Coordination of projects

As described in earlier chapters, the control factors are the parameters along which

projects are reported on and directed. These factors also play an important role in

the coordination of multiple projects:

Money: determining whether projects are financially feasible

Organisation: arriving at mutual agreements concerning the hierarchy among

projects and between the projects and other departments

Quality: determining whether the goals of a project are consistent with the strategy

of the organisation

Information: establishing who will report what about the project and when to the

management team?

(image taken from AIMS project management academy course)

Time: estimating how many personnel will be needed within a given period to

arrive at a good distribution of workers across the project teams.

Before the start of a project and after each project phase, a project leader should

provide an estimate of the control factors for the rest of the project. The project

leader also evaluates these factors as they have been implemented thus far after

each phase. This information is transferred to a programme manager or the

management team for decision-making purposes, usually in collaboration with the

project leader and external parties (e.g. customers, financers). Several of the most

important decision criteria are described below, particularly those that relate to the

coordination of projects.

Money

The evaluation of financial matters by a programme manager involves the following

issues:

·         Is the project as a whole, and the following phase in particular, adequately

·         financed?

·         What are the possible financial risks of the project? Should a go/no-go moment

·         be arranged?

·         What is the liquidity prognosis for the project? Would a problem arise if the

·         income from a project were to arrive later than the expenditures (e.g. if the

·         subsidy is paid only after the completion of a lengthy project)?

(this article which originally written by me when I was giving lectures in my institute for the students of project management certification will continue in parts on my blog)