Integrated planning and status reporting

0:00Sara: Welcome to Project Management Exam Prep.

0:02This episode is about integrated planning and status reporting:

0:06one plan whose parts agree, and reports that tell the truth about it.

0:11Every project management exam tests it.

0:14Leo: You will learn how the three bodies frame it, what the plan joins up,

0:17what a baseline is, how control works, and how to report status.

0:23We finish with a drill, so keep a pen ready.

0:25Sara: Let us start with the three lenses. What does IPMA® say?

0:30Leo: IPMA®, the International Project Management Association, sets out its standard in

0:35the Individual Competence Baseline, the ICB4.

0:39Its element on plan and control joins all the parts in one balanced plan,

0:44controlled against a baseline and reported with a forecast.

0:48Its element on organisation and information adds who reports what,

0:52to whom.

0:53Sara: And PMI®?

0:55Leo: PMI®, the Project Management Institute, publishes the PMBOK® Guide,

1:00its guide to the project management body of knowledge.

1:03In the eighth edition, one governance process aligns the plans,

1:08and another monitors performance. The outline of PMI®'s Project Management Professional

1:13exam, the PMP®, has two tasks here: develop an integrated plan,

1:19and evaluate project status.

1:22Sara: And APM?

1:24Leo: APM, the Association for Project Management, publishes the APM Body of Knowledge.

1:30Its section on integrated planning aims to show stakeholders that the business case

1:34can be met. The syllabus of APM's Project Management Qualification,

1:39the PMQ, has an objective with the same name: know what the plan contains,

1:44and why it matters.

1:46Sara: Where do the words differ?

1:48Leo: In two places. First, the plan's short name.

1:51APM writes PMP® for the project management plan.

1:56For PMI®, PMP® means its certification and exam.

2:00Sara: And second?

2:02Leo: The baseline. PMI® calls the scope, schedule and cost baselines together the performance

2:08measurement baseline. APM's deployment baseline adds quality,

2:13and is approved at the gate before the main work starts.

2:17The ICB4 simply says baseline.

2:20Sara: What is the core, whichever exam you take?

2:24Leo: Three ideas. One: the plan is one plan.

2:28Scope, schedule, cost, resources, risk, quality and communication are often written

2:35by different people. Integration checks that they agree.

2:39Does every work package have dates and people?

2:42Do the risk responses have money and time?

2:45Does each board decision have a report?

2:47A plan whose parts contradict each other is not a plan.

2:52Sara: Two?

2:53Leo: The baseline is the approved version you measure against, usually scope,

2:57schedule and cost. It shows each deviation, and it stops anyone moving the target

3:03quietly. It changes only through change control.

3:06Sara: Does that change in agile work?

3:09Leo: A linear project fixes a detailed baseline before the build.

3:14An iterative one baselines less: the iterations, the team, the budget and the key

3:20functions. The detail grows each iteration.

3:24Sara: And three?

3:26Leo: Measure progress honestly. A task reported as ninety percent done can stay there

3:32for weeks: people judge the part that is left too kindly.

3:37So measure results, not effort. Use milestones with a clear check,

3:42such as ‘all links pass their tests’. Count work only when it is accepted,

3:48and in iterative work, only what users saw working at the review.

3:53Add leading indicators, such as open defects, which warn before dates slip.

3:58PMI®'s guide contrasts them with lagging ones, such as money spent.

4:03Sara: Now the models. Both model sheets are free in the description.

4:07Leo: The first is our own control cycle, after the basic loop in the ICB4.

4:12Plan: agree the baselines, the thresholds for action and the reporting rhythm.

4:18Measure: collect progress where the work is done, and forecast to the end.

4:23Earned value, which has its own episode, measures progress in money.

4:28Compare: actuals and forecast against the baseline.

4:33Act: inside your thresholds, correct the work, and the baseline stays.

4:36Beyond them, escalate, and change the plan through change control.

4:42Report: give each level what it must decide.

4:46Sara: Is that all?

4:47Leo: One more turn: adjust the control itself.

4:51The ICB4 names two kinds, terms from the management scholar Robert Simons.

4:56Diagnostic control checks results against targets set in advance.

5:01Interactive control, for high uncertainty, adds regular talks with the team about

5:05what could make the plan wrong.

5:08Sara: And the second model?

5:09Leo: The status report. First agree what goes to whom, how often and in what form.

5:15Reports run both ways: from team leads to you, and from you to the sponsor and the

5:19board.

5:20Sara: What goes on the page?

5:22Leo: Five things. The status now, against the baseline.

5:26A forecast to the end. The trend since the last report.

5:31The top risks and issues, with owners. And the decisions needed,

5:35with dates. Without a forecast, a report only tells history.

5:40Sara: And the colours?

5:41Leo: Red, amber and green, or RAG. The PMBOK® Guide shows them as stoplight charts.

5:48APM's Body of Knowledge speaks of traffic lights.

5:52Neither fixes their meaning. So set thresholds before the first report.

5:57Our convention: green, the forecast meets the baseline.

6:01Amber, it misses, but you can recover within your tolerance, the limit the board

6:06delegated to you. Red, the forecast breaks that tolerance, so someone above you

6:12decides. A colour is then a request, not a mood.

6:16Sara: And between reports?

6:18Leo: When a forecast will break a limit, send an exception report at once,

6:22with options. With an experienced team, the ICB4 accepts reporting only by exception.

6:29Sara: And dashboards?

6:31Leo: A dashboard puts several measures on one screen.

6:35An information radiator is a board where the team works, updated by hand.

6:39Both are only as honest as their measures.

6:42Sara: How does this change between Mid-level and Senior?

6:46Leo: First, the two levels. They are this series' own labels.

6:50Mid-level means leading moderately complex projects, the level of IPMA® Level C and

6:55PMI®'s PMP® exam. Senior means leading complex projects and people,

7:00the level of IPMA® Level B and of APM's chartered status, Chartered Project Professional.

7:07At Mid-level, you keep one plan and report it honestly.

7:10Take Parking Permits Online, a city project that moves resident parking permits

7:14online in eight months. The project manager, Anna, baselines the scope,

7:19the go-live date and the budget with the steering group.

7:22She reports on one page every two weeks, under colour rules agreed at the start.

7:27Sara: And at Senior level?

7:29Leo: You design the system that others plan and report in.

7:33Take One City Account, a thirty-month city project that brings fourteen online services

7:39under one login, led by Anna some years later.

7:43Anna keeps a baseline for each group of services.

7:47Every team and both suppliers report into one page for the steering board,

7:51under one set of colour rules. And nobody is blamed for an amber,

7:56so problems surface early.

7:59Sara: Now the drill. A city is moving resident parking permits online,

8:04and go-live is due before January, when most residents renew.

8:07A supplier builds ten screens in five two-week timeboxes.

8:13After three timeboxes, its report says the screens are eighty-five percent complete,

8:18and every report was green. That figure averages the developers' own estimates.

8:24Only three screens have passed the city's acceptance tests, and the plan expected

8:28six. What is the real status, and what do you change?

8:33Leo: Pause and write your answer. You have forty-five seconds.

9:21Sara: First, the numbers.

9:24Leo: Eighty-five percent measures how finished the work feels.

9:28By results, three of ten screens is thirty percent.

9:32The plan expected sixty percent. So the pace is half the plan:

9:37one screen a timebox, not two.

9:39Sara: And the forecast?

9:39Leo: At half the pace, the build takes twice as long.

9:44Ten screens at one a timebox take ten timeboxes.

9:48The plan had five, so the build ends ten weeks late.

9:52Testing and training move too, so go-live misses January.

9:55It is rough, but it rests on results.

9:58Sara: And then?

10:00Leo: It is red: far beyond your limits. Send an exception report to the steering group

10:05now, with options: build first the screens the renewals need,

10:09add supplier capacity, or move go-live and keep the counters open.

10:13Then fix the measure: count only accepted screens.

10:17Sara: What lifts that to Senior?

10:19Leo: Treat it as a fault in the reporting system.

10:21The colour rules had no threshold on results, so green hid the slip.

10:27Write the measure into the reporting rules and the contract.

10:30Give the board trade-offs against what the renewals can tolerate.

10:34And thank the team for the bad news, so the next one arrives early.

10:38Sara: How do the exams ask this?

10:41Leo: IPMA®'s exams ask for open answers. IPMA®'s certification also includes an interview,

10:46where assessors ask about your own projects, so note one report that changed a decision.

10:53The PMP® exam uses scenarios, and questions built on a case study or a chart:

10:58practise reading a dashboard. APM's PMQ asks for short written answers,

11:04such as what an integrated plan contains.

11:07Sara: Let us recap.

11:09Leo: One. The integrated plan joins every part, and checks that the parts agree.

11:13Sara: Two. The baseline is what you measure against.

11:16It changes only through change control.

11:19Leo: Three. Plan, measure, compare, act and report.

11:25Correct the work inside your thresholds; escalate beyond them.

11:29Sara: Four. Measure results, not effort: accepted work, milestones with a check,

11:34and leading indicators.

11:36Leo: And five. Report a forecast and the decisions needed, with colours tied to thresholds

11:41agreed in advance.

11:43Sara: The two model sheets and the study handout are linked in the description.

11:47Next time: change control.