Relevance and importance

Project Management skills are needed to both produce the bid and deliver the project. The bid is a unique proposition and will involve working with the partner or customer to define what is needed and how the end product will be produced. Most bids will include a section on how the project will be managed.

It is only by successfully applying good project management skills that the final product will be delivered to meet the time, cost and quality criteria specified by the customer.

It is essential that the project manager has suitable training and experience. If not, then they should be given training and support from experienced project managers throughout the project.

Following a project management process should help stimulate creativity in project teams.

Overview

Creation

The time when the project is first envisioned, maybe simply described as a 'suggestion', 'potential solution to a problem' or an 'opportunity'. It is essential that the project manager is involved in this stage to help scope and define the eventual outcomes of the project.

Planning

Once the high-level project deliverables are defined, this phase involves addressing the resourcing requirements to produce a project plan to deliver them.

Execution

The plan should now be executed and the project manager should not expect it to go exactly as agreed. There are always changes and problems, so this phase concerns managing these changes to ensure that the project can still be delivered. This may result in compromising on time, cost and scope of the project, which needs to be managed very carefully.

Ending

This phase concerns completing the project and making sure that all the project deliverables are handed over to the customer . The project should be reviewed with all members of the team to consider the successes and otherwise of the project.

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Recommendations and practical tips

	Allocate a project manager to the project at the start of the bid process and keep him / her on the project for the duration.
	Identify and involve the team members as early as possible.
	Try not to change key members of the project team until after the project is completed.
	Build flexibility and contingency into the plan so that you can manage scope changes and problems during the project.
	Agree and document the process for managing project changes.
	Agree and document clear roles and responsibilities of all the team members, including the customer or partner.
	If the team is to consist of people from different organisations, consider a team-building session to help people work together.
	If you are to work on the customer's site, understand the culture of your customer and try to fit in as much as possible.
	If there are real problems and you feel that you cannot deliver the promised products, be honest with the customer and the team, so that you can work out how to address them.
	Focus on the people in the team - it is the team that will deliver the success.

Warnings and potential pitfalls

If you really cannot meet the project goals in the terms of the products you are offering, the timescales or the costs being stated, it may be worth considering going back to the customer to tell them and ask if there is any flexibility.

Be clear about roles and responsibilities and state explicitly what you expect the customer to do and when.

Include flexibility to manage changes during the project and specify how these will be managed explicitly, especially where the customer changes the requirements due to internal or external factors.

Be clear about reporting progress.

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