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Project Management Plan

Need a project management plan for an information management strategic study and want some practical timesaving suggestions?

A strategy stage project management plan documents the understanding,Project Management Plan approach and commitment required to complete an information management strategy.

It describes the evaluation process, goals, objectives, activities & deliverables, a work plan & resource schedule and the project management process. It is intended as a document, which can be used by a management team to measure progress.

The objective of the strategy stage is to define:
  • A discipline required to govern accountability for the structure and design, storage, movement, security, quality, systems development and usage of information required for management and business intelligence purposes; and
  • An implementation plan.
The strategic planning process cannot be completed without first creating good working relationships with all participants and subsequently gaining consensus on what exactly is required

Who is involved with a strategy study?

The following roles and responsibilities are required to execute a strategy stage project management plan:
  • Information management architect, has overall responsibility for creating the information management strategy and for providing technical direction to the strategy study team; 
  • Business modeler, is responsible for documenting what the business does and for creating the function model;
  • Data modeler, is responsibility for documenting what information is needed to support the business functions and for creating the conceptual data model;
  • Data analyst, is responsible for documenting the flow of data into, within, and out of the organization (including master data movement), creating the data flow diagram, and assessing data quality; 
  • Data architect, is responsible for assessing technical details including management information systems, system and information architecture and data protection and disaster recovery;
  • IT sponsor, is responsible for facilitating access to key IT staff for information gathering purposes; and
  • Corporate management, is responsible for defining what information is required for management and business intelligence purposes.
Success depends upon active participation of key business representatives, IT representatives and corporate management
Information management strategy project management plan checklist

Project administration and management is an ongoing task thru the entire strategy planning stage. It requires quality assurance on all work, status reporting and other administrative details such as arranging meeting facilities. It includes:
    • Define scope and agree any terms of reference so there is no misunderstanding;
    • Preliminary planning to gather and review background material like the annual report, organization charts, existing policies and other material required to gain an understanding of the business;
    • Gather relevant information and conduct interviews as required
    • Prepare the strategy stage project plan; and
    • Review the project management plan with the IT sponsor and secure approval.
Analyze data structure and design to gain an understanding of what data is required to support management and business intelligence purposes.
Develop the conceptual data model, to gain an understanding of:
    • Business direction in terms of business objectives, constraints, business strengths, weaknesses and opportunities, threats and other and critical success factors (business swot analysis);
    • The business functions;
    • The information requirements; and
    • The organization matrix showing the major organization units and where they're located.
Analyze data storage and enterprise data management to determine where/how data is currently stored.

Assess data movement and create a data flow diagram showing how data moves into, within, and out of the organization and how master data management currently works; 
Review data security and data file recovery procedures, disaster recovery policies and processes.
Review meta data management processes and best practices. 

Analyze data quality management and review existing data quality strategy.

Review the project management life cycle to gain an appreciation of how information delivery currently works.
Examine roles and responsibilities and human resource strategy within the organization to determine what, if any, additional positions may be required—this should include an assessment of how information management consultancy might fit into the overall information management strategy.
Determine what business management information is required to support on-going operations.
Review business intelligence strategy.
Review change management strategy to ensure that it supports information management requirements.
Review information management policies and related information management policies.
Review "as is"  data management strategy. 
Provide feed-back, and finalize documentation, which includes:
    • Conduct peer reviews;
    • Prepare for feedback session, which involves deciding how you want to conduct the feedback session and the location of the feed-back session;
    • Conduct feedback session;
    • Consolidate results of feedback session and update all documentation; and
    • Finalize documentation of the business model
Evolve the information management strategy, uses all of the information gathered to date to produce recommendations for:
    • An information management framework, including policies, standards and best practices, in insufficient detail to allow implementation estimates;
    • A data governance strategy; 
    • An information management project management framework and methodology;
    • A business intelligence strategy; and
    • A change management methodology.
Finalize document and present recommendations, includes:
    • Prepare the information management plan;
    • Prepare a verbal report and final briefing to management;
    • Report findings to senior management with recommendations; and
    • Prepare and deliver the final written report.
What is an information management strategy study deliverable?

The information management plan should contain:
  • Statement of business direction;
  • Conceptual data model;
  • Function model;
  • A set of recommendations;
  • A suggested implementation schedule; and
  • A list of resources required.
How long should a strategic project management plan take?

A strategic planning project is a four to six week project where we analyze the current information management situation and develop recommendations for the desired situation together with an action plan.

Why only four to six weeks?

A complete detailed analysis of an organization would be an excellent way to look at everything however reality dictates that this is not possible.

So, we move forward with a complete, but not detailed, analysis upon which to base recommendations and develop an implementation plan

What tools are required?
  • Modeling tools—for strategic planning, simple graphical tools will suffice—It is not critical to use formal business and/or data modeling tools;
  • Data flow diagram tools are helpful;
  • Questionnaires—can be used very successfully to quickly gather needed information;
  • White boards are mandatory for modeling sessions (don't forget the dry erase markers!); and
  • On-line collaborative tools are helpful to minimize cost/time for conducting feedback sessions
Summary...

An information management  strategy stage project management plan covers a four to six week time-frame where we analyze the current information management situation, develop recommendations and present an implementation action plan.


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