Project Management

Introduction

MKR Consulting can provide a broad range of deliverables, tasks and activities to help ensure a successful project with your organization. Our project management activities align with the Project Management Institutes (PMI) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) or we can adapt to your internal project management processes. Whether it is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, or techniques, MKR Consulting has a history of successfully completing projects that meet the client's expectations.

Communications Plans

Most problems on projects occur due to communication problems in some form. By facilitating open and honest communication throughout the life of the project, MKR Consulting will be able to proactively manage and resolve most issues before they cause problems. MKR Consulting has experience developing communication plans that contain a variety of communication techniques targeted at different user groups.

Contracts & Vendor Management

Contracting and vendor management can be a time consuming activity, but if not done with due diligence it can prove very costly for an organization. We have experience throughout the entire contracting process including issuing Requests for Information (RFI), Requests for Quotes (RFQ) and Requests for Proposals (RFP). Once proponents have submitted their proposals there is an ethical and sometime legal obligation to conduct a fair and unbiased evaluation of each proposal. We have experience with weighting, ranking, scoring and evaluating written proposals and have developed tools to manage over 1,000 requirements that need to be individually scored. Once a shortlist is created, it can be worthwhile to conduct demonstrations of a vendors solution. We have experience creating demonstration scripts for vendors, conducting time-boxed demonstrations and creating evaluator score sheets to help judge each demonstration. We also have experience with the final step in the procurement process, which is contract negotiations with your preferred vendor and creating service level agreements (SLAs), holdbacks, and performance incentives to help with vendor management.

Issue & Risk Management

Issues and Risks are two of those things that, if not managed properly, can quickly snowball and become difficult to manage. MKR Consulting will work closely with you to establish an appropriate issue and risk management process. Once identified, risks should be monitored in case they manifest into real issues. For high risks, response plans should be put in place ahead of time to outline the desired way to deal with the risk through mitigation, acceptance, transference or accepting the impact. Issues are normal on projects, but should be kept to a minimum and tracked so they are not lost. MKR Consulting has experience creating issue tracking systems, risk assessments, conducting risk analysis workshops and creating risk management plans.

Project Charters

Depending on the size of the project and the approach within the organization, a project charter can be a very short document authorizing the project manager to work on the project, to a comprehensive document containing many of the same elements from a typical project management plan. MKR Consulting will work closing with you to utilize your existing processes and template or offer our experience on best practices.

Project Management Plans

Project management plans are typically made up of other sub-components used on the project because these components rarely function in isolation. MKR Consulting will work with the entire project team and stakeholders to create a realistic project management plan based on everyone's input. Once completed, the project management plan can be used as a day-to-day tool to help manage the project, measure against the baseline and help new team members orientate to the project. MKR Consulting has project management plan templates and has experience creating comprehensive plans over 200 pages.

Schedule & Resource Planning

When time = money, it's important to minimize delays and keep all cylinders of the project team firing. MKR Consulting will work closely with the project team to establish an optimal schedule and manage resources to stay on schedule and within budget. Basing the schedule on the work breakdown structure and then managing to a baseline allows for corrective action to be taken when the project encounters challenging situations.

Scope & Quality Management

Scope and Quality are two aspects that often suffer when poorly run projects are over budget and behind schedule. MKR Consulting ensures projects meet client expectations through solid communication and project health status reports. With accurate and honest reporting, organization's are able to request changes in scope or quality with confidence the end result will be what they expected.

Team Coaching

Large projects can involve large teams and team members often look to the Project Manager for leadership. Giving correction without causing resentment, MKR Consulting will work closely with the project team to conduct team building activities and accommodate different personalities. MKR Consulting has experience coaching team members on critical path and crashing techniques and how to sequence activities so that everyone is planning 3 steps ahead.

Other Project Management services and tools include:

• Project integration management
• Project Charter
• Project Management Plan
• Monitor and Control Project Work
• Integrated Change Control
• Close Project
• Project scope management
• Scope Planning
• Scope Definition
• Create WBS
• Scope Control
• Project time management
• Activity Definition
• Activity Sequencing
• Activity Resource Estimating
• Activity Duration Estimating
• Schedule Development
• Schedule Control
• Project cost management
• Cost Estimating
• Cost Budgeting
• Cost Control
• Project quality management
• Quality Planning
• Perform Quality Assurance
• Perform Quality Control
• Project human resource management
• Human Resource Planning
• Acquire Project Team
• Develop Project Team
• Manage Project Team
• Project communications management
• Communications Planning
• Performance Reporting
• Manage Stakeholders
• Project risk management
• Risk Management Planning
• Risk Identification
• Qualitative Risk Analysis
• Risk Response Planning
• Risk Monitoring and Control
• Project procurement management
• Plan Purchases and Acquisitions
• Plan Contracting
• Request Seller Responses
• Select Sellers
• Contract Administration
• Contract Closure

Contact MKR Consulting to learn how our Project Management services can help you.