Project Monitoring System

1. 1.1.

Project Monitoring System: Introduction The INDIAN NATIONAL CENTRE FOR INFORMATION SERVICES has an established network and a sophisticated infrastructure with its diversified services and facilities spread across several operational centers. The following chart depicts life-cycle of a project: Typical life -cycle of a Project Project need is felt (sparked by reading, discussion etc .)

More information collected on the idea

Feasibility is studied. If not feasible, idea shelved for the time being.

More information is collected on cost, time and resources

In-principle allotment of funds received

Project Manager is identified, Project charter is prepared

Reviewed and approved by the Sponsor

A formal proposal document is created, reviewed & finalized

Project team is formed and set up

Detailed project plan, estimates, milestones etc. are prepared, reviewed & circulated

S&P process helps for procurement of items

IOAS has a built in template, making it easy to fill in information. This ensures that proposal always go in a standardized format.

F&A process ensures payment are made, funds are available at disposal

Project Monitoring process collects time details, status details

Project team is disbanded, and people are relieved (PM will be available still )

Project is completed and goal is achieved

Review process leads to revision of estimation, timelines etc.

Materials & equipments are disposed off by selling or transferring

Administrative closure process is executed

Project folder is closed and kept in library for reference

Project Manager relieved and posted to another project / goes out of the system

Periodical status reports are prepared and circulated

Various information on lessons learnt, estimation etc. captured

Project life is completed

Master Tables: Before proceeding to the requirements and how these are addressed in IOAS, it is necessary to know which masters are used by Project Monitoring module. Master used User Master

Master Owner Admin

Employee Master

E&P

Project Master Account Heads Cost Center Vendor master

Project Monitoring F&A F&A S&P and E&M

Item master

Inventory module

Guest house

Director Office

Remarks All users of the IOAS are members of this master To locate employee & Group Head for whom a visitor arrives. Stores all details of a project. Details of heads of accounts. To properly allocate expenses. When purchase is made for the project. When new procurements are necessary for the project. When external people are brought in for special purpose to work in project

Current System: The project owner creates a proposal document (probably derives from an old document), starts typing matter as required under different sections. After many iterations & verifications, the final proposal document gets ready, which is sent to the Director for review. After incorporating Director’s review comments, the document is printed, put in a folder along with supporting documents, if any, and sent to the MoES. This becomes the Project scoping and justification document, and is the first record in the project folder. After the proposal is accepted and approved by the competent authority, the project is officially born, and becomes a constituent of a “Program”. After the project is approved, funds are allocated, a team is formed and a PM is identified. The project is then decomposed into smaller modules and modules are further split into various tasks, making a task as the minimum measurable work. Tasks are then allotted to Team members for execution / implementation. To monitor the progress of the project, stand-alone programs like Primavera is used by some. Some even use Excel to monitor the project progress. During the life cycle of the project, many review meetings take place and periodical status reports are prepared & circulated. After the project is closed, a completion report is released, the team is disbanded and assets are released to the general pool.

Though the present system serves well up to the requirement, there are some silos as well as non-standard templates.

1.2.

Requirements, how these are addressed in IOAS: Requirement Preparation of a proposal template.

Create a project proposal document.

How implemented in IOAS Template is designed outside IOAS into sections, and these sections are entered as parts of the template by User. The template is opened, text is entered in sections relevant, and the user clicks on button “Submit”.

Review the proposal document.

The reviewer clicks on the link, opens the document, makes corrections and clicks on button “Submit”.

Send the proposal.

The PM selects “Send proposal” button when he wants to send the proposal. The IOAS will print the document for sending to the Ministry. The PM enters the project & team details as approved and received from the sponsor.

Enter project & team details.

Enter fund allotment details (F&A) activity.

When fund allotment information is received, the same is entered by F&A.

Enter project task details.

The PM / team member will enter the individual tasks, start date, duration etc. This will be done by PM /

Enter project status

Remarks By entering this information a standard template is created. This is the first step in setting up the IOAS. The system will add “—N.A.—“ wherever the user has not entered information. The document is submitted to next level for review. The reviewer can click on “Save” button to save his work, come back and redo any number of times, before “submitting” to reviewer. Electronic version of the document can be saved if needed.

The receipt of the approval is external to IOAS, since the same may be done in the Ministry. The expenses will be automatically debited, since these will be through IOAS only. If no relationship is entered, the IOAS assumes that the tasks run in sequence. To compile the status

information. Enter time spent details. Enter completion details. Enter “Lessons learnt” details. Enter debits / credits. Enter project achievements.

members. This will be entered by team members on a periodical basis. This will be entered by PM / team members. When the project is completed, the IOAS will prompt the PM to enter these details. This will be done by F&A when they receive any such information. This will be done by the PM.

Prepare project This will be a report, folder for reference. printed and bound.

1.3.

reports. This is required to compute progress reports based on time spent. To know the status. This will be the first step in Administrative closure process. This will be usually expenses incurred by other units, and transferred. This will be part of Administrative closure process. This is usually the last activity. The report is kept in the library.

Proposed System A Project is born when an idea occurs or a new requirement is received / envisaged during the course of discussions etc. The following details important steps followed in a project life and how the IOAS will be used to accomplish these activities: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Prepare a proposal document and send to MoES for approval. Create program master records upon receipt of approval. Create the Project Master by forming project execution team. Split the project into tasks, modules / elements, arrives at timelines to create project folder. 5. Enter the Milestone Details. 6. Enter time spent, actual dates, etc. 7. Create status reports. Process Description: The following section describes how each of the above items is managed in IOAS with a brief note on how these are managed usually now. Prepare a proposal for the approval of competent authority:

The Project Owner prepares detailed notes in a prescribed format and submits the same to the MoES. The template has various sections / paragraphs ordered in a proper way for the sponsor / MoES to consume and take decisions. The proposal document is divided into various sections Title of the document: Project proposal Major sections: Samples of Section Name: Introduction, Current scene, Proposal in brief, Achievements aimed, Scope of the project, Alternatives considered, Planned approach, Benefits derived, Base modules, Timelines, Finance required, Supporting documents, Remarks. Sub-section names: Samples of Sub-Section Name for the Mentioned Section Names: Introduction: How this idea surfaced, why we need to do this project, Is this an extension of another project. Proposal in brief: Proposal. Achievements aimed: Accomplishment 1, Accomplishment 2. Scope of the project: General scope, Specific scope, Field scope. Alternatives considered: Alternative 1, Alternative 2. Planned approach: Formation of team, Purchase equipments, train testing team, conducts experiments, review results, verify results, and publish results. Benefits derived: Benefit 1, Benefit 2, and Benefit 3. Base modules: Module 1, Module 2, Module 3. Timelines: Item1 description, finish date, Item2 description, finish date, Item3 description, finish date. Finance required: Allocations required in F.P., Required in year 1, Required in year 2, Required in year 3. Supporting documents: Document 1, Document 2, Document 3. Remarks: Remarks. The above is a typical global template, which is used for creating any project proposal. It is not possible to keep a printed empty template, since the matter under different sections may not be of the same length for every project. Now, let us see how creation of the template and filling up of information is accomplished in IOAS. The template designer master page will ask for the following information: 1. Title of the document. 2. Section name(s). 3. Sub section name(s). 4. Detailed section name(s). 5. Paragraph number(s). The user gives a paragraph number for every section, sub section and detailed section. For example, the data for the Introduction section will be as below:

Section name: “Introduction”; Paragraph number: 1; Sub section name: “How this idea surfaced”; Paragraph number: 1; Sub section name: “Why do we need to do this project”; Paragraph number: 2; Sub section name: “Is this an extension of another project”; Paragraph number: 3; From the above, it may be seen that the user will be able to define the general template as well as decide on the order of sections in the document easily. The IOAS will have two sections to accomplish these tasks, viz., designing the template (one time activity) and fill up the template (activity for every project). If & when the user wants to change the order, all he has to do is to change the paragraph number! Screens for creation of Project proposal template: Screen Capture :

Screen Capture for adding the Section and Sub Section Details:

After setting up the proposal document in this fashion, the user will be able to input free text for the sections when a new proposal is to be created, and “assemble” the proposal document for submission. The basic premises of a project are as follows: • A project is divided into modules / elements; • A module / element is further divided into tasks; • Tasks are allocated to & performed by team members; • Tasks have a definite start & end dates; • Depending on the inter-task relationships (dependencies), tasks are performed in a particular order ~ generally simultaneously OR one after the other; • A module / element is considered completed if all the tasks of the same are completed; • Start date for a module / element is the earliest date of the tasks & End date is the latest completion date of the tasks; • Start date & end date for a project are derived from dates of modules / elements; • Start date & end date for a program are derived from dates of projects; • Each task can be expressed as a % value of the module in which it is a member; • Monitoring & review is carried out as below: o Task level by the Project Leaders; o Module / element level by the Manager / Owner;

•

o Project level by the Head of the Institution; o Program level by the MoES; Reviews are carried out with two parameters in mind ~ physical and financial;

Now let us see how IOAS will help the users in the above. Create program master records upon receipt of approval: The user will first create the program, which encompasses the project. If the project itself is the program, then the same is entered as such in Program. The screen to create the program will look like: Project creation and Monitoring activity screens: Screen Capture for Program Master:

Create the Project Master by forming project execution team: The Admin user creates the project record. They form the project team and enter data of the project Elements. Screen Capture for Project Master:

Enter the Milestone Details: The Milestone details are entered with the Actual and Planned Completion date for each Element created for the Project. Screen Capture for Milestone Details:

After all these details are entered, a project folder is now created, which can be viewed as a report. During the project, the actual details are to be entered. The following are various types of information related to the project: Task actual start / end dates; Time spent by Team members; Amount spent for the project; While 1 is entered through the task details and 2 is entered through separate screen named as Monthly Time Sheet by the Team mates , 3 is a computed data “posted” in the project ledger by F & A module of the IOAS. Screen Capture for Monthly Time Sheet by the Team mates:

Monitoring of projects: Following reports from the perspective of monitoring the project will be made available: Financial monitoring: The major parameter for financial monitoring is [Expenditure incurred ÷ budgeted expenditure] expressed as a “%”. This module will derive the expenditure incurred from the Accounts module ~ the actual plus committed ~ for the numerator. The denominator is available in the module itself as part of the project information. The figure will be calculated for each module, provided information is maintained module-wise. The system will also issue a warning for projects which are past 90% of the estimated cost to indulge in action for revision, if necessary. Physical monitoring: The Project Manager / Team will input details about time required for each module of the project and the time spent as and when team spends time on tasks. From the data collected, the IOAS will be able to provide the status as a %, which is calculated as [Time spent for module / project ÷ Time estimated for module / Project]. The data of time spent, as mentioned earlier, will be keyed in by individual members or by the Leader. The screen will allow the user to select the project, module, member and allow entry of time spent. The unit for time spent will be hours. For calculation of days / months, the global formula of 40 hours make a week and 160 hours make a month is used. A report showing simple comparison of physical progress vs financial progress will be available. Decisions taken in meetings: The IOAS will provide facility to upload the decisions (minutes) of project meetings. The actual meetings are managed i.e., calling for members to attend, collect their views & consolidate are done outside the IOAS. The decisions / minutes uploaded will be available for view to all users concerned.

Status reports: Project status reports are derived from the information entered and prepared. Provision to send the status reports by email will be made available. Project Completion Report: This will be a manuscript report covering a synopsis of the projects, achievements aimed and actual, financial projection and actual, time estimated and actual, delay in completion, if any, benefits derived, lessons learnt, further actions proposed, details of disposal of project resources etc. Some of the information will be captured at the time of preparation, and some other information will be derived from the available data. Caveats: IOAS will not be a replacement of Project Monitoring Tools like MS Project. IOAs will gather all information related to a Project and make it available in the form of reports for quicker decisions by the Management. Where it is desired that such tool is necessary for detailed monitoring of a Project, this will be done by the respective project team. Information required for IOAS will be entered through screens of this module, and no facility to import data from MS Project etc. is made available. As a normal feature, any report can be exported to Excel, and the reports of the Project Monitoring are not an exception to this rule. Reports in Project Monitoring Module: Reports: a.

Project Proposal document template: INDIAN NATIONAL CENTRE FOR INFORMATION SERVICES, HYDREABAD.

Project Proposal Name: IOAS

Created By: Neethu

1) Introduction 1.1 How this idea surfaced 1.2 why we need to do this project 1.3 Is this an extension of another project 2) Proposal In Brief 2.1 Proposal 3) Achievements Aimed 3.1 Accomplishment 1 3.2 Accomplishment 2 4) Scope of the project 4.1 General scope 4.2 Specific scope 4.3 Field scope 5) Alternatives considered 5.1 Alternative 1 5.2 Alternative 2

b. Report on List of Task in a Project: INDIAN NATIONAL CENTRE FOR INFORMATION SERVICES, HYDREABAD.

Task Name

Period Of Task

LIST OF TASK IN A PROJECT Remarks

From

To

Task 1

25/03/2008

30/03/2008

Process Going on

Task 2

28/03/2008

31/03/2008

Started

Task 3

25/03/2008

30/03/2008

Started

Task 4

01/04/2008

04/03/2008

-

Task 5

25/03/2008

08/04/2008

-