| When you put the bid together, one of your most | | | | Plan, to name but a few. These will then require |
| important pieces of documentation was the Project | | | | delivery to and acceptance by, your customer. |
| Management Plan. This document will be your bible | | | | Your Risk Management Plan is another priority and will |
| from now on, in particular the programme plan, which | | | | also need constant update and review. Make sure that |
| will take the form of a bar chart or similar and which | | | | your Risk Manager checks with all risk owners that |
| you will probably want to pin onto the wall of your | | | | they haven't any new information which may affect |
| office. This will show you the state of the project at a | | | | the handling of an early risk. For example, say one of |
| glance, including all the important dates and milestones, | | | | your risks was that one of your software engineers |
| especially payment milestones. If your plan was | | | | would only be available to you part time because |
| formulated using detailed activities for each milestone, | | | | Project X was approaching a crucial milestone and |
| you will need to check with the milestone owners that | | | | might need extra resources. Your Technical Lead now |
| these are still valid. If you didn't use detailed activities, | | | | tells you that Project X has achieved that milestone |
| you might want to start now. I firmly believe that the | | | | with no problems and won't need your software |
| secret of successful Project Management is attention | | | | engineer. You can now knock that risk off your list, you |
| to detail. In a complex project, it is all too easy to lose | | | | don't need to worry about it any more and you won't |
| track of some seemingly insignificant little job or item | | | | need to put the fall back or mitigation plans in place. |
| which turns out to be vital to the conclusion of a | | | | Risk Management is a complex subject so we won't |
| milestone. Get your team to think of every tiny little | | | | delve into it further here, suffice to say, it is crucial to |
| thing that they will need, especially for the early | | | | good project management. |
| milestones and make sure that the plan is always up | | | | Lastly, on the subject of plans, make sure that your |
| to date. | | | | Procurement Manager is monitoring the plans needed |
| One of your early milestones will almost certainly be to | | | | from your sub-contractors, if any. These may be |
| formally issue all your other documents as well as the | | | | stand-alone plans for complex sub-contracts or may |
| Project Management Plan, as these will have been at | | | | just be a contributory paragraph to some of your |
| draft issue only for the bid. This means organising the | | | | project plans. Either way, they still need to be delivered |
| review and signing off by senior personnel of your | | | | in time for project management review and inclusion in |
| Quality Plan, Development Plan (if any), Sub-Contract | | | | the delivery of your document package to your |
| Management Plan and Configuration Management | | | | customer. |