"The alphabet of Taste" manages projects with the help of First Form

In March, 2018 The First Form company announced creation in Alphabet of Taste of a project management system. The class workflow management system from The First Form became a basis of the solution.

Prerequisites

In Alphabet of Taste about 15 large-scale projects at the same time are implemented and support about 40 already implemented projects is conducted. The project office is engaged in it.

Earlier for each project on a file server the folder in which the project manager put the project documentation – charters, plans, agreements, running reports was created. For control of terms the chart Ganta was used, but the project manager entered data in it manually. For control of the project budget it was necessary to request data from the Microsoft Dynamics NAV system in which financial plans of the company are stored and incoming payments are considered.

By estimates of project managers, up to 50% of their labor costs fell on routine transactions which could be automated.

Tasks

System implementation First Form had to reduce the unproductive costs connected with conducting project document flow and monitoring of projects and to transfer project management to online mode that all data on the project were relevant and available to the head at any moment.

Project Results

Method of control points

Project management is constructed on the basis of monitoring of control points. Each project passes through 6 obligatory stages:

• Preliminary stage — study of the concept and project scope,
• Assessment — assessment of finance and labor costs, calculation of an expected margin,
• The choice — comparison and the choice of suppliers on different types of works,
• Planning — scheduling of execution of works,
• Accomplishment — project implementation,
• End — acceptance of results.

These stages are considered as control points of the 1st level. Each stage breaks into subtasks which are considered as control points of the 2nd level. For example, on the Preliminary stage subtasks – Development of the concept of the project, Approval of the concept, Formation of a project team, etc. can be selected. In turn, each such task can be also broken into on smaller.

In total in the project there can be an unlimited number of levels of decomposition, however the project manager, as a rule, conducts monitoring of control points to the 2nd, at most to the 3rd level. As a rule, it is no more than 35-40 control points on the project. Smaller subtasks are controlled by their direct customers and contractors.

Project documentation

For conducting document flow the file storage as a part of First Form is used. Each document is created in a binding to the project at once. Printed forms of documents are developed proceeding from requirements of the company and for uniform corporate style.

In a card of the project current versions of documents are always available. For each document the version history, with indication of authorship and date of making changes is stored. Approval of the document if it is required, also happens within First Form.

Upon transition of the project to the next stage existence of necessary documents is checked and if not all documents are present, it is impossible to transfer the project to the next stage.

Making changes – under strict control

As control points are connected among themselves, change of one control point can influence accomplishment of the others. Therefore as soon as the project passes into implementation phase, each change will be approved with the project manager.

The contractor of a task sends the change request in which specifies an old and new parameter value (term, the contractor, a cost amount, the budget item, etc.) and also explains the change reason. The project manager can approve or deny the request. Only after approval of a request of change become effective.

Risk analysis

Each control point is given the statuses of risk — on terms, on the budget, on resources and by results. The "green" status corresponds to the normal course of accomplishment, "yellow" means existence of noncritical problems, and "red" — the problems threatening with failure of the project or a stage of the project. For example, overdue tasks automatically receive the "red" status of risk on terms.

The project manager at any time can look at a current status of control points both on the chart Ganta, and in reports.

Weekly the project manager makes the status report of the project. The report automatically joins all control points of the 1st and 2nd levels which should be complete within the next weeks (for each project the "horizon of control" is appointed). In the report the statuses of risk on each control point are updated, at the same time comments of executives in charge can be requested.

The summary status of risk on the project is calculated proceeding from the statuses of risk of its control points. For example, the project status cannot be "green" if in it there is at least one "yellow" or "red" control point.

Project committee

The status report of the project helps the project manager to report at a weekly meeting of Project committee – operational council into which representatives of top management of the company enter. The agenda of a meeting also forms automatically – on Project committee all control points of the 1st and 2nd level which should be complete within a week are discussed.

Project managers are invited to a meeting with short reports. Solutions of Project committee are made out as instructions, for them terms and contractors are appointed, and these instructions remain on control up to end.

In addition to meetings of Project committee, in First Form normal meetings and working meetings are planned. The questions standing on the agenda of such meetings and the instructions created according to the results of can be also tied to the specific project or a control point.

Distribution of the budget

Consolidation of financial information on projects was one of the major tasks standing at implementation of First Form. The actual cash flow is considered in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, but before payments were not tied to projects, and automatically it was impossible to create the report on project finance.

Now in First Form in a card of the project its budget with indication of articles and expense amounts is recorded. Agreements with suppliers are tied to each project, and for the agreement the payment schedule is planned. If in the agreement the diagram is not recorded, then payments are planned by the project manager manually. At payment scheduling it is checked whether this amount of a project budget framework keeps within. The payment date can be tied to date of a control point – for example, the payment should be executed no later than in five days after end of a stage of works.

Integration with Dynamics NAV

As the Dynamics NAV system is a uniform source of financial information in Alphabet of Taste, in First Form integration with it is configured: once a month on the basis of planned and actual payments in First Form automatically is formed the estimate which then is checked by the project manager and if necessary is adjusted. The approved estimate is unloaded in Dynamics NAV for diversity of the arrived payments under agreements and cost items. Then data on payments are transferred back to First Form.

Thus, at any moment the project manager has a complete information about settlement with each supplier and also about the mastered and available budget for the project in general.

In addition to estimates and the actual payments, double-ended synchronization of budgets and partners is adjusted. The functionality of calculation of motivation proceeding from percent of participation of the employee in the project and its role is partially implemented.

The project in Alphabet of Taste — our first large-scale integration into the Microsoft Dynamics NAV system. Mutual understanding with the customer, his readiness to penetrate into the principles of work with data which are underlain in our system, and to use regular opportunities with the minimum completions became the key to success. In Alphabet of Taste — more than 100 operating information systems therefore problems of integration into the companies are solved skillfully and in details. We try to obtain complete synchronization of all financial and reference information which is used in project management and also we finish the block of calculation of motivation for project teams.

Effect of implementation

In First Form worked at the initial stage, generally heads and administrators of projects and also employees participating in approval of documents – only about 25 people. They mastered functionality of project management, work with documents and reports, and gave positive reviews about a system. Project orderers who also want to have data access about a work progress also began to show interest in First Form.

In 2018 number of users of a system it is going to increase at least up to 60.

In First Form it is conducted project managements, different both on scale, and in the directions, and on criticality for business of Alphabet of Taste. A part of these solutions is directed to quality improvement of service of buyers in shops of network, implementation of new formats of trade. Other part of projects is aimed at optimization of internal business processes – management of retail chain stores and trade inventories, vendor interaction, observance of requirements of regulating authorities. Project duration varies from 2-3 months to one year.

Effect which we already felt from implementation of First Form it is improvement of discipline of project management. We do not request reports from contractors any more, up-to-date data regularly arrive now from weekly reports. Transition to the next stage of the project is executed only after all problems of the previous stage are complete and accepted by the customer. It became much more convenient to control terms and in time to submit problem tasks for discussion of Project committee. Separate big achievement is a completeness and transparency of financial information, from project initiation before end. The financial statements on the project can be received literally clicking of one button now. Errors in calculations were reduced. Planning of payments became much more flexible: I see of what payments there is each indicator of the estimate, and I can maneuver – for example, to postpone not due payment to the next month and to allocate the released funds for purchase of goods during "a high season — Vladimir Styopin, the head of department of project management of Alphabet of Taste and the project manager of implementation of First Form told.

According to preliminary estimates, the quantity of the man-hours spent by project managers for monitoring and the analysis was already cut by half.

A system was convenient not only for users, but also in terms of maintenance and development. So, the changes connected with project documents and the system of motivation for contractors are planned for 2018 financial year in the company. Such changes will be simple to be entered into the system.

The Alphabet of Taste company actively grows, constantly there are ideas of development therefore there is a lot of the needs for automation. For the solution of new tasks the customer aims to use possibilities of already implemented systems, it is reasonable approach. And here we can offer the company others, the possibilities of First Form which are not mastered by them yet. For example, already became interested in the company in our mobile application. It is sure that cooperation with Alphabet of Taste will be long and mutually useful — Roman Shirokopoyas, the client manager of First Form noted.