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What is the purpose of an expense form? An expense form is used to record expenses in the project for each task undertaken. Any person within the project team may complete an expense form, it should be done ideally before the expense has occurred. This ensures that the project manager has the ability to approve the expense before it is recorded on the bottom line of the general ledger. An expense form includes fields which allow a team member to enter the task and activity that the expense relates to, the type of expense, description and amount incurred. Up to date information on project management life cycle

Project Management Life Cycle Tools & Work/ Life Have you ever felt that your project management life cycle are beginning to take over your life? It’s quite a common feeling, because Project Managers and teams usually work long hours on a project to ensure it’s success.  Work becomes “everything” and as a result, your personal life becomes #2. In this two part newsletter, we’ve offered 10 serious tips to help you... Get a Work / Life Balance on Projects Part I What is a “Work / Life Balance”? To us, it’s “getting the maximum enjoyment from your project managment life cycle and personal time, every day”. This means really enjoying the time you have at work, and the time you spend after hours, so that you’re getting the most out of what life has to offer. The reverse of this is not enjoying your job, and not having a personal life. If you’re in that camp, then read these 10 tips to get back on track: Tip 1: Prioritize Sit down over a nice warm drink and ask yourself this question.

What does the Cost Management Process entail? The Cost Management Process is implemented in order to record all expenses or costs within the entire lifecycle of the project. The various steps within the cost management process include the recording of expenses, the completing of expense forms, the approval of such expense forms and the updating of the project plan with the expense information. If you can record accurately all of the expenses for the project and update the project plan with this information on a regular basis then you will be able to monitor the progress of the project to determine at any point in time weather or not it is operating within budget.

What is the purpose of the Time Sheet Register? The Time Sheet register enables the project administrator to record all of the different time entries by a team member against the project plan . In essence the project administrator collates all of the timesheet entries and then enters each of those entries in a large table which enables them to calculate the total amount of time spent over the week. At the end of the week, typically, the project administrator updates the project plan with all of the time spent on each task.

Project Management Templates - Agile There is a whirlwind happening in the project management industry and it’s called “Agile”. While the core principles of project management remain unchanged, what is changing is the way you manage projects ‘day-to-day’. To help you learn more, your should begin using Project Management Templates and read here about... Delivering Projects using Agile Methods There are tons of ways of delivering projects and one of them is using an “Agile” approach. To show you how agile can change your project life, we’ve listed here 3 examples of the agile approach. They suit projects of any type, size or industry: Sprints Have you ever been involved in a project that has so many deliverables and such short a timeframe, that it all gets “overwhelming”. Well using ‘sprints’ in your project management templates you can cut through this. Basically, you break down all of the tasks that a team has to deliver, into 2 week groups. These 2 week periods are called “sprints”

Which elements of the time sheet form should I include in my time sheet? A Time Sheet includes a suite of fields which enable a team member to record the time spent building deliverables on a project. The fields that need to be entered into a time sheet are the start and end time, the duration, the tasks and activities worked on and the percentage of each deliverable complete. Within the timesheet form a number of entries will be recorded for each person for each week that has been updated on the project plan . Look up project management life cycle

How can I create a Time Management Process for my business? A Time Management process describes all of the methods, procedures and steps a person takes in order to record time spent by staff to create deliverables for the project. A formal process is required to be able to ensure that all time from contractors, part-timers, full-timers, managers and project teams is recorded on the project. The process involves recording time in time sheets, implementing an approval process so that time undertaken is confirmed by the project manager and the project plan is updated at each step.

Project Management Template for Slipping Ever had a project deliver late or over budget? If you haven’t, then you’re lucky because the majority of projects are delivered over budget or over schedule. So when you’re in the middle of project delivery and things start slipping, what do you do? Here are four tips to help you out. What to do when your project slips... Step 1: Focus the team A common trend is that in the middle of a project, the team start to feel like they are under pressure and they lose sight of the end goal. The excitement of “project startup” is long since past and any team politics have kicked in. It’s now that you need to recognize and reward staff for good performance. And it’s now that you need to focus the team by restating the objectives, providing incentives and boosting morale. You need to be their shining star when things get dark and gloomy. Use your Project Management Template to do so. Step 2: Prioritize If there is simply too much to do in the timeframe y

What should I look for when I complete a phase review during the planning phase of the project ? When completing a phase review you should always identify the deliverables and activities you require to be completed by the end of the phase for which you are reviewing. Each of these deliverables should then be assessed to determine if they meet the requirements of the customer. If all of the deliverables produced to date meet the requirements set by the customer and the level of risk as well as the number of outstanding issues are minimal then one could easily argue that your phase is complete and you can successfully move on to the following phase of the project.

IT Projects - Project Management Templates We’re often asked “which steps do I take, to manage an IT project?” Yes, IT projects are different than other types, as they require a lot more analysis and design upfront, before the project begins. So we thought we’d step you through the classical life cycle for an IT project here in this newsletter, by describing... The 5 phases of IT Projects According to Google, “IT and Software” projects are now the most common type of project undertaken within the field of Project Management . So what are the phases in a project life cycle , that involves IT and Software? They are available in a set of project managemnt templates and we’ve set them out for you below... Phase 1: Analysis The first step for an IT project involves analyzing your requirements for a solution. To do this, you need to analyze your business environment, processes, systems, people and organizational structure, to help you set out exactly what it is that the new IT solution must

A request for a Proposal has been released by our project team. What process should we use in reviewing the responses? If you have already created a Request for a Proposal document and have already released it to your suppliers half your battle is won. It is important at that point in time to implement a process for review of the suppliers’ proposals. This will ensure that the most suitable supplier is appointed to the team and most importantly that this is done without basis. All of the Requests for Proposals should have been received through a publicly defined notice advertised in the local newspapers or other tender magazines and the proposals should be rated on a predefined criteria as set by the project stake holder. A preferred Request for a Proposal from a supplier should then be selected. Further information on project management life cycle

I have heard of the concept RFI what is it and when should I use it? An RFI stands for a Request for Information and this is a document which is released to project suppliers for a delivery of goods and services to the project. It is an outsourcing document. To complete a Request for Information you can simply use the project management template found within MPMM and that template will help you to identify all of the sections of the RFI document your need to complete prior to releasing the document.

How Project Management Tools Help you Outsource As a Project Manager, you’ll often have to outsource all or part of a project to an external supplier using your project management tools. Outsourcing can be a way of saving you time and hassle, while still achieving a great result. To help you do this, we listed 3 very important... Tips for Outsourcing your projects Outsourcing is a term used when an external supplier (i.e. vendor) is responsible for delivering a set of goods and services to your business. Follow these tips, when outsourcing to an external company: Tip 1:  Put a stake in the ground The single most important step to take when appointing a supplier, is to define your outsourcing requirements by documenting them in a “Statement of Work”. In this document, you will describe in depth the; goods and services that must be provided, the delivery process, terms and conditions, and timeframes for providing them. You should then release the project management tools document to yo