Project Management Methodology

The heart of any successful project is a well-functioning Project Management Office; and our proven project management processes to manage the day-to-day operations of the project team.

Our project management philosophy is centered on collaborative client communications about project milestones and statuses, as well as proactive communication about the various risks that may be encountered. The RCR Project Management processes include:

• Structured planning and staffing processes that ensure that scope is parsed, work activities are identified that are sized and configured to represent manageable work units. These work activities will follow RCR’s management life cycle with staffing assigned and resources allocated at each stage in the life cycle to promote a successful outcome. The project plan identifies the work units, assigned project staff and resources, and the deliverables to be produced.
• RCR’s project management processes also focus on creating documentation that clearly delineates the outcome of project activities. The Project Plan provides the mechanism for pro- actively identifying to the State where and when documents are generated. RCR’s documentation templates will be used to guide the format and content of project deliverables, and review processes will ensure that peer and management reviews of deliverable are completed prior to submission to the Client for review and approval.
• Communications protocols ensure that communications occur frequently between the RCR management team and the Client’s project management team, and these communications are complemented by status reports that address project deliverable status, issues or concerns, open items requiring Client attention, etc. As is the goal of all project management processes, the overriding goal of our communication protocols is that there is never a surprise. There can be issues, problems, and areas of concern, but if communication channels are being properly exercised, there will never be a surprise.
• Communication within the project team is equally important. RCR’s project management approach includes a weekly “Scrum” of all team leads. These meetings are similar in content to the weekly project status meetings with the Client, except that the Scrum provides an open forum for discussions of project issues, personnel issues, client issues, and related topics that are best identified and addressed early.
• On-call and escalation protocols will also be established early in the project’s lifecycle to ensure that the Client’s senior management are engaged when necessary to address issues and concerns that cannot be resolved at lower management levels.
• Development of a project-specific risk management plan. The risk management plan creates a response plan for each risk, scaled appropriately to its impact and probability; creates the infrastructure to monitor the status of each risk and its associated risk response and contingency plan to ensure its effectiveness; and communication and project processes that will continually identify new risks as they rise and develop risk responses, as required.

Project managers must have the ability to be flexible and react quickly to mitigate or dismiss potential and presented risks to mission- critical functions of the project.