PROMISE (PROject Management In Software Environments) is the process to be applied for all software projects within an organisation. Although the immediate use of PROMISE is software biased , it can very easily be adapted to other project areas, e.g. purchase of property for Headquarters, removals etc. It builds upon industry standard methodologies, but is adapted for individual organisation needs.
Quite simply to prevent projects from failure. Projects fail for a wide variety of reasons, but some common causes are:
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Lack of communication with interested parties resulting in products being delivered which are not what the customer wanted |
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Lack of co-ordination of resources and
activities |
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Poor estimation of |
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schedule and |
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costs. |
PROMISE
does not assume
that an exact estimate can be made at the beginning of a project, but that at
every point of the project the best estimates can be made. The concept of
stages means that an initial overall estimate will be refined as more data
and experience is gathered. |
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Inadequate planning of |
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Resources, |
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activities
and, |
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Scheduling |
Time spent planning is absolutely vital,
and is not lost time. It is essential that the execution of a project is not
instigated until the planning phase has been |
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Lack of control over progress so that
projects do not reveal their exact status until too late |
PROMISE
Provides not
only the structure, (or organisation) to ensure that correct reporting is
performed, but also the mechanisms. The rule of the day is ‘report by exception’, but checkpoints are inbuilt to ensure that the
project does not go too long without the necessary sanity checks. |
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Lack of quality control, resulting in
the delivery of products that are unacceptable or unusable. |
Quality is a fundamental building block
of PROMISE,
and the Organisation and processes needed are included. |
PROMISE adopts the principles of good project
management to avoid the problems identified above and so helps to achieve
successful projects. These principles are:
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A project is a finite process with a
definite start and end |
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Projects always need to be managed in
order to be successful |
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For genuine commitment to the project,
all parties must be clear about |
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why
the project is needed, |
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what
it is intended to achieve, |
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how
the outcome is to be achieved, and |
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what
their responsibilities are in that achievement. |