the next business day. Although generally only one copy of a deliverable will be required, on occasion the ACESS Project Director may request multiple copies. The maximum number of hard copies of a deliverable will be limited to twelve (12). Additional hard copies will not be delivered in three-ring binders. 3.5 DSS Deliverable Review Once the deliverable is submitted to the ACESS Project Director, the State will use best efforts to review the deliverable within five (5) business days, but no longer than ten (10) business days where possible. The ACESS Project Director will notify the appropriate reviewers that the deliverable is available for review and request their review and comments on the deliverable. The initial review process will be comprehensive with a view toward identifying all items that must be modified or added to enable the deliverable to be approved. The criteria used to evaluate the deliverable will be consistent with the information that was discussed during the preliminary deliverable meeting with the appropriate team lead along with the description of the deliverable that is contained in the Statement of Work. The ACESS Project Director or his designee will evaluate comments and feedback from the review team, consolidate the appropriate comments, and provide written comments or approval back to the IBM Project Office. If the deliverable is rejected by DSS, there will be documentation included that will either be detailed in a letter from the ACESS Project Director and/or the original deliverable document will be returned marked using the revision tracking tool State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 7 of 29
in Microsoft Word. This documentation will provide the basis of the document rejection by DSS. The IBM Project Office will post the comments and feedback to the QWEB team room under the original deliverable and notify the deliverable owner of the results. 3.6 IBM Response and Resubmission Once the comments from DSS are reviewed by the deliverable owner, a meeting with the ACESS Project Director will be scheduled to review those comments if necessary to fully understand the implications of the comments. This process will help ensure that the State comments and conditions of acceptance are understood prior to revision and resubmission. The deliverable owner will make the appropriate revisions and resubmit to the IBM Project Office for QA review by the IBM Project Manager or IBM Deputy Project Manager prior to resubmission. The resubmission process of delivery and posting to the QWEB is the same as initial submission. Resubmitted deliverables will be three-hole punched, but will not be delivered in a three-ring binder. Once the deliverable is resubmitted to the ACESS Project Director or his designee, the ACESS Project Director or his designee will review the deliverable within five (5) business days. If no notification is delivered to the IBM Project Office within those five (5) business days, the Deliverable is considered approved. 3.7 DSS Deliverable Acceptance The ACESS Project Director will sign and date the Deliverable Completion Document (DCD) and return it to the IBM Project Office along with a cover letter to confirm acceptance of a deliverable. The DCD and cover letter will be scanned and filed in the QWEB team room under the last submission of the respective deliverable. The name description of the accepted version of the deliverable will be changed to include FINAL in QWEB to indicate the final approved version of the deliverable. At the discretion of the ACESS Project Manager up to twelve (12) hardcopies of the final deliverable will be provided. These additional copies will not be threehole punched and will not be delivered in a three-ring binder. State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 8 of 29
4.0 COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT Communications management includes the processes required to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination and storage of project information. This section describes the communications mechanisms in use on the ACESS Project. The overall goal is to maintain an open communications environment throughout the project. The primary means of communication include: 1. Status Reports 2. Meetings 3. QWEB Team Room 4. Project Work Plan 5. Quarterly Deliverable Updates 4.1 Status reporting Status reporting is used as a communication vehicle to inform project stakeholders at all levels of the project status. A status report provides details as to the progress of the project, identifies the accomplishments and ongoing activities of the project, documents upcoming key activities and identifies the risks, issues and items needing attention. The objectives of the status reporting procedure are: To inform all levels of management of the status and activities of the project To compare actual status with plans in order to take corrective actions where needed To provide succinct information that is appropriate for the intended audience. The ACESS Project will use multiple levels of status reporting to satisfy the needs of stakeholders at various levels. The following status reports will be generated for the ACESS Project: Weekly Status Report Bi-Weekly PMO Status Report Monthly Status Report Quarterly Status Report The details of these reports are contained in Section 5 Status Reporting, of this document. 4.2 Meetings There are several important regularly scheduled meetings on the project that will help support communications and coordination. The regularly scheduled meetings will be posted in the QWEB team room calendar. At the time of this writing, the following regularly scheduled meetings are occurring: Meeting Name Frequency Day / Time State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 9 of 29
Meeting Name Frequency Day / Time Team Lead Status Weekly Monday / 2PM Change Readiness Team Meeting Weekly Monday / 3PM Change Readiness Team Meeting Weekly Monday / 3PM Development Team Meeting Weekly Tuesday / 9AM ACESS Technical Meeting Weekly Wednesday / 9AM ACESS Project Management Meeting Weekly Tuesday / 9AM IBM Team Meeting Weekly Wednesday / 5PM DSS Team Meeting Bi-Weekly Friday / 8:30AM Executive Steering Committee Meeting Monthly 3 rd Tuesday / 1PM Deliverable Requirements Review Meeting Deliverable Review Meeting Technical Change Control Board Meeting Risk Management Meeting As Needed As Needed As Needed 1 st Project Management Meeting Monthly 4.2.1 Team Lead Status Meeting The purpose of the weekly Team Lead Status Meeting is for the team leads and the Project Management team to review and discuss current activities, planned activities and to identify dependencies, risks and issues, and action items. The goal of the meeting is to provide a forum to share information across the project. During this meeting, each team lead will report on the major activities of his or her team for the previous week, lists the planned activities for the coming week, and highlights any issues or concerns. The issues themselves may be discussed at the meeting, but will usually be tabled for separate discussion and resolution. 4.2.2 Change Management Team Meeting The purpose of the weekly Change Management Team Meeting is for members of the Change Management Team to plan for and review project status, team member assignments, problems and issues, and upcoming events. 4.2.3 Development Team Meeting The purpose of the weekly Development Team Meeting is for members of the Development Team to review detailed project status, team member assignments, problems and issues, and upcoming events. This meeting will also provide a forum for technical team members to share in knowledge transfer and mentoring on specific technical items that are of interest or concern to other members of the team. State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 10 of 29
4.2.4 Technical Team Meeting The weekly Technical Team Meeting will focus primarily on infrastructure related items. This meeting will provide the technical team members an opportunity to review detailed project status, discuss outstanding decisions, plan for upcoming activities or events and review action items from previous meetings. This meeting will be attended by DSS, DoA and IBM team members. 4.2.5 Project Management Meeting The purpose of the weekly Project Management Meeting is for the DSS and IBM Project Managers to review overall project status, discuss deliverables in progress, upcoming activities and deliverables, review new and existing project issues, and conduct risk management reviews. 4.2.6 IBM Team Meeting The purpose of the IBM Team Meeting is to provide an opportunity for the IBM Project Manager to communicate high-level project status back to the IBM team members and to inform the team of any project decisions that may impact them. This will also provide a forum for team members to report status and issues back to the IBM Project Manager, exchange information across the functional teams and help identify dependencies between teams. 4.2.7 DSS Team Meeting The purpose of the DSS Team Meeting is to provide an opportunity for the ACESS Project Director to communicate project-wide information to the DSS team members and to inform the team of any project decisions that may impact them. This will also provide a forum for the DSS team members to report status and issues back to the ACESS Project Director, exchange information across the functional teams and help identify dependencies between teams. 4.2.8 Executive Steering Committee Meeting The purpose of this meeting is for the ACESS Project Director to report overall project status to the Executive Steering Committee and to raise issues and concerns that require guidance, resources, and/or support from the Executive Steering Committee. In addition to the scheduled monthly meetings, the Steering Committee may convene additional meetings as deemed appropriate. 4.2.9 Meeting Structure and Communication Effective communication is critical to the success of the ACESS project. Defining and adhering to sound communication standards facilitates the overall project management objectives. These standards include meeting responsibilities, standards for setting an agenda, writing meeting minutes, and scheduling conference rooms. There are shared responsibilities among the different groups and individuals that participate in meetings. State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 11 of 29
4.2.9.1 Meeting Leader Responsibilities Successful meetings need to be effectively planned before they take place, managed efficiently during the meeting process, and have adequate follow-up and documentation. This not only assists with organization, but it helps to ensure that the meetings are worthwhile and accomplishing their objectives. For the meeting leader, before the meeting begins, assuming that it is not an ad-hoc meeting to address a particular urgent issue, the following tasks should be completed: Define the meeting objective Validate the need for a meeting Decide on Participants, their roles, and the preparation they need Prepare an agenda Schedule the meeting Notify participants Prepare meeting materials Plan meeting logistics If materials should be reviewed by attendees before the meeting, circulate materials During the meeting, the meeting leader will should always set the guidelines, expected outcome and meeting goal with the participants. This should encourage a good focus by the participants on the task(s) at hand. The meeting leader should also facilitate good quality discussion and participation among the attendees throughout the meeting and make sure that an appropriate level of control is maintained to assure the meeting stays focused, yet collects next steps and ancillary discussions that need to be discussed or addressed in a different forum. Following the Meeting, it is imperative that the communication from the team leader makes a full circuit back to the meeting attendees. The tasks following the meeting for the team leader should include: Preparation of meeting minutes Distribution of meeting minutes to participants as well as the project management team if appropriate Posting of meeting minutes in QWEB Tracking completion of action items or follow-up that was a result of the meeting 4.2.9.2 Meeting Participant Responsibilities As active participants in meetings as well as members of the ACESS project team, meeting participants have their own set of responsibilities. The objective is to make sure that the high quality intellectual capital that each participant might have regarding the meeting topic is allowed to be gathered and documented into the resulting meeting decisions, documentation, and ancillary information. The responsibilities for meeting participants begin, like the meeting leader, before the meeting even begins. When they are invited to attend the meeting, the meeting participant should review the topic of the meeting as well as the meeting invitation list to ensure that the correct participants for the meeting have been requested to attend. If there are individuals that should have been invited, the participant should notify the meeting leader of the individual s name and a brief explanation of what their role in the meeting might be. In addition, the meeting participants should review any circulated materials to make sure that they State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 12 of 29
are the correct person to attend. If there is additional information that might be of assistance, the participant should also notify the meeting leader and assure that they have access to this information. During the meeting, participants should take an active role by contributing to the meeting discussions and making constructive suggestions to the content of the meeting. The participants should also record the meeting information in a personal manner that will allow them to adequately review the follow-up information from the meeting. Following the meeting, the participants should read the meeting minutes to confirm the documentation of the key results and action items. The participants should assure that any action items that are assigned to them for completion are completed on schedule and send adequate communication to the meeting leader of the results of the action item investigation. 4.2.9.3 Meeting Schedules and Notification All meetings for the ACESS project will be scheduled using QWEB and Groupwise. The main calendar will be posted in QWEB. Groupwise will be used as the e-mail notification and electronic calendar manager. The benefits of scheduling meetings using Groupwise include: Allow for viewing of other team members and other DSS staff schedules to eliminate the back-and-forth process of scheduling with different individuals Automatically tracks acceptance and decline responses from invitees Provides an electronic record of all meetings and attendees Meeting rooms can be reserved as part of the meeting invitation process Resources such as projectors will also be scheduled at the same time attendees are invited 4.3 QWEB Team Room The primary repository for project documentation will be the QWEB team room. The URL for the team room is https://extranet.lotus.com/quickplace/louisianaacess/main.nsf. The purpose of the QWEB Project Web Site is to facilitate communication among project stakeholders and team members. This repository will be used for project documents such as PMO status reports, activities, work products, deliverables. Project work products and deliverables will be stored in the team room for members to access for review as well as provide an historical repository of project artifacts over the life of the project. Project administrative documentation such as team contacts list, project management processes and procedures, and development standards will be stored in the QWEB team room. The team room will be organized according to the ten-task approach in the LA ACESS RFP. However, the structure can change and evolve with the needs of the project. QWEB allows the addition of new inner rooms and folders as well as movement of folders within and between rooms. It is expected that the structure of the room will evolve with the needs of the project over time. The chart below depicts the organization of the team room at the highest level: State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 13 of 29
LA ACESS QWEB Meetings and Events Project Office System Analysis & Design System Development System Testing Training Conversion Pilot Testing Statewide Implementation Post Implementation Support Support Federal Approval Figure 4-1 - QWEB Team Room Organization 4.4 Project Work Plan The ACESS project work plan is focused on the shaping and documentation of an effective project plan. A successful and effective work plan results from an iterative and recursive process in which project details are identified, decomposed, and refined by ACESS project team members. The project might be shaped in multiple iterations such as re-evaluation of the end-user training strategy as more details regarding the field sites are identified. Portions of the project plan are given to sub-teams to shape and develop, such as the development team lead working with the development resources to establish accurate and realistic timelines for development. These smaller project components are integrated into the overall project plan and the project shaped again. Each of these activities is an important component of the overall communication process for the project as well as the basic quality assurance to ensure that project timelines, activities and plans are as accurate as possible. Large, hierarchical structures with many elements can become cumbersome. This process of breaking the project down into smaller, more focused components allows the decomposition of the project plan into very small and granular elements and the communication to project team members can be simplified. Filters can easily be applied to the project plan to produce reports on demand for particular resource tasks and activities, resource grouping activities, dates, and major processes. Project team members can use these filtered activities to assess their progress on current activities which is supported by the project time recording process. Team leads and project management can also produce standard reports by resource, resource groups, and the project team as a whole which assist in their communication to members of the team, status reporting communication, and follow up with project team members about items that are not on schedule. 4.5 Quarterly Deliverable Updates As the ACESS project progresses, deliverables that were accepted by the State and IBM may become outdated if not revised to reflect current staffing and stages of the project. Therefore, when the project was defined and scoped, revisions to many of the deliverables was documented in the Statement of Work as well as in the deliverable documents themselves. This process of updating deliverables on a quarterly basis will allow an evaluation of the deliverable information, a quality assurance checkpoint on progress and status check for that State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 14 of 29
particular deliverable information, and implementation of the process to keep information current and accurate for new team members and reference by ACESS team members. Project team members should consult the project plan for more detailed information regarding those deliverables that are to be revised on a quarterly schedule. State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 15 of 29
5.0 STATUS REPORTING The ACESS project will have multiple levels of status reporting to communicate project status to the various stakeholders. The project status reports are intended to be a communications vehicle to keep stakeholders abreast of project status and issues as they arise. 5.1 Weekly Status Reporting Team Leads will prepare a detailed status report for submission to the IBM Project Office each week. The Project Office will consolidate the reports from the team leads and prepare a Weekly Status Report for the ACESS Project. The weekly status report will be created and posted to QWEB by close of business each Tuesday by the Project Office. The Project Office will notify the ACESS Project Director and Deputy Project Director when the status report is posted to QWEB. Weekly Project Status Reports will be posted to the QWEB team room at Project Office Status Reporting Weekly Status Reports. The naming convention for these QWEB entries is yyyy-mm-dd ACESS Weekly Status Report where yyyy-mm-dd will be the week ending date for the status reporting period. The following is a sample outline of the table of contents for the Weekly Status Report: 1.0 ACCOMPLISHMENTS THIS PERIOD 1.1 Project Management 1.2 Requirements 1.3 Infrastructure 1.4 Development 1.5 System Testing 1.6 Conversion 1.7 Training 1.8 Change Management 2.0 PLANNED ACTIVITIES FOR NEXT PERIOD 2.1 Project Management 2.2 Requirements 2.3 Infrastructure 2.4 Systems Development 2.5 System Testing 2.6 Conversion 2.7 Training 2.8 Change Management 3.0 DELIVERABLE MANAGEMENT 3.1 Deliverables Accepted 3.2 Deliverables in Progress 3.3 Upcoming Deliverables 4.0 RISKS, ISSUES AND CONCERNS State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 16 of 29
5.2 Bi-Weekly PMO Reporting The Information Services (IS) Division of DSS manages a growing number of complex, broad business and technology projects within the Department of Social Services (DSS). The DSS Project Management Office (PMO) was formed to develop, implement, and monitor project management practices to improve the success rate of DSS. The Bi-Weekly PMO Status Report will be in the standard format provided by the DSS PMO. The Bi-Weekly PMO Status Report will be due from the ACESS Project Director to the DSS PMO by 5PM each Tuesday. The IBM Project Office will create the Bi-Weekly PMO Status Report and submit to the ACESS Project Director by noon each Tuesday. The DSS Project Director will review the report, make required modifications, and submit the report to the DSS PMO. The DSS Project Director will notify the IBM Project Office of any required changes to the Bi-Weekly PMO Status Report. Bi-Weekly PMO Reports will be posted to the QWEB team room at Project Office Status Reporting Bi-Weekly PMO Reports. The naming convention for these QWEB entries will be yyyy-mm-dd Bi-Weekly Status Report where yyyy-mm-dd is the week ending date for the status reporting period. A sample of the Bi-Weekly PMO report is contained on the following page. State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 17 of 29
Bi-Weekly PMO Report Bi-Weekly Detailed Project Status Report for Project Name: Project Manager: Start Date: 0 Project Id #: Client: IS Projected Completion Date Reporting Period End Date System: N/A Current Project Status: (R/Y/G Previous Project Status: (R/Y/G) Project Trend: (Up, Down, Flat) GREEN FIRST REPORT FLAT Project Description Overview of Period Accomplishments Major Risks Major Issues Additional Project Information Dependencies and Critical Success Factors Opening Date Response Date Risk 1.<Risk Description Here> (Yellow) (Pending) Opening Date Resolution Date Issue 1. <Issue Description Here>. (Yellow) (Pending) Additional Comments and Requests for Assistance Key Milestones and Dates Tracking Project Stage/Milestone Baseline Start Date Actual Start Date Baseline Completion Date Actual Completion Date Brief Description/Milestone Movement/Justification for Movement State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 18 of 29
5.3 Monthly Status Reporting The IBM Project Manager will deliver a Monthly Project Status Report. A presentation to the Executive Steering Committee consisting of a narrative Project Status Report and PowerPoint presentation, as required by DSS, will be provided monthly that details the progress of the project, identifies the monthly activities of the project, documents upcoming key activities, expenditures against budget, man-hours person and identifies the issues and action items needing Executive Steering Committee attention. The narrative portion of the Status Report will follow the same format as the Weekly Project Status Report. Monthly Project Status Reports will be posted to the QWEB team room at Project Office Status Reporting Monthly Status Reports. The naming convention for these QWEB entries will be yyyy month - Monthly Status Report where yyyy is the year and month is the month (e.g. June) for the status reporting period. 5.4 Quarterly Status Reporting Quarterly, for presentation to the various Advisory Committees, IBM will submit a PowerPoint presentation, which will be due to the ACESS Project Director within ten days following the end of each quarter during the project. Quarterly Project Status Reports will be posted to the QWEB team room at Project Office Status Reporting Quarterly Status Reports. The naming convention for these QWEB entries will be yyyy Qn - Quarterly Status Report where yyyy is the year and n is the calendar quarter for the status reporting period. The contents of the Quarterly Status Report presentation will be: 1. Project Dashboard A one-page dashboard view indicating the health of each of the ten high-level project tasks. 2. Project Activities Status 3. Issues / Concerns / Risks The presentation will contain one slide for each of the ten high-level project tasks with supporting status detail for the project health indicated on the dashboard view. The presentation will contain the high-impact issues, concerns and risks with a brief description of each. Samples from the Quarterly Status Report are contained on the following pages. State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 19 of 29
Figure 5-1 - Quarterly Status Report - Dashboard Definitions State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 20 of 29
Figure 5-2 - Quarterly Status Report - Sample Project Dashboard State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 21 of 29
6.0 PROJECT WORKPLAN The ACESS Project Workplan will be a formal, approved document used to manage project execution and project control. The primary uses of the project plan are to document planning assumptions and decisions, facilitate communication among stakeholders, and document approved scope, cost and schedule. The project work plan will list the planned start and expected finish dates for each task. However, the project work plan is intended to be a living document, so changes and updates will take place throughout the life of the project. For the ACESS Project, work efforts along with resources will be detailed at least 3 months into the future, and further out where possible. The Project Work Plan will use four elements to organize the levels of effort. Project is the highest level which represents an individual project The 10 High Level tasks level is a collection of logically related activities, usually culminating in the completion of a deliverable or milestone- and example might be to create the training roll-out plan The Increments Level is an element of work performed during the course of the project. A High Level task can be decomposed further into tasks an example of this might be to create a training plan for phase 1, phase 2, etc. Tasks are the lowest level of effort in the Project Work Plan- and example of this might be to gather a list of the end users for the phase 1 training delivery Microsoft Office Project 2003 Professional (MS Project) will be the tool used to create, manage and monitor the Project Work Plan. 6.1 Time Reporting Microsoft Project Web Access is a web-based interface which will allow team members to view and update their assignments. Team members will log on to Project Web Access (http://projectweb), where they will be able to view assignments, enter actual hours against a task and send updates to the project plan administrator. Team members will access the project plan at the beginning of each week to view tasks assigned to them. At the end of the week, team members will log on to Project Web Access and enter their actual hours against the tasks they have worked on that week. Team members will also be able to adjust the remaining work and/or percent complete for tasks they are working on if they know they will be over or under budget for a particular task. State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 22 of 29
Figure 6-1 - Project Web Access Welcome Page Figure 6-2 - Sample View of the Project Web Access Timesheet View State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 23 of 29
7.0 PROBLEM / ISSUE MANAGEMENT Problem / Issue Management are one aspect of overall project management and control. The specifics of the Problem / Issue Management procedure for the ACESS Project are documented in the Problem / Issue Management Plan Deliverable (AC05). Reference to this project management process is included here to inform the reader that the process has been defined for the ACESS Project and to direct the reader to the appropriate document for additional details. The approved Problem / Issue Management Plan is posted in the QWEB team room at Project Office Deliverables Mgt Deliverables AC05 - Problem / Issue Management Plan. A high level overview of the process is included below. Please refer to the Problem / Issue Management Plan in the QWEB team room for the latest version of this chart. ACESS Issue Management Procedure ACESS Team Members Identify potential issues and review with team lead Team Leads Is Issue a project issue? No Handle as team problem Conduct issue impact assessment and recommend prioritization Develop issue resolution criteria and action plans; Monitor action plans and update issue repository as required. Yes ACESS PMO Team Lead submits Issue Identification form to ACESS PMO Communicate decision to team lead No Assign Issue Owner and enter issue into Issue management repository Issue Repository Monitor issue status and generate Issue Management Reports Project Management Team Review issues Accept issue for formal issue management? Yes Issue Management Reports Report project status and escalate to Executive Steering Committee if necessary ACESS Executive Steering Committee Provide issue resolution decisions ; Inform ACESS Management of new potential issues State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 24 of 29
8.0 RISK MITIGATION MANAGEMENT Like Problem/Issue Management, Risk Management is one aspect of overall project management and control. The Louisiana ACESS project, like all projects, will experience risks that can impact or threaten the success of the project. Some risks will be identified during project initiation, whereas others will emerge during subsequent phases. Therefore, an effective risk mitigation management plan is a critical element of the overall project management approach. The Project Management Team will conduct a risk review session during the first weekly project management meeting of each month. During the risk review session, the Project Management Team will review probability, impact and response planning for previously identified risks and any newly identified risks from the project team. The Project Management team will also use the Risk Identification Questionnaire (included in Appendix C of AC06 - Risk Mitigation Management Plan) to help identify potential new risks that should be tracked and monitored. The specifics of the Risk Mitigation Management process for the ACESS Project are documented in the Risk Mitigation Management Plan Deliverable (AC06). Reference to this project management process is included here to inform the reader that the process has been defined for the ACESS Project and to direct the reader to the appropriate document for additional details. The approved Risk Mitigation Management Plan is posted in the QWEB team room at Project Office Deliverables Mgt Deliverables AC06 - Risk Mitigation Management Plan. State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 25 of 29
9.0 SCOPE AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT Scope and Change Management is another aspect of overall project management and control. Change Management includes the processes required to control unforeseen changes that inevitably arise during the course of a project and may jeopardize cost, quality or schedules. For the ACESS Project, change requests will be formally documented via a Project Change Request (PCR) form. A Change Control Board will be instituted to formally review change requests. The Change Control board will either approve the change request and provide recommendations to the Executive Steering Committee or reject the change request. For the ACESS Project, Change Control Board will be comprised of the following members: The ACESS Project Director The State Deputy Project Director The IBM Project Manager The IBM Deputy Project Manager The State QA Vendor Representative The specifics of the Scope and Change Management process for the ACESS Project are documented in the Scope and Change Management Plan Deliverable (AC07). Reference to this project management process is included here to inform the reader that the process has been defined for the ACESS Project and to direct the reader to the appropriate document for additional details. At the time of this writing, the Scope and Change Management Plan has not been officially approved by the State. When accepted, the approved Scope Management Plan will be posted in the QWEB team room at Project Office Deliverables Mgt Deliverables AC07 Scope and Change Management Plan. State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 26 of 29
10.0 INVOICING PROCEDURE Prior to the end of each month, the IBM Project Manager will compile a listing of the deliverables that have been accepted by the State during the month along with the invoice amount associated with each deliverable. The IBM Project Manager and the ACESS Project Director will jointly review the approved deliverables list and invoice amounts to insure accurate monthly invoicing. The monthly invoice will contain: The deliverable number (AC number) The deliverable title The associated increment The gross invoice amount for the deliverable The 10% retainage amount, and The net invoice amount for the deliverable. Payment of the retainage will be made based on the terms described in the Consulting Services Contract between the Louisiana Department of Social Services and IBM Corporation. State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 27 of 29
APPENDIX A: COVER LETTER AND DELIVERABLE COMPLETION DOCUMENT - EXAMPLE International Business Machines Corporation 11100 Mead Rd Baton Rouge, LA 70816 Month, XX, 200X Mr. Donald J. Moore, ACESS Project Director State of Louisiana Department of Social Services 263 Third Street, Suite 200 Baton Rouge, LA 70801-1305 Subject: ACXX Name of Deliverable Enclosed is the Name of Document deliverable for your review and approval. If there are any questions, please feel free to contact me. Sincerely, Richard A. Valentine, PMP IBM ACESS Project Manager Business Consulting Services cc: Terry Skaggs ACESS PMO Contract File State of Louisiana - ACESS Page 28 of 29
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