Chapter 7 Projecct Management PDF

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Public Procurement Directorate 1-01-2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................. 1
CHAPTER 7: PROJECT MANAGEMENT ........................................................... 4

7.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 4
7.2 THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT CONTEXT ............................................................ 6
7.2.1 The Project Management Processes...................................................... 6
7.2.2 Project Stakeholders .............................................................................. 6
7.2.3 Organizational Structure......................................................................... 7
7.3 INITIATING PROCESSES ................................................................................. 10
7.4 PLANNING PROCESSES ................................................................................. 11
7.4.1 Development of Activities Schedule.......................................................12
7.4.1.1 Application of Work Breakdown Structure .........................................13
7.4.1.2 Identification of the Activities.............................................................18
7.4.1.3 Determination of activities sequence and dependencies ..................20
7.4.1.4 Estimation of Activities/ tasks duration ..............................................22
7.4.1.5 Scheduling of Activities .....................................................................24
7.4.2 Development of Resource Plan .............................................................30
7.4.2.1 Identification of types and quantities of resources.............................31
7.4.2.2 Development of Resource Schedule .................................................34
7.4.2.3 Assignment of resources to project activities/ tasks ..........................34
7.4.3 Development of Cost Plan .....................................................................36
7.4.3.1 Identification and estimation of costs.................................................37
7.4.3.2 Development of Cost Schedule.........................................................40
7.4.3.3 Estimation of cost per activity/ task ...................................................42
7.4.4 Development of Quality Plan .................................................................42
7.4.4.1 Definition of quality criteria and standards to achieve........................43
7.4.4.2 Establishment of quality assurance and control processes and
techniques ........................................................................................47
7.4.5 Development of Issue Management Plan ..............................................48
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7.4.6 Development of Change Management Plan ..........................................52

7.4.7 Development of Risk Plan .....................................................................53
7.4.7.1 Updating of Risk Log.........................................................................53
7.4.7.2 Development of Risk Management Plan ...........................................55
7.4.8 Development of Acceptance Plan..........................................................58
7.4.8.1 Establishment of criteria & standards for the acceptance of the
deliverables.......................................................................................59
7.4.8.2 Formalization & documentation of the deliverable acceptance process
.........................................................................................................59
7.4.9 Setting up Performance Indicators.........................................................63
7.4.9.1 Establishing the Performance Indicators ...........................................64
7.4.9.2 Establishing the process for monitoring the Performance Indicators .67
7.4.10 Development of Communication Plan....................................................67
7.4.10.1 Identification of stakeholders.............................................................68
7.4.10.2 Determination of Stakeholders communication needs ......................68
7.4.10.3 Define communication strategy .........................................................70
7.4.10.4 Completion of Communication Plan/Matrix........................................71
7.4.11 Reviewing the Project Planning Phase ..................................................72
7.5 EXECUTING & CONTROLLING PROCESSES ...................................................... 74
7.5.1 Schedule Management..........................................................................75
7.5.1.1 Record progress of activities and tasks.............................................76
7.5.1.2 Update the Activities Schedule..........................................................76
7.5.1.3 Identify and resolve schedule problems ............................................78
7.5.2 Resource Management .........................................................................79
7.5.2.1 Record resource progress.................................................................80
7.5.2.2 Update the Resource Schedule ........................................................82
7.5.2.3 Identify and resolve resource allocation problems.............................83
7.5.3 Cost Management .................................................................................86
7.5.3.1 Record actual costs (or expenses)....................................................86
7.5.3.2 Update the cost schedule..................................................................88
7.5.3.3 Identify and resolve cost problems....................................................89
7.5.4 Quality Management .............................................................................90
7.5.4.1 Monitoring of the quality assurance activities implemented by the
Contractor .........................................................................................91
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7.5.4.2 Organizing and implementing Deliverable Quality Review ................93

7.5.5 Issue Management................................................................................94
7.5.6 Change Management ............................................................................95
7.5.7 Risk Management .................................................................................96
7.5.7.1 Risk Monitoring .................................................................................96
7.5.7.2 Risk Control ......................................................................................97
7.5.8 Acceptance Management ......................................................................98
7.5.9 Communication Management................................................................98
7.5.9.1 Execution of Communication Plan/ Distribution of information...........99
7.5.9.2 Reporting Projects Performance ....................................................100
7.5.10 Reviewing the Project Execution & Control Phase...............................103
7.6 CLOSING PROCESSES ................................................................................. 105
7.6.1 Performance of Administrative Closure ...............................................105
7.6.1.1 Identifying Follow-on Actions ..........................................................106
7.6.1.2 Ensuring that all the deliverables have been accepted....................106
7.6.1.3 Completing and archiving all project information .............................106
7.6.1.4 Disbanding the resources used in the project..................................108
7.6.1.5 Updating the CVs of the human resources involved in the project...108
7.6.2 Conduction of Project Evaluation Review ............................................108
7.6.2.1 Conduct Project Evaluation.............................................................108
7.6.2.2 Prepare the Project Evaluation Report ............................................113
7.6.3 Conduction of post-project review........................................................114
7.6.4 Reviewing the Project Closure Phase..................................................114
7.7 SYNOPSIS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES ......................................... 116
7.7.1 Project Management Activities in case that the Project is implemented
with own resources (in-house production) ...........................................117
7.7.2 Project Management Activities in case that the Project is implemented by
a Contractor ........................................................................................129
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CHAPTER 7: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
7.1 INTRODUCTION
Generally, procurement is part of the Project life cycle, so its processes are closely related to
those of Project Management and they follow the restrictions set by the project framework.
In case that a project is implemented exclusively by external resources (resources that are
not owned by the public Contracting Authority), procurement may be perceived as the
project and as such it passes through all phases of project life cycle. In any case people
involved in public procurement need to know how a project is managed throughout its whole
life cycle.
The aim of this Chapter is to introduce the reader into the basic principles of Project
Management while presenting various tools and techniques required for delivering success
to a project. In this perspective the guidance and tools provided consist a general
methodology1 that will facilitate the Contracting Authorities, and specifically the Project
Managers, in:
Planning, monitoring and controlling the parts of the project which are implemented
with own resources (in-house production)
Planning a project that will be implemented by external resources in order to be
clearly specified in the tender documents
Managing the tendering process itself
Monitoring and controlling the contractors performance against the predefined
project plan
It should be noted that the following subchapters comprise a basic reference to the Project
Management and as such is neither comprehensive nor all inclusive. However, it examines
all managing processes for the whole Projects life cycle that is from project initiation2 to
project closure.
1
The present methodology was elaborated taking into account many widely used methodologies and
guidebooks in Project Management, such as PRINCE2, PMIs PMBOK Guide, NYS Project
Management Guidebook, APM Methodology, EU Project Cycle Management Guidelines, MS Project
2000 (online & offline help).
2
Project Initiation is briefly presented in this Chapter for enabling the reader to form a complete view
of the activities that take place during the whole project life cycle. Analysis of the activities to be
performed and specific guidance is provided in Chapter 1.
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There are hundreds of different definitions regarding the meaning of Project Management.
Regardless of how the various definitions are phrased, they are all based on a common
ground, which is the way you manage processes in order to undertake a project successfully
in terms of scope, time, money and resources. In this context, if we would like to give a
general definition of Project Management we could say that:
Project Management is the application of skills, tools, techniques and processes to
plan, coordinate, implement, monitor and control a project successfully
It is important to note that many of the processes within project management are iterative in
nature. This is mainly due to the existence of and the necessity for progressive elaboration in
a project throughout the project life cycle. This means that the more you know about your
project, the better you are able to manage it.
Apart from the tools, methods, techniques and processes, an effective project management
requires organisational support, as well as teams as building blocks.
The project management process, as happens with any other process, receives certain
inputs (business need, problem or opportunity) and constraints (time, cost, quality,
technical aspects, social, political and environmental conditions, legal restrictions, etc.) and
by applying the appropriate mechanisms (techniques, tools, equipment, organisation,
human resources, etc.) it produces specific output (project deliverables). The following
diagram illustrates the project management process.
Constraints
Input Project Management Output
Mechanisms
Figure 7-1: The Project Management Process
A good project management discipline will not eliminate all risks, issues and surprises, but
will provide standard processes and procedures to deal with them and help prevent the
following:
1. Projects finishing late, exceeding budget or not meeting customer expectations
2. Inconsistency between the processes and procedures used by different projects
managers
3. Unorthodox way of delivering success to a project through high stress levels,
significant amounts of overtime and based solely on the goodwill of some individuals
4. Project management seen as not adding value and as a waste of time and money
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5. Unforeseen internal or external events impacting the project
7.2 THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT CONTEXT
7.2.1 The Project Management Processes
There are two different lifecycles that work in conjunction with one another throughout the
course of every project: the project life cycle which has been presented in Chapter 1
(subchapter 1.3) and the Project Management Life Cycle. While the project processes may
be different for specific products and services, the project management processes will
always be the same regardless of the project processes being employed. However, both
processes overlap and interact throughout the project. For example, the project
implementation schedule cannot be developed in the absence of some basic understanding
of how the deliverables are produced.
Project management processes can be organised into four main groups of one or more
processes each:
Initiating processes (refer to subchapter 7.3)
Planning processes (refer to subchapter 7.4)
Executing & Controlling processes (refer to subchapter 7.5)
Closing processes (refer to subchapter 7.6)
There are links between the process groups in the sense that the outcome of one is usually
an input to another. In addition, the process groups are overlapping activities that occur at
varying levels of intensity throughout each phase of the project and not one-time events.
The project management processes that are applicable to most projects, most of the time,
are described in this chapter, except from the initiating processes which are analytically
presented in Chapter 1.
7.2.2 Project Stakeholders
Project stakeholders are individuals, groups of people, organizations or firms that affect or
are affected directly or indirectly, positively or negatively by the process and the outcomes of
the project.
Generally, there are many ways to group the stakeholders. Two of the most common are the
following:
a. According to the impact they have on the project:
Those who are directly related to the project, such as project manager,
project team members, funding agency, customer, users, suppliers and
subcontractors.
Those who exert influence over the physical, technological, commercial,
financial, socioeconomic or political conditions, such as technical chambers,
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political parties, environmental agencies, citizens, NGOs and financial

institutions.
Those who have a hierarchical relationship to the project, such as
government authorities at local, regional and national levels.
Those individuals, groups and associations, who have vested interests,
sometimes quite unrelated to the project, but who see it as an opportunity to
pursue their own ends.
b. According to their relative ability to influence the project:
Those who are controllable
Those who are influencable, and
Those who need to be appreciated
The project management team must identify the stakeholders, determine their requirements
and then manage and influence those requirements to ensure a successful project.
Managing stakeholder expectations is difficult task because stakeholders often have different
objectives that may come into conflict. For example: the Manager of the IT department who
has requested a new MIS may desire low cost, the system architect may emphasize
technical excellence and the software development contractor may be most interested in
maximizing its profit.
In general, differences between or among stakeholders should be resolved in favour of the
customer. This does not, however, mean that the needs and expectations of the other
stakeholders should be discharged. Finding appropriate resolutions to such differences can
be one of the major challenges of project management.
7.2.3 Organizational Structure
The structure of an Implementing Agency often constraints the availability of or terms under
which the resources become available to the project. There are different types of
organizational structures:
Functional organization: The functional organization, shown in Figure 7-2 is a structure
where authority rests with the functional heads; the structure is sectioned by
departmental groups. Staff members are divided to groups (e.g. financial, planning, public
relations, engineering, legal etc) according to their specialized knowledge. Some of these
groups can be further subdivided into smaller functional groups. For example, the
Engineering Department may be further subdivided into Mechanical Engineering and
Electrical Engineering Units.
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Project
Head of the
Implementing Agency Coordination
Head of the Department Head of the Department Head of the Department

(Functional Manager) (Functional Manager) (Functional Manager)
staff staff staff
staff staff staff
staff staff staff
(blue boxes represent staff of the Departments engaged in the project activities)
Figure 7-2: Functional Organization
The main advantage of this organizational structure is that each functional group has
complete control over its segment of the project, enforcing in this way the application of
standards across projects.
The disadvantages of the functional organization are that of speed, flexibility and
communication when attempting crossfunctional projects. Since in a functional
organization the work is divided between the departments, any query or request must be
passed among department heads for approval, causing in this way delays. In addition,
the responsibility of managing the project is shared among the functional managers
(head of the departments) and this may cause lack of ultimate responsibility for project
management.
This type of organizational structure is generally considered the least effective for
implementing and managing projects.
Projectized organization: The projectized organization, shown in Figure 7-3, is a
structure where the focus is on teams with cross functional expertise. Most of the
organizations resources are involved in project work; teams mission is to complete the
project. All team members working for a specific project have one clear superior, the
Project Manager and they all refer to him/ her.
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Project Head of the

Coordination Implementing Agency
Project Manager Project Manager Project Manager
staff staff staff
staff staff staff
staff staff staff
(blue boxes represent staff engaged in the project activities)
Figure 7-3: Projectized Organization
The main advantages of the projectized organization are speed and flexibility. Since the
experts are concentrated within the team and fully committed to the project, it is easier to
react to changing requirements and complete the project on time. Responsibility for the
success of the project is clearly identified and lies on the Project Manager.
The main disadvantage of the projectized structure is the high resource costs, since the
organization often has to hire extra staff with certain expertise in order to implement
different projects simultaneously. In addition this type of structure burdens the
administrative overhead since there may be periods where not all project teams are
occupied.
Matrix organization: This structure is a blend of functional and projectized
organizations. In the matrix structure (Figure 7-4), the personnel engaged in the project
activities belongs to one or more functional units (departments). For project related
issues the project team members (staff) report to the Project Manager, who is
responsible for the timely completion of the project activities. For business related issues
the project team members report to the corresponding functional managers. Once the
implementation of the project or part of their work has been completed, they are returned
to the control of the functional manager for reassignment. The person who is assigned to
play the role of Project Manager for a specific project is not necessarily one of the
functional managers, but it can be a single staff member possessing the appropriate skills
and competencies.
The Project Manager in the matrix structure cooperates with the functional manager to
establish the resource requirements and plan their utilization on the project as well as to
make the necessary revisions during the projects implementation progress.
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Head of the
Implementing Agency
Head of the Department Head of the Department Head of the Department

(Functional Manager) (Functional Manager) (Functional Manager)
staff staff staff
staff staff staff
staff staff Project Manager
Project
(blue boxes represent staff engaged in the project activities)
Coordination
Figure 7-4: Matrix Organization
The main advantage of the matrix organization is that it retains the benefits of both
functional and projectized structures. It also facilitates the effective resource allocation to
different projects.
For these reasons, the matrix structure is considered as the most effective structure for
implementing and managing projects and therefore is widely used.
The main disadvantage of the matrix structure is the potential for conflict between the
Project Manager and the functional manager regarding the resource assignment, since
the functional manager has to staff multiple projects with the same experts.
7.3 INITIATING PROCESSES
Initiating processes take place in the first phase of the project life cycle. More specifically,
during the Project Initiation phase, a business problem or opportunity is identified and a
Business Case which provides alternative solutions is defined. Prior, during or after the
development of the Business Case, a Cost/ Benefit Analysis and a feasibility study are
usually conducted to identify the alternative with the maximum net benefit and investigate the
likelihood of each solution option addressing the business problem. As an outcome of the
Business Case a final recommended solution is put forward. Once the recommended
solution is approved, the Executive and the Project Manager are appointed in order to
participate in the preparation of the Project Fiche, which outlines the scope, objectives,
activities, structure, budget, implementation schedule, risks, constraints and assumptions of
the project. When the Project Fiche is approved, the remaining members of the Project
Management Team are appointed.
The description of the specific initiating processes, the order in which they are undertaken,
as well as guidance on how to perform each of them, are analytically presented in Chapter 1.
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Guidance on establishing the appropriate project organization structure (roles and

responsibilities) is also provided in Chapter 1.
7.4 PLANNING PROCESSES
As it has been stated in Chapter 1, Project Planning is the second phase of the project life
cycle and starts as soon as the Project Fiche has been signed by the representatives of the
Project Owner. The management processes that are undertaken during this phase include
the planning of all the elements/ parameters of the project so to be ready for implementation.
In this perspective, the following plans must be developed:
Project Plan. It consists of the:
o Activities Schedule (definition of activities and tasks sequence, time
scheduling),
o Resource Plan (determination of the labour, equipment, material needed in
each task/stage) and
o Cost Plan (identification of the internal and external costs and their
occurrence in time)]
Risk Plan. It highlights the possible risks and actions to mitigate them
Quality Plan. It sets the quality targets for the project deliverables and defines the
processes for quality assurance and control.
Issue Management Plan. It defines the process for identifying, assessing and
resolving issues related to the project.
Change Management Plan. It defines the process for managing requests for
changes that have a direct impact on projects scope, cost, schedule or quality.
Acceptance Plan. It sets the acceptance criteria for the project deliverables and
defines the processes for executing the acceptance tests.
Communication Plan. It refers to the information to be distributed to the
stakeholders and the methods that can be used for this distribution.
Besides, the Planning Processes may involve the establishment of performance
indicators to be used later during the Execution & Control phase to report project
performance or/and in the Closure phase to evaluate overall project performance and assess
the post-project achieved benefits.
Planning is a repeatable and iterative process. Every time that new information becomes
available or adjustments are made, all the above plans should be updated.
The planning processes that should be undertaken during the second phase of the project
life cycle are presented in the following figure.
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Development of Project Plan
Development
Development Development Development
Development of Issue
of Activities of Resource of Quality
of Cost Plan Management
Schedule Plan Plan
Plan
Development
Development of Establishing Development of
of Change Development
Acceptance Performance Communication
Management of Risk Plan
Plan Indicators Plan
Plan
Figure 7-5: The Planning Processes
7.4.1 Development of Activities Schedule
Activities Schedule is the backbone of every project and is essential for a successful
outcome. It gives all personnel involved in the project common understanding of what is
required, how this will be achieved, when it will be achieved and who will be responsible for
the successful outcome of each activity. In addition project plan defines a baseline for
monitoring and control the project implementation progress.
In order to develop the Activities Schedule, the following steps should be followed (Figure 7-
6):
Application of Work Breakdown Structure in order to subdivide the major
project deliverables into smaller, more manageable component based on the
project scope
Identification of the activities needed in order to produce the project deliverables
and if necessary breaking down the activities into more manageable tasks which
can then be assigned to individuals
Determination of activities sequence (i.e. in what order should related activities
be undertaken?) and dependencies (i.e. is the activity dependent on the start up
or completion of any other activity?)
Estimation of activities/ tasks duration
Scheduling of activities by defining the start up and completion dates of each
activity/task.
Application of Determination
Estimation of
Work Identification of activities Scheduling of
activities/
Breakdown of the activities sequence & activities
tasks duration
Structure dependencies
Figure 7-6: Steps to be followed for the development of the Activities Schedule
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7.4.1.1 Application of Work Breakdown Structure
Work is effort performed by people to transform or create products, to solve identified

problems or to satisfy specific needs. Just as the Implementing Agency hierarchically
structures the people who perform work, so the work breakdown structure hierarchically
structures the products/ deliverables to be produced.
In order to use the work breakdown structure as a framework for structuring the technical
objectives of a project in addition to its use as a management tool for cost and schedule
control- it is important that the work breakdown structure be productoriented. Its elements
should represent identifiable work products whether they are goods, equipment, software,
data, infrastructure elements or service products.
Work Breakdown Structure3 is a deliverableoriented grouping of project
components that organizes and defines the total scope of the project. It is based on
Icon1310.ico
the principle of subdividing the major project deliverables or subdeliverables into smaller,
more manageable components until the deliverables are defined in sufficient detail to support
development of project activities (planning, executing, controlling and closing). In order to
proceed with this analysis, you should follow the steps presented below4:
1. Identify the major deliverables of the project, including project management. The
major deliverables should always be defined in terms of how the project will
actually be organized.
2. Decide if adequate cost and duration estimates can be developed at this level of
detail for each deliverable. In case that for some deliverables you estimate that
there is not adequate detail, you should proceed with further analysis (step 3). For
the deliverables that you estimate that no further analysis is needed, just try to
verify the correctness of the analysis (step 4).
3. Identify constituent components of the deliverables. Constituent components
should be described in terms of tangible, verifiable results to facilitate performance
measurement. As with the major components, the constituent components should
be defined in terms of how the work of the project will actually be organized and
accomplished. Repeat step 2 on each constituent component and check whether
further analysis is needed.
4. Verify the correctness of analysis.
Are the lower level items both necessary and sufficient for the completion of
the analysed item? If not, the constituent components must be modified.
3
The WBS was initially developed by the United States defense establishment, and is described in
Military Standard 881B as follows: A work breakdown structure is a product oriented family tree
composed of hardware, software, services, data and facilities.[it} displays and defines the
product(s) to be developed and /or produced and relates the elements of work to be accomplished to
each other and to the end product(s).
4
PMBOK Guide 2000 Edition
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Is each item clearly defined? If not the descriptions should be revised.

Can each item be appropriately scheduled and budgeted? If not, modifications
are necessary to provide adequate management control.
The Project Work Breakdown Structure usually contains at least three levels of
analysis. In case of large projects the levels of analysis could be more.
A WBS is normally presented in chart form as illustrated in the following examples. The first
example refers to the Public Procurement Directorates project aiming to improve the
implementing capacity of the Cypriot Authorities in applying the new European Legislative
Package. The second example refers to a public work project, dealing with the construction
of a wastewater treatment plan and the third one to a project dealing with the development of
software which will automate the process execution of a certain Implementing Agency.
Example 7-1: WBS of the Project Improving the Implementing Capacity of the Cypriot
Authorities
Project: Measures to develop the implementing capacity of the Cypriot Authorities in applying
the European Public Procurement legislative package.
The Project, as it has been presented in Chapter 1 (subchapter 1.5.5.1), consists of three
Components:
Component 1: Improving the implementing capacity of the Cypriot Authorities
Component 2: Harmonization of legislation
Component 3: e-procurement study.
For the purposes of this Chapter of the Guide we will assume that each of the above mentioned
Components is a Project itself, which will be contracted out separately from the others.
st
In order to prepare the Work Breakdown Structure of the 1 Project Improving the implementing
capacity of the Cypriot Authorities:
You have to identify the major deliverables of the project (project management has to be
included as one of them)
The major Deliverables are:
o Project Management
o The Action Plan for the PPD in order to be ready to undertake its new role
o The Public Procurement Best Practice Guide
o Training
You have to decide if adequate cost and duration estimates can be developed at this level of
detail for each deliverable.
For all the deliverables there is not adequate detail, so decomposition is needed.
Identify constituent components of the deliverables
o For Project Management:
Inception Report
Progress Reports
Final Report
Evaluation Report
o For the Action Plan:
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Proposal for PPDs new role and responsibilities

Analysis of individual actions to be taken
PPDs internal procedures manual
o For the Public Procurement Best Practice Guide:
Chapter 1 of the Guide dealing with Project and Procurement Initiation
Chapter 2 of the Guide dealing with Procurement Strategy
Chapter 3 of the Guide dealing with the Preparation of Tender Documents
Chapter 4 of the Guide dealing with the Evaluation of the bids and award of tenders
Chapter 5 of the Guide dealing with the Negotiated Procedure
Chapter 6 of the Guide dealing with the Implementation of the contract and contract
management
Chapter 7 of the Guide dealing with Project Management tools and techniques
Web based solution for the Guide
Code of Ethics in Public Procurement
o For the Training:
Training Strategy
Training Programme
Training Material
Training courses/ seminars
Repeat the previous step on each constituent component and check whether further analysis
is needed.
Further Analysis is needed only in case of the Training Courses/ seminars, since there are three
discrete groups of trainees (with different number of participants each) and PPD wants to monitor the
cost of training for each group. The new decomposition leads to:
Training courses for future trainers
Training courses for main purchasers
Training courses for other staff involved in public procurement.
Consequently the WBS of Project 1 should be as follows:

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0. Improving the implementing capacity

of the
Cypriot Authorities
3. Pubic Procurement
1. Project Management 2. Action Plan 4. Training
Best Practice Guide
3.1 Ch.1: Project & 4.1 Training Strategy

1.1 Inception Report 2.1 Proposal for PPDs Procurement Initiation
new role & responsibilities
3.2 Ch.2: Procurement 4.2 Training Programme
1.2 Progress Reports Strategy
4.3 Training material
2.2 Analysis of individual 3.3 Ch.3: Preparation of
Actions to be taken Tender Documents
1.3 Final Report 4.4 Training courses/
3.4 Ch.4: Evaluation seminars
of the bids & award of
2.3 PPDs internal tenders 4.4.1 Training courses
1.4 Evaluation Report procedures manual for future trainers
3.5 Ch.5: Negotiated
Procedure
4.4.2 Training courses
3.6 Ch.6: Implementation for main purchasers
of the contract & contract
Management 4.4.3 Training courses
for other staff involved
3.7 Ch.7: Project
in public procurement
Management
3.8 Web-based solution

for the Guide
3.9 Code of ethics

in public procurement
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Example 7-2: Sample Work Breakdown Structure for the construction of a wastewater plant
Project: Construction of a Wastewater Treatment Plant
0. Wastewater
Level 0
Treatment Plan
1. Design 2. Construction Level 1
1.1 Civil Drawings 2.1 Headworks Level 2
1.2 Architectural
Drawings 2.2 Aeration Basin
1.3 Structural Drawings 2.3 Effluent Pumping

Station
1.4 Mechanical Drawings

2.4 Air-Handling
Building
1.5 HVAC Drawings
2.5 Sludge Building
1.6 Plumbing
Drawings
1.7 Instrumentation
Drawings
1.8 Electrical Drawings

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Example 7-3: Sample Work Breakdown Structure of an IT project
Project: Development of a software to be used for the automation of an Implementing Agencys

processes
0. Software product Level 0
1. Project 2. Product 3. Detail Design 5. Integration &

4. Development
Management Requirements Testing
Level 1
Level 2
1.1 Planning 2.1 Software 3.1 Software 4.1 Software 5.1 Software
2.2 User 3.2 User 4.2 User 5.2 User

1.2 Meetings Documentation
Documentation Documentation Documentation
2.3 Training 3.3 Training 4.3 Training 5.3 Training

1.3 Administration Program Program Program Program
Materials Materials Materials Materials
As it is shown in the above presented examples, WBS elements are usually numbered. The
box in the first level should always have the number 0. The boxes at the first level could be
numbered 1, 2, 3 Number 2.1 refers to the first box in level 2. Similarly as you go down
to lower levels the numbers could be 3.1.1, 3.1.2.., 3.2.1, 3.2.2.etc.
7.4.1.2 Identification of the Activities
Simply identifying products/ deliverables may be insufficient for scheduling and control
purposes. The activities implied in the delivery of each of the products/deliverables need to
be identified to give a fuller picture of the plans workload.
For this purpose a step by step approach for the preparation of a detailed activity
schedule can be followed.
The first step of this approach is to list the Main Activities. In order to do this use as basis
the WBS you have developed. Identify all the activities required to create the products or
develop the deliverables that have been identified and presented in level 1 and then list
them. The list of Activities should normally include management activities as well.
The second step is to Break Activities down into Manageable Tasks. The purpose of
breaking activities down into tasks is to make them sufficiently simple to be organized and
managed easily. Normally the tasks identified should lead to the products/ deliverables
presented in the WBS in level 2.
You have to be careful in getting the level of detail right. The most common mistake is
to break the activities down into too much detail. The subdivision should stop as soon
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as you have sufficient detail to estimate the time and resources required to implement the
work.
The major difference between subdivision here and in the development of the WBS is that
the final outputs here are described as activities and not as deliverables.
When using the WBS to identify which activities are needed, the Project Manager may find
out that has forgotten to incorporate one deliverable in the WBS or that the deliverable
descriptions have to be corrected to indicate the exact outputs of the project. In this case the
WBS must be updated.
It is noted that as has already been described the WBS and the Activity List are being
prepared sequentially; first the WBS and then the Activity List. However, sometimes
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it is convenient to develop them simultaneously.
Example 7-4: Identification of activities for the Project Improving the implementing capacity of
the Cypriot Authorities
Project: Improving the implementing capacity of the Cypriot Authorities.
After the preparation of the Work Breakdown Structure (refer to 7.4.1.1) of the Project dealing with
the improvement of the implementing capacity of the Cypriot Authorities, the Activities leading to
the defined outputs must be identified.
In order to prepare the Activities List:
You have to identify the major activities leading to the major deliverables of the project
The major Activities are:
o Implementation of Project Management processes
o Compilation of the Action Plan for the PPD in order to be ready to undertake its new role
o Compilation of the Public Procurement Best Practice Guide
o Training design and execution
You have to break these activities down to tasks.
o Implementation of Project Management processes:
Design and production of a comprehensive work programme
Monitoring and Control the Projects Progress
Closing the Project
Evaluation of the Project
o For the Action Plan:
Formulation of proposal for PPDs new role and responsibilities
Identification of all individual actions and compilation of an action plan
Preparation of PPDs internal procedures manual
o For the Public Procurement Best Practice Guide:
Compilation of Chapter 1 of the Guide (Project and Procurement Initiation)
Compilation of Chapter 2 of the Guide (Procurement Strategy)
Compilation of Chapter 3 of the Guide (Preparation of Tender Documents)
Compilation of Chapter 4 of the Guide (Evaluation of the bids and award of tenders)
Compilation of Chapter 5 of the Guide (Negotiated Procedure)
Compilation of Chapter 6 of the Guide (Implementation of the contract & contract
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management)
Compilation of Chapter 7 of the Guide (Project Management tools and techniques)
Development of Web based solution for the Guide
Compilation of Code of Ethics in Public Procurement
o For the Training:
Training Strategy development
Training Programme Preparation
Preparation of Training Material
Delivery of Training
Repeat the previous step on task and check whether further analysis is needed.
Further Analysis is needed only in case of the Delivery of Training, since there are three discrete
groups of trainees (with different number of participants each) and PPD wants to monitor the cost of
training for each group. The new decomposition leads to:
Training of trainers
Training of main purchasers
Training of other staff involved in public procurement.
7.4.1.3 Determination of activities sequence and dependencies
Once the Activities have been identified and broken down to smaller components, they must
be related to each other to determine the activity sequencing (order in which the activities
should be undertaken) and dependencies (which activity must be completed before the start
up of another activity).
This can best be described with an example. Implementing training in the Public
Procurement Best Practice Guide to 100 main purchasers from the Cypriot Contracting
Authorities has as prerequisites the following: Completion of the compilation of the Best
Practice Guide, Formulation of the Training strategy, Development of the Training
Programme and Preparation of the training material. The sequence dictates that the
preparation of training programme and training material comes before the training delivery;
while dependencies include the fact that training cannot start until the Contracting Authority
approves the training material. Dependencies may also occur between activities that will be
undertaken by the same person (i.e. a trainer who is assigned to provide training both to
future trainers and to main purchasers may not be able to complete both tasks at the same
time).
Dependencies can be distinguished in the following types:

Mandatory dependencies: Mandatory are those dependencies that are inherent in
the nature of the work (e.g. on a construction project, the walls can not be built and
plastered until after the foundation has been laid)
Discretionary dependencies: Discretionary dependencies are those defined by the
Project Management Team. Normally the Project Management Team has a good
knowledge of the thematic area in which the project refers and besides is aware of
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any unusual aspect of the project that oblige the application of a certain
implementation sequence
External dependencies: External dependencies are those derived by non-project
activities (e.g. software testing depends on the delivery of the hardware by an
external supplier).
Any schematic display of the logical relationships of project activities is called Project
Network Diagram. There is more than one technique to construct a Project Network
Diagram (Precedence Diagramming Method, Arrow Diagramming Method and Conditional
Diagramming Methods). Besides, it may be produced manually or automatically by using
specialised computer software. In the following paragraph the Precedence Diagramming
Method is presented, since is the one used by most of the project management software
packages (e.g MS Project, Primavera Planner).
According to this method, the Activities are presented as boxes and their dependencies
as arrows. There are four types of dependencies but only one is the most commonly
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used, the Finish to Start. More specifically, the types of dependencies are:
Finish to Start (FS): In this case the work of the successor can not start until when
the work of the predecessor has finished
Finish to Finish (FF): In this case the completion of the work of the successor
depends on the completion of the work of the predecessor
Start to Start (SS): In this case the initiation of the work of the successor depends on
the initiation of the work of the predecessor
Start to Finish (SF): In this case (it is rarely used) the completion of the work of the
successor depends on the initiation of the predecessor.
A typical diagram drawn using the Precedence Diagramming Method is presented in the
following scheme:
A B C
Start Finish
D E F
Figure 7-7: Project Network Diagram using the Precedence Diagramming Method.
It should be noted that nowadays such types of diagrams are prepared quite
automatically by using specialized software. All types of dependencies between the
activities are being declared when producing the time schedule and they are automatically
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presented as connecting arrows on the Gantt chart. In this perspective, the Project Network
Diagram itself is not something compulsory, but the activities sequence and dependencies
must be identified, since they are necessary for the activities scheduling.
Example 7-5: Activities sequence and dependencies for the Project Improving the
implementing capacity of the Cypriot Authorities
Following the identification of the Project Activities (refer to 7.4.1.2) their sequence and
dependencies must also be identified.
The Development of the Web based solution for the Public Procurement Best Practice Guide should
not start until when the compilation of all the Chapters of the Guide has been completed
The preparation of Training material should not start until when the compilation of all the Chapters of
the Guide has been completed
The training delivery should not start until when the compilation of all the Chapters of the Guide has
been completed and until when the training material has been prepared.
The training of main purchasers and other staff involved in public procurement should not start until
when the future trainers have been trained.
In case that you would like to present the above mentioned dependencies in a diagram form, you should
conclude to a diagram like this:
Monitoring & control Evaluation of

Closing the project
the projects progress the project
Identification of all
Start Formulation of proposal Preparation of PPDs
Individual actions &
for PPDs new role & Internal procedures
Compilation of
responsibilities manual
an action plan
Development
Compilation Compilation Compilation Of the
of Ch.1 of Ch.6 of Ch.7 web-based
solution
Design & production
of a Finish
comprehensive
work programme Compilation Compilation Compilation Compilation
of Ch.2 of Ch.3 of Ch.4 of Ch.5
Compilation
Of Code
of Ethics
Training Training of
Training Strategy Preparation of Training Training of main
Programme other staff involved
Development Training material of trainers Purchasers
Preparation In public procurement
7.4.1.4 Estimation of Activities/ tasks duration
Activity duration estimating is the process of making a realistic quantitative assessment of

the likely number of work periods that will be required to complete an activity.
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The estimate is often progressively elaborated and more accurate. To ensure that the
estimates at this stage are realistic, those of the project team who are more familiar with the
nature of the specific activity and those who have the necessary technical knowledge or
experience (by participating or managing similar activities/ projects in the past) should be
consulted.
The inputs that are necessary for the activity duration estimation are:
The Activity List (refer to 7.4.1.2)
Constraints and assumptions
The Resource requirements (refer to 7.4.2). The duration of most activities is
influenced by the number of the resources assigned to them and by the skills and
capabilities they possess. Normally, a senior consultant working full time can be
expected to complete a certain activity in less time than a junior consultant, also
working full time. Besides, two people from an Implementing Agency working
together in a specific task are expected to complete it in half the time it takes to each
of them individually. It has to be noted that although the number of the resources
assigned to each task is a significant input for the activity duration estimating, there
are cases in which the activity duration estimation is mainly based on historical data
and experience from the implementation of previous similar projects. In these cases
the activities duration is predetermined and the number of resources needed to
carry out the activities is defined accordingly.
Historical information. This refers to data available at the project files of similar
projects concerning the actual duration of their activities. It refers also to information
available to databases like how long it takes concrete to cure, how long it usually
takes a Ministry to respond to certain types of request, how long it takes for a law to
be voted etc.
Identified risks. The project team may choose to incorporate an additional time
period (usually called as reserve time) to the activity duration as recognition that one
or more of the identified risks may occur. This time can be a percentage of the
estimated duration or a fixed period.
Example 7-6: Estimation of activities/ tasks duration for the Project Improving the
implementing capacity of the Cypriot Authorities
Following the identification of the Project Activities (refer to 7.4.1.2), of their sequence and
dependencies (refer to 7.4.1.3), the duration of the activities and tasks must be estimated.
The estimation will be based on the actual duration of previous similar activities [e.g formulation of Action
Plans, development of training strategy, training in legal aspects and in new processes (best practices)].
Especially for the compilation of the Best Practice Guide, the estimation of the time needed could be
based on the volume of similar Guides developed by other countries or even on their experience (how
long it took to them to prepare such Guides).
An indicative estimation of the Activities duration is:
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Activity Duration (working days)

Design and production of a comprehensive work programme 24
Monitoring and Control the Projects Progress 433
Closing the Project 9
Evaluation of the Project 7
Formulation of proposal for PPDs new role and

21
responsibilities
Identification of all individual actions and compilation of an
65
action plan
Preparation of PPDs internal procedures manual 57
Compilation of Chapter 1 of the Guide (Project and

45
Procurement Initiation)
Compilation of Chapter 2 of the Guide (Procurement
54
Strategy)
Compilation of Chapter 3 of the Guide (Preparation of
88
Tender Documents)
Compilation of Chapter 4 of the Guide (Evaluation of the bids
44
and award of tenders)
Compilation of Chapter 5 of the Guide (Negotiated
55
Procedure)
Compilation of Chapter 6 of the Guide (Implementation of the
65
contract & contract management)
Compilation of Chapter 7 of the Guide (Project Management
44
tools and techniques)
Development of Web based solution for the Guide 53
Compilation of Code of Ethics in Public Procurement 51
Training Strategy development 57

Training Programme Preparation 28
Preparation of Training Material 70
Training of trainers 15
Training of main purchasers 43
Training of other staff involved in public procurement. 63
7.4.1.5 Scheduling of Activities
Scheduling follows estimates of the time for each activity and is a very crucial step in the
Planning Phase since a plan can only show the feasibility of achieving its objectives when
the activities are put together in a schedule that defines when each activity will be carried
out.
In order to proceed with scheduling you need the following inputs:
The Activities sequence and dependencies (refer to 7.4.1.3).
Activity duration estimates (refer to 7.4.1.4)
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Resource requirements and resource availability (refer to 7.4.2). The number of

people who will be available to do the work should be established. Any specific
information like names, percentage availability, and availability in certain periods
starting from and ending at. should also be noted. For preliminary schedule you
may only need to know that X senior consultants will be available in a certain time
period, whereas in the final schedule you need to know exactly who these senior
consultants will be.
Assumptions
Constraints. There are two major categories of time constraints that you should
consider during schedule development. First, imposed dates on activity starts or
finishes which can be used to restrict the start or finish to occur either no earlier than
a certain date or no later than a specified date (e.g in case of projects co-funded by
the EU (target 2) for the present programming period must be completed before the
next programming period starts). Second, the project owner or the project
stakeholders may request that a certain deliverable be completed by a specified
date
Milestones. Milestones are key events that provide the basis by which the project
implementation will be monitored and managed. The simplest milestones are the
dates estimated for completion of each Activity, for submission of deliverables, or for
getting approval by the client (acceptance of the product produced).
Time leads and lags: There are cases that a dependency between two activities
may require specification of a lead or lag to accurately define the relationship. (e.g.
the compilation of Chapter 3 of the Public Procurement Best Practice Guide
concerning the preparation of the tender documents may start 10 days before the
completion of Chapter 2 dealing with the procurement strategy. Accordingly, a two
week delay (lag) may be necessary between the completion of the training material
and the training delivery).
There are many different approaches to scheduling. The steps can either be done manually
or a computer tool (software) can be used. Project Management Software (like Microsoft
Project, Primavera etc) is widely used to assist with schedule development.
The project schedule includes at least the start and finish dates of each activity and
their duration (in days, weeks, months, etc). It can also include information concerning
the responsible for the implementation of each action. It may be presented in summary form
or in detail; graphically or in a tabular form. More specifically, the following formats are the
ones most commonly in use:
Bar charts, also called Gantt Charts5., A Gantt chart focuses on the sequence of
tasks necessary for the completion of a certain project. Each activity/task is
represented as a horizontal bar on an X-Y chart. The horizontal axis (X axis) is the
time scale over which the project will be implemented. Therefore, the length of each
5
The Gantt chart was first developed by Charles Gantt in 1917
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activity/task bar corresponds to the duration of the activity/task or the time

necessary for its completion.
Arrows connecting the activities/tasks represent the relationship between the
activities/ tasks they connect.
The Gantt chart is an excellent tool for quickly assessing the status of a project,
therefore is suitable for management presentations, for status reports and for
communicating information regarding the progress of a project to all stakeholders.
The Gantt chart can be developed using Software Packages like MS Project,
Primavera Project Planner (P3), Project Scheduler (PS8), etc.
Project Network Diagrams with dates. This format shows the activities sequence
and dependencies as well as the start and finish date of each activity. A project
network diagram is often referred to as a PERT chart.
PERT6 chart, is a network-based aid for planning and scheduling the many
interrelated tasks in a large and complex project. Common Software Packages like
MS Project, Primavera Project Planner (P3), and Project Scheduler (PS8) can
create a PERT chart from a Gantt chart.
PERT charts are more complicated than the Cantt charts and should be avoided in
management presentations.
Milestone charts. This type normally presents the defined milestones, that is the
start and completion dates of the production of the deliverables.
6
PERT was developed in the late 1950s for the U.S Navys Polaris project having thousands of
contractors.
Version: 1.1
Example 7-7: Gantt and PERT charts for the Project Improving the Implementing capacity of
the Cypriot Authorities
Using MS Project to prepare the Time Schedule for the above mentioned project (and especially for the
Activities 2 Compilation of an Action Plan for PPD, 3 Compilation of the Public Procurement Best
Practice Guide and 4 Training design and execution), we can have the following types of charts.
Gantt chart.
As mentioned above, this chart shows the activities and tasks to be performed, the prerequisites and
dependencies between them, the start and finish date as well as the duration of each task. The time
scale on the top can be easily changed and therefore in case of projects having a duration of a few
months the units of the major time scale could be months while the unit of the minor scale could be
weeks or days.
PERT chart
In this chart each activity is being presented as a non-rectangular parallelogram, whereas the tasks are
presented as rectangular parallelograms. Each task presents its duration, start and ending date.
The tasks shown in red line indicate which the critical path is and therefore these are the tasks that must
be completed in time for the project to finish on schedule. Definition of the critical path and guidance
related to its use and importance is given in the following paragraph.
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In case that instead of using a Software Package to produce the charts, you decide to do it manually,
you will end to a graph similar to the following:
11/11/05 10/07/07 10/7/07 20/7/07 20/7/07 30/7/07
Monitoring & control Evaluation of

Closing the project
the projects progress the project
11/11/05 11/12/05 12/12/05 12/3/06 12/3/06 30/5/06

Identification of all
Start Formulation of proposal Preparation of PPDs
Individual actions &
for PPDs new role & Internal procedures
Compilation of
responsibilities manual
an action plan
11/11/05 12/1/06 13/1/06 13/4/06 13/4/06 13/6/06 11/10/06 23/12/06

Development
10/10/05 10/11/05 Compilation Compilation Compilation Of the
of Ch.1 of Ch.6 of Ch.7 web-based
solution
Design & production
11/11/05 25/1/06 25/1/06 26/5/06 26/5/06 26/7/06 26/7/06 10/10/06 Finish
of a
comprehensive
work programme Compilation Compilation Compilation Compilation
of Ch.2 of Ch.3 of Ch.4 of Ch.5
11/11/05 20/1/06
Compilation
Of Code
of Ethics
11/11/05 30/1/06 1/9/06 10/10/06 10/10/06 15/1/07 20/1/07 10/2/07 11/2/07 11/4/07 12/4/07 9/7/07
Training Training of
Training Strategy Preparation of Training Training of main
Programme other staff involved
Development Training material of trainers Purchasers
Preparation In public procurement
In Annex 7-1/ Sheet Activities Schedule a tool for preparing a project schedule in
excel format is presented. In addition a completed example (for the Project Improving
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the implementing capacity of the Cypriot Authorities) is also presented in the Sheet Activities
Schedule Example. This tool is used for developing a baseline schedule, as well as for
tracking the activities progress during the project implementation period (refer to 7.5.1).
Critical Path
The critical path is the series of tasks that dictates the calculated finish date of the project.
That is, when the last task in the critical path is completed, the project is completed. If it is
important for a project to finish on schedule, special attention should be given to the tasks on
the critical path and the resources assigned to them.
Each task on the critical path is a critical task. In a typical project many tasks have some
slack and can therefore be delayed a little without affecting the project finish date. Those
tasks that cannot be delayed without affecting the project finish date are the critical tasks.
A task becomes critical when it meets any one of the following conditions:
There is zero slack on the task
It has a Must Start on or Must Finish on date constraint
It has a finish date that is the same or beyond its deadline date.
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Because of the important relationship between critical tasks and the project end date, the
Project Manager must always be cognizant of the critical path and understand how it is
affected when tasks are being modified to resolve over allocations, costs are being adjusted,
the scope is being revised or changes are made to the Project Schedule.
Microsoft Project defines a task as critical if it has zero days of slack, but the user of the
Software Package (the Project Manager) can change the definition of a critical task. For
example he can define a task as critical if it has one or two days slack. This can be helpful if
the Project Manager wants to be alerted to tasks becoming critical when there are still one or
two days of buffer. The critical path is shown in both Gantt and PERT charts produced by
Software Packages. In case of MS Project, the critical path is being highlighted when using
the Detail Gantt view or the Network Diagram view (PERT).
If the Project Manager wishes to bring in the project finish date, he needs to bring in
the dates of the critical path tasks. This is also known as crashing. In order to do this,
the Project Manager can:
Shorten the duration of a task on the critical path
Change a task constraint to allow for more scheduling flexibility
Break a critical task into smaller tasks the implementation of which can be assigned
to different resources
Revise the dependencies between the tasks to allow more flexibility in scheduling
Schedule overtime
Assign additional resources to work on critical paths.
However, the Project Manager has to be aware that if he brings in the dates of the primarily
critical path, a different series of tasks could become the new critical path. In this case this
new series must be tracked and monitored very closely to ensure the expected/desired finish
date.
In Annex 7-2 guidance7 on how to find the critical path of a project without using a
Software Package is being provided.
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7.4.2 Development of Resource Plan
The Resource Plan identifies the physical resources that are needed to complete the project
successfully and schedules their usage during the project implementation period. Obviously,
in order to develop a resource plan, every activity and task should have been identified.
Generally, the resource planning should be performed in parallel with the development of the
activities schedule, since the determination of the resource requirements affects directly the
estimation of the activities/ tasks duration (refer to 7.4.1.4).
In order to develop the Resource Plan, the following steps should be followed (Figure 7-8):
7
Part of Chapter 11: PERT for Project Planning and Scheduling from Practical Optimization: a Gentle
Introduction written by Professor John W. Chinneck, Carleton University, Canadas Capital University
Version: 1.1
Identification of what types of resources (labour, equipment, material) and in what

quantities are required in order to perform project activities and tasks
Development of Resource Schedule by estimating when and for how long each
resource is going to be utilised
Assignment of resources to specific project activities and tasks
Identification Assignment of
Development of
of types and resources to
Resource project
quantities of
Schedule activities/tasks
resources
Figure 7-8: Steps to be followed for the development of the Resource Plan
For simple projects the development of a Resource Plan may be limited to entering only the
resource name against the project activity on the Activities Schedule. However, for larger and
more complex projects, a detailed resource plan should be completed to ensure that the
resource allocation is both accurate and appropriate.
It should be noted that the assignment of sufficient resources both in terms of
quantity and appropriateness is a critical factor for the successful outcome of the
project. The assignment of less human resources than actually needed to perform certain
activities/ tasks, as well as the assignment of resources who do not possess the appropriate
skills and expertise to perform their duties, are two of the most common reasons for project
failure.
There are various software packages in the market, such as MS Project and
Primavera Project Planner (P3), which can be used to develop, monitor and control a
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detailed resource plan. However, for the purposes of this Guide a simple tool for
developing a resource plan is provided in Annex 7-1 (in excel format) in order to be used
by people who do not possess or are not competent in using the relative commercial
software. The tool consists of two Sheets: one used for the preparation of the Resource
Schedule and the other for the assignment of resources to project activities/ tasks, named
as Resources vs. Activities. This tool can be used also for tracking resource usage
during the project implementation period (refer to 7.5.2).
The following paragraphs describe analytically the steps to be followed in order to develop a
Resource Plan.
7.4.2.1 Identification of types and quantities of resources
Once the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) has been applied and the project activities have
been identified, you are ready to identify the types (labour, equipment, material) and
quantities of the resources needed to implement the project.
In order to identify the resource requirements the following steps should be followed:
1. Review the project scope and activities/ tasks list in order to identify the projects
requirements for people, equipment and material resources.
2. Gather historical information from old project files, databases and from people who
have worked on similar projects, regarding what types and numbers of resources
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were required for performing similar work on previous projects, as well as the duration
of the relative tasks.
3. Consider how resource quantities, capabilities and quality affect the duration of
the activities/ tasks. The duration of most tasks is influenced by the number of
resources assigned to them. In most cases, particularly for production tasks, two
resources can complete a task in half the time it would take for a single resource.
Similarly, a resource working half time on a task will typically take about twice as
much time as the same resource working full time. However, in other instances, for
example for design tasks, adding resources does not guarantee that the duration will
decrease. The duration of most tasks is also influenced by the capabilities and
experience of the resources assigned to them. For example, a team member with five
years experience can typically be expected to complete a task in less time than one
with two years experience.
As you collect information about the project in hand and other similar projects,
continue to refine the duration estimates for the project tasks (refer to 7.4.1.4). The
accuracy of the duration estimates is closely related to the accuracy of your resource
requirements.
4. Identify the resource types and quantities needed. Once you have collected all
the necessary information, identify the types of resources and the quantities needed
for each. Generally the resources are distinguished in three main categories:
Labour (or Human Resources): It is not necessary at this stage of the project to
be identified by name, but the professional qualifications and the type of skills
required for carrying out an activity/ task should be identified. For example, there
is no need to specify that Mr. X will be used to elaborate the detail design for the
construction of a bridge, but you could say that one civil engineer with relative
experience in bridge construction projects is required. Do not forget to identify the
necessary resources required to perform the project management tasks, such as
the Project Manager, Quality Manager, etc.
Usually the quantity of a labour resource is measured by using the term Full
Time Equivalent (FTE). One FTE indicates one person that will work 8 hours per
day for 5 days per week. Respectively 0,5 FTE indicates one person that will
spent half of his full time in the project. Another frequent measure of labour usage
is the man-months (mm) or the man-days (md) or the man-hours (mh) that the
resource is going to be used. For example, if you determine that for the
implementation of a specific task 3 mm of an architect are needed, it means that
this person will spend 3 months x 20 (or 21 or 22) days = 60 md = 480 mh for the
implementation of this task.
Equipment: You have to list the equipment that will be used for the performance
of works (e.g. excavators, cranes), the delivery of services or supplies (e.g.
classrooms for the conduction of training seminars, lorries for carrying supplies
and warehouses for storing supplies), as well as for carrying out supportive
actions like project and procurement management (e.g. computers, software
packages, photocopiers).
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The quantity of equipment resources is defined either by the number of units

(e.g. 3 computers, 1 projector, 2 classrooms). In case of external equipment
resources and especially when these will be leased or rented, it is important to
define their usage time (e.g. rent an excavator for three days, rent a special
machine tool for some hours, book a classroom for one week, etc.).
Material: You have to list the material that will be used for the production of the
deliverables. For example in case of a building construction project, materials like
bricks, cement, steel, cables, paints will be used. Or in case of a training delivery
project, materials like paper for printing the training material and blank CDs for
distributing the training material to participants will be used. In addition, material
that will be used for project management and procurement management activities
should also be listed (e.g. paper for printing the tender documents, posters to be
used for publicity actions of the project, etc.)
The quantity of material resources is defined using the appropriate
measurement units for each material. For example, 50 m of cable, 5 tn of cement,
50 kg of plastic paint, 5.000 sheets of printing paper, 100 blank CD-Rs, etc.
5. Ask for an experts judgment. Once you have identified the types and quantities of
resources you should present the resource requirements to an individual expert or a
group of experts in order to assess them and advise you for their suitability and
appropriateness. Such expertise and specialised knowledge may be acquired either
from other units within the agency (e.g. technical unit, HR unit) or/and by external
consultants or/and by professional and technical associations or/and by industry
groups.
6. Examine the adequacy of resources. Regardless of whether the project will be
implemented with own resources (in-house production) or it will be contracted out to
an economic operator through a tendering process, you have to examine the
sufficiency of the internal resources, because even in the second case (outsource
production) you will need to involve internal resources for performing the project
management tasks in order to monitor and control the contractor. The sufficiency of
internal resources (i.e. those resources owned by the Implementing Agency) should
be examined both in terms of quantity, as well as in terms of skills, experience and
expertise with relation to project requirements. Taking into account the result of
adequacy examination, as well as the organisational policies regarding staffing and
the rental or purchase of supplies and equipment you should decide whether there is
a need to acquire external resources. If for example there is a need to use a legal
advisor in performing some activities and there is not such an expert in the Agencys
staff, you will need to hire an external advisor, or if for example there is a need of
classrooms for conducting training seminars and the Agency doesnt own any
classroom or the classrooms it owns are used for another project that given period, it
will have to rent them either from another agency or from a private entity.
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7.4.2.2 Development of Resource Schedule
After receiving an experts judgment assuring you that the type and quantities of the
resources that have been identified are appropriate for achieving the project goals and
objectives it is time to estimate when and for how long each resource will be utilised in order
to develop the Resource Schedule.
In order to achieve this you should look at the starting and finishing dates of the
activities and tasks in which each of the resources will be used, since at the end of the
day the most important thing is to achieve effective and on time completion of all planned
activities and tasks. For example, in a building construction project where you will need the
architect for the elaboration of the architectural study, you have to advise the Activities
Schedule for finding out when and for how long this task will take place, in order to estimate
the corresponding period that the architect will need to be engaged in the project. For the
same project the building equipment & material will mainly be used in the construction stage,
so you have to schedule them according to when that stage will take place. Undoubtly, there
are resources that will be used in more than one phases of the project or in more than one
activities/tasks, like for example the Quality Manager, who is responsible for managing and
assuring quality in all the phases of the project. In these cases you should estimate the
whole duration for which the resource will be engaged.
The tool provided in Annex 7-1/ Sheet Resource Schedule, apart from scheduling
the resources, it can also be used to schedule any travelling that may be associated
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with the labour resources. In this way, you will be able to monitor scheduled travelling during
the Execution & Control phase and keep track of its relative costs by using the tool provided
in Annex 7-1/ Sheet Cost Schedule.
The Resource Schedule developed in the planning phase is usually called Baseline
Resource Schedule, since it will be used during the project execution phase for
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tracking progress by viewing the variances between the baseline estimates and the actual
data (refer to 7.5.2).
7.4.2.3 Assignment of resources to project activities/ tasks
Once you have estimated when and for how long each resource will be needed in the project
you have to assign them to specific activities/ tasks of the project in order to complete the
development of the Resource Plan.
When assigning resources to activities/ tasks you should take into account the
following factors in order to build a more effective Resource Plan:
Availability of resources. The most important factor for deciding which resource
will be assigned to what activity(ies)/ task(s) is the potential availability of the
resources in the periods the corresponding activities/ tasks will take place. This is
especially important for the internal resources and mainly for the human resources,
since its rare for the employees of an Implementing Agency to be assigned only to
one project from start to finish with no additional responsibilities outside the scope
of a single project. For this reason you should ask the functional manager or the
head of the unit, who is directly responsible for the management of the certain
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employee you want to assign to the project, about his/her planned engagements in
other projects or activities of the Implementing Agency. Having examined his/her
availability for the specific period and after receiving the relative approval from
his/her superior you are able to assign him/her to one or more activities/ tasks. Do
not forget that availability doesnt refer solely to the resource start and end dates in
the project, but it refers also to the amount of time that the resource is able to
devote to the project, i.e. whether the resource is working part or full time on the
project and whether his/her availability changes at any point.
The availability of external resources is something that is examined and managed
by the respective Project Manager of the contractor. What you have to do in this
case, as a representative of the Implementing Agency, is to define the quality
characteristics, quantities and required effort from these resources, as well as the
time periods in which these resources will be engaged in the project and include
them in the Terms of Reference and in the terms of the contract.
As general guidelines you should consider the following:

Be realistic about the availability of resources. Allowance should be
made for official non-working days, holidays and time that people will
spend on non-project activities.
Assign busier resources on tasks that cannot be performed by other
resources.
Consider assigning additional resources on tasks in order to prevent or
alleviate overallocation.
Use underallocated resources to help relieve the overallocated ones.
Plan for contingencies in order to be prepared for potential situations.
For example What if I dont have 3 Visual Basic programmers in June? or
What if my only environmental engineer quits or becomes disabled before
his critical assignment to Environmental Impact Assessment Study task in
mid-July? These potential situations can be identified by a vigorous risk
analysis, based on past experience and perceptive forecasting. You may not
be able to forecast specific events, but you can note that the possibility
exists. You can ask What does it do to the schedule and what is the
potential impact on my resource plan? Even if you dont have to take any
actions at this time, you should be prepared to facilitate the specific resource
solution when and if the potential need arises. For this reason alternative
resources or/and skills should be identified and evaluated; outsourcing
candidates should be contacted and evaluated; trigger dates for action
decisions should be determined and auto alarms set up; potential scope
adjustment options should be evaluated.
Cost of resources. Apart from being effective in terms of schedule, the Resource
Plan should also be effective in terms of cost, since the cost of the resources has
usually a great contribution to the overall cost of the project.
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In this perspective you should try to:

Assign more expensive resources to tasks that cannot be performed by
less expensive resources, so that you obtain the maximum return from the
use of resource.
Assign less expensive resources to as many tasks as possible to keep
the project within budget limitations, but without putting in danger the
successful outcome of the task.
Capability of resources. The more familiar you are with resource capabilities, the
more efficiently and effectively you can assign resources to tasks. Concerning the
human resources you need to understand their background, experience, skills and
capabilities. Concerning the equipment you have to be familiar with their operation,
performance and maintenance. As far as materials are concerned you need to
know their quality characteristics, their suitability for purpose and the rate of
consumption.
In this perspective you should try to:

Assign the most efficient resources to critical tasks, to ensure that your
schedule does not slip.
Use the resources with the higher quality or the more effective
resources on high-risk tasks or tasks that require the highest level of
quality.
The tool provided in Annex 7-1/ Sheet Resources vs. Activities, apart from
assigning resources to project activities/ tasks, it can be used also to assign any
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travelling that may be associated with the performance of the activities/ tasks. In this way,
you will be able to monitor scheduled travelling per activity or task during the Execution &
Control phase and keep track of the their contribution to the cost of each activity/ task by
using the tool provided in Annex 7-1/ Sheet Costs vs. Activities.
7.4.3 Development of Cost Plan
The Cost Plan includes an estimate and a schedule of the costs that will be incurred in order
to complete the project activities and tasks. The Cost Plan is usually prepared after the
development of the Activities Schedule and the Resource Plan, since it requires input from
both of them. Based on the information now known about the project as a result of Project
Planning activities (i.e. more detail and greater accuracy regarding project activities, tasks
and durations, a more detailed understanding of the resources required to perform the work
and their associated costs), the Project Manager can refine the budget required to complete
the project. This is particularly important when a project or some of its components are
planned to be performed under contract (i.e. through a tendering process), since in this case
the value of the contract should be accurately estimated in order to be included in the relative
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tender documents. The cost planning is also very important in case that the project is
implemented with own resources (in-house production), since the establishment of a realistic
and accurate cost plan will help you to effectively monitor costs during the execution and
monitoring phase in order to stay within budget.
In order to develop the Cost Plan, the following steps should be followed (Figure 7-9):
Identification and estimation of costs that are expected to be incurred in the project
Development of Cost Schedule by estimating when each of the costs will be
incurred
Estimation of cost per activity/ task
Identification Estimation of
Development of
and estimation cost per
Cost Schedule
of costs activity/ task
Figure 7-9: Steps to be followed for the development of the Cost Plan
For simple projects the development of a Cost Plan may be limited to entering only the
overall cost against the project activity on the Activities Schedule. However, for larger and
more complex projects, a detailed Cost Plan should be completed to ensure that the overall
expenditure is both accurate and appropriate.
There are various software packages in the market, such as MS Project and
Primavera Project Planner (P3), which can be used to develop, monitor and control a
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detailed cost plan. However, for the purposes of this Guide a simple tool for developing a
cost plan is provided in Annex 7-1 (in excel format) in order to be used by people who do
not possess or are not competent in using the relative commercial software. The tool
consists of two Sheets: one used for the preparation of the Cost Schedule and the other
for the estimation of cost per activity/ task, named Costs vs. Activities. This tool can be
used also for tracking financial progress during the project implementation period (refer to
7.5.3).
The following paragraphs describe analytically the steps to be followed in order to develop a
Cost Plan.
7.4.3.1 Identification and estimation of costs
The identification of the various costs is closely related to the resource requirements
of the project (refer to 7.4.2.1), since the greatest percentage of the projects overall
cost consists of the costs of the resources needed to complete the project activities. When
developing a Cost Plan, apart from the costs of all resources that will be charged to the
project, you should also take into account travel costs, administrative costs and contingency
costs. More specifically, the basic types of costs, which are usually incurred in a project, are
the following:
Costs of resources: This type of costs include the following subcategories:
o Labour costs: They are costs associated with labour resources (both internal
and external ones). They include salaries, wages or any other kind of
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remuneration provided to people who are assigned to perform one or more

activities of the project.
o Equipment costs: They are costs associated with the purchasing, renting or
leasing of equipment, as well as with the operation/ using and maintenance of
the equipment (operating costs). In case that the equipment resources are
internal, there are no purchasing, renting or leasing costs, but only operating
and maintenance costs.
o Materials costs: They are costs associated with the purchasing or usage of
materials.
Travel costs: They are costs associated with any travelling that may be required
in the scope of the project. They include transportation costs (e.g. flight tickets, taxi
fees, car fuel, parking fees, etc), accommodation costs (e.g. hotel rooms,
apartments, etc.) and any daily allowances (e.g. lunch/ dinner, entertainment).
Administrative costs or overheads: They are costs associated with the
performance of administration and coordination activities. Examples of such costs
are: office supplies (e.g. printing paper, envelopes, labels, etc.), postage or
delivery costs, costs for utilities (e.g. electricity, water, telecommunication), clerical
and administrative salaries and wages, legal and insurance fees, memberships in
technical and professional organisations.
Contingency costs: They are costs which, based on past experiences, are known
to be regularly encountered but difficult or impossible to estimate at the time the
plan is prepared. These costs may result from incomplete design, unforeseen and
unpredictable conditions, risks or uncertainties within the defined project scope.
The reason that they are included in the Cost Plan is to reduce the risk of budget
overrun. Contingency costs may be either built into the above costs or listed as a
separate category.
After identifying the various costs it is time to estimate the value of each cost. Depending on
the way that they are estimated/ calculated the resource costs can be distinguished into
three categories:
Rate-based costs: They are costs of resources that depend on the amount of
work to be done (in case of labour or equipment) or on the consumption quantities
(in case of materials). In order to estimate the rate-based resource costs you
should first estimate the cost per unit and then multiply it by the number of units to
calculate the total value of each cost. In case that unit rates (e.g. staff cost per
hour or per day, rent cost of facility per day or per month, bulk material cost per kg
or per m3) are not known or predetermined, then they have to be estimated. The
estimation of unit rates can be made using historical information like records of
previous projects, commercial cost-estimating databases and project team
knowledge, but in order to be more realistic and accurate they should be based on
recent data.
Per-use costs: This category applies mainly for equipment costs and
circumstantially for material costs. The per-use costs are one-time costs that are
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assigned each time the resource is used and do not depend on the amount of work
to be done. For example, rental equipment might have a delivery or setup charge
every time it is used, in addition to an hourly charge. Another example of per-use
cost is the amount that has to be paid to the licensor of a material (e.g. specialized
software with per-use license) each time the material is used.
Fixed costs: They are costs that remain constant regardless of the task duration,
the work performed by a resource, or the number of assigned resource units. A
rate-based resource cost may increase when a task takes more time, but a fixed
cost does not. For example, if a consultant is paid hourly and is scheduled to
complete a task in five days, but the task takes seven days, the consultant will be
paid more than planned. If the consultant is paid a fixed amount for the work, then
the cost will be the same no matter how long the task takes.
Fixed costs can be assigned to a task in addition to rate-based resource
costs. For example, if the performance of a task requires a machine that
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has to be purchased, the cost of purchasing that machine is a fixed cost, while the
operating cost of this machine is a rate-based cost.
For the estimation of the rest costs (except from the costs of resources) you can
apply the following general guidelines:
Travel costs consist of a fixed part (transportation costs) and a variable part (per-
diem costs i.e. accommodation, lunches/ dinners, etc.). So, in order to estimate the
total cost of a travel you need to know the exact destination in order to estimate
the transportation costs and its duration in order to estimate the per-diem8 costs.
The estimation of the travel costs is not always an easy exercise and requires
experience from previous projects in order to be in a position to predefine how
many travels and of what duration will be necessary in the scope of a particular
project. For this reason, you should always reserve an amount in the contingency
costs in order to cover unscheduled travels.
Administrative costs or overheads (facilities and administration, rent, electricity,
depreciation, telephone, etc.) are indirect costs that cannot be identified to a
specific project or function. However, these are actual costs that are incurred by an
entity. They are usually determined as a percentage of salaries and wages or as a
percentage of total direct costs. A commonly used method to estimate the
overheads is by dividing the yearly sum of all administrative costs with the yearly
sum of the productive time9 of the entitys employees. In this way you can
8
If you want to have an indication of per diem rates (cost/day) you can visit the website of European
Commission http://ec.europa.eu/comm/europeaid/perdiem/index_en.htm where you can find an
updated a list of maximum per diem rates per country. The list has been developed to be used in the
framework of EC-funded external aid contracts and in case of missions requiring an overnight stay
away from the base of operations for Europeaid contracts.
9
The productive time is the days or hours spent by the employees on production work, excluding any
non-working time (holidays, weekends, regular leave, sick leave, etc.).
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calculate an administrative cost rate (/hr or /day) specific for your entity, which
can then be multiplied by the scheduled labour time (hours or days) for the
particular project in order to calculate the total administrative cost of the project.
Another method that will lead to more accurate results but is more difficult to apply,
is to estimate the administrative costs that are expected to be incurred during the
project period and then apportion them to the project by taking into account the
number of employees and the amount of facilities that will be engaged in the
project.
Contingency costs: The traditional method to estimate contingency costs is to
consider them as percentage (%) of the total cost based on experience and past
data. Another method which is more rational and reliable is to determine the
contingency costs as alternative/ different percentages (%) to each major element
of cost (e.g. labour, equipment, material, travels), based on the concept that each
element has its own uncertainty. These deterministic methods work effectively for
simple projects under stable conditions. For more complex projects that involve
great uncertainties, more advanced methods of calculation should be used, such
as quantitative risk analysis, method of moments, Monte Carlo Simulation, etc.
Once all elements of costs have been estimated, you can easily estimate the overall cost of
the project by summing up all the individual costs.
It should be noted that the estimated overall cost of the project should not exceed
in any case the approved budget. Any refinements of the budget as a result of the
cost estimating process are allowed only if they dont cause an overrun of the budget. For
example, the review of cost estimates may bring up the need to make adjustments to the
cost totals or/and reallocations of costs between activities. These adjustments of cost
estimates should be done with respect to the overall budget of the project.
7.4.3.2 Development of Cost Schedule
After you have estimated all costs, you have to estimate when these costs are expected to
be incurred during the project implementation period and develop the Cost Schedule.
In order to determine when the resource costs will be incurred you should look at
the Resource Schedule to find out when each resource is planned to be used. In case
that you are using a commercial software like MS Project to develop the Project Plan, the
cost schedule will be prepared automatically based on the schedule that you would have
previously prepared for the usage of resources and the assignment of resources to specific
tasks/ activities. The only thing that you have to do in this case is to assign cost rates and
cost per-use to each of the resources and then define the cost accrual method. Usually,
there are three available options for determining when the costs will accrue. You can either
select a cost to accrue at the start of a task (it is preferred when you have a lump-sum
amount payable at the start) or at the end of a task (it is preferred when you are holding
payment until the work is finished) or you can select the prorated method according to which
the cost is distributed over the tasks duration and the cost accrual is based on the
completion percentage of a task. It should be noted that per-use costs always accrue at the
start of a task.
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In case that you are not using specialised software for developing the Cost Schedule,
all the above actions should be made manually.
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The accrual of fixed costs depends on the schedule of the activities to which they
are assigned. For example, the costs associated with a travel will be incurred within the
timeframe of the activity or task in the framework of which the travel will take place. Another
example is the cost for catering services that will accrue within the timeframe of a training
seminar. As with resource costs, you can select the fixed costs to be incurred at the start or
finish of a task or you can select the prorated accrual method.
As far as the administrative costs are concerned, they are either evenly distributed
over the projects duration or they are incorporated in the labour costs following in this
way their distribution in time.
The exact time that contingency costs may accrue cannot easily be determined,
since they are unpredictable costs. Therefore they are either incorporated (as a
percentage) in the other categories of costs or more frequently they are kept undistributed
and if/when they eventually accrue they are subtracted from the estimated total amount in
order to track variances.
Based on the developed Cost Schedule, you can prepare the Cost Baseline Graph
that will be used to measure and monitor cost performance during the project
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execution phase (refer to 7.5.3.3 and to Annex 7-11: Guidelines on Earned Value Analysis).
The Cost Baseline graph is usually displayed in the form of an S-curve as illustrated in Figure
7-10.
Cost Baseline
Cumulative
costs
Time
Figure 7-10: Typical display of a Cost Baseline Graph (S-curve)
The above graph represents the cumulative project costs in the time. In order to prepare this
graph you need to create an intermediate table that will sum, for each time period of your
schedule (week or month), the planned costs, and calculate the cumulative cost for each
period (week or month). A simple Excel graph will then enable you to generate your Cost
Baseline Graph.
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7.4.3.3 Estimation of cost per activity/ task
Apart from identifying when the various costs are likely to occur, it is also important to identify
the cost of undertaking each activity/ task laid down in the Activities Schedule.
As with the development of the Cost Schedule this can be done very easily and
without much effort if you are using commercial software like MS Project. In this case the
estimation of cost per activity/ task is done automatically by the software, provided that you
have assigned:
1. Resources to project activities/ tasks (refer to 7.4.2.3)
2. Cost rates and cost per-use to each of the resources (refer to 7.4.3.2), and
3. Fixed costs to project activities/ tasks (refer to 7.4.3.2).
In case that you are not using specialised software you have to perform these actions
manually or even better by using an excel spreadsheet to speed up the calculations.
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Once you have estimated the cost of each activity/ task you should review the total
cost in order to verify that it falls within your budget. If the total cost does not
meet your budget, you may need to examine each individual task's costs and each
resource's task assignments to see where costs can be reduced. As a result of this process
you may come up with revised Resource and Cost Schedules or even with a revised
Activities Schedule, since time, costs and resources are interrelated. This means that
applying changes to one of them will cause respective changes to the others.
7.4.4 Development of Quality Plan
The success of a project is typically measured in terms of the achievement of time, cost and
quality targets. As time and cost targets are addressed in the Activities Schedule and Cost
Plans respectively (refer to 7.4.1 and 7.4.3), you need now to develop the Quality Plan which
means to outline the quality targets and identify the methods that will be used to assure that
the quality targets will be achieved for this project.
To create a Quality Plan the following steps should be undertaken:
Definition of quality criteria and standards to achieve
Establishment of quality control processes and techniques
Definition of Establishment of
quality criteria quality control
& standards to processes &
achieve techniques
Figure 7-11: Steps to be followed for the development of the Quality Plan
The Quality Plan is being developed by the Project Manager or the Quality Manager,
depending on whether the quality assurance and control responsibilities will be delegated to
a third party.
The Quality Manager except of preparing the Quality Plan should have the following
responsibilities:
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Ensuring that quality targets are defined for each deliverable and for the
management process
Establishing quality control activities to control the quality of the deliverables actually
produced by the Contractor
Monitoring and evaluating the quality assurance activities
Implementing quality control processes and identifying quality deviations
Reporting the quality status to the Project Manager
In order to perform efficiently the Quality Manager should:
Checklist 7-1: Characteristics that the Quality Manager should possess
Have experience in quality management or be familiar with methodologies, tools and concepts
in quality management. Depending on the scale and complexity of the current project the
minimum experience required to undertake this role successfully must be outlined
Have a good understanding of the industry within the current project is being undertaken
Be able to direct and manage the quality reviewers
Have excellent analytical and report writing skills
Be effective communicator.
7.4.4.1 Definition of quality criteria and standards to achieve
The objective of this step is to determine the quality required for the products of the project.
At the outset , quality targets should be set for each Deliverable, which will be used
to ensure that the deliverable produced by the Contractor meets the requirements
defined by the Contracting Authority.
In this perspective quality targets can be defined by:
Describing the product/ service/ infrastructure in detail. A well organized,
comprehensive description of the product/ service/ construction provides a blueprint
to follow as well as a reference point, which you can compare with actual
accomplishment
Stating the functional requirements of a product/infrastructure or by defining
and if possible quantifying the characteristics that the product/ service/
infrastructure should possess in terms of:
o Performance
o Accuracy
o Practicability
o Security
o Compatibility
o Reliability
o Maintainability
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o Expandability
o Clarity
o Cost
o Implementation date, etc.
Considering and adopting any standards that are specific to the product/
service or infrastructure provided by the project. Industry wide standards exist
for many products and services, e.g. for construction, for automotive, for health and
safety as well as for aerospace, building code software, electrical/ electronics,
government/ military, medical, petrochemicals, quality, telecommunications, welding
& metals, etc.
Example 7-8: Quality targets for the purchasing of notebooks
Example 1: The Department of Information Technology Services (DITS) decides to purchase, 400
notebooks for various governmental departments and governmental services. In order to deliver
notebooks that will satisfy the users needs, DITS has to set quality targets. In this perspective,
some of the quality targets that could be set are:
RAM Technology DDR SDRAM or DDR2 SDRAM and ECC

Screen type TFT
Screen max resolution 1024 X 768
Graphic subsystem with max 1024 X 768
resolution
Graphic subsystem with max 16 millions
number of colours
Ethernet Supporting 1000Mbps Ethernet
Wireless LAN Supporting IEEE 802.11b/g
USB Port At least 2 USB ports v.2.0
Keyboard To be in compliance with standard ISO/IEC
15412 with permanent Greek / Latin characters
Weight Max weight 3.0 Kg (including all devices)
Certifications Compliant with Low Voltage Directive
73/23/EEC
Compliant with Electromagnetic radiation
Certifications
Directive 89/336/EEC and 92/31/EC
EPO Energy Star compliance
Certifications
IT ECO Declaration
Certifications
Example 7-9: Quality targets for the Preparation of Public Procurement Best Practice Guide
Example 2: PPD decides to proceed with a tendering process in order to enter into a contract with a
Consulting Company for the preparation of a Public Procurement Best Practice Guide.
Indicative quality targets that PPD should set for the Guide are:
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The Guide should provide guidance for the effective application of best practices for the
procurement of services, supplies and works.
The Guide should address the complete procurement process from the point of identification of
needs, contract management up to and including the disposal of assets making special
reference to the efficient use of procurement procedures.
The Guide should be practical and help to the standardisation and structuring of business
documents so that certain routine steps in the purchasing process be automated
It should also provide model tender documents and model contracts for supplies, services and
works in order to contribute to the establishment of more uniformity in the tendering
environment
The Guide should address to all Cypriot Contracting Authorities regardless of their experience,
effectiveness and the volume procured by them
The Guide should cover at the least the following topics:
o Definition of needs/ requirements of the project
o Market assessment
o Plan the procedure for establishing the procurement strategy
o Establish the procurement strategy
o Formulation of requirements
o Writing specifications and preparation of Terms of Reference
o Selection of tenderers in the restricted, negotiated and competitive dialogue
procedures and eligibility criteria in the open procedure
o Establishing evaluation strategy
o Definition of evaluation clauses
o Evaluating the tenders
o Award the contract
o Project and contract management
The Guide should be in alignment with the EC Directives on public procurement and the
national laws that are transposing these directives, but it is not intended just to repeat them
The Best Practice Guide should be delivered both in hard copy format as well as in electronic
format (CD ROM and Web based toolkit)
The Guide should be written in both English and Greek language.
It should be mentioned that in order for a Contracting Authority to deliver products,

services or infrastructure that really satisfy its needs, apart from defining explicitly the
quality targets, special care should be taken during the preparation of the Tender Documents
to ask from the economic operators to describe in their proposal the Quality policy10 or the
10
Quality policy is the overall intentions and direction of an organization with regard to quality, as
formally expressed by top management (International Organization for Standardization. ISO 8402
1994. Quality Management and Quality Assurance, Geneva, Switzerland: ISO Press).
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quality management system11 that they possess as well as the quality Assurance processes
that intend to apply if they are awarded the contract. In cases of public works projects, or
projects for the provision of project management services the Contracting Authorities should
also ask that the economic operators who participate in the tendering process must hold an
ISO or equivalent standard certification.
If the Contractor possess a quality policy and a certain quality management system, these
can be adopted unaltered for use during the project. However, if the Contractor lacks of a
formal quality policy or quality management system, then he will need to develop a quality
policy and processes for quality assurance, especially for the project.
Quality assurance activities focus on the processes being used to manage and deliver
the solution and can be performed by the Project Manager or the Quality Manager of
the Contractor or by an external project resource (e.g. quality auditors).
Types of techniques used by the Contractors to assure the quality of their deliverables
include:
Skilled staff: Using skilled staff will directly affect the quality of the deliverables
produced. Appropriately skilled staff should have the knowledge, skills and
experience required to undertake the tasks defined in the Project Plan and achieve
the level of quality desired
Peer Reviews: A peer review is a thorough review of a specific deliverable conducted
by members of the Contractors Project Team who are day-to day peers of the
individuals who produced the work. During the meetings the quality issues found are
discussed and actions that have to be followed in order to correct the quality issues,
prior to presenting the deliverable to the Contracting Authority, are being assigned to
certain individuals. It is estimated that peer reviews can provide the Contracting
Authority with confidence that the project is on track and likely produce a deliverable
which meets its requirements. Therefore, it is in the discretion of the Contracting
Authority to decide whether to ask the Contractor to submit the Peer Reviews Reports
as an attachment to the respective Deliverable
Use of Templates: The use of templates provides guidance to the project team
members and therefore ensures both improvement of productivity level and of quality
Checklists: Checklists capture and communicate the quality standards that must be
met by the targeted activity. In this perspective they can be proved to be helpful for
the project team members who participate at the execution of the specific activity
Small tasks: Breaking down activities into small and more manageable tasks except
for ensuring better control provide also finer level of quality control. By establishing
11
Quality Management system refers to the organization's structure for managing its processes - or
activities - that transform inputs of resources into a product or service which meet the organization's
objectives, such as satisfying the customer's quality requirements, complying to regulations, or
meeting environmental objectives.
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quality criteria for each task and verifying each task along the way, many more
opportunities are being provided to detect quality discrepancies as early in the project
as possible.
7.4.4.2 Establishment of quality assurance and control processes and techniques
After having set the quality targets, the Contracting Authority should plan the quality
control activities to be employed during the implementation of the project, in order to
verify that the deliverables meet the quality targets established during the planning process
and that the Contractor performs according to the submitted Quality Plan.
The most known and frequently used technique for quality assurance and control is the
review. Review includes activities such as measuring, examining and testing
undertaken to determine whether results conform to requirements. Review can be conducted
at any level (e.g. the results of a certain activity are reviewed or the final product is
inspected). Depending on the type of the final product (e.g. software, study, training material,
training execution, a bridge etc) the review can take different forms. For example, in case of
a software the review can be a beta version testing; in case of an IT system the review can
take the form of a hardware compatibility test; in case of a road the review can take the forms
of an on-site inspection and laboratory tests (e.g. for asphalt).
During the Quality Planning process, the Contracting Authority should define the techniques
to be implemented to assure and control the quality of each deliverable of the project as well
as of the management processes, when and how often these techniques will be used and by
whom. In this perspective a Contracting Authority may decide to hold:
Deliverable Reviews after the completion and submission of each deliverable by
the Contractor in order to ensure that the deliverable is built according to the
specified design
Documentation Reviews for all management documentation every three months
immediately after the submission of Progress Reports by the Contractor.
Example 7-10: Quality Control Plan for the Project Improving the implementing capacity of the
Cypriot Authorities
Example: Project Improving the implementing capacity of the Cypriot Authorities.

The main Deliverables that have to be produced are:
o The Action Plan for the PPD in order to be ready to undertake its new role
o The Public Procurement Best Practice Guide
o Training
Besides the Contractor has the responsibility to perform the management of the project.
(Analytical project description (activities) is being presented in 7.4.1.2)
The Quality Control Plan that PPD should develop could be as follows:
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Technique to Description Frequency Responsible/

be used Participants
Deliverable The Project Manager asks from After the Project Manager
reviews the project team members who submission of
Quality
are assigned to work as quality each
Reviewers
reviewers to read carefully the Deliverable
Deliverable, check the
completeness and correctness
of the topics presented, identify
deficiencies and comment on
possible improvements.
After the individual review of
the Deliverables all the
reviewers will be met in order to
discuss their findings and
submit to the Project Manager
their individual reports
The Project Manager has to
take all the reports into
consideration and produce the
Quality Review Report that has
to be submitted to both the
Project Steering Committee
and the Contractor
Documentation After the submission of the Every three Project Manager
Reviews Progress Report by the months after
Project Steering
Contractor the Project Manager the submission
Committee
and the Project Steering of the Project
Committee reviews it to ensure Progress Report
that all the information needed by the
are included and that every Contractor
change to the activities
schedule or resource plan is
adequately documented and
therefore justified.
A template of a Quality Plan is being presented in Annex 7-3.

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7.4.5 Development of Issue Management Plan
The Issue Management Plan describes how issues will be captured, tracked and prioritized
during the project life cycle, as well as how and when issues will be escalated for resolution.
Project Issues are usually problems that may be raised at any time during the project by
anyone with an interest in the project or its outcome. Indicative examples of project issues
are:
A project team member will start working for the project later than it was initially
planned
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Severe thunderstorm is predicted in Larnaca where the new airport is being

constructed
One of the team managers is transferred to another Contracting Authority
The Project Manager on behalf of the Contractor is taking another job.
The Contracting Authority and the contractor share different views of the project
scope
Issues that remain unresolved are likely to become major problems resulting in the
need for initiating a change control process. It is therefore, very important to have an
issue escalation and management process in place, and to execute this process before
change control procedures become necessary.
During the Planning Phase, the Project Manager has to develop the Issue Management Plan
which will be used from this point till the end of the project to ensure that every issue is
formally resolved.
The Issue Management Plan describes how project issues will be:
captured
communicated
documented
prioritized
escalated
reviewed and finally
resolved
by defining the issue management process to be followed, the documentation to be used, as
well as the roles and responsibilities of all human resources involved in the process.
The Issue Management Plan may include the following:
Icon1310.ico Table 7-1: Typical contents of the Issue Management Plan
Issue Management process: It refers to the process that will be used to perform issue
management on the project.
Indicative issue management process, which can be used in almost all projects, is the
following:
Step 1: Identification of Project Issues
Any member of the Project Team or the Project Management Team (Issue Originator)
who identifies an issue applicable to a particular aspect of the project (e.g. time,
scope etc), completes an Issue Form (template is provided in Annex 7-4) and
forwards it to the Project Manager.
Step 2: Register Issue
The Project Manager reviews all Issue Forms and examines whether each issue
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identified is applicable to the project and has an impact on its implementation.

If the issue is considered related to the project the Project Manager registers it in the
Issue Log (template is provided in Annex 7-5) and assigns to it an ID. The Project
Manager evaluates also the level of issues impact on the project and decides
whether its resolution will be of high, medium or low priority.
Step 3: Assign Actions to resolve issues
The Project Manager can proceed with issue handling only when the consequences
of the resolving actions are not expected to go beyond the tolerance margins that
the Project Steering Committee has set for the project or when the issue itself is
inside his/her authority limits. In these cases, the Project Manager may decide:
o to assign actions for the issue resolution to certain project team members
o to raise a project risk if the issue is likely to impact the project in the future
o to raise a change request (or ask the Contractor to raise a change request) if the
issue results in the need for a change to the project/ contract
o to close the issue if this is not impacting the project anymore
In case that the consequences of the resolving actions are expected to go beyond the
tolerance margins or when the issue itself is outside the authority limits of Project
Manager, the latter escalates the issue to the Project Steering Committee for deciding
about the resolving actions.
The Project Steering Committee reviews the issues registered and after a discussion
during which the Project Manager recommends actions, decides either to:
o Adopt Project Managers recommendations and assign actions for the issue
resolution to certain Project Team Members or to the Project Manager, or
Note: It must be noted that in case of projects implemented by contractors, a
recommendation could be to ask the contractor to take actions for resolving an
issue that was originated by his performance.
o to raise a project risk if the issue is likely to impact the project in the future, or
issue results in the need for a change to the project/ contract, or
o to close the issue if this is not impacting the project anymore.
Step 4: Scheduling and Implement Actions for issue resolution
The Project Manager schedules the implementation of the actions assigned by him or
by the Project Steering Committee. He/ She also informs the people who have been
assigned to implement the issue resolution actions on what exactly they have to do
and when.
People assigned to perform each scheduled action, do so.
Step 5: Monitoring and controlling Issue Resolution Actions

The Project Manager:
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o monitors the implementation of each issue resolution action and reviews its
success
o updates the Issue Log by writing down the implementation date of the issue
resolution action
o communicates the results of the action taken to the Project Steering Committee
Issue Management Documents: It refers to the documentation used to identify, track

and control issues related to the project.
Indicative management documents which can be used in almost all projects are the
following: Issue Form (the document which is completed by a member of the project
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team in order to inform the Project Manager for a new issue) and Issue Log (Issue
Register). The template for Issue Log is provided in Annex 7-5, while the Issue Form is
provided in Annex 7-4.
Normally the Issue Form includes:
Name of the Project
Description of the issue
Description of the issues impact
Proposal for issue resolution actions
Section for approval.
Roles and Responsibilities. It refers to the roles and responsibilities of all human
resources involved in the identification, review and resolution of project issues.
Indicative roles and responsibilities are:
Issue Originator
The issue originator identifies the issue and reports it to the Project Manager, so he is
responsible for:
documenting the issues he/ she identified (refer to Issue Form Annex 7-4) and
submitting the Issue Form to the Project Manager for review.
Project Manager
The Project Manager is responsible for:
reviewing all Issue Forms submitted by the issue originators
registering all issues in the Issue Log
determine and assign resolution actions (only in cases that the consequences of the
resolving actions are not expected to go beyond the tolerance margins that the
Project Steering Committee has set for the project or when the issue itself is inside
his/her authority limits)
presenting the identified issues and the recommended actions to the Project Steering
Committee (in all other cases)
communicating the decisions made by the Project Steering Committee to the people
who are assigned to perform the resolution actions
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monitoring the progress of the resolution actions assigned and update the Issue Log

The Project Steering Committee is responsible for:
reviewing all issues presented by the Project Manager
allocating issue resolution actions
7.4.6 Development of Change Management Plan
Every aspect of the project defined during the Project Initiation Phase or during the Project
Planning Phase has the potential to change. Project change can be generally defined as
any adjustment or modification to the formally documented (e.g. in the Project Fiche,
ToRs, Contract, Project Plan, etc.) aspects of the project, such as cost, scope, schedule
or resources.
Although a change may occur throughout every project phase, the need for change is usually
discovered during Project Execution Phase, as actual work on activities/ tasks is being
performed. It is during Execution Phase that the Contractor may discover that his original
effort estimates were not accurate and will result in more effort being required to complete
his work. It is also during the Execution Phase that the Contracting Authority may realize
that, despite their efforts to thoroughly describe the project scope, objectives and expected
outcomes in the Tender Documents (and specifically in the ToRs) and though the successful
tenderer has fully understood the Terms of Reference, the product being produced is not
exactly what they need.
In order to handle any need for change that may arise throughout every project phase
without negative effect on the project outcome, an effective change management
plan should be developed during the Project Planning Phase. More specifically, the items
that must be defined during the Planning Phase are presented in the following table.
Table 7-2: Items that the Change Management Plan should define
Identification of those authorized to request a change from the Contractor.

Definition of the process to be followed for initiating a request for change, analyzing the
request and assessing the impact of change on projects cost, scope, schedule and
quality, approving the change request, and implementing the approved change.
Identification of the person or group of people, who will be responsible for analyzing,
reviewing and approving the request for change.
Definition of the timeframe (number of working days) allowed for a change request to
be approved or rejected
Design of the documentation to be used for requesting and registering a change
It should be noted that the term change management usually refers to changes
affecting the contract. However, a Change Management Plan should be developed,
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even in case that the project is implemented exclusively by internal resources in order to
formulate the framework under which extension of the total duration of a project or
amendment of the budget will be asked if this is proved to be necessary.
7.4.7 Development of Risk Plan
During the Project Initiation Phase - as it has been stated in paragraph 1.5.3.5 (Chapter 1) -
the risks that might affect the potential project must be identified and their characteristics
must be documented in both the Project Fiche and the Risk Log. This is the first formal
milestone in the risk management process when the Project Owner examines any known
risks that seem to threaten the project viability and decides whether to proceed with the
project approval or not. The risks identified in this phase may be such risks as impending or
mooted legislation, policy changes, staff re-organisation etc.
During the Planning Phase, the Project Manager must review the list of risks initially
identified for the project to determine if all these risks remain applicable. In addition he must
identify new risk variables that may have been introduced due to analytical planning of the
project, provide a set of actions to be taken to both prevent the risk for occurring and reduce
the impact of the risk in case that it eventuates.
Furthermore, the Project Manager must define the Risk Management Process which will be
used from this point until the end of the project to ensure that every risk is formally:
Identified
Quantified
Monitored
Avoided, transferred or mitigated.
The Risk Planning involves the following steps (Figure 7-12):
Updating of Risk Log
Development of Risk Management Plan.
Development of
Updating of
Risk Management
Risk Log
Plan
Figure 7-12: Steps to be followed for the development of the Risk Plan
7.4.7.1 Updating of Risk Log
Review of the risks already identified & identification of new risks
As it has been stated above, the Project Manager must review all the risks identified during
the Project Initiation Phase in order to identify if all of them remain applicable. Since Project
Planning Phase has already started and Project Manager is participating in Activities
scheduling, in Resource, Cost and Quality Planning, he/she should be considerably more
knowledgeable about the project and therefore more able to predict possible risks.
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Furthermore, as a result of planning the project and adding detail to the Project Brief, new
risks may also come to light. The identification and scheduling of the activities needed in
order to produce the project deliverables may reveal a new level of complexity and
interdependencies to the project, possibly producing more risk. Similarly, defining resource
requirements may call for resources with unique skills whose availability may be diminishing.
Furthermore, assumptions made for planning purposes usually involve a degree of risk. For
example if the date that a key person will be available is uncertain, the Project Manager may
assume a specific start date for planning purposes but the uncertainty still exists and may
affect the real start date of a specific activity.
The above mentioned are only a few examples of how risks in a project evolve over time.
Therefore, the Project Manager has to update the existing list of risks (Risk Log) by adding
new risks that were identified during the planning process. As in the Project Initiation Phase,
the Project Manager should consider both internal (events the Project Manager can directly
control) and external (events that are outside of the direct influence of the Project Manager)
risks.
It should be mentioned that once again, data and experiences from previous projects
may provide excellent insight into potential risk areas and ways to avoid or mitigate
them. If the Implementing Agency/ Contracting Authority has previously implemented similar
projects and has a list of risks that faced during them, the Project Manager should consider
all potential risk elements included in this list.
Evaluation of new risks
The Project Manager evaluates each new risk in terms of the likelihood of its occurrence and
the magnitude of its impact (refer to Risk Assessment in Subchapter 1.5.3.5).
Definition of preventive and contingency actions
Determining actions to reduce threats to the projects objectives (also known as Risk
Response Planning) is essential for the projects success. These actions must be
appropriate to the severity of the risk, cost effective, agreed by all parties involved and
assigned to certain responsible persons.
The actions that could be taken break into the following types:
Prevention: Risk prevention refers:
to risk avoidance (doing things differently (changing the project plan) and thus
removing the risk, where it is feasible to do so or
to the reduction of the likelihood of an identified risk .
Risks identified in the early stages can be avoided or reduced (in likelihood) by e.g.
clarifying requirements, adding resources, extending the duration of the project,
improving communication, adopting a familiar methodology for the implementation
instead of a new one, avoiding unfamiliar contractors etc.
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Transference: Risk transfer is seeking to transfer the responsibility of managing the

risk to a third party; it does not eliminate it.
Risk transfer is typically used in the context of a government agency passing the risk
to a contractor. PPP, PFI and concession contracts are typical examples of risk
transfer from the public to the private sector.
In addition, use of a fixed price contract may transfer risk to the contractor
whereas a cost reimbursable contract leaves more of the risk to the Contracting
Authority, especially in case that the projects design is not stable and mid project
changes occur.
Acceptance: Risk acceptance indicates that the Project Steering Committee
decides to tolerate the risk perhaps because nothing can be done at a reasonable
cost to mitigate it, or because is unable to identify any other suitable response
strategy or because the likelihood and impact of the risk occurring are at an
acceptable level.
Contingency: These are actions planned and organized to come into force as and
when the risk occurs.
It should be noted that when you complete the Risk Log you should consider both risk
acceptance and risk transferring as preventive actions and thus describe them in the
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relative column (refer to Annex 1-6).
7.4.7.2 Development of Risk Management Plan
The Risk Management Plan describes how risk identification, qualitative and quantitative
analysis, response planning, monitoring and control will be structured and performed during
the project life cycle. It is being developed mainly by the Project Manager and the Team
Managers who have the responsibility to manage the risk planning and execution activities.
In theory, any risk identified during the life of the project will need to be formally managed
according to the Risk Management Plan. Without a formal Risk Management Plan in place,
the objective of delivering a solution within time, cost and quality may be compromised.
The Risk Management Plan may include the following:
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Table 7-3: Typical contents of the Risk Management Plan
Risk Management process: It refers to the process that may be used to perform risk
management on the project.
Indicative risk management process which can be used in almost all projects is the
following:
Step 1: Raise Risk
Any member of the Project Team or the Project Management Team (Risk Originator)
identifies a risk applicable to a particular aspect of the project (e.g. timescales,
quality, resources, deliverables, cost etc). He/She immediately completes a Risk
Form and forwards it to the Project Manager.
Step 2: Register Risk
The Project Manager reviews all Risk Forms and examines whether each risk
identified is applicable to the project and impacts on the project objectives and targets
specified in the Project Fiche and the Time, Resource, Cost and Quality Plan.
If the risk is considered related to the project the Project Manager registers it at the
Risk Log and assigns to it an ID. The Project Manager evaluates also the severity of
the risk (likelihood that the risk will occur and effect on project objectives if the risk
occurs) and decides whether the level of impact and likelihood assigned by the
Risk Originator is correct.
Step 3: Assign Risk Preventive/ Contingency Actions
The Project Manager informs the Project Steering Committee that severe risks have
been registered in the Risk Log and asks for a meeting with them.
The Project Steering reviews the risks registered and after a discussion during which
the Project Manager recommends preventive/ contingency actions, decides to:
o Adopt Project Managers recommendations for preventive/ contingency actions
and assign them to certain Project Team Members or to the Project Manager
Note: It must be noted that in case of projects being implemented by contractors,
an approved preventive action could be to ask from the contractor to take actions
like: to replace specific resources from its team due to inefficient performance, to
implement two activities in parallel so to close the project in time etc.
o define other risk contingency actions than the ones proposed by the Project
Manager and assign them to certain Project Team Members or to the Project
Manager
o Raise a change request if they estimate that a change to the project is required to
mitigate the risk
o Close the risk if they estimate that the risk is no longer likely to impact on the
project
Step 4: Scheduling and Implement Preventive/ Contingency Actions
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The Project Manager schedules the implementation of the preventive/contingency

actions assigned by the Project Steering Committee. He/ She also informs people
who have been charged to implement the risk actions on what exactly they have to do
and when.
People assigned to perform each scheduled action, do so.
Step 5: Monitoring and controlling Preventive/ Contingency Actions

The Project Manager:
o monitors the implementation of each preventive/ contingency action and reviews

its success
o updates the Risk Log by writing down the implementation date of the preventive/
contingency action
o communicates the results of the action taken to the Project Steering Committee
Risk Management Documents: It refers to the documentation used to identify, track and
control risks to the project.
Indicative risk management documents which can be used in almost all projects are
the following: Risk Form (the document which must be completed by a member of the
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project team in order to inform the Project Manager for a new risk) and Risk Log (Risk
Register). The template for Risk Log is being provided in Annex 1-6, while the Risk
Form is provided in Annex 7-6.
Risk Forms are used during the Project Execution & Control Phase. They are completed
by any project team member who identifies a risk and they are forwarded to the Project
Manager for review. The Project Manager determines whether the information provided in
the form is adequate and if not he/she asks for more information to be provided.
Normally the Risk Form includes:
Name of the Project
Description of the risk identified
Rating of risk likelihood and impact
Proposal for preventive and contingency actions
Section for approval.
Roles and Responsibilities. It refers to the roles and responsibilities of all human
resources involved in the identification, review and mitigation of risks within the project.
Indicative roles and responsibilities are:
Risk Originator
The risk originator identifies a risk and reports it to the Project Manager, so he is
responsible for:
identifying risks,
documenting them (refer to Risk Form Annex 7-6) and
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submitting the Risk Form to the Project Manager for review.
Project Manager
The Project Manager is responsible for:
reviewing all Risk Forms submitted by the risk originators
registering all risks at the Risk Log
presenting the identified risks and the recommended actions to the Project Steering
Committee
communicating the decisions made by the Project Steering Committee to the people
who are assigned to perform preventive/ contingency actions
monitoring the progress of the preventive/ contingency actions assigned
evaluating the results of the performed preventive/ contingency actions

The Project Steering Committee is responsible for:
reviewing all risks presented by the Project Manager
allocating risk preventive/ contingency actions
Project Team
The project team members are responsible for undertaking all the actions delegated to
them by the Project Steering Committee.
7.4.8 Development of Acceptance Plan
Acceptance is defined as obtaining agreement form the Contracting Authority that the
deliverables produced by the Contractor during the project implementation phase meet the
criteria set by the Contracting Authority. To ensure timely acceptance of the deliverables, the
Contracting Authority and the Contractors decision makers should agree on pre-determined
acceptance criteria. Which are these criteria and by which process the compliance of the
deliverables with them will be checked, are two issues that must be documented in the
Planning Phase of the project (Acceptance Plan).
The Acceptance Plan is a key document within the project. It is being developed after the
development of the Activities Schedule, Resource Plan and Quality Plan since it takes input
from them. It serves as a guide throughout the Monitoring and Control Phase for the project
team members who are assigned to perform acceptance tests as well as for the Project
Manager who is responsible for the acceptance management.
In order to develop an Acceptance Plan the following steps should be followed:
Establishment of criteria and standards for the acceptance of the deliverables
Formalization and documentation of the deliverable acceptance process.
Establishment of Formalization &
criteria & standards documentation of
for the acceptance deliverable
of deliverables acceptance process
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Figure 7-13: Steps to be followed for the development of Acceptance Plan
7.4.8.1 Establishment of criteria & standards for the acceptance of the deliverables
As stated above, the Contracting Authority should at the outset establish the criteria
that the final product must meet before been accepted. These criteria vary according
to the type of final product. Indicative examples are the following:
Target dates
Major functions
Appearance
Performance levels
Ease of use
User friendliness
Running costs
Reliability
Security
Capacity
Potential to be recycled
Low energy consumption
It should be noted that the quality targets set for each deliverable during the
development of the Quality Plan (refer to 7.4.4.1) are normally part of the overall
acceptance criteria of the final outcome.
7.4.8.2 Formalization & documentation of the deliverable acceptance process
In addition to acceptance criteria, the Project Manager and the Executive as representative
of the Contracting Authority must agree on, formalize and document the deliverable
acceptance process. The Acceptance process must be described in the contract and/or in
the Project Initiation document in order to be agreed between both parties. The items that
must be defined are:
The number and identity of the project team members who will review the
deliverables before final approval is sought. The reviewers must be experts who
know in detail the subject matter of the deliverable.
The Acceptance Management process by which deliverables produced by the
project are reviewed and accepted. An example of acceptance management
process suitable for services project is being presented below. More examples and
analysis of IT systems acceptance process will be presented in Chapter 6 (Contract
Management).
The number of working days in which deliverables must be either approved or
rejected by the Contracting Authority. When defining the period for deliverable
review, the Contracting Authority must consider that the process is iterative and may
take more time than the initially estimated.
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The amount of time for deliverable acceptance must be included in the

Project Schedule.
The number of times a deliverable can be resubmitted to the Contracting Authority
for approval.
When a Contracting Authority does not approve a certain deliverable but asks
for modifications, corrections etc, it is very important to explain the reasons
for not approving the deliverable, enabling thus the Contractor to address them
when resubmitting.
It should be also noted that when the number of iterations exceeds the
number defined in the Acceptance Plan (and therefore in the Contract),
further work on the deliverable will require a change request.
Example 7-11: Acceptance Management Process for the Project Improving the implementing
capacity of the Cypriot Authorities
Example: Project Improving the implementing capacity of the Cypriot Authorities.

This is a Service Project and the main Deliverables that the Contractor has to produce are:
o Action Plan for the PPD in order to be ready to undertake its new role
o Public Procurement Best Practice Guide
o Code of Ethics in Public Procurement
o Training strategy for people involved in public procurement
o Training Programme and material
o Training courses
In addition, the Contractor has the responsibility to perform the management of the project and thus
submit interim progress reports as well final and evaluation report.
(Analytical project description (activities) is being presented in 7.4.1.2)
The Acceptance Management Process could be the following:
The Deliverables submitted by the Contractor are distributed to predetermined reviewers accompanied
by the acceptance criteria and relative guidance on the acceptance process. Each reviewer makes
his/her comments and then the comments of all reviewers form the basis of discussion in a review
meeting. A list of errors, discrepancies and recommendations is formulated as a result of the review
process. This list is communicated to the Contractor in order to proceed with the necessary
adjustments/ modifications and submit the revised version of the deliverable to the Contracting
Authority. After assuring that the criteria for the acceptance of the deliverable are fully met, the Review
Board prepares a report introducing the acceptance of the deliverable by the Project Steering
Committee. The later after studying the report decides whether the deliverable will be accepted or not.
In case of a confirmative decision, a formal Approval Form is completed and signed.
Further details on the acceptance management process are provided below:
a. Preparation of the review meeting
In this step the following tasks are carried out

Nomination of the Review Board
Ideally the Review Board will be nominated at the beginning of the Project, at least the Chairman and
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some reviewers who will participate in all the reviews should be nominated. If this has not been done,
the Board must be nominated prior to the Deliverable being available for review.
Arrange Review Meeting
The Review Meeting should be held at a time and location convenient for the members of the Board
and the Representatives of the Contractor. In order to allow Reviewers time to carry out their individual
reviews, while maintaining project momentum, the Review Meeting must be held not less that five (5)
or more than ten (10) working days after the issue of the Invitation Letter. The exact time and location
is normally arranged by the secretary on behalf of the Chairman.
Issue the Review Invitation Letter
The invitation letter confirms the composition of the Review Board and the time and location that the
review meeting will take place. The invitation letter is addresses to the members of the Review Board
(accompanied by the necessary documentation and guiding notes for the Reviewers) and the
Contractors representatives.
b. Individual review
This step takes place between the issue of the Review Invitation Letter and the Review Meeting a
period of 5-10 working days. The following points should be noted:
During this period each reviewer examines the deliverable to identify errors and issues. He may
well obtain assistance of other members of his department. Errors are defined as items which
require correction and which are not likely to be contested. Issues are defined as points which
may require amendment of the Deliverable by the Contractor or require further clarification or
discussion to confirm exactly what is wrong. Typically a Reviewer will raise an issue when he is
not certain that the Deliverable requires amendment or the amendment required appears to be of
some significance.
Issues and Errors Lists compiled by the reviewers have to be submitted to the Chairman of the
Review Board a few days before the Review Meeting, so he can establish a preliminary view of
the volume and significance of the deficiencies in the Deliverable.
The chairman will normally discuss the Errors and Issues Lists with the Contractors
Representatives before the meeting to enable them to make any necessary preparations and to
get a further view of significance of any potential deficiencies.
If there is sufficient time, the Chairman may ask the Secretary to compile a consolidated list of
issues to assist in the smooth running of the Review Meeting.
c. Review Meeting
The Review Meeting is held at the time and location stated in the Review Invitation Letter and is
attended by all members of the Review Board and the representatives of the Contractor. It is worth
mentioning the following:
The aim of the Review Meeting is to identify deficiencies in the Deliverables and not to decide
solutions. Solutions are decided by the team who has prepared the Deliverable.
The Chairman is responsible for controlling the meeting
It is normal practice for the Errors Lists to be accepted by the Review Board without further
consideration, unless the Contractors Representatives wish to dispute any of the errors identified.
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The Review Board will normally discuss each issue raised by the Reviewers in the order that they
occur within the Deliverable. The discussion will clarify whether the issue is:
o A deficiency in the Deliverable
o A misunderstanding or otherwise not requiring action
It is open to the Chairman at the outset, or at any time during the meeting, to decide that the
volume and/or significance of deficiencies identified in the Deliverable is such that the Deliverable
cannot be accepted in its present form and must therefore be re-worked and re-submitted for
review. In that case the meeting will stop and the errors and issues list will be passed to the
Contractor.
In most cases the Deliverable is accepted, subject to the correction of the deficiencies noted in the
Follow-up Action List.
Deficiencies identified by the Reviewers and agreed in the review meeting will be dealt in the
following ways:
o Minor deficiencies will be noted for correction by the Contractor without further checking
o Significant deficiencies will be noted by the Chairman on a Follow-up Action List. The
Chairman will assign responsibility for signing-off successful rectification of the deficiency to
the Reviewers and will agree with the Contractor a suitable timescale.
d. Follow-up Action
Assuming that the Deliverable will be accepted after proceeding with the necessary corrections, the
following action should be taken:
Immediately after the Review Meeting the Chairman will complete the Follow-up Action List and a
Result Notification and distribute them to the Contractor and the members of the Review Board.
The Contractors responsible for the production of the Deliverable and his team will work to rectify
the deficiencies listed on the Follow-up Action List. Once they are rectified they arrange for the
nominated reviewers to inspect the Deliverable and to sign-off the noted deficiencies. If the
Reviewers are not satisfied that the deficiency has been corrected the work must be repeated until
the Reviewer is satisfied. The Contractor should proceed up to maximum three iterative
submissions of each deliverable.
Once all deficiencies listed in the Follow-up Action List have been signed-off, the Contractor will
resubmit the Deliverable for official approval.
e. Final Approval
After assuring that the criteria for the acceptance of the deliverable are fully met, the Review
Board prepares a report introducing the acceptance of the deliverable by the Project Steering
Committee.
The later after studying the report decides whether the deliverable will be accepted or not. In case
of a confirmative decision, a formal Approval Form is completed and signed.
A template of the Acceptance Plan is being presented in Annex 7-7.

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7.4.9 Setting up Performance Indicators
To be able to monitor a projects implementation and judge its performance against the
objectives and targets set, it is necessary to use a set of indicators, which might be decided
during the Planning Phase, so that data on them can be collected. Indicators are usually
quantitative measures but may also be qualitative observations. They define how
performance will be measured along a specific scale, without specifying a particular level of
achievement. The various levels of indicators are as follows12:
Financial indicators are used to monitor progress in terms of the commitment and
payment of the funds available for the project in relation to its cost.
Output indicators relate to activity. They are measured in physical units (eg.
Length of road constructed)
Result indicators relate to the direct and immediate effect brought about by a
project. They provide information on changes to, for example, the behaviour,
capacity or performance of direct beneficiaries. Such indicators can be of a physical
nature (reduction of journey times, number of successful trainees, number of road
accidents etc) or of a financial nature (e.g. decrease in transportation cost)
Impact indicators refer to the consequences of the project beyond the immediate
effects on its direct beneficiaries (effects occurring after a certain lapse of time but
which are nonetheless directly linked to the action taken).
Financial and output indicators can be used to monitor the progress of a project
while the result and impact indicators can be used to evaluate the projects
outcome at the post project period.
Example 7-12: Possible indicators for a major infrastructure project (e.g. road construction)
Description Indicators
Output Construction of road Implementation:
Financial: cost
Physical: km constructed
Result Reduced journey time Time savings in min
Reduced transport cost Cost saving (%)
Specific impact Increased flows of persons and goods Traffic flows
Using the indicators defined above, one can also measure concepts such as effectiveness
and efficiency.
Effectiveness compares what has been done with what was originally planned i.e. it
compares actual with expected or estimated outputs, results and/or impacts
Efficiency looks at the ratio between the outputs, results and/or impacts and the
inputs (particularly financial resources) used to achieve them.
12
Indicators for monitoring and evaluation - European Commission -Directorate General XVI
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The Table that follows shows the complementarity between indicators and the measurement
of effectiveness and efficiency.
Table 7-4: Complementarity between indicators and measurement of effectiveness and

efficiency
Indicators Effectiveness Efficiency

Operational objective Financial/ physical Actual/planned output Output compared to cost
output
Specific objective Result Actual/planned results Result compared to cost
Global objective Impact Actual/planned impacts Impact compared to cost
In order to plan the use of performance indicators both for monitoring the progress of the
project and for evaluating it, the Project Manager has to follow the following steps:
Establishment of the Performance Indicators
Establishing the process for monitoring the performance indicators.
7.4.9.1 Establishing the Performance Indicators
At the outset you must define monitoring and evaluation indicators.

There are usually many possible indicators for any desired outcome, but some of
them may be more appropriate and useful than others. Consequently instead of
selecting the indicators that first come to your mind, it is suggested to first prepare a list of
possible indicators and then go back again and assess these indicators against a set of
selection criteria (e.g. to be objective, direct, adequate, quantitative, practical, reliable etc).
Normally, the indicators selected must have the following characteristics:
They must be relevant to the basic objectives of the project
They must be few and meaningful
The data required to compile the indicators must be easily available and obtained in
a timely way and at a reasonable cost
To the extent possible, performance indicators should allow the quantitative
measurement of progress, result or impact. However, for some project objectives
(for instance capacity building) it may be necessary to develop qualitative indicators
to measure success, which should still allow credible monitoring.
To create the initial list of possible indicators, the Project Manager can organize a
brainstorming meeting with all the project team members, to take consultation from
experts in the field of intervention or/and cooperate with other entities which implement
projects with similar subject and therefore may have used in the past similar indicators.
The table that follows provides a few examples of performance indicators for different fields
of activity/ intervention and for different market sectors. Although it is not exhaustive, it could
give you ideas for setting up a performance measurement system.
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Table 7-5: Examples of Performance Indicators
Fields of intervention Output Result Impact

2
Renovation and m of village number of gross/ net
development of squares renewed inhabitants living in employment
villages and 2 the vicinity of created or
protection and m of roads renewed areas safeguarded after 2
conservation of the renewed years (number and
rural heritage number of % of total jobs)
number of buildings enterprises
renewed installed in the % inhabitants
renewed areas wishing to stay in
the area in the next
5 years
Training % of total training % trainees Reduction of errors
scheduled successfully made by the
successfully completing the trainees on job
accomplished training courses after six months
(training hours, (men/ women)
participants, Increase of the
training material, trainees
topics of interest productivity after
etc) one year
Positive evaluation
results of trainees
Positive evaluation
results of trainers
High participation
rate in training
programs
Transportation Km of high speed Time saved Increase in flow of
infrastructure railway constructed (journey time X passengers/ freight
number of users) after one year (%)
(Railway) % degree of
railway network Increase of number Environmental
completed of destinations impact (%
served by the decrease/
railway system increase)
Transportation Km of motorway Increase of speed Environmental

infrastructure constructed average impact (%
decrease/
(Motorway) Number of tunnels Decrease of travel increase)
constructed time
Increase in traffic
Number of flow of vehicles
overpass junctions after one year (%)
constructed
Increase in safety
(number of traffic
accidents after one
year or % decrease
of accidents after
one year)
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2
Transportation m of new port Reduction of Increase in traffic
infrastructure constructed or waiting time of flow of passengers/
upgraded ships before vehicles/ freight
(Ports)
docking after one year (%)
Reduction of Environmental
turnaround time of impact (%
vessels decrease/
increase)
Reduction of
turnaround time of Increase in safety
road vehicles (number of traffic
accidents after one
Increase number of year or % decrease
shipping lines of accidents after
calling in the port one year)
Information and Number and % Reduction of Increase of the
Communication increase in digital number of network total hours of
technology telephone lines failures connection to
Internet per month
Length of broad Number of services (after 6 months)
band network created (internet
(optical fiber) access)
installed (Km)
Increase of the
Number of internet number of ISDN
hosts per 1000 subscriptions per
habitants 1000 inhabitants
Increase of the
total hours of
connection to
Internet per month
Energy infrastructure Km of electric Increase of % change in
power/ gas estimated number environmental
distribution network of users impact in terms of
constructed/ increased or
upgraded Reduction in decreased pollution
energy costs (CO2, SO2, NOx)
Km of new/upgrade (/KWh)
lines/pipes
Construction of new Port capacity Average Tonnage of vessels

fishing ports constructed turnaround time of using the port after
(number of boats, vessels one year
tonnage)
Catch landed
Number of portside (tons/year/species)
built
Surface area of
port side units
rented
Value added
generated in the
port area
Gross/net
employment
created after 2
years (number)
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7.4.9.2 Establishing the process for monitoring the Performance Indicators
After having defined the indicators to be used in order to monitor the progress of the project
and/or to evaluate the project, the principal aspects of the monitoring process have to be
defined.
At the outset the data sources for each performance indicator should be investigated and
defined. In most cases a reliable system for collecting the requisite data must be developed
in a timely fashion. Many output indicators are derived from records kept by the Contracting
Authority or/and its Contractor at project files (e.g. km of road constructed, number of people
trained etc). For result or impact indicators, (e.g. increase in traffic flow of passengers/
vehicles/ freight one year after the construction of a new port), the Contracting Authority may
need to collect data from external sources as well (e.g. the information system of the new
port).
Next, the Project Manager should define how the data collected should be processed, initially
interpreted and then presented to the Project Steering Committee, the Funding Agency and
to other stakeholders. In case that the impact analysis is too complicated, assistance from
outside experts should be asked.
It should be noted that in case of EU funded projects, the Contracting Authority is
obliged to prepare and submit electronically two types of reports. The first one is
being submitted every three months and is supposed to monitor the work and financial
progress of the project. The second one is being submitted every month and includes only
financial information/data for each subproject.
Templates of the above mentioned reports can be found at the official web site of Planning
Bureau (http://www.planning.gov.cy Structural Funds section OPS).
7.4.10 Development of Communication Plan
Project Communication is the exchange of project specific information. Effective

communication with all stakeholders is absolutely fundamental to project success and
therefore it is necessary to plan it during the Project Planning Phase.
Communication Planning is the process for the determination of information and
communication needs of the stakeholders relative to the progress of the project. It aims to
give answers to the following questions:
Who needs what information?
When do they need the information?
Who delivers the information?
How should the information be delivered?
The output of this process is the Communication Plan/Matrix.
In order the Project Manager (with the help of the Team Managers and/or project team
members) to develop the Communication Plan, he/she should follow the following steps:
Identification of stakeholders
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Determination of stakeholders communication needs

Definition of communication strategy
Completion of Communication Plan/Matrix
Determination of
Identification of Definition of Completion of
stakeholders
stakeholders communication Communication
communication
strategy Plan/Matrix
needs
Figure 7-14: Steps to be followed for the development of the Communication Plan
7.4.10.1 Identification of stakeholders
The term stakeholder is used in this section to define the person or entity within or outside
the project requiring regular information about the project.
In order to identify the communications stakeholders you should first review the
Project Organization defined in the Project Brief (refer to 1.5.3.4) and then think of the
individuals or organizations who are actively involved in the project or whose interests may
be positively or negatively affected as a result of project execution or successful project
completion. Once you have identified the stakeholders who may require information during
the project, you should prepare a list of them and record their contact details (address,
telephone number, fax number, e mail address etc).
Examples of communications stakeholders are:
Project Owner
Implementing Agency
Contracting Authority
Funding Agency
Project Manager
Project Team Managers
Project team
Planning Bureau
Procurement Manager
End users
Other beneficiaries
7.4.10.2 Determination of Stakeholders communication needs
For each of the stakeholders identified above, determine what their communication
needs are. In order to do this, you need the following information:
Project Organization and stakeholder responsibility relationships
Entities, disciplines, departments and specialties involved in the project
How many individuals will be involved in the project and at which locations
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External information needs (e.g. communication with the media).

Depending on the specific characteristics of each stakeholder and its individual
priorities, there are three general categories of communication needs.
Awareness: This refers to the dissemination of information that people want to
know or that may need for their jobs. Awareness can be achieved by organizing
awareness building sessions that people are invited to attend, by putting project
information on the website etc. This kind of communication is particularly important
with regard to the end users of the project deliverables. Keeping the end users
aware of what the project is aiming to deliver, helps them to realize and understand
the anticipated benefits (e.g. introduction of new technology that will facilitate them
in performing their duties, construction of an infrastructure that will improve the
quality of their lives, etc,), minimizing in this way the probability of reacting
negatively towards the project implementation.
Understanding: This refers to the need that specific stakeholders have a sound
understanding of the purpose and the progress of the project in order to take
decisions
Commitment: This category applies mainly to the Project Steering Committee, the
Project Owner and Funding Agency which are invited in certain stages of the Project
life cycle to show their commitment
Indicative examples of communication requirements for some stakeholders that are present
in almost every project are as follows:
Table 7-6: Typical examples of communication requirements for different stakeholders
Stakeholder Requirement
Project Steering Project status information (schedule, budget and scope)
Committee
Detailed knowledge of important risks and issues
Information regarding proposed project changes (for approval)
Project Manager Project status information (schedule, budget and scope)
Detailed knowledge of all risks and issues
Detailed knowledge of all change requests
Understanding of current project deliverables quality
Quality Manager Progress of each deliverable against quality standards and criteria set
Detailed understanding of all quality issues for resolution
Project team members Status of the activities and tasks they have been asked to perform
Awareness of events which may affect their ability to undertake their
role
End users Awareness of the anticipated benefits from project implementation in
relation to their activities and duties
Understanding of the functionality, operation and usage of the end
product
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7.4.10.3 Define communication strategy
After having clearly identified the stakeholders and their communication needs, it is
necessary to determine the message(s) to communicate to them, the frequency at
which they will be informed and the format in which the message will be communicated to
them.
There are a variety of communication methods and technologies to deliver project
information, like:
Meetings
Workshops
Brief conversations
Written documents
Newsletter
Letters
E mails
Immediately accessible databases
Websites
Telephone calls.
Teleconference
Site visit
Since the effectiveness of communicated information is as important as the information itself,
it is crucial to determine which method is most effective for each stakeholder. You can do this
by assessing the advantages and disadvantages of each method, the percentage of the
stakeholders that can be reached through each method, and the ability to obtain feedback
through each method.
For example:
Meeting communications include project team meetings and focus groups.
Meeting is a two-way communication format, because it provides the ability to
provide information and to obtain feedback. It is best suited for specific targeted
messages, such as project progress or critical issues.
The main advantage of meetings is the ability to reach a large number of
stakeholders with focused and targeted messages. The main disadvantages of
meetings are that they can be time-consuming, travel might be required, and they
can sometimes be difficult to schedule for maximum attendance.
Electronic communications include e-mail, online portals, and digital dashboards.
Electronic communication can be a two-way communication format. It is best suited
for broad content, non-controversial announcements, instructions, and updates to a
focused group of stakeholders. The main advantage is that it is an inexpensive and
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a quick communication method. The main disadvantage is that some people might
not have access to such electronic means of communication.
Multimedia communications include presentations, demonstrations, and training
sessions. The ability to obtain feedback is limited. It is best suited for specific,
targeted messages, focused intervention, and critical issues. The main advantages
are that it is a mass distribution method and that it has the ability to reach a large
number of external stakeholders. The main disadvantage is that staff supporting this
effort must be available.
7.4.10.4 Completion of Communication Plan/Matrix
After the definition of the Communication strategy, the Project Manager has to complete a
Communication Plan/Matrix that integrates the "who, what, when, and how" of the
communication process.
A communication plan/matrix includes the type of information being communicated, the
objective of the communication, the frequency that the information is distributed and the
method used to communicate the information.
An important aspect of the Communication Plan is the planning of performance
reporting, that is to say, the determination of when the Progress and Status Reports
will be submitted, what information they will include, who will be responsible for their
preparation and how they will be exchanged (e.g. via regular mail, via e-mail, etc.). The
frequency of Progress Reports depends on the duration, complexity and special
requirements of a project, as well as on whether it is implemented with own resources or by a
Contractor. In most of the cases where the Progress Reports are prepared by the Contractor,
they should be submitted every three months (or in some cases every month) to enable the
Project Manager of the Contracting Authority to keep regular track of the projects progress.
The Status Reports, which are prepared by the Project Manager to present the status of the
project to key stakeholders, including the Project Steering Committee, the Project Owner and
the Funding Agency, are usually prepared with the same or less frequency than Progress
Reports (i.e. quarterly or biannually), since they require input from them. More detailed
information on performance reporting, and specifically on Progress and Status Reports, is
provided in section 7.5.9.2 Reporting Projects Performance.
The Project Manager should take ownership of the Communication Plan/Matrix, that is to
say, he will be responsible for verifying that communication is taking place and that it is
effective.
The communication strategy represented by the Communication Plan/Matrix needs to be
flexible to allow for the resolution of issues that arise, as well as changes in process or policy
that often occur after a major project is completed.
A template of the Communication Plan/Matrix is being presented in Annex 7-8.
Furthermore in the same Annex a completed Communication Plan/ Matrix is
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presented in order to facilitate the understanding on how it should be completed.
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7.4.11 Reviewing the Project Planning Phase
This subchapter presents a summary Checklist that can be used for reviewing the
activities of the Planning Phase in order to ensure that all requirements of the phase
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are met.
Checklist 7-2: Reviewing the Project Planning Phase
A/A Critical Questions Yes No N/A

Development of Activities Schedule
Have the major project deliverables been subdivided into smaller more
1.
manageable components?
Have the activities needed to produce the project deliverables been
2.
identified?
Have the activities sequence, dependencies and constraints been
3.
determined?
4. Has the duration of each activity/ task been estimated?
5. Have the start up and completion dates of each activity/ task been defined?
6. Has the baseline Activities Schedule been developed?
7. Has the critical path been identified?
Development of Resource Plan
Have the types of the resources required in order to perform project
8.
activities and tasks been identified and quantified?
Have the exact time and the duration that each resource will be utilised,
9.
been estimated?
10. Has the baseline Resource Schedule been developed?
Have the resources been assigned to specific activities/ tasks of the
11.
project?
Development of Cost Plan
Have all the types of costs expected to be incurred in the project been
12.
identified?
13. Have the costs expected to be incurred been estimated?
14. Is there an estimation on when each cost is expected to be incurred?
15. Has the baseline cost schedule been developed?
Has the cost of undertaking each activity/ task laid down in the Activities
16.
Schedule been estimated?
Development of Quality Plan
17. Have the quality targets to be achieved by each deliverable been defined?
Have the quality assurance and quality control processes to be employed
18.
during the implementation of the project been established?
19. Have quality assurance roles been assigned to project team members?
20. Has the Quality Plan been compiled?
Development of Issue Management Plan
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21. Has the process to be used for issue management been defined?
Have the documents to be used for raising and registering an issue been
22.
designed?
Have the roles and responsibilities that will be involved in the issue
23.
management process been defined?
Development of Change Management Plan
24. Has the process to be used for change management been defined?
25. Has the form to be used for requesting a change been designed?
Have the roles and responsibilities that will be involved in the change
26.
management process been defined?
Development of Risk Plan
27. Have potential risks affecting the project been identified?
Have the characteristics of the identified risks been documented in the
28.
Risks Log?
Have the identified risks been evaluated in terms of the likelihood of their
29.
occurrence and the magnitude of their impact?
Have preventive and contingency actions for each possible risk been
30.
defined?
31. Has the process to be used for risk management been defined?
Have the responsibilities of risk identification, evaluation and mitigation
32.
been assigned to project team members?
Development of Acceptance Plan
Have the criteria and standards for the acceptance of the project
33.
deliverables been established?
Has the process of performing acceptance tests been defined and
34.
documented?
Has the responsibility of performing the acceptance tests been assigned to
35.
certain project team members?
Establishing Performance Indicators
Have performance indicators been established for evaluating the progress
36.
and the achieved benefits of the project?
37. Has the process for measuring performance indicators been defined?
Development of Communication Plan
Have the stakeholders requiring regular information about the project been
38.
identified?
Have the communication needs of the identified stakeholders been
39.
determined?
40. Has the Communication strategy been developed?
41. Has the Communication Plan/ matrix been completed?
Have the Performance Reporting procedures (i.e. Progress & Status
42.
Reporting) been planned?
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7.5 EXECUTING & CONTROLLING PROCESSES
Executing and controlling processes are the management processes undertaken in the third
and longest phase of project management life cycle, where most resources are applied. It is
the phase during which the deliverables are produced and presented to the Contracting
Authority for acceptance. To ensure that the projects requirements are met, the Project
Manager monitors and controls the activities, resources and costs that are required for the
production of the deliverables throughout the execution phase. In this phase all the plans,
schedules, procedures and templates that were prepared during the Planning phase are
utilized to ensure that the project proceeds as planned. In this perspective, the following
management processes are undertaken (Figure 7-15):
Schedule Management: It is the process during which the actual progress of the
activities and tasks is being tracked and if needed corrective actions are taken to
bring tasks, activities or the whole project back on schedule.
Resource Management: It is the process during which the actual progress of
resources work is being tracked and if needed corrective actions are taken to
resolve resource allocation problems.
Cost Management: It is the process during which the actual costs are tracked
against estimates and if needed corrective actions are taken to keep costs within
budget.
Quality Management: It is the process by which the quality of the deliverables is
assured and controlled, using the relative techniques and applying the Quality Plan
developed in the previous phase.
Issue Management: It is the process by which issues related to the project are
formally defined, assessed and resolved.
Change Management: It is the process by which changes to the projects scope,
deliverables, timescales or resources are formally defined, evaluated and
approved prior to implementation.
Risk Management: It is the process of keeping track of the identified during the
Initiation and Planning Phases risks, monitoring residual risks and identifying new
risks, ensuring the execution of Risk Plans (preventive and contingency actions)
and evaluating their effectiveness in reducing risk.
Acceptance Management: It is the process by which the produced deliverables
are reviewed and accepted by the Contracting Authority according to the
Acceptance Plan.
Communication Management: It is the process by which information is
distributed to project stakeholders according to the Communication Plan and
projects performance is reported.
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Schedule Resource Cost Quality Issue

Management Management Management Management Management
Change Risk Acceptance Communication

Management Management Management Management
Figure 7-15: The Executing & Controlling Processes
7.5.1 Schedule Management
Schedule Management (or Schedule Control) is the process during which the actual
progress of the activities and tasks is being tracked and if needed corrective actions are
taken to bring tasks, activities or the whole project back on schedule.
During the Planning phase, a baseline was established for the Activities Schedule. This
baseline will be used as a starting point against which performance on the project will be
measured. It is one of many tools that the Project Manager can use during Execution &
Control to determine if the project is on track.
The steps that are undertaken to manage the Activities Schedule are the following:
Record progress of activities and tasks by exchanging status information with
your Project Team Members and the Management Team of the contractor.
Update the Activities Schedule on a regular basis to ensure that the project is on
track.
Identify and resolve schedule problems that may affect the projects finish date.
Record Identify and

Update the
progress of resolve
Activities
activities & schedule
Schedule
tasks problems
Figure 7-16: Steps to be followed for managing the Activities Schedule
As it has been already mentioned (refer to 7.4.1.5), there are various software
packages in the market (e.g. MS Project, Primavera Project Planner) that can be
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used for developing, monitoring and control a project schedule. However, for the purposes of
this Guide the simple tool presented in Annex 7-1/ Sheet Activities Schedule can be
used also for tracking project progress during the Execution & Control phase.
The following paragraphs describe analytically the steps to be followed in order to manage
the Project Schedule.
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7.5.1.1 Record progress of activities and tasks
In order to record project progress there are several steps that you have to follow:
1. Save or update a baseline schedule, if you haven't already done so in the planning
phase. This will enable you to compare the information in your baseline schedule to
your up-to-date schedule later in the project and will help you to identify and solve
discrepancies.
2. Decide the way you are going to collect progress data. The most common
method to collect progress data is to exchange task status information with your
Project Team Members or/and the Management Team of the contractor using the
communications mechanisms documented in the Communication Plan (refer to
7.4.10). Usually, the status information has the form of a progress or performance
report and is exchanged by using either electronic (e.g. emails, intranet) or traditional
(e.g. post mail) means. However, for small projects you may decide to collect the
project status data yourself (i.e. manually). In this last case, you could actively collect
data by phoning your sources or going door to door to interview them or you could
ask your sources to fill out a form and give it to you. In any case you have to collect
data from the sources of the information. For example, to update start and finish
dates, collect actual dates from the resources who are assigned to tasks. To collect
cost data, you may need to get actual costs from accounting personnel.
3. Decide which project information you want to track and update. For instance,
you might want to update only task start and finish dates and task completion
percentages (this is the case when you havent assigned resources to tasks) or you
may want to update also time spent by the resources, as well as costs (this is the
case when you have assigned resources to tasks).
4. Decide how often you will collect project information and how often you will
update the project schedule. For example, are you going to collect information and
update your schedule once a week or once a month or once every three months?
Selecting a frequency that is convenient and fits into your schedule increases the
likelihood that you will collect project status information timely and you will have an
up-to-date schedule.
After deciding which items you want to track as well as the tracking method, you can start
tracking the projects progress by incorporating the most up-to-date information into the
Activities Schedule.
7.5.1.2 Update the Activities Schedule
Using the information collected, the Project Manager tracks the actual work done against the
tasks and updates the Activities Schedule accordingly. It is recommended that the Activities
Schedule is updated on a regular basis (i.e. once a week or once every two weeks or at
maximum once a month), since frequent updates to the schedule not only save time in the
long run, but they also allow the Project Manager to quickly identify potential problem areas.
Small shifts on individual tasks that may seem unimportant, they might cause significant
variances to other dependent tasks if corrective actions are not undertaken promptly.
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The date on which the Activities Schedule is updated to reflect the actual progress until that
moment, is called Status Date. The status date depends usually on the date that the
Progress Report is submitted, since it is used to reflect the progress of the project according
to most recent (updated) information.
In order to update the Activities Schedule there are several steps that you should
follow:
1. Update actual start and finish dates to see whether a task or activity has started
or finished later or earlier than planned, as well as the impact that this shift may
have on resources and the overall project schedule. In case that a task is
interrupted you should indicate when work will continue on the remaining portion of
the task.
2. Update the actual duration to indicate how long it actually took or it will actually
take to complete a task or activity. This update may be done automatically provided
that you have updated the actual start and finish dates.
3. Indicate which tasks have not started yet, which are in progress and which
are 100% complete.
4. For those tasks that are in progress, update the percentage of completion to
indicate how much progress, in terms of duration, has been made up to status
date. Be aware, however, that the percentage of completion, the actual duration
and the remaining duration are interdependent quantities. This means that if you
update one of them, the values of the other two will change.
5. Update actual work (only if resources have been assigned to tasks) to indicate
how much work has actually been accomplished on a task up to status date.
When updating the Activities Schedule is very important to create a new copy of the
schedule and maintain an archive of each version. In this way, you will never lose
the history of the project and you will also have a copy of every schedule for audit purposes.
After updating the schedule, do not forget to notify the appropriate stakeholders
for any modification to the schedule information that was judged as necessary.
Besides, be aware that schedule updates may require adjustments to other aspects of
the project plan, such as resource and cost schedules.
Schedule updates may result to revisions of the approved (baseline) project
schedule. This applies in case that the updating of specific tasks (i.e. critical tasks)
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causes changes to start or finish dates of the project. These changes may come up as a
result of the change management process. If you find that actual project progress is so
different from the baseline estimates and thus any comparison between the two is
meaningless, rebaselining (i.e. save a new baseline for the Activities Schedule) may be
needed to provide realistic data to performance measurement. However, care must be taken
before rebaselining, because historical data will be lost. It is recommended that rebaselining
should only be used as a last resort in controlling the schedule. Instead new target schedules
should be the normal outcome of schedule revision.
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7.5.1.3 Identify and resolve schedule problems
Each time you update your schedule you should review it to identify problems or potential
problems with task schedules. Identifying problems will allow you to take corrective actions to
bring expected future schedule performance in line with the baseline schedule and take care
of any issues that may affect the projects finish date.
Since schedule is changing constantly you have to analyze it each time you correct
and refine it. In order to identify schedule problems it is suggested that you take
following steps:
1. Check if the projects finish date has changed by viewing differences between
the baseline and currently scheduled end date of your project.
2. Find out why the projects finish date is delayed by examining the following:
a. Critical Path: Delays of critical tasks extend the finish date of the project, so
make sure that adjustments you make to the project schedule don't
adversely affect the critical path.
b. Task Dependencies: Unnecessary or inaccurate task dependencies can
cause your project to finish later, so review the dependencies of critical
tasks to ensure that they are both accurate and necessary.
c. Task Constraints: Unnecessary constraints can limit the flexibility of your
schedule by forcing tasks to start on certain dates or use all available slack.
Thus, try to eliminate unnecessary constraints and schedule tasks based on
their durations and dependencies.
3. Find out which tasks are delayed or incomplete by comparing baseline start and
finish dates with the actual ones.
After you have identified problems in your schedule you should take some actions to resolve
them. Before you try to put tasks back on schedule, it is recommended that you save a
backup copy of the initial schedule, so that you can refer to it as you are making changes
that may affect other tasks or resources.
In order to solve problems and keep schedule on track you can either change
specific settings on tasks that affect their duration and their relationships to other
tasks or change the way that resources are assigned to tasks. More specifically, you can
take the following actions:
Shorten a task duration, when this is possible, is the simplest way to get your
schedule back on track, especially if this task is critical.
Change task dependencies to make sure that all tasks are logically related to
each other. For example, changing a task that starts after another task to start at
the same time can help bring in the finish date of the project.
Set overlap or delay for tasks. Overlapping tasks that are on the critical path or
delaying a noncritical task so that a resource can work on another, more critical
task will help you saving time and keep schedule on track.
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Change the constraint to a task that doesnt need to start or finish on a specific
date to start or finish as soon as possible, especially if this task is on the critical
path.
Modify the project or resource calendar to change the timing and the duration of
tasks on which the resources are assigned and potentially shorten the overall
duration of the project.
Assign additional resources to tasks to decrease the durations of tasks and
shorten the length of the project (if these tasks are on the critical path).
Replace a resource with another if this will help tasks to finish earlier. The
replacement of a resource may be deemed as necessary if you want to resolve
overallocations, reduce costs, increase efficiency or improve quality.
Increase the time that a resource spends on a critical task to decrease the
duration of that task if the duration is not fixed but effort-driven13.
Improve the performance of labour resources by training them, providing them
with better tools to do their job and applying effective HR management. This is
especially important in case that there not other resources available to help.
After making changes to resolve your schedule problems, do not forget to:
Evaluate the impact of these changes on other projects with dependencies in your
project.
Communicate these changes to the stakeholders and rest team members.
7.5.2 Resource Management
Resource Management is the process during which the actual progress of resources work
is being tracked and if needed corrective actions are taken to resolve resource allocation
problems.
During the Planning phase, a baseline was established for the Resource Schedule (refer to
7.4.2.1). This baseline will be used as a starting point against which resource progress will
be measured. In this way the Project Manager will be able to monitor resource allocation and
its impact on schedules and budgets, as well as to take the necessary actions to ensure that
the project is on track.
The steps that are undertaken to manage the Resources are the following:
Record resource progress by calculating the total time actually spent by labour
and equipment resources and the actual consumption of material resources to
undertake the project activities/ tasks.
13
Effort-driven is a task the duration of which shortens or lengthens as resources are added or
removed from it, while the amount of effort necessary to complete the task remains unchanged.
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Update the Resource Schedule on a regular basis to ensure that the resource
progress is on track.
Identify and resolve resource allocation problems to get the best performance
and results from resources and to ensure that the overall project schedule wont be
affected.
Identify and
Record Update the
resolve resource
resource Resource
allocation
progress Schedule
problems
Figure 7-17: Steps to be followed for managing resources
As it has been already mentioned (refer to 7.4.2), there are various software
packages in the market (e.g. MS Project, Primavera Project Planner) that can be
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used for developing, monitoring and control a resource schedule. However, for the purposes
of this Guide the simple tool presented in Annex 7-1/ Sheets Resource Schedule and
Resources vs. Activities can be used also for tracking project progress during the
Execution & Control phase.
The following paragraphs describe analytically the steps to be followed for an effective
resource management.
7.5.2.1 Record resource progress
In order to record the progress of resources work there are several steps that you
have to follow:
1. Save or update a baseline resource schedule, if you haven't already done so in
the planning phase. This will enable you to compare the information in your
baseline resource schedule to your up-to-date resource schedule later in the project
and will help you to identify and solve resource allocation problems.
2. Decide the way you are going to record resource progress. Depending on the
specific requirements of each project, as well as the type of the contract with the
economic operator (in case that project implementation is outsourced) there are
different ways for tracking resource progress:
If you havent assigned resources to activities/ tasks, you wont be able to
track actual work and you will have to manually update the percentage of the
work performed on a particular task, its actual duration and actual start and
finish dates (refer to 7.5.1.2).
If you have assigned resources to activities/ tasks but you dont need to
track the work of each resource (this is the case where you have a lump sum
contract and the payment of the contractor does not depend on the actual time
spent by his resources), you can collect information (from your Project Team
Members or/and the Management Team of the contractor) on the aggregate
work performed on each activity/ task and update manually the percentage of
work complete and the remaining work.
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If you have assigned resources to activities/ tasks and you need to track
the work of each resource assigned to each task (this is the case when you
have a fee-based contract and the payment of the contractor depends on the
actual time spent by his resources or when there is a so great need to stay
within budget or on schedule that you have to track separately the work of each
resource) you have to collect information on the actual time spent by labour and
equipment resources and on the quantities used for material resources.
3. Decide which resource information you want to track and update. For instance,
you might want to track only the time spent by labour resources and the time that
equipment resources were used (e.g. in case of a service delivery project) or you
may wish to track also the time spent by labour resources on travels (e.g. in case
that travel costs are a great percentage of the overall budget and need to be
tracked accurately). Or in case of construction projects you will probably need to
track the used quantities of material resources, apart from labour and equipment
resources.
4. Decide how often you will collect information about resources progress and
how often you will update the resource schedule. For example, are you going to
collect information and update your resource schedule once a week or once a
month or once every three months? Selecting a frequency that is convenient and
fits into your schedule increases the likelihood that you will collect resource
progress information timely and you will have an up-to-date resource schedule.
After deciding which resources you want to track, as well as the tracking frequency, you can
use the following methods to record progress depending on the type of the resource:
Recording time spent by labour resources
The most common method for recording the time spent by labour resources
undertaking project activities/ tasks is through a completion of a Timesheet.
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Timesheets exist in various forms, including paper based, spreadsheet or software-based
formats. For the purposes of this Guide a template of a Timesheet is provided in Annex 7-
9. It should be noted that this template can be modified to meet the monitoring requirements
of a specific project.
Regardless of the method used to capture time spent, time must be recorded at an
agreed level of detail as defined upfront by the Project Manager. Usually, time spent
is recorded in work days, since the cost per day (/day) is the most frequently used rate for
labour resources. However, in case that a resource cost is measured on an hourly basis
(/hr), it may be more suitable to record the total hours spent by the resource in a day to
perform the assigned activity/ task.
In order to obtain more accurate timesheet information, you should ask project staff to
record time in their timesheet as they undertake each task, instead of waiting till
the end of the reporting period. Timesheets must be submitted by each member of the
Project Team (or by the Management Team of the contractor in case of a fee-based contract)
to the Project Manager for approval on a regular, pre-determined basis. Usually, timesheets
are submitted on a monthly basis.
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The Project Manager prior to approving each timesheet will have to:
Confirm that the activities/ tasks undertaken were those identified and agreed in
the Resource Plan
Confirm that the staff member was in fact the resource allocated to the specific
activities/ tasks
Judge if the outcome of the activity/ task is reasonable and justifies the time spent
Based on the above information, the Project Manager will either approve the timesheet or
request further information/ clarification from the project staff member prior taking the final
decision or decline the timesheet and raise a staff issue.
The data from the approved timesheets are then recorded in the Resource Schedule which is
updated to reflect the actual time spent by the resources against each task.
Recording usage of equipment and material resources
The most common method to collect data for equipment and material usage is to exchange
status information with your Project Team Members or/and the Management Team of the
contractor using the communications mechanisms documented in the Communication Plan
(refer to 7.4.10). The status information is usually provided in a form of a progress report.
However, for construction projects you have to collect the respective data either by
conducting on-site inspections by yourself or by asking the supervising engineers to submit
performance metrics, which include analytical information about the usage of equipment and
the quantities of materials utilised in the performance of the various activities/ tasks.
7.5.2.2 Update the Resource Schedule
Using the information collected in the previous step (i.e. timesheets, metrics, etc.), the
Project Manager tracks the actual work done by each resource during the reporting period
against the tasks and updates the Resource Schedule accordingly. It is recommended that
the Resource Schedule is updated on a regular basis and if possible with the same
frequency as the Activities Schedule (i.e. using the same status date). Frequent updates to
the Resource Schedule not only save time in the long run, but they also allow the Project
Manager to quickly identify potential resource allocation problems. Small variances from the
scheduled work that may seem unimportant, they might cause significant problems in
projects progress and variances at the Activities Schedule if corrective actions are not
undertaken promptly.
In order to update the Resource Schedule there are several steps that you should
follow:
1. Update actual start and finish dates to see whether a resource has started or
finished working later or earlier than planned, as well as the impact that this shift
may have on the activities schedule.
2. Update the actual time that labour resources have spent on tasks based on the
approved timesheets to find out if it exceeds the budgeted time planned.
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3. Update the actual time that equipment resources were used in the various
tasks to find out if it exceeds the budgeted time planned.
4. Update the actual quantities of material resources that were used in the
various tasks to find out if they exceed the budgeted quantities planned.
5. Update the actual time spent for travels to find out if it exceeds the budgeted
time planned.
6. Estimate whether the time spent by labour resources, the time that the
equipment was used and the quantities of the materials used for performing
the tasks, justify the actual work progress on those tasks.
7. Estimate how much of the planned time (for labour & equipment) and planned
quantity (for material) is left to be used on each task and examine whether it is
sufficient for the completion of the remaining work. It should be noted that if a task
has been marked as 100% complete, no further time can be allocated against it for
the duration of the project.
When updating the Resource Schedule is very important to create a new copy of the
After updating the schedule, do not forget to notify the appropriate resources for
any modification to the schedule information that was judged as necessary and
affects their assignments. Besides, be aware that Resource Schedule updates may
require adjustments to other aspects of the project plan, such as Activities and Cost
Schedules.
7.5.2.3 Identify and resolve resource allocation problems
Each time you update your Resource Schedule, you should review it to identify problems or
potential problems with resource allocation. Identifying resource allocation problems will
allow you to take corrective actions to ensure that the resources are optimally assigned to
tasks in order to get the results you want.
Since Resource Schedule is changing constantly you have to analyze it each time
you correct and refine it. In order to identify resource allocation problems it is
suggested that you take following steps:
1. Review the assignments of resources to project activities/ tasks to make sure
that all activities/ tasks are sufficiently covered and that the most appropriate
resources are assigned to perform each activity/ task (refer to 7.4.2.3).
2. Check for overallocated14 or underallocated15 resources to ensure that neither too
much nor too little work has been assigned.
14
Overallocated is a resource that is scheduled to work more than the available time it has for.
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3. Review the variances between a resources planned and actual work to make
sure that the work on the project is progressing as you expected, since it is very
important to effectively balance workloads over time and distribute work among
resources. For example, if you find out that a resource has spent more time to do the
work than initially expected, this means that there might be a change in the scope of
the task or a change in the quality of work the resource is doing or finally that the
resource is not efficient enough.
4. Review cost variances per resource or per task, since unexpected costs can
signal a change in scope or quality that should be addressed. For example, an
unexpected cost overrun on a task assignment can indicate that more work was
needed for performing the task than expected or that the resource was unable to
complete the work planned and may need to be replaced.
After you have identified resource allocation problems you should take some actions to
resolve them in order to get the best performance and results from resources. Before you try
to resolve allocation problems, it is recommended that you save a backup copy of the initial
resource schedule, so that you can refer to it as you are making changes that may affect
other resources or tasks.
The process of managing resources workloads to fix overallocations is called
Resource Levelling. In order to resolve resource overallocations you can take the
following actions:
Delay an assigned task until the resource has the time to work on it. Try to
delay a task that is not on the critical path and has lower priority than others.
Besides, if you want to add delay without changing the finish date of other tasks or
the project finish date, review available slack and add delay less or equal to that
slack time.
Control the resource availability throughout the life of the project. Generally,
there are three ways to control a resources availability in order to complete all the
assigned work on time: a) Increase the resources working days and times by
changing the resource calendar (i.e. reduce days off or time off) b) Change the
date that a resource is beginning to work on the project or the date that a resource
is leaving the project c) Increase the percentage of resources availability in the
project. For example, you can change the availability of a resource in a given time
period from 50% to 80% or 100%, provided that this is possible taking into account
its other engagements.
Assign overtime work to resources to shorten the duration of a task (if it is
effort-driven) and meet short-term deadlines. In this case you have to ensure that
overtime costs can be afforded by the available budget.
Reduce scope on a task to eliminate the overallocation for the resource assigned
to it. If you reduce scope, the tasks duration and the amount of required work will
15
Underallocated is a resource that is working less time than its full capacity.
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decrease. However, make sure that the change still reflects realistic time
requirements for the task.
Interrupt work on a task when you have two tasks that occur simultaneously in
the schedule and use the same resource. In this case you can split one of the
tasks so that part of the work occurs before the other task starts and then begins
again when the other one finishes.
Assign an additional resource to divide the work on a task between a resource
already assigned to the task and another resource(s).
Replace a resource with another one that is better able to complete the task on
time (e.g. faster or larger equipment or a human resource with more available
time).
Remove assignment from an overallocated resource if a) there are other
comparable resources assigned, b) you have an underallocated resource who has
time to work on the project, c) there is another resource available which is more
cost-effective.
In order to resolve resource underallocations you can take the following actions:
Control the resource availability throughout the life of the project. If a
resource is not needed as much as you had planned you can a) decrease the
resources working days and times by changing the resource calendar in order to
lower your project costs as well, b) change the date that a resource is beginning to
work on the project or the date that a resource is leaving the project c) decrease
the percentage of resources availability in the project. For example, you can
change the availability of a resource in a given time period from 100% to 80% or
50%, so that it can be used in other projects.
Increase a task duration (if scope on a task has increased), which will also
increase the amount of required work, to eliminate the underallocation of the
resource assigned to it.
Assign additional tasks to an underallocated resource to reduce the workload
of another overallocated resource.
After adjusting resource assignments you should check the critical path to ensure
that the finish date of the project was not extended and that non-critical tasks havent
become critical without any serious reason. You should also review the project costs to
ensure that they dont exceed the planned budget. If you have reassigned tasks among
resources, make sure that these changes havent created additional overallocations or
underallocations for other resources. Besides, if the same resources are also assigned to
work on other projects, you should check the impact that these changes might have on
the other projects. Finally, do not forget to inform the affected resources about the
adjustments you have made to their assignments.
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7.5.3 Cost Management
Cost Management (or Cost Control) is the process during which the actual costs are
tracked against estimates and if needed corrective actions are taken to keep costs within
budget.
During the Planning phase, a baseline was established for the Cost Schedule (refer to
7.4.3.2). This baseline will be used as a starting point against which financial progress will be
measured. In this way the Project Manager will be able to monitor cost variances and their
impact on schedules and resources, as well as to take the necessary actions to ensure that
the project stays within budget.
The steps that are undertaken to control Costs are the following:
Record actual costs (or expenses) based on resource and schedule progress,
as well as on current cost rates.
Update the Cost Schedule on a regular basis to ensure that the financial
progress is on track.
Identify and resolve cost problems to ensure that the project stays within
budget.
Record actual Update the Identify and

costs (or Cost resolve cost
expenses) Schedule problems
Figure 7-18: Steps to be followed for managing costs
As it has been already mentioned (refer to 7.4.3), there are various software packages
in the market (e.g. MS Project, Primavera Project Planner) that can be used for
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developing, monitoring and control a cost schedule. However, for the purposes of this Guide
the simple tool presented in Annex 7-1/ Sheets Cost Schedule and Costs vs.
Activities can be used also for tracking costs during the Execution & Control phase.
The following paragraphs describe analytically the steps to be followed for an effective cost
management.
7.5.3.1 Record actual costs (or expenses)
In order to record the actual costs (or expenses) which accrue during the projects
lifecycle, there are several steps that you have to follow:
1. Save or update a baseline cost schedule, if you haven't already done so in the
planning phase. This will enable you to compare the information in your baseline cost
schedule to your up-to-date cost schedule later in the project and will help you to
identify and solve cost problems.
2. Record resource costs (labour, equipment and material costs) by using the
information from the updated resource schedule (i.e. approved timesheets for labour
resources, actual usage time of equipment and actual quantities of materials) and
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applying the appropriate cost rate to calculate the actual costs. In case that some
resources involve per use cost you should collect information from the responsible
staff members about the actual number of uses of each resource in order to calculate
the total costs. Finally for the resources which involve both rate-based and per use
cost, you should calculate the two cost components separately and then add the two
figures to calculate the total cost.
3. Record travel, administrative or incidental costs (or expenses) by using an
Expense Form, which should be completed by the project members to request the
payment of an expense (or cost) on the project (or by the Contractor in case that the
contract includes provision for reimbursable expenses) and submitted to the Project
Manager for approval. It is recommended that in case of projects implemented with
own resources, the Expense Forms are completed on a regular basis (e.g. once
every two weeks or once a month) to enable the Project Manager to monitor the
financial progress of the project. In case that the Expense Forms are completed by
the contractor then they should be asked together with the progress reports (usually
every three or six months) or as a separate financial report.
The Project Manager prior to approving each Expense Form will have to:
Confirm that the activities/ tasks for which the expense occurred are those
identified in the Activities Schedule and assigned to the specific resource
according to the Resource Plan.
Confirm that the incurred expense was initially budgeted and included in the
Cost Plan.
Judge if any unbudgeted expenditure is necessary, fair and reasonable and if
he/she has the authority to approve such expenditure. If the expenditure
exceeds his/her approval limits then it may require the approval of the
Project Steering Committee or even the approval of the Funding Agency.
Based on the above information, the Project Manager will either approve the expense
or request further information/ clarification from the person submitting the Form prior
taking the final decision or decline the expense (or part of it) and raise an issue with
the person submitting the Form.
The data from the approved Expense Forms are then recorded in the Cost Schedule
which is updated to reflect the actual costs occurred by the resources against each
task.
For the purposes of this Guide a template of an Expense Form is provided
in Annex 7-10. It should be noted that this template can be modified to meet
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the tracking requirements of a specific project.
4. Decide which costs you want to track and how much detail you want in the cost
information. For instance, in case that the project is implemented by a contractor
you may not want to track any associated travel or administrative costs incurred by
the contractor, unless there is a relative provision in the contract for reimbursable
costs. However, even if you want to track such costs, you may not need so much
detail like: analytical description of each expense, attached invoices for every single
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expense, etc. In this case it may suits you to collect information on total amount per
type of cost (e.g. Travel Expenses = 2.000, Administrative Expenses = 800, etc.).
5. Decide how often you will collect information about incurred costs and how
often you will update the cost schedule. For example, are you going to collect
information and update your cost schedule once a week or once a month or once
every three months? Selecting a frequency that is convenient and fits into your
schedule increases the likelihood that you will collect actual costs information timely
and you will have an up-to-date cost schedule.
7.5.3.2 Update the cost schedule
Using the information from the updated resource schedule (i.e. working time of labour
resources, usage time of equipment, quantities of materials) and the actual cost rates, as
well as the information from the approved expense forms, the Project Manager tracks the
actual costs that occurred during the reporting period against the tasks and updates the Cost
Schedule accordingly. It is recommended that the Cost Schedule is updated on a regular
basis and if possible with the same frequency as the Activities Schedule (i.e. using the same
status date). Frequent updates to the Cost Schedule not only save time in the long run, but
they also allow the Project Manager to quickly identify potential cost problems. Small
variances from the planned cost that may seem unimportant, they might cause significant
problems in projects progress or even a budget overrun if corrective actions are not
undertaken promptly.
In case that you are using specialised software for tracking projects progress, the
updated Cost Schedule will be prepared automatically by the program, using the
information of the updated activities and resource schedules (refer to 7.4.3.2). The only thing
that you have to do in this case is to check whether your initial estimates for the cost rates
and the costs per-use are still valid or you have to use updated values. Obviously, the
approved travel, administrative or other incidental expenses that incurred during the reporting
period, have to be entered manually in the Cost Schedule. It should be mentioned that each
time the activities and resource schedules are updated, the program apart from updating the
actual costs; it updates also the remaining costs (i.e. the estimated costs that are expected to
be incurred for a task, resource or assignment).
In case that you are not using specialised software for tracking projects progress, the
above actions should be performed manually, using the information from your
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updated schedules and probably an excel spreadsheet to speed up the calculations.
When updating the Cost Schedule is very important to create a new copy of the
After updating the schedule, do not forget to notify the appropriate stakeholders
for any modification to the cost information that was judged as necessary and affects
their assignments. Besides, be aware that Cost Schedule updates may require
adjustments to other aspects of the project plan, such as Activities and Resource
Schedules.
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In special cases, cost schedule updates may result to changes to the approved cost
baseline (budget updates). These changes may come up in response to scope
Icon1398.icochanges. If you find that actual costs are so different from the baseline estimates and
thus any comparison between the two is meaningless, rebaselining (i.e. save a new
baseline for the Cost Schedule) may be needed to provide realistic data for measuring cost
performance. However, care must be taken before rebaselining, because historical data will
be lost. It is recommended that rebaselining should only be used as a last resort in
controlling costs. Instead new cost performance targets should be the normal outcome of
schedule update.
7.5.3.3 Identify and resolve cost problems
Each time you update your Cost Schedule, you should review it to identify cost problems or
potential problems. Identifying cost problems will allow you to take corrective actions to
ensure that you will complete the project within the approved budget.
Since Cost Schedule is changing constantly you have to analyze it each time you
correct and refine it. In order to identify cost problems it is suggested that you take
following steps:
1. Review the baseline, actual and remaining costs to identify whether the project
will or will not stay within budget.
2. Review cost variances per type of cost or per task to find out when and where the
actual costs exceed or are less than the budgeted ones.
3. Find which types of costs are already over budget. Perform the same exercise
with the tasks cost to find out if you need to make any reallocation of resources (or
costs) to stay within budget.
4. Perform Earned Value Analysis (EVA) to get reliable answers to the questions Is
there enough money left in the budget to complete the project? and Is there enough
time left in the schedule to finish the project on time?. EVA is the most commonly
used method for measuring project performance. It indicates how much of the budget
should have been spent, in view of the amount of work done so far and the baseline
cost for the task, assignment or resources. More details on how to perform Earned
Value Analysis are provided in Annex 7-11.
After you have identified cost variances that occur over time, you should take corrective
actions to keep costs within budget. Before you make any major changes, it is recommended
that you save a backup copy of the initial cost schedule, so that you can refer to it as you are
making changes that may affect costs of other resources or tasks.
In order to get an overview of options that are available keep costs under control, you
have to consider how quality affects costs. The changes that you will make in your
schedules to stay within budget depend mainly on your priorities. For instance, you could
choose to sacrifice quality by using less expensive resources (e.g. people with less
experience and skills, equipment with less operational power, materials of lower quality, etc.)
or by removing some of the tasks you meant to accomplish. Alternatively, you could choose
to spend a little more money on quality resources, under the thought that those resources will
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complete the task or project in significantly less time and probably with less total cost.
Regardless of the actions you decide to take to reduce costs, you have to examine their
effects on tasks, resources and quality of the deliverables. You may also need to discuss the
effect of these actions on quality with the appropriate stakeholders.
In order to keep costs within budget you can take the following actions:
Replace, remove or adjust the resources assignments to reduce the cost of
tasks. When you've made new assignments or changed existing assignments, you
need to communicate these changes to the resources who are assigned.
Reduce rates of resources (if this is possible), who are assigned to tasks that are
in danger of exceeding their budget. This can be possible only if you have included
profit or overhead in the cost rate.
Assign per-use costs more efficiently. This can be achieved, for instance, by
combining tasks (i.e. let them run together), which involve the use of a resource
with a per-use cost.
Reduce or remove overtime work to eliminate overtime costs. Have in mind that
when you reduce or delete overtime work, the duration of the task may be longer.
Reduce unnecessary fixed costs. For example, you can cancel a travel that is
not so important for the progress of the work or reduce the number of project staff
that was scheduled to travel.
Reduce the scope by shortening a task's duration or by deleting tasks that can be
omitted. You may also need to remove resources when reducing scope, keeping
the cost of resources down.
Once you have taken actions to optimise the costs, you have to examine their
effects on:
Critical path to verify that the adjustments you made didnt affect it adversely.
Project dates and costs to verify that the adjustments you made do not
jeopardise important dates or other costs.
Resource allocation to verify that the adjustments you made do not cause any
overallocations or underallocations
Other projects to verify that the adjustments you made do not jeopardise other
projects.
7.5.4 Quality Management
Quality Management (or Quality Control) is the process by which the quality of the
deliverables is assured and controlled, using the relative techniques and applying the Quality
Plan developed in the previous phase.
During the Planning phase, the quality criteria and standards for the project deliverables
were set, the requirements for established (by the Contractor) quality management and
assurance systems were defined and included in the Tender Documents and finally the
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quality control process to be followed by the Contracting Authority were established. During
the Execution & Control Phase, the Contracting Authority monitors if the Contractor
implements the quality assurance activities that the later has described in his offer while in
parallel monitors the quality of the deliverables submitted by the Contractor.
The steps that are undertaken to control Quality are the following:
Monitoring of the quality assurance activities implemented by the Contractor
Organising and implementing deliverable quality reviews.
Monitoring of the Organising &

quality assurance Implementing
activities deliverable
implemented by quality review
the Contractor
Figure 7-19: Steps to be followed during the Quality Management
7.5.4.1 Monitoring of the quality assurance activities implemented by the

Contractor
Depending on the quality assurance activities that the Contractor is supposed to

implement, the Project Manager should:
Examine the Peer Review Report (refer to 7.4.4.1) that normally has to be
attached to the Deliverable concerned and check whether all the information
needed are included.
Study the Progress Reports prepared by the Contractor and examine whether the
Contractor updates regularly the Project Schedule. If the project timeline is not on
track, the Project Manager has to determine why this happens and take immediate
action to remedy the problem.
Use a checklist to ensure that all the quality assurance activities defined in the
Contractors offer (and consequently in the Contract and in the Project Kick off
document (or Inception Report) are being implemented. This process helps the
Project Manager to monitor what is being done well, to identify real or potential
issues and to suggest ways of improvement. It is recommended to perform this
process regularly during Project Execution and Control Phase and of course at the
end of the project.
The questions listed below are indicative of what the Project Manager may
ask to check the consistency between what the Contractor promised and
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what actually performs.
Checklist 7-3: Checklist for monitoring whether the Contractor implements the Quality
Assurance activities defined in the Contract
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESS & DELIVERABLES

Does the Contractor produce progress reports on the agreed intervals that contain all the
recommended components from the Tender Documents?
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Is the project scope clear in the Project Inception Report? (is it clear as to what is in and out
of the scope?
Is the Project Schedule defined sufficiently to enable the Project Manager to monitor the task
execution?
Was a project baseline established?
Is the project schedule maintained on a regular basis by the Contractor?
Has the Contractor prepared a Resource Plan?
Has the Contractor described at the Inception Report the quality standards for the project and
the quality assurance and control activities he is going to perform?
Does the Contractor perform the quality assurance activities he is supposed to?
Has the contractor identify and prioritize possible risks of the project?
Has a mitigation plan been developed for each?
If any risks events have occurred to date, was the risk mitigation plan executed successfully?
Have all the Project Management deliverables been approved by the Project Steering
Committee?
DELIVERABLES
Do the deliverables produced so far meet the Contracting Authoritys needs?
Do the deliverables produced so far meet the objectives set in the Project Fiche and in the
Tender Documents?
Do the deliverables produced so far achieve the quality standards defined in the Quality Plan?
It should be mentioned that except from monitoring the implementation of quality

assurance activities by the Contractor the Project Manager should also examine
whether all the management activities planned to be implemented by the Contracting
Authoritys Project Management Team in order to ensure qualitative project implementation,
are actually performed. In this perspective, the Project Manager should use a similar to the
above presented Checklist, consisting of questions like the one that follow.
Checklist 7-4: Checklist for monitoring whether the Project Management Team implements the
Quality Assurance activities defined in the Quality Plan
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Have you identified and assigned the appropriate resources for the performance of project
management activities?
Is the schedule progress being monitored regularly to ensure that the project is on track?
Is the resource and financial progress being monitored regularly to ensure that there are not
any resource allocation problems and the project is within budget?
Does the project organization ensure that decisions are taken in the appropriate management
level?
Does the Project Management Team take actions to mitigate risks?
Are regular project team meetings conducted? Are minutes of meeting kept and disseminated
after the meeting?
Are there any quality review mechanisms in place?
Are there any quality reviews being performed according to the plan?
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Have Change Control Process been established and applied?

Has an Acceptance Management Plan been established and applied? Does it describe
explicitly the process to be followed to accept or reject deliverables?
Are all the stakeholders aware of their involvement in the project?
Does the Communication Plan describe the method to be used for communicating with all the
stakeholders? Does it also indicate the frequency of the communication?
Is the Project Progress Report being reviewed by the Project Steering Committee?
7.5.4.2 Organizing and implementing Deliverable Quality Review
A Deliverable Quality Review is a structured process designed to assess the conformity of

the deliverable against the quality criteria that have been set in the Quality Plan.
There are three basic steps in a quality review, the activities of which are described
below:
Preparation
o Confirmation that the product is ready for review
o Definition of the date the review will take place
o Confirmation of the availability of the reviewers
o Making the product/ deliverable available for inspection by the reviewers. In
case that the deliverable is a printed document e.g a study, a draft law, a
guide etc, a copy of the deliverable and its description should be distributed to
reviewers
o Assessment of the product/ deliverable against predefined quality criteria by
each reviewer and detection of suspected errors or deficiencies
o Preparation of a list with the suspected errors and deficiencies
Review Meeting or Preparation of list which incorporates the comments of all
reviewers. Depending on the volume of comments and concerns, a review meeting
can take place or the Project Manager can study the individual lists with the
comments prepared by the reviewers and prepare a new one which incorporates
the remarks of all reviewers.
In case that a review meeting takes place, the following activities should be
implemented:
o Discussion, clarification and agreement on each of the points raised by the
reviewers
o Agreement on which points will be incorporated at the final Quality Review
Report
o Agreement on the follow up actions needed for each agreed deficiency
o Agreement on the content of the final Quality Review Report
Follow up
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o Notification to the Project Steering Committee and the Contractor of the

Quality Review Result.
In case of construction projects, the most important decisions regarding the quality of
a completed facility are made during the design and planning phase. The Contractor
normally submits to the Contracting Authority a plan for the project implementation through
which the component configurations, work and material specifications as well as functional
performance are defined and agreed. Quality control in construction typically involves
insuring compliance with minimum standards of material and workmanship (contained in the
above mentioned work and material specifications) in order to insure the performance of the
facility according to the design. In this framework, quality reviewers of the Contracting
Authority have to check the reports prepared by the Contractor during the execution of the
project and they might also perform on-site inspections. Besides, random samples of
materials can be tested in specialized laboratories to insure compliance.
A template of the Deliverable Quality Review Form is being presented in Annex 7-
12. Furthermore in the same Annex a completed form is presented in order to
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facilitate the understanding on how it should be completed.
7.5.5 Issue Management
Issue Management involves capturing, reporting, resolving, escalating and tracking issues
that occur as a project progresses in accordance with the Issue Management Plan (refer to
7.4.5).
Anyone involved in the project can and should inform the Project Manager of
identified issues. It is the responsibility of the Project Manager to foster an
environment where communicating issues is strongly encouraged. If individuals are fearful of
communicating issues the resulting effect on the project can be extremely serious.
The Project Manager should capture and track issues as soon as they arise using the Issue
Log. Once a description of a new issue has been logged, the Project Manager should
estimate the potential impact that the issue could have on the project. Based upon potential
impact the Project Manager must prioritize the issue in relation to all other open issues. The
goal of issue management is to resolve all problems completely and promptly, but in reality
the issues with the highest priority should be addressed first.
It should be noted that the urgency and the importance of a project issue are not the
same thing. The Project Manager must deal with urgent project issues quickly,
whereas with important issues comprehensively.
The Project Manager or the Project Steering Committee (depending on the limits authority to
handle issues) may decide either:
o to assign resolution actions, or
o to raise a project risk if the issue is likely to impact the project in the future, or
issue results in the need for a change to the project/ contract, or
o to close the issue if this is not impacting the project anymore.
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The Project Manager should monitor the implementation of the resolution actions and
update the Issue Log (refer to Annex 7-5) to reflect what has occurred. As issues
are closed their status should be changed to closed and the name of the person who
resolved the issue, as well as the closure date should be documented.
The Project Manager should review periodically the Issue Log to identify the issues
that have not been resolved till that moment. All open issues should be reviewed and
discussed at the next status meeting since unresolved issues are one of the most important
reasons for project failure.
7.5.6 Change Management
Change Management is the process by which changes to the projects scope, cost,
timescales or resources are formally defined, evaluated, approved prior to implementation
and finally controlled.
The change management process that is recommended to be used by the
Contracting Authorities in case of projects being implemented with internal resources,
is the following:
One of the individuals authorised to be a requestor identifies a requirement for
change to any aspect of the project and completes a Change Request Form
(Template is provided in Annex 713), which is then submitted to the Project
Manager.
The Project Manager registers the change request in the Change Log (Template
is provided in Annex 7-14) and assigns to it an ID.
He/she then analyzes the request, examines its complexity and whether the
change is feasible or not. He/She also assesses the full impact of the change to
the project and defines in detail the change requirements, costs, additional
resources needed and risks.
The Project Manager based on the analysis performed, recommends to the Project
Steering Committee the acceptance or reject of the change and documents this
recommendation on the Change Request Form.
The Project Steering Committee, which is responsible for approval, reviews the
available information and taking into consideration the project managers
recommendation decides whether to approve or reject the change requested. The
decision is recorded in the minutes of meeting which are validated in the next
meeting of the Project Steering Committee.
In case that the change request has been approved, the Project Manager must
incorporate the effect of the change into the appropriate Plan (e.g. in the Activities
Schedule and the Resources Plan if the whole duration of the project is prolonged,
in the Cost Plan if the budget has been changed etc) and update the Change Log.
The above presented process can similarly be followed in case of projects being
implemented by Contractors. However, in case of projects contracted out by
Ministries or Services or Departments of Ministries or Independent Offices or Independent
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Service of the Republic of Cyprus (where Regulation 115/2004 applies), there are three
competent bodies to handle the change requests depending on the limits of authority granted
to each one of them (refer to Annex 7-1516):
the Coordinator in Charge or the Competent Official (the Project Manager)
the Departmental Committee for Variations and Claims and
the Central Committee for Variations and Claims
Since change management is a basic aspect of contract administration, analysis of the
provisions of Regulation 115/2004 will be provided in Chapter 6 Contract
Management.
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7.5.7 Risk Management
Risk Management ( or Risk Monitoring and Control) is the process of keeping track of the
risks identified during the Initiation and Planning Phases, monitoring residual risks and
identifying new risks, ensuring the execution of Risk Plans (preventive and contingency
actions) and evaluating their effectiveness in reducing risk.
The steps that should be undertaken to manage risks are the following:
Risk Monitoring
Risk Control
Risk
Monitoring Risk Control
Figure 7-20: Steps to be followed for managing the risks
7.5.7.1 Risk Monitoring
As the project matures, the risks change. Anticipated risks may disappear while new ones
emerge. Therefore, the Project Manager must continually look for new risks, reassess old
ones and re-evaluate risk mitigation actions.
More specifically, the purpose of risk monitoring is to:

Determine if identified risks have occurred and risks responses have been
implemented as planned
Evaluate if the planned risk response actions were as effective as expected and so
estimate if new actions should be developed
16
The table listed in Annex 7-15 is the Annex I of the Regulation 115/2004. In case that the
limits of authority, as defined in the Regulation 115/2004, change, the limits referred in Annex
7-15 should be replaced by the new limits that will come into force.
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Examine if some of the initial identified risks are no longer valid

Identify if the risk probabilities have changed; the expected level of impact is
different or the date of impact may be sooner or later than the original anticipated
Make sure that the preventive/ contingency actions planned to be performed still
make sense in the context of the latest project developments and that these
actions are assigned to the appropriate in terms of skills and position, project team
members
Determine if risk exposure has changed from its prior state and then analyze the
new trends
Identify if new risks that were not previously identified have arisen or even worse
occurred
In order to perform successfully risk monitoring the Project Manager should regularly
perform formal project risk reviews and risk response audits and then update the
Risk Log (refer to Annex 1-6).
In project risk reviews the whole Project Team should be involved since every team
member has his own expertise and knowledge raised via his participation at the
implementation or management of specific tasks and activities. All the risk review findings
(changes to risks prioritization, risk disappear, new risks, actions taken etc) should be
registered in the Risk Log thus updating it.
The risk response audits examine the effectiveness of the risk response in avoiding or
mitigating risk occurrence. Implementation of risk control actions may not eliminate the
identified risks but reduce their impact or probability. In this case all the risks must be
reassessed so that the new most important risks be identified and prioritized to be controlled.
7.5.7.2 Risk Control
Risk control refers to the implementation of the preventive or contingency actions defined in
the Risk Plan, to the development of alternative strategies for risk mitigation or even to the
replanning of the project.
When a predefined risk occurs the Project Manager must normally invoke the Risk
Management Plan and implement the actions described there. There are generally
three possibilities:
The risk occurs as expected and the risk control actions defined in the Risk
Management Plan are proven adequate for dealing with it.
The risk occurs in a different manner and consequently the risk control actions
must be modified appropriately
A new unexpected risk is revealed, so the Risk Management Plan must be
updated to define and describe the appropriate actions for mitigating it.
It should be noted that during the entire risk management process, the Project
Manager should be especially vigilant regarding the effect on the projects scope,
cost, schedule and quality. With the appropriate contingency plans established, many risks
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may not affect the above mentioned basic parameters of the project. However, when a risk
event occurs that threatens one or more of these parameters, the Project Manager must
determine the actions to be implemented in order to protect the projects integrity. In this
perspective, a change request may be issued which has to be managed formally according
to the predefined Change Management process (refer to 7.5.6 and Chapter 6).
7.5.8 Acceptance Management
Acceptance Management is the process by which the produced deliverables are reviewed
and accepted by the Contracting Authority according to the Acceptance Plan.
The aim of the Acceptance Management is to ensure that project deliverables meet the
acceptance criteria and thus closely fit the needs defined in the Business Case and Project
Fiche and incorporated in the Tender Documents.
Since acceptance management is a basic aspect of contract administration, analysis
of the provisions of Regulation 115/2004 (articles 22 and 23) as well as guidance
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concerning the application of best practices in Acceptance Management by the rest
Contracting Authorities apart from those of the central government, will be provided in
Chapter 6 Contract Management.
7.5.9 Communication Management
Communication Management is the process by which information is distributed to project

stakeholders according to the Communication Plan and projects performance is reported.
During the Planning phase, a Communication Plan/Matrix was developed (refer to 7.4.10) to
describe which type of information will be distributed and how project communications will
occur during the Project Execution phase. However, as the project progresses, events may
occur that will alter the way information is accessed or change communication requirements.
Therefore, the Project Manager, with the help of Project Team members, should regularly
review the initial Communication Plan and update it whenever its necessary to retain it
applicable to the project.
The main processes that are undertaken in the framework of communication management
are the following:
Execution of Communication Plan and distribution of information.
Reporting projects performance by collecting and disseminating information to
stakeholders regarding the current (and future) status and progress of the project.
Execution of
Reporting
Communication
Projects
Plan/ Distribution
Performance
of information
Figure 7-21: Processes undertaken in the framework of Communication Management
The following paragraphs describe analytically the processes to be undertaken for an

effective communication management.
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7.5.9.1 Execution of Communication Plan/ Distribution of information
During project execution the Communication Plan is implemented so that required

information is made available to the appropriate stakeholders at the appropriate times and
new communication requests receive a prompt response. Following the Communication Plan
ensures that all stakeholders are aware of their communication responsibilities. The more
information stakeholders have regarding a project or deliverable, the less likely last minute
conflicts, changes or complaints will affect the project.
Communication is a bi-directional process used to exchange information. On the
one hand the Project Manager has to provide required information to the Project
Team members and appropriate stakeholders on a timely basis and on the other hand the
Project Team members and the stakeholders must provide required information to the
Project Manager. In this perspective, it is very important that both sides (sender & receiver)
exercise good communication skills. The sender of information is responsible for making the
information clear, unambiguous and complete, so that the receiver can receive it correctly
and understand it properly. The receiver, in turn, is responsible for making sure that the
information is received in its entirety and understood properly.
The overall project communication can be improved by adhering to the following
communication guidelines:
Base communication strategies on stakeholder needs and feedback
Ensure that communication is shared in a timely manner
Promote an open, honest and face-to-face communication
Create an environment where project team members and other stakeholders can
constructively exchange information and ideas
Remember that communication is a two-way process. Listen as well as deliver the
message.
Involve senior management when appropriate
Coordinate communication with project milestone events, activities and results
Conduct regular reviews and assessments of the Communication Plan
Take advantage of existing information retrieval systems, communication
mechanisms, and opportunities
Project information can be retrieved from various types of systems, such as manual filing
systems, electronic databases and project management software. Information can be shared
using a variety of communication mechanisms that were defined during the Planning phase
and documented in the Communication Plan. These mechanisms may include project
meetings, status and progress reports, hard-copy document distribution, electronic mail, etc.
While executing the Communication Plan, the Project Manager must be aware of how
information will be used by the stakeholders and whether the plan is effective. The
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Project Manager must be flexible and ready to modify the plan if it doesnt work as expected
or if the communication needs change, as the project progresses and information on its
performance is updated.
7.5.9.2 Reporting Projects Performance
Performance reporting involves collecting, processing and communicating information to

key stakeholders, regarding the performance of the project. Performance reporting can be
conducted using various tools and techniques, most of which have been already described in
the previous paragraphs. The most widely used techniques for performance reporting are:
Performance review meetings that take place to assess the projects progress
or/and status.
Variance analysis which is about comparing actual project results (in terms of
schedule, resources, cost, scope, quality and risk) against planned or expected
ones.
Earned Value Analysis (EVA) used to assess project performance in terms of
time (schedule) and cost (or resources). For more information on EVA refer to
7.5.3.3 and the Annex 7-11.
Financial and Output Performance Indicators used to measure financial and
physical progress of the project (refer to 7.4.9)
Information of projects performance is usually communicated via Progress Reports and
Project Status Reports which are described in the paragraphs below.
The use of a Progress Report
The Progress Report is a document prepared by the Project Team members (in
case of in-house production) or by the Management Team of the Contractor (in case
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that the implementation of the project is totally outsourced) to provide regular feedback to the
Project Manager regarding the progress of the project. Progress reports should be submitted
on a regular basis to enable the Project Manager to update the Activities Schedule, identify
any schedule problems or potential problems and act proactively for their resolution.
Progress Reports are usually asked to be submitted every two weeks or every month, when
the project is implemented with own resources. However, in case that the project is
implemented by a Contractor, the progress reports are usually asked every three or six
months. Generally, a Progress Report should include the following information:
Table 7-7: Typical contents of a Progress Report
Reporting period to which it refers
Project Title
Project Managers name
Authors of the report (or name of the contractor if applicable)
Date of submission
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Project synopsis (i.e. project goals and objectives, expected results, project activities,
duration, etc.)
Project progress in the reporting period (i.e. activities/ tasks executed, actual work
accomplished, deliverables submitted, deviations for baseline schedule, estimation of the effort
required to complete activities/ tasks)
Work programme for the following reporting period (i.e. activities/ tasks to be executed,
deliverables to be submitted, schedule estimates for key milestones, etc.)
Updated/ revised Activities Schedule showing the percentage of work completed so far and
the estimated start or finish dates for activities/ tasks.
Note: Depending on the specific monitoring requirements of the project, the Progress Report may
include also additional information regarding resources and costs. For example, if you have a
fee-based service or work contract with an economic operator (Contractor), you will need to gather
information regarding the actual time spent by labour resources. So, in that case you should ask the
Contractor to attach the relative timesheets. Another example could be when you want to track
actual costs incurred by the resources, where you have to collect information on time spent labour
resources, usage time of equipment resources, used quantities of materials, travel or any other
incidental expenses.
It should be noted that in case of small projects with only few team members, the
Progress Report can be substituted by personal judgment and observations of the
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Project Manager or by day-to-day discussions with the team members on the progress of the
deliverables. On the contrary, in case of large and complex projects, where progress
reporting is an important aspect of communication management, the Progress Reports
should be formally submitted to the Project Manager by the Team Manager(s) (or by the
Contractor), who have to prepare them by collecting the relative progress information from
individual team members.
The use of a Project Status Report
The Project Status Report is a document prepared by the Project Manager - using the
information provided by the Progress Reports - to present the status of the project to key
stakeholders, including the Project Steering Committee, the Project Owner and the Funding
Agency. Depending on the duration and size of the project, as well as on specific
communication requirements of the Project Owner or/and the Funding Agency, the Status
Report can be prepared monthly, quarterly or biannually. Usually, Status Reports are
prepared with the same or less frequency than Progress Reports since they require input
from them.
The aim of the Project Status Report is to:
Provide an overview of projects progress up to date
Ensure that the key stakeholders are regularly informed on the progress of the
project
Inform the key stakeholders about issues that require immediate action or
resolution
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Generally, a Project Status Report should include the following information:

Overall status of the project
Status of Activities Schedule
Status of Resource Schedule
Status of Cost Schedule
Status of Quality and Acceptance of Deliverables
Status of Risks
Status of Issues
Recommendations to the recipients of the report about actions or decisions that
they should take in order keep the project on schedule or bring it back on
schedule, to keep costs within budget, to mitigate or eliminate risks or to close any
pending issues.
Work programme and objectives for the next reporting period
Other documents that can be attached to the Status Report are: Status Gantt Chart, Notes of
meetings, Quality Review Reports, Deliverable Acceptance Forms, Risk Log, etc.
For the purposes of this Guide, a generic template of a Project Status Report is
provided in Annex 7-16. It should be noted that this template can be modified to meet
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the reporting requirements of a specific project.
Make sure that you include only summarised information which is relative to the
recipients of the Project Status Report. In case of large projects several other reports
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may be generated over the project execution period, which can focus on specific
management processes providing more detailed information on a certain topic. For example,
the Quality Manager may prepare and submit to the Project Manager on a monthly basis a
report with the results of the performed quality reviews. Or the Project Manager may have to
submit an analytical Financial Report to the Funding Agency on a quarterly basis to inform
them about the financial progress of the project and the percentage of funds absorption
(mainly applicable in case of EU funded projects).
Normally, the Status Report becomes the point of discussion for the Status
Meeting, which is a regularly scheduled event, where the Project Manager presents
the status of the project to the Steering Committee (and maybe to the Project Owner or /and
the Funding Agency). In these meetings the Project Manager can invite members of the
Project Team who have expertise in a certain area of the discussion. It is, however
recommended that the Project Manager invites periodically the Project Team to review the
status of the project, discuss their accomplishments and communicate any issues or
concerns in an open, honest and constructive forum. On large projects where gathering the
entire team is not always possible, the Project Team members can be represented in the
meeting by the respective Team Manager(s), who can communicate the status of their team
work since they have a better insight into the day-to-day activities of their team members.
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7.5.10 Reviewing the Project Execution & Control Phase
activities of the Execution & Control Phase in order to ensure that all requirements of
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the phase are met.
Checklist 7-5: Reviewing the Project Execution & Control Phase

Schedule Management
1. Is the progress of the activities/ tasks being recorded?
2. Is the Activities Schedule being updated regularly?
Is the Activities Schedule being reviewed to identify problems or potential
3.
problems with task schedules?
Resource Management
4. Is the resource progress being recorded?
5. Is the Resource Schedule being updated regularly?
Is the Resource Schedule being reviewed to identify and resolve resource
6.
allocations problems?
Cost Management
7. Are the actual costs (expenses) being recorded?
8. Is the Cost Schedule being updated on a regular basis?
9. Is the Cost Schedule being reviewed to identify and resolve cost problems?
Quality Management
Are the quality assurance activities implemented during the execution of
10.
the project being monitored?
Are the deliverable quality reviews being organised and conducted
11.
regularly?
12. Are the results of the deliverable quality reviews being documented?
Issue Management
13. Are project issues being formally identified and raised?
14. Is issue management process being applied when necessary?
Change Management
Are changes to projects scope, cost, deliverables, timescales or resources
15.
being formally identified and requested?
16. Is change control process being applied when necessary?
Risk Management
Are the risks being monitored according to the processes defined in the
17.
Risk Plan?
Are the risk mitigation actions being evaluated in terms of their
18.
effectiveness?
Are the preventive or contingency actions defined in the Risk Plan being
19.
applied?
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Acceptance Management
Are the produced deliverables being reviewed and accepted according to
20.
the Acceptance Plan?
Communication Management
21. Is information being distributed according to the Communication Plan?
Are Project Status Reports being prepared regularly by the Project
22.
Manager?
Are Project Progress Reports being prepared and submitted regularly to
23.
the Project Manager?
24. Is the projects progress and performance being communicated?
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7.6 CLOSING PROCESSES
Closing processes are the management processes undertaken in the last phase of the
Project Life Cycle. Their purpose is to evaluate the project implementation and results,
gather and document lessons learned and best practices to be applied in similar future
projects, plan any post project review required and finally arrange the archiving of projects
records. In this perspective the following processes must be undertaken (Figure 7-22):
Administrative closure: It is the process during which all project records are
collected and archived and all the resources provided to the project are being
released.
Project Evaluation Review: It is the process during which the project is being
evaluated (did the project achieve what it was intended to? What worked well and
what didnt? Was the project managements quality good? etc)
Postproject review: It is the process during which the benefits achieved by the
projects products are being assessed after a period of use.
Normally the postproject review occurs outside the project. However, for
the completeness of the presentation it is described as part of the Project
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Closure phase, since it is closely related to the projects outcomes.
Performance Conduction of
Conduction of
of Project
post-project
Administrative Evaluation
review
Closure Review
Figure 7-22: The Closing Processes
7.6.1 Performance of Administrative Closure
During this process the Project Manager has to:

Check whether there are any unfinished business at the end of the project and
document them in a Report called Follow on Action Recommendations
Ensure that all the deliverables of the project have been produced, accepted and
approved by the appropriate organization structure (e.f. Acceptance Committee,
Project Steering Committee etc)
Complete and archive all project information
Notify all involved parties that the project is to be closed and therefore the
resources committed are being disbanded
Update the CVs of the human resources involved in the project and evaluate their
performance.
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Identifying Ensuring that all Completing & Disbanding the Updating the CVs
follow on the deliverables archiving all resources of the human
actions have been project used in the resources
accepted information project involved
Figure 7-23: Steps to be followed during the administrative closure of the project
7.6.1.1 Identifying Follow-on Actions
The aim of this step is to identify actions required following the project.
At the close of the project there may be a number of actions left pending. For example, there
may have been a number of requests for change that the Project Steering Committee
decided not to implement during the project but that were not rejected; not all expected
products may have been handed over or a product may have been delivered with problems.
All pending issues regardless if they may lead to new projects or improvement to the
products of the current project during its operational life, as well as risks that may
affect the product in its useful life should be recorded in a document called Follow on
action recommendations. In this document except of presenting any unfinished business
the Project Manager should include recommendations for actions to be undertaken by the
operational support group.
7.6.1.2 Ensuring that all the deliverables have been accepted
Before the Project Manager recommends the closure of the project, he/ she must ensure that
all the expected results have been achieved and that all products/ deliverables have been
produced, tested and approved.
7.6.1.3 Completing and archiving all project information
Throughout the course of the project, the Project Manager should have maintained a project
archive. As the project progressed, the purpose of the archive was to create a central point of
reference for all project materials to be used by anyone involved in the project. Once the
project comes to an official close, the archive provides an audit trail documenting the history
and the evolution of the project.
During Project Closure, the Project Manager should examine whether the
correspondence exchanged, the project management documentation (like project
plan, risk plan, quality plan, acceptance plan, Risk Log, Acceptance forms, Project status
reports, Project Evaluation Report etc), the project related material, the deliverables (e.g. in
case of studies, training material, draft of laws, procedures manual etc), change request
forms, approvals and decisions taken have been indexed. If any of the above mentioned
material is missing, the Project Manager should try to find and file it. The archive must be in
both: electronic and hard copy forms.
Project Archive apart from permitting future audit of the projects actions and performance, it
may be useful to future project managers and of course to those who later may carry out post
project review in order to assess achievement of the benefits claimed in the Business Case.
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The following list presents the typical contents of the project archive:
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Checklist 7-6: Material concerning the project that must be included in the projects archive
Project Material
Business Case
Cost Benefit Analysis (if applicable)
Feasibility Study (if applicable)
Project Fiche
Project Fiche for EU funding (if applicable)
Approval for EU funding (if applicable)
Tender Announcement (if applicable)
Tender Documents (if applicable)
Contract (if applicable)
Activities Schedules (baseline and updates)
Resource Plan (baseline and updates)
Cost Plan (baseline and updates)
Quality Plan
Risk Plan
Risk Log
Acceptance Plan
Communication Plan
Inception Report (if applicable)
Project Progress Reports
Project Status Report
Expense Forms (if applicable)
Timesheets (if applicable)
Invoices and payments
Quality Review Reports
Acceptance Forms
Change request forms
Letter of approval or rejection of change
Minutes of meetings
Correspondence, including decisions, memos, letters etc
Deliverables (if applicable)
Project Evaluation Report
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7.6.1.4 Disbanding the resources used in the project
During this step the Project Manager recommends to the Project Steering Committee
that the resources that were working for the project can be released and that the
support infrastructure can also be withdrawn. He/ She also prepares notification to any
parties identified in the Communication Plan as needing to be told about the project closure.
Before sending the project closure notification the Project Manager needs confirmation by
the Steering Committee.
7.6.1.5 Updating the CVs of the human resources involved in the project
During the course of the project, Project Team members most likely improved their
skills and qualifications or obtained new ones. The investment made in improving an
individuals skills should not be lost. The Project Manager is responsible to ensure that the
CVs of the project team members have been updated to include the reference of the project
they participated, description of their exact role and finally any skills newly developed. As it is
obvious up to date CVs may become invaluable to future Project Managers when attempting
to staff appropriately their projects.
Finally, the Project Manager in cooperation with Team Managers (if the project
organization includes this role) must evaluate the performance of each of the Project
Team Members and then document their judgment by completing a relative form. This
evaluation form can then be submitted to each Project Team Members supervisor in order to
be used as input to performance appraisals.
7.6.2 Conduction of Project Evaluation Review
During this process the Project Manager evaluates the product produced, the project
management processes and in addition he/she gathers accumulated experience, best
practices and performance trends in order to communicate them via the Project Evaluation
Report.
In order to conduct the Project Evaluation Review the Project Manager has to:
Conduct project evaluation
Prepare the Project Evaluation Report
Conduct Prepare the

Project Project
Evaluation Evaluation
Report
Figure 7-24: Steps to be followed for Project Evaluation
7.6.2.1 Conduct Project Evaluation
In this step the Project Manager has to assess how well the project fulfilled its objectives, the
effectiveness of the project management processes and how well the project has performed
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against its Project Initiation Document including the originally planned cost, schedule, quality
and tolerances.
At the outset, the Project Manager has to evaluate the project performance and the products
effectiveness, that is to identify:
The level of actual achievement of each of the benefits identified in the Business
Case
The level of actual achievement of each of the objectives identified in the Project
Fiche (and/or in the Terms of Reference if the project was contracted out)
Any deviations to the intended scope of the project as this was described in the
Project Fiche (and/or in the Terms of Reference if the project was contracted out)
If all the deliverables have been produced and whether they meet the quality
targets and the acceptance criteria set in the Planning Phase
If the actual time, cost and quantity of resources utilised exceeded the original
estimations.
Then, the Project Manager has to evaluate: a) the Project Conformance that is to identify
whether or not the project conformed to the processes defined in the Planning phase and b)
the performance of the project team.
In order to evaluate the project performance and conformance, the product
effectiveness and the performance of the project team, the Project Manager can use
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as guide the following list of questions. It should be noted that though special care has been
given to create a list that can be used in almost all projects, it may need modifications to
apply to the specific characteristics of certain projects.
Checklist 7-7: Checklist for evaluating the project after its completion
17
Questions Y/N Comments
PROJECT PERFORMANCE
Did the project achieve the benefits identified
in the Business Case?
To what extent did the project achieve the
objectives and goals stated in the Business
Case?
How well did the scope of the project match
what was defined in the Business Case and
Project Fiche?
Were there any deviations in the project
schedule?
Did the project finish as scheduled?
Were the initial resources assigned to the
activities/ tasks sufficient for their
17
In this column the Project Manager can determine what worked well and what could have been
done better. In addition he/ she can provide recommendations for similar future projects.
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17
implementation?
Did the project finished within budget?
Do the deliverables of the project meet the
needs stated in the Business Case, Project
Fiche (or Terms of Reference)?
Did the deliverables achieve the quality targets
set in the Quality Plan?
Did the deliverables meet the acceptance
criteria set in the Acceptance Plan?
How satisfied are you personally of the
outcome of this project?
COST, SCOPE, SCHEDULE & QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Was a clear activities schedule outlined in the
Project Plan?
Was the activities schedule re-baselined
regularly during the implementation of the
project?
Were estimates outlined in the Resource
Schedule detailed enough?
Were all expense types identified in the Cost
Plan?
Were all the expenses adequately quantified in
the Cost Plan?
Were invoices and receipts kept for expenses
incurred?
Were clear quality targets identified?
Was the quality plan effectively applied during
the execution of the project?
How effective were the quality review
processes?
Was there any product quality deviations
recorded?
Were quality improvement actions actually
undertaken?
ISSUE MANAGEMENT
Were the issue management processes
properly used to manage issues?
Were all issues effectively managed?
Have all the open issues been closed?
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Were the change management processes
properly used to manage changes to cost,
schedule, scope or quality?
Were all approved changes implemented
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17
according to the appropriate procedures?
Were all changes applied prior to project

closure?
Have cost, schedule, scope or quality changes
been effectively managed?
RISK MANAGEMENT
Were all important project risks identified early
in the project?
Were the team members effectively involved in
the risk identification and risk control
processes?
How well did the Risk Management Plan work?
How accurate were the risk probabilities
defined in the Risk Log?
Was a clear mitigation plan outlined for each
risk identified?
How well were the risks managed?
Were all risks recorded within the Risk Log?
How effectively was the Risk Log reviewed and
updated?
Was the project affected by unforeseen risks?
ACCEPTANCE MANAGEMENT
How well were defined the acceptance criteria
for each deliverable?
Were acceptance management roles formally
defined?
How effective was the acceptance
management process defined in the
Acceptance Plan?
Were all planned acceptance tests undertaken
adequately?
Was the time allocated for reviewing the
deliverables (in order to be accepted)
sufficient?
How well prepared was the Project
Management Team to accept the deliverables?
Was an Acceptance Form completed for each
deliverable?
Have all the deliverables produced been
accepted by the Contracting Authority?
COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT
Did the Communications Plan clearly identify
the target audience, message and methods to
be used?
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17
Were the project team members meetings
conducted regularly and effectively?
Was the Project Steering Committee kept
regularly informed about the progress and the
status of the project?
Were the Project Steering Committees
meetings conducted regularly and effectively?
How well did the Communications Plan
worked?
Was there a clear escalation path for urgent
project matters?
Was the communication with stakeholders
adequate and effective?
Was the project progress regularly
communicated?
How useful was the content and format of the
Project Status Report?
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION
How well did any support tools work?
Have any training actions taken place in order
to familiarize the project team with the
management processes to be used? Was this
training adequate?
How effectively were issues managed on the
project?
Were all project decisions clearly documented
and communicated?
Was the project perceived to be a success?
PERFORMANCE OF THE PROJECT TEAM
Was the project organization the appropriate
one?
How effective was the Project Manager?
How effective was the Project Steering
Committee?
How effective was each of the project team
members in executing his responsibilities?
Did all the project team members have good
understanding of the project and of their own
role?
Depending on the size and type of the project, as well as on the structure of the
Implementing Agency/ Contracting Authority the Project Manager could choose to
take into consideration the views of the Project Team members, the Project Owner and other
stakeholders concerning how successful the project and its end product(s) have been. In
order to receive feedback from them, the Project Manager can prepare a questionnaire with
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the above questions and ask the internal and external stakeholders to complete it,
expressing in writing their opinions/ assessment. Alternatively, the Project Manager instead
of conducting a written survey, he/she could conduct it in person or over the telephone.
In case of projects that have been contracted out, the Project Evaluation Review is
normally being conducted by the Contractor. More specifically, the Contractor uses as
input the Tender Documents, the contract, the inception report, all the project management
plans (project plan, risk plan, quality plan, communications plan etc), the progress reports
and the formal approvals of the deliverables to assess both the projects performance and
the products effectiveness. The results of the evaluation are normally presented in a Report
called Project Evaluation Report, which is considered as one of the most important
deliverables of the project. During the evaluation process the Contractor may involve other
key stakeholders, such as the Project Management Team of the Contracting Authority, in
order to present a more objective assessment.
In case that result performance indicators have been set, the Project Manager should
measure them during the closure phase and present their values in the Project
Evaluation Report.
Lessons Learned
The process of Project Evaluation Review is also a good opportunity for looking back
at the planning and execution phases of the project and track management and
quality procedures, forms, techniques and tools that were used, which either made a
significant contribution to the projects achievements or caused a problem. As soon as the
Project Manager has identified these procedures, tools and techniques, he/ she should
include a Lessons Learned section in the Project Evaluation Report, which will give answers
to the questions: What should be done differently next time?, Which items can be of use in
future projects?. In this perspective, the Lessons Learned section will not only benefit the
current project team but it might be very useful to Project Managers and team members of
other projects being currently implemented or even those that may be starting in the future.
It is recommended to create a Lessons Learned Log at the start of the project. A note
should be added every time that the project management team:
spots certain procedures that when exercised improve the production of a
deliverable or streamline a process
improves the standardized templates
performs management, specialist or quality procedures which lead to failure
In this way, at the project closure phase, the Project Manager will only have to correlate all
the notes taken and include them in the Project Evaluation Report.
7.6.2.2 Prepare the Project Evaluation Report
After having conducted the Project Assessment Review, the Project Manager has to
prepare the Project Evaluation Report. In the report, the Project Manager filters the
information gleaned from the review he has executed and/or from the discussion or survey
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he conducted with the internal and external stakeholders and organizes it according to the
categories described in 7.6.2.1.
The Project Evaluation Report comments on the project performance, the effectiveness of
the product in meeting the needs identified in Business Case (or the needs of the Contracting
Authority identified in the Terms of Reference in case of contracted out projects), the
effectiveness of the project management and the performance of the project team. In
addition, it documents the lessons learned and best practices to be used in future projects.
Once prepared, the Project Evaluation Report has to be distributed to the Project Steering
Committee and then submitted (and possibly presented) to the Management Team of the
Implementing Agency and to the Funding Agency.
A template of the Project Evaluation Report is provided in Annex 7-17. In this
template guidance is also included on how to complete each section of the report.
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7.6.3 Conduction of post-project review
Many project products should be re-examined after a period of use to check the
achievement or not of the benefits expected. For example, when you implement a
business process reengineering project you will have to wait for a few months after the
completion of the project in order to identify e.g. whether the administrative costs have been
reduced and the productivity has been increased. Similarly, when you run a project for the
expansion of the railway network you have to wait a year or more in order to realize whether
the number of passengers served by it is increased and the traffic in the respective highways
and roads has been diminished.
If this is the case, a recommended date should be defined for conducting the post project
review. Besides a plan should be prepared which should define the following:
What benefits will be measured (Note: These benefits should have been previously
defined in the Business Case)
How the achievement of these benefits will be measured (Note: Usually the
achievement of the benefits is measured using Impact Indicators, that have been
established during the Planning Phase (refer to 7.4.9)
Who will carry out the measurements (it is not necessary to name certain
individuals but you could describe the required skills).
7.6.4 Reviewing the Project Closure Phase
activities of the Project Closure Phase in order to ensure that all requirements of the
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phase are met.
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Checklist 7-8: Reviewing the Project Closure Phase

Administrative Closure
1. Have any follow on actions been identified?
2. Have all the project deliverables been accepted?
3. Is all the project information collected and archived?
Have all parties that were involved in the project been notified about the
4.
project closure?
Have the resources that were utilised during the implementation of the
5.
project been released?
Have the CVs of the project team members been updated with their role in
6.
the project and the skills they obtained?
Project Evaluation Review
7. Has a project evaluation review been performed?
8. Has a Project Evaluation Report been prepared?
Has the Project Evaluation Report been distributed to the appropriate
9.
stakeholders?
10. Have lessons learned been identified and documented?
Post Project Review
Is a post project review necessary to identify if the expected benefits have
11.
been achieved?
12. Have the benefits to be measured been defined?
Has the methodology/ technique to be used for measuring the achievement
13.
of the expected benefits been determined?
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7.7 SYNOPSIS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES
The aim of this subchapter is to summarise all the management activities that should be
performed throughout the project life cycle in order to facilitate the personnel of the
Contracting Authorities, who are involved in the project management process, to undertake
their role easily and effectively. The following sections present the activities that should be
performed under each project phase by providing also a brief description for each activity,
the respective roles of the Project Manager and any other involved personnel, reference to
the relative subchapters and sections of the Guide which provide guidance on how to
perform each of the activities, as well as the tools to be used for performing each activity,
including any related checklists, templates, forms, reports and spreadsheets that should be
completed by those involved in the performance of the activity.
Although the majority of public projects are implemented by economic operators
(Contractors), there is the possibility that some small-scale projects are implemented using
internal resources (i.e. resources owned by the Contracting Authority). In this perspective,
the following sections present a synopsis of project management activities and involved roles
for both cases.
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7.7.1 Project Management Activities in case that the Project is implemented with own resources (in-house
production)
Role of Project Guidance is
A/A Phase/ Activity Description Other roles Available Tools
Manager provided in
Checklist 1-6:
1 PROJECT INITIATION PHASE Reviewing the Project
Initiation Phase
1.1 Needs identification/ assessment This activity involves the - The Management of Subchapter 1.4.1 Tool 1-1: Creating
analysis of the problem, the the Contracting a Problem Tree
collection of necessary Authorities is usually Tool 1-2: Tool for
information, the identification responsible for gathering
of needs and the formulation identifying the needs information to be
of project ideas. and formulate the used for needs
project ideas assessment
1.2 Setting priorities This activity involves the - High level decision Subchapter 1.4.2 Tool 1-3: Decision
prioritisation of candidate makers are Matrix (Completed
projects in order to select the responsible for example in Annex
one or more to be prioritising projects 1-1)
implemented first. Tool 1-4:
Questionnaire for
rating projects in
order to prioritise
them (Completed
example in Annex
1-1)
1.3 Appointment of the project design team This activity involves the - The Management of Subchapter 1.4.3 -
appointment of the project the Contracting
designers, who will be Authorities is
provided with the key responsible for
elements of the project idea appointing the team
in order to proceed with the of project designers
design of the project.
1.4 Development of Business Case This activity involves the - The Project Subchapter 1.5.1 Annex 1-2:
development of the Business Design Team in Business Case
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Manager provided in
Case, which is the document cooperation with Template
outlining the justification for the Annex 1-3:
the start-up of the project. representatives of Guidelines on
More specifically, this activity the Project Cost/ Benefit
involves: Owner are Analysis
Detailed definition of the responsible for
preparing the Tool 1-5: Typical
problem Contents of a
Business Case
Analysis of the potential and examining the Feasibility Study
options alternative ways of (& Example 1-4)
Identification of the funding
preferred solution by External
applying Cost/ Benefit Consultants are
Analysis and/or usually assigned
Feasibility Study to elaborate the
Approval of Business Cost/ Benefit
Case Analysis or/and
the Feasibility
Examination of
Study
alternative ways of
funding High level
decision makers
(usually from the
Project Owner)
are responsible for
giving approval to
the Business
Case
1.5 Appointment of the Executive and Project This activity involves the - Project owner is Subchapter 1.5.2 Checklist 1-1:
Manager appointment of the responsible for the Characteristics
Executive of the Project selection of the that the Executive
Steering Committee and the Executive and the should possess
Project Manager, so that the Project Manager Checklist 1-2:
Project Fiche can be Characteristics
prepared and decisions can that the Project
be taken. Manager should
possess
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Manager provided in
Checklist 1-3:
Summarised
checklist for the
selection of the
Executive and
Project Manager
1.6 Establishment of Project Fiche This activity involves the Responsible for the The Executive Subchapter 1.5.3 Annex 1-4: Project
preparation and compilation preparation and supports the Project Fiche Template (&
of the Project Fiche, which is completion of the Manager in the a completed
a document that describes Project Fiche establishment of example)
the projects scope Project Fiche Annex 1-5: Project
objectives, main activities, Fiches for EU
deliverables, organization, funding (templates
roles and responsibilities, from the Planning
provisional budget, possible Bureaus website)
risks, assumptions and
constraints. Moreover, it is Tool 1-6:
the activity during which the Calculating the
procurement needs are Provisional Project
defined and documented. Budget &
Actually, the approval of this Determining the
document indicates the Funding Sources
agreement of the Project Checklist 1-4:
Owner, Contracting Authority Risk identification
and Funding Agency to
Annex 1-6: Risk
support the project
Log Template (& a
implementation.
completed
example)
Tool 1-7: Risk
Rating Matrix
(presenting also
the risk tolerance
line)
1.7 Project approval During this activity the Responsible for The Project Subchapter 1.6.1 -
Project Manager presents presenting the Owner is
the Project Fiche and any Project Fiche and responsible for
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Manager provided in
other supportive asking for approval approving the
documentation to the Project Fiche
superior level of the Project The national and
Owner and asks for EU Competent
approval. In case of EU Bodies are
funded projects the Project responsible for
Fiche must be approved also approving the
by the Competent Bodies Project Fiche in
(national & EU). case of EU
funded projects.
1.8 Appointment of the remaining members of This activity involves the Cooperates with the The Executive (in Subchapter 1.6.2 Checklist 1-5:
Project Management Team appointment of the Project Executive for the cooperation with Summarised
Steering Committee appointment of the the Project checklist for the
members (except the remaining members Manager) is selection of the
Executive), the Team of the Project responsible for the remaining
Manager and Quality Management Team appointment of the members of the
Assurance Manager (where remaining Project
appropriate). members of the Management
Project Team
Management
Team
Checklist 7-2:
2 PROJECT PLANNING PHASE Reviewing the Project
Planning Phase
2.1 Development of Activities Schedule This activity involves the Responsible for the - Subchapter 7.4.1 Annex 7-1/
development of the Activities development of the Project Plan
(Baseline) Schedule Activities Schedule Tool.xls/ Sheet
through the application of Activities
Work Breakdown Structure, Schedule
the identification of activities, Annex 7-2:
the determination of Guidance on how
activities sequence and to find the Critical
dependencies, the Path of a Project
estimation of activities/ tasks
duration and the definition of
their start and finish dates.
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Manager provided in
2.2 Development of Resource Plan This activity involves the Responsible for the - Subchapter 7.4.2 Annex 7-1/
development of the development of the Project Plan
Resource Plan through the Resource Plan (i.e. Tool.xls/ Sheet
identification of the physical responsible for Resource
resources (labour, preparing the Schedule
equipment, and material), Resource Baseline Annex 7-1/
the assignment of the Schedule and Project Plan
resources to project assigning Resources Tool.xls/ Sheet
activities/ tasks and the to Activities/ tasks) Resources vs.
scheduling of their usage Activities
during the project
implementation period.
2.3 Development of Cost Plan This activity involves the Responsible for the - Subchapter 7.4.3 Annex 7-1/
development of the Cost development of the Project Plan
Plan through the Cost Plan (i.e. Tool.xls/ Sheet
identification and estimation responsible for Cost Schedule
of costs, the development of preparing the Cost Annex 7-1/
Cost (Baseline) Schedule Baseline Schedule Project Plan
and the estimation of cost and estimating the Tool.xls/ Sheet
per activity/ task. cost per activity/ Costs vs.
task) Activities
2.4 Development of Quality Plan This activity involves the Responsible for the The Quality Subchapter 7.4.4 Annex 7-3: Quality
development of the Quality development of the Manager is Plan Template
Plan through the definition of Quality Plan (in case responsible for the
quality criteria and standards that a Quality development of
for the deliverables that will Manager hasnt the Quality Plan
be produced and the been assigned) (in case that such
establishment of quality a role exists in the
control processes and project
techniques. organization
structure)
2.5 Development of Issue Management Plan This activity involves the Responsible for the - Subchapter 7.4.5 Annex 7-4: Issue
determination of the process development of the Form Template
according to which the Issue Management Annex 7-5: Issue
issues related to the project Plan Log
will be formally identified,
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Manager provided in
assessed and resolved
2.6 Development of Change Management Plan This activity involves the Responsible for the - Subchapter 7.4.6 -
determination of the process development of the
according to which the Change
requests for changes that Management Plan
have a direct impact on the
projects scope, cost,
schedule or quality will be
formally identified, assessed
and resolved
2.7 Development of Risk Plan This activity involves the Responsible for Team Managers Subchapter 7.4.7 Annex 7-6: Risk
updating of Risk Log by updating the Risk assist the Project Form Template
reviewing the risks already Log and developing Manager for the Annex 1-6: Risk
identified and by identifying the Risk development of Log Template (& a
and evaluating new risks, as Management Plan the Risk completed
well as the development of Management Plan example)
Risk Management Plan (i.e.
definition of risk
management process,
design of relative
documents, determination of
roles and responsibilities)
2.8 Development of Acceptance Plan This activity involves the Responsible for the - Subchapter 7.4.8 Annex 7-7:
development of the development of the Acceptance Plan
Acceptance Plan through the Acceptance Plan Template
establishment of criteria &
standards for the
acceptance of the
deliverables and the
formalization &
documentation of the
acceptance process.
2.9 Setting up Performance Indicators This activity involves the Responsible for the - Subchapter 7.4.9 -
establishment of establishment of
performance indicators and performance
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Manager provided in
the process for monitoring indicators and the
them. definition of the
monitoring process.
2.10 Development of Communication Plan This activity involves the Responsible for the - Subchapter Annex 7-8:
identification of the development and 7.4.10 Communication
stakeholders, the completion of the Plan Template (&
determination of their Communication a completed
communication needs, the Plan/ Matrix. example)
definition of communication
strategy and the completion
of Communication Plan/
Matrix.
Checklist 7-5:
Reviewing the Project
3 PROJECT EXECUTION & CONTROL PHASE Execution & Control
Phase
3.1 Schedule Management or Schedule Control This activity involves the Responsible for: Team Managers Subchapter 7.5.1 Annex 7-1/
recording of activities and tracking and (or/and Project Project Plan
tasks progress, the updating updating the Team Members) Tool.xls/ Sheet
of Activities Schedule and Activities Schedule provide activity/ Activities
the identification and task progress data Schedule
resolving of schedule identifying and to the Project
problems. resolving schedule Manager
problems
3.2 Resource Management This activity involves the Responsible for: Team Managers Subchapter 7.5.2 Annex 7-1/
recording of resource tracking & (or/and Project Project Plan
progress, the updating of updating the Team Members) Tool.xls/ Sheet
Resource Schedule and the Resource provide resource Resource
identification and resolving Schedule and the progress data to Schedule
of resource allocation sheet Resources the Project Annex 7-1/
problems. vs. Activities Manager Project Plan
approving the Project Team Tool.xls/ Sheet
Timesheets Members Resources vs.
submitted by the complete their Activities
Project Team Timesheets and Annex 7-9:
Members (if this submit them to the Timesheet
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Manager provided in
is applicable) Project Manager Template
identifying and for approval (if
resolving resource this is
allocation applicable)
problems
3.3 Cost Management or Cost Control This activity involves the Responsible for: Team Managers Subchapter 7.5.3 Annex 7-1/
recording of actual costs (or tracking & (or/and Project Project Plan
expenses), the updating of updating the Cost Team Members) Tool.xls/ Sheet
the Cost Schedule and the Schedule and the provide resource Cost Schedule
identification and resolving sheet Costs vs. progress data to Annex 7-1/
of cost problems. Activities the Project Project Plan
Manager Tool.xls/ Sheet
approving the
Expense Forms Project Team Costs vs.
submitted by the Members Activities
Project Team complete the Annex 7-10:
Members (if this Expense Form Expense Form
is applicable) each time they Template
make an expense
identifying and related to the Annex 7-11:
resolving cost project and submit Guidelines on
problems it to the Project Earned Value
Manager for Analysis
approval (if this is
applicable)
3.4 Quality Management This activity involves the Responsible for the The Quality Subchapter 7.5.4 Annex 7-12:
application of quality control application and Manager is Deliverable Quality
processes as defined in the monitoring of quality responsible for the Review Form (& a
Quality Plan. During this control procedures application and completed
activity the project (in case that a monitoring of example)
deliverables are reviewed in Quality Manager quality control
order to ensure that they hasnt been procedures (in
meet the quality targets and assigned) case that such a
standards defined in the role exists in the
Quality Plan. project
organization
structure)
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Manager provided in
The Quality
Reviewers are
responsible for
reviewing the
project
deliverables and
assessing their
conformity against
the predefined
quality criteria
3.5 Issue Management This activity involves the Responsible for Project Team Subchapter 7.5.5 Annex 7-4: Issue
application of the issue assessing raised Members can Form Template
management processes that issues, updating the raise issues by Annex 7-5: Issue
were defined in the Issue Issue Log and completing the Log
Management Plan assigning resolution Issue Form and
actions submitting it to the
Project Manager
3.6 Change Management or Change Control This activity involves the Responsible for: Authorised Subchapter 7.5.6 Annex 7-13:
application of the change assessing the Project Team Change Request
management processes that request for change Members can Form Template
were defined in the Change and the impact of make a request Annex 7-14:
Management Plan change on the for change Change Log
project Project Steering Template
recommending the Committee is
acceptance or responsible for
rejection of the approving or
request to the rejecting the
Project Steering change requests
Committee
updating the
Change Log
3.7 Risk Management This activity involves the Responsible for: Project Team Subchapter 7.5.7 Annex 1-6: Risk
application of risk monitoring monitoring existing Members: Log Template (& a
and control processes that risks and can raise risks by completed
were defined in the Risk identifying new completing the example)
Version: 1.1

Manager provided in
Management Plan. risks by applying Risk Form and Annex 7-6: Risk
risk reviews and submitting it to the Form Template
risk response Project Manager
audits can participate in
updating the Risk the risk review
Log meetings
implementing risk implement the
control actions preventive and
assessing the contingency
effectiveness of actions assigned
the preventive and to them by the
contingency Project Manager
actions and if
needed updating
the Risk
Management Plan
3.8 Acceptance Management This activity involves the Responsible for The Acceptance Subchapter 7.5.8 -
reviewing or testing of the managing and Committee runs &
deliverables against coordinating the the acceptance
predefined criteria in order to acceptance tests and based Chapter 6
decide whether they can be procedures on the results it Contract
accepted or not. decides whether Implementation
to accept or reject & Contract
the deliverables. Management
3.9 Communication Management This activity involves the Responsible for: The Team Managers Subchapter 7.5.9 Table 7-7: Typical
distribution of information to implementing the (or/and Project contents of a
project stakeholders communication Team Members): Progress Report
according to the actions according prepare the Annex 7-16:
Communication Plan and the to the Progress Reports Project Status
reporting of projects Communication and submit them Report Template
performance. Plan to the Project
reviewing the Manager
Communication may participate in
Plan and updating the Status
in case that the Meetings
Version: 1.1

Manager provided in
communication
needs change
preparing the
Project Status
Report to present
the status of the
project to key
stakeholders (e.g.
Project Steering
Committee, Project
Owner)
Checklist 7-8:
4 PROJECT CLOSURE PHASE Reviewing the Project
Closure Phase
4.1 Performance of Administrative Closure This activity involves the Responsible for Project Steering Subchapter 7.6.1 Checklist 7-6:
following: managing and Committee Material
Identification of follow-on coordinating the confirms the concerning the
actions administrative project closure project that must
closure. before it is be included in the
Checking that all the announced to the projects archive
deliverables have been project
accepted stakeholders
Completing and archiving Team Managers
of all project information cooperate with the
Disbanding of the Project Manager
resources used in the to evaluate the
project performance of
the Project Team
Updating the CVs of
Members and
Project Team Members
ensure that their
CVs are updated
4.2 Conduction of Project Evaluation Review This activity involves the Responsible for The Team Subchapter 7.6.2 Checklist 7-7:
evaluation of projects conducting the Managers Checklist for
performance, conformance Project Evaluation (or/and Project evaluating the
(i.e. whether the and preparing the Team Members) project after its
implementation of the project Project Evaluation provide feedback completion
Version: 1.1

Manager provided in
was in accordance with the Report to the Project Annex 7-17:
processes defined in the Manager Project Evaluation
Planning Phase) and concerning the Report Template
effectiveness, as well as the project evaluation
preparation of the Project The Project
Evaluation Report. Steering
Committee
reviews the
Project Evaluation
Report
4.3 Conduction of post-project review This activity involves the re- Responsible for: - Subchapter 7.6.3 -
examination and review of developing a plan
project outcomes a period for the conduction
after the end of the project in of the post-project
order to check whether the review
expected benefits have been
achieved or not. conducting the
post-project
review (if this is
not assigned to a
third party)
Version: 1.1
7.7.2 Project Management Activities in case that the Project is implemented by a Contractor
It should be noted that when the project is implemented by a Contractor, most of the core management activities are performed by the management
team of the Contractor (e.g. the development of the Plans, the reporting of projects performance, the preparation of the Final Evaluation Report, etc.).
However, even in this case, the Project Management Team is responsible for managing the project on behalf of the Contracting Authority, as well as for
monitoring and controlling the Contractors performance. The following table presents the project management activities throughout the whole project
life cycle and distinguishes the role of the Contractors Project Management Team in performing these activities from that of the Project Management
Team of the Contracting Authority.
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Contracting Guidance is
A/A Phase/ Activity Description Project Available Tools
Authoritys Project provided in
Management
Management Team
Team
Checklist 1-6:
Reviewing the
1 PROJECT INITIATION PHASE Project Initiation
Phase
1.1 Needs identification/ assessment This activity involves the - The Management of the Subchapter 1.4.1 Tool 1-1:
analysis of the problem, Contracting Authorities Creating a
the collection of necessary is usually responsible for Problem Tree
information, the identifying the needs and Tool 1-2: Tool for
identification of needs and formulate the project gathering
the formulation of project ideas information to be
ideas. used for needs
assessment
1.2 Setting priorities This activity involves the - High level decision Subchapter 1.4.2 Tool 1-3:
prioritisation of candidate makers are responsible Decision Matrix
projects in order to select for prioritising projects (Completed
the one or more to be example in
implemented first. Annex 1-1)
Tool 1-4:
Version: 1.1
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Management
Management Team
Team
Questionnaire for
rating projects in
order to prioritise
them (Completed
example in
Annex 1-1)
1.3 Appointment of the project design team This activity involves the - Subchapter 1.4.3
appointment of the project
The Management of the
designers, who will be
Contracting Authorities
provided with the key
is responsible for -
elements of the project
appointing the team of
idea in order to proceed
project designers
with the design of the
project.
1.4 Development of Business Case This activity involves the - The Project Design Subchapter 1.5.1 Annex 1-2:
development of the Team in cooperation Business Case
Business Case, which is with the Template
the document outlining the representatives of the Annex 1-3:
justification for the start-up Project Owner are Guidelines on
of the project. More responsible for Cost/ Benefit
specifically, this activity preparing the Analysis
involves: Business Case and
examining the Tool 1-5: Typical
Detailed definition of Contents of a
the problem alternative ways of
funding Feasibility Study
Analysis of the (& Example 1-4)
potential options External Consultants
are usually assigned
Identification of the to elaborate the Cost/
preferred solution by Benefit Analysis
applying Cost/ Benefit or/and the Feasibility
Analysis and/or Study
Feasibility Study
High level decision
Approval of Business makers (usually from
Version: 1.1
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Management
Management Team
Team
Case the Project Owner) are
Examination of responsible for giving
alternative ways of approval to the
funding Business Case
1.5 Appointment of the Executive and Project This activity involves the - Project owner is Subchapter 1.5.2 Checklist 1-1:
Manager appointment of the responsible for the Characteristics
Executive of the Project selection of the Executive that the Executive
Steering Committee and and the Project Manager should possess
the Project Manager, so on behalf of the Checklist 1-2:
that the Project Fiche can Contracting Authority Characteristics
be prepared and decisions that the Project
can be taken. Manager should
possess
Checklist 1-3:
Summarised
checklist for the
selection of the
Executive and
Project Manager
1.6 Establishment of Project Fiche This activity involves the - The Project Manager Subchapter 1.5.3 Annex 1-4:
preparation and is Responsible for the Project Fiche
compilation of the Project preparation and Template (& a
Fiche, which is a document completion of the completed
that describes the projects Project Fiche example)
scope objectives, main The Executive Annex 1-5:
activities, deliverables, supports the Project Project Fiches for
organization, roles and Manager in the EU funding
responsibilities, provisional establishment of (templates from
budget, possible risks, Project Fiche the Planning
assumptions and Bureaus website)
constraints. Moreover, it is
the activity during which Tool 1-6:
Calculating the
Version: 1.1
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Management
Management Team
Team
the procurement needs are Provisional
defined and documented. Project Budget &
Actually, the approval of Determining the
this document indicates Funding Sources
the agreement of the Checklist 1-4:
Project Owner, Contracting Risk identification
Authority and Funding
Agency to support the Annex 1-6: Risk
project implementation. Log Template (&
a completed
example)
Tool 1-7: Risk
Rating Matrix
(presenting also
the risk tolerance
line)
1.7 Project approval During this activity the - The Project Manager Subchapter 1.6.1 -
Project Manager presents is responsible for
the Project Fiche and any presenting the Project
other supportive Fiche and asking for
documentation to the approval
superior level of the The Project Owner is
Project Owner and asks for responsible for
approval. In case of EU approving the Project
funded projects the Project Fiche
Fiche must be approved
also by the Competent The national and EU
Bodies (national & EU). Competent Bodies are
responsible for
approving the Project
Fiche in case of EU
funded projects.
1.8 Appointment of the remaining members of This activity involves the - The Executive in Subchapter 1.6.2 Checklist 1-5:
appointment of the Project cooperation with the Summarised
Version: 1.1
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Management
Management Team
Team
Project Management Team Steering Committee Project Manager is checklist for the
members (except the responsible for the selection of the
Executive), the Team appointment of the remaining
Manager and Quality remaining members of members of the
Assurance Manager the Project Project
(where appropriate). Management Team Management
Team
Checklist 7-2:
Reviewing the
2 PROJECT PLANNING PHASE Project Planning
Phase
2.1 Development of Activities Schedule This activity involves the Responsible for the The Project Manager Subchapter 7.4.1 Annex 7-1/
development of the development of the reviews the Baseline Project Plan
Activities (Baseline) Activities Schedule Activities Schedule Tool.xls/ Sheet
Schedule through the (for the Project) prepared by the Activities
application of Work Contractor and may Schedule
Breakdown Structure, the recommend changes Annex 7-2:
identification of activities, or modifications. Then Guidance on how
the determination of he/she presents it to to find the Critical
activities sequence and the Project Steering Path of a Project
dependencies, the Committee for
estimation of activities/ approval
tasks duration and the The Project Manager
definition of their start and develops a schedule
finish dates. for tracking the
management activities
that should be carried
out by the Contracting
Authority
The Project Steering
Committee is
responsible for
approving the
Version: 1.1
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Management
Management Team
Team
Baseline Schedule,
since it will be used
during the
implementation phase
for monitoring projects
and contractors
performance.
2.2 Development of Resource Plan This activity involves the Responsible for the The Project Manager Subchapter 7.4.2 Annex 7-1/
development of the development of the is responsible for Project Plan
Resource Plan through the Resource Plan (i.e. assigning internal Tool.xls/ Sheet
identification of the responsible for resources to Resource
physical resources (labour, preparing the management activities Schedule
equipment, and material), Resource Baseline and preparing a Annex 7-1/
the assignment of the Schedule and Schedule for the Project Plan
resources to project assigning usage of these Tool.xls/ Sheet
activities/ tasks and the Resources to resources. Resources vs.
scheduling of their usage Activities/ tasks) The Project Steering Activities
during the project Committee is
implementation period. responsible for
approving the
assignment of internal
resources to
and the Resource
Schedule prepared by
the Project Manager
2.3 Development of Cost Plan This activity involves the Responsible for the The Project Manager Subchapter 7.4.3 Annex 7-1/
development of the Cost development of the is responsible for Project Plan
Plan through the Cost Plan (i.e. preparing a Schedule Tool.xls/ Sheet
identification and responsible for for the internal costs Cost Schedule
estimation of costs, the preparing the Cost and estimate the Annex 7-1/
development of Cost Baseline Schedule internal cost per Project Plan
(Baseline) Schedule and and estimating the activity/task (if this is Tool.xls/ Sheet
Version: 1.1
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Management
Management Team
Team
the estimation of cost per cost per activity/ applicable) Costs vs.
activity/ task. task) The Project Steering Activities
Committee is
responsible for
approving the internal
cost estimations and
the Cost Schedule
prepared by the
Project Manager (if
this is applicable)
2.4 Development of Quality Plan This activity involves the Responsible for the The Project Manager Subchapter 7.4.4 Annex 7-3:
development of the Quality development of the or the Quality Quality Plan
Plan through the definition Quality Plan Manager (if such a Template
of quality criteria and role exists in the
standards for the Management Team of
deliverables that will be the Contracting
produced and the Authority) should
establishment of quality review the Quality
control processes and Plan prepared by the
techniques. Contractor
2.5 Development of Issue Management Plan This activity involves the - The Project Manager Subchapter 7.4.5 Annex 7-4: Issue
determination of the is responsible for the & Form Template
process according to which development of the Annex 7-5: Issue
the issues related to the Issue Management Chapter 6
Contract Log
project will be formally Plan
identified, assessed and Implementation
resolved & Contract
Management/
Handling
Problems
Version: 1.1
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Management
Management Team
Team
2.6 Development of Change Management Plan This activity involves the - The Project Manager Subchapter 7.4.6 -
determination of the is responsible for the &
process according to which development of the
the requests for changes Change Management Chapter 6
that have a direct impact Plan (unless the Contract
on the projects scope, change management Implementation
cost, schedule or quality process is defined in a & Contract
will be formally identified, relative legislation) Management/
assessed and resolved Change Control
2.7 Development of Risk Plan This activity involves the Responsible for The Project Manager Subchapter 7.4.7 Annex 7-6: Risk
updating of Risk Log by updating the Risk should define the Form Template
reviewing the risks already Log and developing process for managing
identified and by identifying the Risk risks that lie in the
and evaluating new risks, Management Plan responsibility area of
as well as the development the Contracting
of Risk Management Plan Authority
(i.e. definition of risk
management process,
design of relative
documents, determination
of roles and
responsibilities)
2.8 Development of Acceptance Plan This activity involves the - The Project Manager, Subchapter 7.4.8 Annex 7-7:
development of the in cooperation with the Acceptance Plan
Acceptance Plan through Acceptance Template
the establishment of Committee, is
criteria & standards for the responsible for the
acceptance of the development of the
deliverables and the Acceptance Plan
formalization &
documentation of the
acceptance process.
Version: 1.1
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Management
Management Team
Team
2.9 Setting up Performance Indicators This activity involves the - The Project Manager Subchapter 7.4.9 -
establishment of is responsible for the
performance indicators establishment of
and the process for performance
monitoring them. indicators and the
definition of the
monitoring process
2.10 Development of Communication Plan This activity involves the Responsible for the The Project Manager Subchapter Annex 7-8:
identification of the development of the is responsible for the 7.4.10 Communication
stakeholders, the Communication development of a Plan Template (&
determination of their Plan, which should Communication Plan, a completed
communication needs, the include the which should include example)
definition of communication the communication
communication strategy activities for which activities for which
and the completion of the Contractor is he/she is responsible
Communication Plan/ responsible (i.e. (i.e. Project Status
Matrix. Progress Reports to Reports to the key
the Contracting stakeholders, Status
Authority, internal Meetings, Acceptance
review meetings, Review Meetings, etc)
Formal Review
Meetings with the
Contracting
Authority, etc)
Checklist 7-5:
Reviewing the
3 PROJECT EXECUTION & CONTROL PHASE Project Execution &
Control Phase
3.1 Schedule Management or Schedule This activity involves the Responsible for: The Project Manager Subchapter 7.5.1 Annex 7-1/
Control recording of activities and tracking and monitors and reviews Project Plan
tasks progress, the updating the the Updated Tool.xls/ Sheet
updating of Activities Activities Schedules prepared Activities
Schedule and the by the Contractor and Schedule
Version: 1.1
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Management
Management Team
Team
identification and resolving Schedule may propose actions
of schedule problems. identifying and for resolving the
resolving identified schedule
schedule problems (sometimes
problems (in by consulting also the
some cases in Project Steering
cooperation with Committee)
the Project The Project Manager
Manager of the tracks and updates the
Contracting Schedule for the
Authority) management activities
that he/she prepared
in the Planning Phase
3.2 Resource Management This activity involves the Responsible for: The Project Manager is Subchapter 7.5.2 Annex 7-1/
recording of resource tracking & responsible for: Project Plan
progress, the updating of updating the approving the Tool.xls/ Sheet
Resource Schedule and Resource Timesheets submitted Resource
the identification and Schedule and the by the Contractor (if Schedule
resolving of resource sheet Resources this is applicable) Annex 7-1/
allocation problems. vs. Activities Project Plan
approving the
identifying and Timesheets submitted Tool.xls/ Sheet
resolving by the Project Team Resources vs.
resource members of the Activities
allocation Contracting Authority Annex 7-9:
problems (if this is applicable) Timesheet
submitting the tracking & updating Template
completed the Resource
Timesheets to the Schedule and the
Project Manager sheet Resources vs.
of the Contracting Activities that he/she
Authority for developed during the
approval (if this Planning Phase (for
Version: 1.1
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Management
Management Team
Team
is applicable) the internal
resources)
identifying and
resolving internal
resource allocation
problems
3.3 Cost Management or Cost Control This activity involves the Responsible for: The Project Manager is Subchapter 7.5.3 Annex 7-1/
recording of actual costs tracking & responsible for: Project Plan
(or expenses), the updating the Cost approving the Tool.xls/ Sheet
updating of the Cost Schedule and the Expense Forms Cost Schedule
Schedule and the sheet Costs vs. submitted by the Annex 7-1/
identification and resolving Activities Contractor (if this is Project Plan
of cost problems. applicable) Tool.xls/ Sheet
identifying and
resolving cost approving the Costs vs.
problems Expense Forms Activities
submitting the submitted by the Annex 7-10:

Expense Forms Project Team Expense Form
to the Project members of the Template
Manager of the Contracting Authority Annex 7-11:
Contracting (if this is applicable) Guidelines on
Authority for tracking & updating Earned Value
approval (if this the Cost Schedule and Analysis
is applicable) the sheet Costs vs.
Activities that he/she
developed during the
Planning Phase (for
the internal costs)
identifying and
resolving internal
cost problems
3.4 Quality Management This activity involves the Responsible for the The Project Manager Subchapter 7.5.4 Annex 7-12:
application of quality implementation of or the Quality Deliverable
Version: 1.1
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Management
Management Team
Team
control processes as the Quality Plan Manager (if such a Quality Review
defined in the Quality Plan. role exists in the Form (& a
During this activity the Management Team of completed
project deliverables are the Contracting example)
reviewed in order to Authority) monitors the
ensure that they meet the quality control
quality targets and processes of the
standards defined in the Contractor in order to
Quality Plan. ensure that they are
performed according
to the Quality Plan
The Project Manager
or the Quality
Manager (if such a
role exists in the
Management Team of
the Contracting
Authority) is
responsible for
assuring quality in the
performed
The Quality
Reviewers are
responsible for
reviewing the project
deliverables and
assessing their
conformity against the
predefined quality
criteria. (Note: Quality
Review is usually
part of the
acceptance
Version: 1.1
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Management
Management Team
Team
management
process)
3.5 Issue Management This activity involves the Responsible for The Project Manager Subchapter 7.5.5 Annex 7-4: Issue
application of the issue raising issues and is responsible for & Form Template
management processes implementing assessing raised Annex 7-5: Issue
that were defined in the resolution actions issues, updating the Chapter 6
Contract Log
Issue Management Plan Issue Log and
assigning resolution Implementation
actions & Contract
Management/
Handling
Problems
3.6 Change Management or Change Control This activity involves the Responsible for: The Project Manager is Subchapter 7.5.6 Annex 7-13:
application of the change making a request responsible for: & Change Request
management processes for change assessing the request Form Template
that were defined in the Chapter 6
updating the for change and the Contract Annex 7-14:
Change Management Plan impact of change on Change Log
plans that are Implementation
affected by the the project & Contract Template
approved change approving or rejecting Management/ Annex 7-15:
requests for change Change Control Limits of authority
that lie in the limits of of the Competent
his/her authority Bodies for
recommending the approving the
acceptance or change requests
rejection of the (according to the
request to the Reg. 115/2004)
Competent Organs
(e.g. Departmental or
Central Committee for
Variations & Claims)
updating the Change
Log
Version: 1.1
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Management
Management Team
Team
3.7 Risk Management This activity involves the Responsible for: The Project Manager Subchapter 7.5.7 Annex 1-6: Risk
application of risk monitoring reviews the updated Log Template (&
monitoring and control existing risks and Risk Log and monitors a completed
processes that were identifying new the risk management & example)
defined in the Risk risks by applying control processes Annex 7-6: Risk
Management Plan. risk reviews and applied by the Form Template
risk response Contractor to ensure
audits that all the identified
risks are handled
updating the Risk effectively
Log
The Project Manager
implementing risk is responsible for
control actions managing risks that lie
assessing the in the responsibility
effectiveness of area of the Contracting
the preventive Authority
and contingency
actions and if
needed updating
the Risk
Management
Plan
3.8 Acceptance Management This activity involves the - The Project Manager Subchapter 7.5.8 -
reviewing or testing of the is responsible for &
deliverables against managing and
predefined criteria in order coordinating the Chapter 6
to decide whether they can acceptance Contract
be accepted or not. procedures Implementation
& Contract
The Acceptance Management
Committee runs the
acceptance tests and
based on the results it
decides whether to
Version: 1.1
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Management
Management Team
Team
accept or reject the
deliverables.
3.9 Communication Management This activity involves the Responsible for: The Project Manager is Subchapter 7.5.9 Table 7-7:
distribution of information implementing the responsible for: Typical contents
to project stakeholders communication implementing the of a Progress
according to the actions according communication Report
Communication Plan and to the actions according to Annex 7-16:
the reporting of projects Communication the Communication Project Status
performance. Plan Plan that he/she Report Template
reviewing the prepared during the
Communication Planning Phase
Plan and reviewing the
updating it in Communication Plan
case that the and updating it in case
communication that the
needs change communication needs
preparing the change
Progress Reports reviewing the
and submit them Progress Reports
to the Contracting submitted by the
Authority Contractor and
present them to the
Project Steering
Committee for
approval
preparing the Project
Status Report to
present the status of
the project to key
stakeholders (e.g.
Project Steering
Committee, Project
Version: 1.1
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Management
Management Team
Team
Owner)
The Project Steering
Committee is
responsible for approving
the Progress Reports
submitted by the
Contractor
Checklist 7-8:
Reviewing the
4 PROJECT CLOSURE PHASE Project Closure
Phase
4.1 Performance of Administrative Closure This activity involves the Responsible for The Project Manager Subchapter 7.6.1 Checklist 7-6:
following: managing and is responsible for Material
Identification of follow-on coordinating the managing and concerning the
actions administrative coordinating the project that must
closure. administrative closure be included in the
Checking that all the on behalf of the projects archive
deliverables have been Contracting Authority
accepted
Project Steering
Completing and Committee confirms
archiving of all project the project closure
information before it is announced
Disbanding of the to the project
resources used in the stakeholders
project Team Managers
Updating the CVs of cooperate with the
Project Team Members Project Manager to
evaluate the
performance of the
Project Team
Members and ensure
that their CVs are
Version: 1.1
Role of the
Role of the
Contractors
Management
Management Team
Team
updated
4.2 Conduction of Project Evaluation Review This activity involves the Responsible for The Project Manager, Subchapter 7.6.2 Checklist 7-7:
evaluation of projects preparing the the Team Managers Checklist for
performance, conformance Project Evaluation and the Project Team evaluating the
(i.e. whether the Report and Members can provide project after its
implementation of the submitting it to the feedback to the completion
project was in accordance Contracting Contractor concerning Annex 7-17:
with the processes defined Authority the overall project Project
in the Planning Phase) and performance in order Evaluation Report
effectiveness, as well as to incorporate it in the Template
the preparation of the Evaluation Report
Project Evaluation Report. The Project Steering
Committee reviews
the Project Evaluation
Report
4.3 Conduction of post-project review This activity involves the - The Project Manager Subchapter 7.6.3 -
re-examination and review is responsible for
of project deliverables/ developing a plan for
products/ outcomes a the conduction of the
period after the end of the post-project review.
project in order to check The Contracting
whether the expected Authority may have
benefits have been to conduct the post-
achieved or not. project review if it is
not assigned to a third
party.

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PUBLIC PROCUREMENT BEST PRACTICE GUIDE Page 1 of 145

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................. 1

CHAPTER 7: PROJECT MANAGEMENT ........................................................... 4

7.4.6 Development of Change Management Plan ..........................................52

7.5.4.2 Organizing and implementing Deliverable Quality Review ................93

CHAPTER 7: PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Input Project Management Output

Figure 7-1: The Project Management Process

5. Unforeseen internal or external events impacting the project

7.2 THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT CONTEXT

7.2.1 The Project Management Processes

7.2.2 Project Stakeholders

political parties, environmental agencies, citizens, NGOs and financial

7.2.3 Organizational Structure

Head of the Department Head of the Department Head of the Department

staff staff staff

staff staff staff

staff staff staff

Figure 7-2: Functional Organization

Project Head of the

Project Manager Project Manager Project Manager

staff staff staff

staff staff staff

staff staff staff

(blue boxes represent staff engaged in the project activities)

Figure 7-3: Projectized Organization

Head of the Department Head of the Department Head of the Department

staff staff staff

staff staff staff

staff staff Project Manager

Figure 7-4: Matrix Organization

7.3 INITIATING PROCESSES

Guidance on establishing the appropriate project organization structure (roles and

7.4 PLANNING PROCESSES

Development of Project Plan

Figure 7-5: The Planning Processes

7.4.1 Development of Activities Schedule

7.4.1.1 Application of Work Breakdown Structure

Work is effort performed by people to transform or create products, to solve identified

Is each item clearly defined? If not the descriptions should be revised.

Proposal for PPDs new role and responsibilities

Consequently the WBS of Project 1 should be as follows:

0. Improving the implementing capacity

3.1 Ch.1: Project & 4.1 Training Strategy

3.8 Web-based solution

3.9 Code of ethics

Project: Construction of a Wastewater Treatment Plant

1. Design 2. Construction Level 1

1.1 Civil Drawings 2.1 Headworks Level 2

1.3 Structural Drawings 2.3 Effluent Pumping

1.4 Mechanical Drawings

1.8 Electrical Drawings

Example 7-3: Sample Work Breakdown Structure of an IT project

Project: Development of a software to be used for the automation of an Implementing Agencys

0. Software product Level 0

1. Project 2. Product 3. Detail Design 5. Integration &

2.2 User 3.2 User 4.2 User 5.2 User

2.3 Training 3.3 Training 4.3 Training 5.3 Training

7.4.1.2 Identification of the Activities

Project: Improving the implementing capacity of the Cypriot Authorities.

7.4.1.3 Determination of activities sequence and dependencies

Dependencies can be distinguished in the following types:

Project: Improving the implementing capacity of the Cypriot Authorities.