SOX and Project Management
In the world of Sarbanes-Oxley, the practice of project management is no longer just about being productive. Now it’s about being productive with total accountability for corporate objectives, resources and decisions.
The Project Gateway system provides control and traceability of every aspect of the project process from an individual's task checklist item to the CIO's final release approval. And it keeps track of every hour, issue, scope change, and document with minimum impact on the real project work.
Project Process Management
The Project Process Management mechanism of Project Gateway forces each project to go through the necessary corporate approvals at each stage of its life. And it provides complete accountability for every management approval.
What sets Project Gateway apart from other project systems in that the management process exists outside of the specific project workplan. So there is no way for the project leader to circumvent or forget the process requirements. Another benefit is that the system coaches the project leaders through the process. Yet another is that non-compliance is extremely visible.
Project Goal Management
Project Gateway's Scope Change workflow drives the proposal, investigation, estimation, and approval for each change. Escalation of approval is supported. The system also tracks the cumulative approved change so that it can be compared with project schedule and cost changes.
Document Management
Every document prepared for the project is subject to an approval workflow that can include the project customer and program manager. No changes can be made to approved documents without loosing the approval. Approved documents of specific types, or the lack thereof, can be preconditions to project process steps.
Disciplined Problem Management
Each current or expected problem becomes a document that has a datestamped edit log and change log. These issues and risks can have time reported against them. Team comments are permanently attached and archived with the project. Task checklist objectives that are missed become issues so that they are never lost. The result is a full record of every problem and its resolution for the life of each project. The system even produces Gantt charts showing issue and risk recognition and resolution.
Schedule Management
Whenever a change is made to the schedule plan, an update is made to a revision history stored at both the project and assignment level. So there is no question as to who made the change and when it was made. Even those tasks that were removed from the working project are retained in the repository. When attached to a Project Observatory, the whole schedule and resource evolution is retained and graphically depicted.
Time and Results Management.
By checklisting the objectives of each project task, the system accumulates a detailed log of the accomplishments of the task with signatures and dates for each. Incomplete items are workflowed to the project leader and can be automated into project issues.
Real Time, Work Time and Results are connected. Timesheets retain an independent data set for project hours so that planning changes cannot erase labor accountability. Moreover, by collecting work time, task dates, and checklist accomplishments in a single integrated process, the opportunity for source data entry error is greatly reduced.
Summary
In summary, if you are going to meet the SOX requirements for accountability you are going to need a system that documents every step of the project process and provides accountability and traceability from the lowest team member to top management.
That's what Project Gateway delivers, today.
Marin Research Inc.
9650 Gateway Drive
Reno, NV 89521-3954
Phone: 775-853-9784
Fax: 775-853-9788
Info@marinres.com