0% found this document useful (0 votes)

114 views299 pages

PMP in Practice Book Sec-301-599

PMP

Uploaded by

TME00

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

Available Formats

Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

0% found this document useful (0 votes)

114 views299 pages

PMP in Practice Book Sec-301-599

PMP

Uploaded by

TME00

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

Available Formats

Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

You are on page 1/ 299

Creating The Detailed Project Plan

3- Create WBS
Value Management
System Project

Control Needs Standards Systems Project

Account Assessment Development Engineering Management

Requirements Alternatives System Requirements

Current System Audit
Determination Development Development
Planning
Packages
Components Gap Alternatives
Identification Assessment Identification

Work Components Requirements Alternatives

Packages Analysis Changes Identification Analysis

Planning Activities
WBS Control Accounts Work Packages
Packages

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

301
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

3- Create WBS
• The work breakdown structure is considered to be the “cornerstone of project planning.” It provides the basis for
time estimates, cost estimates, risk identification and analysis, and project control.
• The WBS is created with the help of the team.
• Each level of the WBS is a smaller piece of the previous level.
• The WBS includes only deliverables that are required for the project.
• Deliverables not in the WBS are not part of the project.
• After we create the WBS, we need to create a support document for the WBS which adds further detail to the
WBS control accounts and work packages.
• The WBS dictionary is used to provide clarity and additional detail to elements of the WBS and may include a
code of account identifier.

• A critical output of the Create WBS process is the Scope Baseline which includes:
• Project scope statement
• WBS
• WBS dictionary
• Planning packages
• Work packages

302
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Scope Planning in Waterfall projects Very Important Keywords

1) Brainstorming ( Generate new ideas )
2) Interviews ( Confidential information)
3) Focus Group ( Prequalified stakeholders and subject matter experts )
4) Benchmarking ( Comparing - generate ideas for improvement)
5) Affinity Diagram ( Generate and Organize – Classified information )
6) Nominal group Technique ( Generate and prioritization or Rank – Voting )
7) Observation ( Uncover hidden requirements)
8) Facilitation ( Bring key stakeholders - cross-functional requirements)
9) Prototypes (obtaining early feedback -Mock-up )
10) Requirements Traceability Matrix ( links requirements To deliverables )
11) Decomposition ( dividing and subdividing )
12) work package ( lowest level in the WBS )

303
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

2- Scope Planning in Agile Projects

Define project scope and breakdown work

Value-Based Decomposition
Value-based decomposition is a continuation of the process of-
value-based analysis-here, the team elicits requirements from
stakeholders; groups, breaks down, and ranks those requirements;
and then pulls the prioritized requirements into the development
process. The figure below shows what this process might look like
on a typical agile project.

Example of Value-Based Analysis and Decomposition Process

• The first step in this process will be some kind of effort to
define the vision.
• Step 2 the stakeholders hold a series of feature workshops
in which the project vision is broken down into the
potential features of the system.
• These workshops result in a candidate feature list (step 3 ).
• In the final step, that list is prioritized based on business
value and risk to get the prioritized backlog that the team
will use to complete the iterative development process
(step 4).

304
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Story Maps

Although some of the feature columns in this diagram are wider than others, that's just because they include more
user stories. At this point, we don't know yet how many iterations will be required to build each feature, or how the
releases will be timed. (That will be determined in release planning.)

305
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Product Roadmap
• A product roadmap is a visual depiction of the product releases and the main components that will be included in
each release.
• we can convert the story map we created above to a product roadmap by outlining the user stories we plan to deliver
in the first, second, and third release. We can show this to the product owner to communicate our plan for these first
three releases.

306
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Example

307
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Release Planning Session Sprint/Iteration Planning

Release plan, review Elaboration, estimation and
Release Backlog Release Backlog and prioritization of highest-value User
List of desired functionality set Release Stories.
prioritized by business value by Iterations dates.
Product Owner.
Sprint Backlog
Allow a user to create a free
account. (Priority 1) Allow a user to enter a login &
Release Iterations password.
Schedule
Allow subscribers to purchase
music. (Priority 3) Allow a user to enter personal
information.

Allow user to personalize store Allow user to enter billing

experience. (Priority 9) information.

308
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

• when planning a release, we ask, "What proportion of the user story backlog can
be delivered in this release?"
• In the figure, the functionality that represents all the user stories ranked as "must
haves" and "should haves" in the backlog has been selected for the upcoming
release.
• So, the next question is, "How likely is it that we will be able to complete this work
by the release date?
• To plan how much work can be completed in a given iteration, agile teams generally
use the velocity trend that has emerged over their previous iterations.
Sprint 1 Sprint 4
Story A 8 Story B 13 Story K 13 Story L 21
Story C 21 Story G 8 Story M 16

Release 1
Sprint 2
Story D 10 Story E 15
1. Guess a starting velocity (50 in this case)
Story F 20 Story I 5 2. Choose which stories must exist to Release and
see how many Sprints are needed, or…
Work backwards from the Release date to fit as
Sprint 3
many high-value stories as possible
Story H 28 Story J 22 3. Adjust the scope within the Release as true
Velocity becomes apparent

309
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Slicing the Stories

• One of the key activities done in the release planning meeting is
slicing stories.
• This simply means breaking down any stories that are too large-
to be completed within one iteration.
• Notice that this process doesn't involve dividing the user stories
into the tasks needed to build them; that final level of detail will
be added in the next step, iteration planning.

• When to split Stories?

• When it cannot be completed inside the iteration/sprint.
• When you want to get accurate time estimation.
• Teams really need Stories to be in manageable size in order to estimate them well.
• When to combine Stories?
• When stories are related and still can be completed within iteration/sprint.
• When you want to prioritize as a group (as long as the above criteria holds).
• Create an Epic if it is too large to fit in a Sprint.
• Create a new Story if it can fit in a Sprint.
• Create a theme if it is a set of related Stories.

310
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Prioritization Scheme
• In terms of Agile project management, prioritization is the process where customers organize / select product
backlog / user stories for implementation based on the perceived values. the backlog should be customer-valued
prioritized while taking into accounts technical feasibilities, risks, dependencies, etc.
• value prioritization schemes
 Simple schemes – rank from high to low (priority 1, 2, 3, …)
 MoSCoW prioritization scheme – Must have, Should have, Could have, Would like to have, in future
 Monopoly money – ask customers to give out (fake) money to individual business features in order to compare the relative
priority
 100-Point method – customers are allowed to give, in total 100 points, to various features
 Dot voting / Multi-voting – everyone is given a limited number of dots (~20% of the number of all options) to vote on the
options
 Kano analysis – plot the features on a graph with axes as Need Fulfilled / Not fulfilled vs Satisfied / Dissatisfied, each feature
will then be classified as “exciters, satisfiers, dissatisfiers, indifferent”. Exciters are of highest values.
 Requirements Prioritization model – rate each feature by benefits for having, penalty for not having, cost of producing, risks,
etc. and calculate a score using a pre-defined weighted formula
 Minimally Marketable Features (MMF): the minimal functionality set (a group of user stories or a package of features) that
can deliver values (e.g., useful) to the customers / end-users
• Relative Prioritization / Ranking
 an ordered list of all user stories / features to be completed with 1 being the highest priority
 when new features are to be added, it has to be compared, in terms of priority, to all current features
 the schemes list above can be used to assist the relative prioritization / ranking tasks

311
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Backlog Refinement (Grooming)

• In iteration-based agile, the product owner often works with the team to prepare
some stories for the upcoming iteration during one or more sessions in the middle of
the iteration.
• The purpose of these meetings is to refine enough stories, so the team understands
what the stories are and how large the stories are in relation to each other.
• There is no consensus on how long the refinement should be. There is a continuum
of:
 Just-in-time refinement for flow-based agile. The team takes the next card off
the to-do column and discusses it.
 Many iteration-based agile teams use a timeboxed 1-hour discussion midway
through a 2-week iteration. (The team selects an iteration duration that
provides them frequent-enough feedback.)
 Multiple refinement discussions for iteration-based agile teams. Teams can use
this when they are new to the product, the product area, or the problem
domain.
• There are many ways for the product owner to conduct backlog preparation and refinement meetings, including for example:
 Encourage the team to work as triads of developer, tester, business analyst/product owner to discuss and write the story.
 Present the overall story concept to the team. The team discusses and refines it into as many stories as required.
 Work with the team to find various ways to explore and write the stories together, making sure all of the stories are small
enough so the team can produce a steady flow of completed work. Consider becoming able to complete a story at least
once a day.

312
Lesson
Plan for Project Compliance
05

Compliance Requirements
• 'Compliance' is a term that describes the need for projects to match certain rules, regulations, or standards, in
correspondence with certain requirements of stakeholders in the project.
• Moving beyond stating project requirements, defining compliance means meeting other organizational requirements
from internal and external stakeholders.
• Sometimes the simplest projects have very complex compliance requirements.
• It is important to always put the same amount of effort into every project to make sure that it is in compliance with all
legal and regulatory requirements. It's better to be safe than sorry!
• Establishing a framework for project compliance allows the project team to clarify activities and select the
most useful tools for achieving specific objectives. The ultimate goal is achieving compliance or documenting
noncompliance.
By completing the tasks in this section, you practice how to:
• Confirm compliance requirements • Analyze consequences of noncompliance

• Classify compliance categories • Determine actions to address compliance needs

• Determine potential threats • Measure compliance

• Support compliance

313
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Confirm Compliance Requirements

• Most project deliverables or outcomes are subject to some kind of legal or regulatory constraints.
• Compliance requirements must be identified, tracked, and managed throughout the project.
• Aspects of compliance can include requirements for specific practices, privacy laws, handling of sensitive info., and
many other areas.
Tools and Techniques
1. Configuration Management System :
• Configuration management is a process that includes established methodology, syst ems, and procedures to control the elements
of the change process.
• Configuration management system used to track and record the project’s deliverable components, including a description and the
defined key attributes, including proof of validation that each deliverable meets identified compliance requirements.

2. Compliance Documentation: This proposed tool is a set of draft documents that dynamically change in each of the stages and for
each of the components. therefore, it is treated as a deliverable of the project.

3. Compliance Council
• Similarly, experts in various areas (legal, environmental, technical) must be eventually incorporated into the project.
• The establishment of a compliance council is the best strategy to achieving appropriate coverage of all required activities.

314
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Tools and Techniques

4. Nonfunctional Requirements

Type Considerations
• How and when is the service available?
Availability
• If the service were to become unavailable, how quickly can it be restored to working?
• What level of service performance, speed, and throughput is required?
Capacity
• Given the number of stakeholders using the service, is there enough supply to meet demand?
Continuity • If there were a disaster of some kind, how quickly could the service be recovered to support operations.
• How well is the service and its information protected from security risks and threats?
Security
• How do you guarantee the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the information?

5. Compliance Audit
• Audit is one of the key elements in the framework and is reflected in the establishment of a specific audit for the project in aspects
of compliance.
• Each project activity aimed to comply with or to build the compliance objectives should be analyzed by the audit. It is important that
this body be independent from the management of the project to avoid conflicts of interest.
6. Compliance Responsibilities
• All activities and their corresponding compliance objectives shall be allocated as parts of the project's tasks and processes.
• Project managers must extract themselves from the compliance responsibility and act only as coordinators of the resources and
activities required to achieve the proposed objectives.

315
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Compliance Management Plan

• Another important aspect of planning involves compliance goals and requirements.
• Compliance with:
o Appropriate government regulations
o Corporate policies
o Product and project quality
o Project risk

• Project Compliance Plan is a sub-plan of the project management plan.

• Components include:
o Classify compliance categories
o Determine potential threats to compliance
o Analyze the consequences of noncompliance
o Determine necessary approach and action to address compliance needs

316
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Compliance Categories Classification

• Relative to the legal and regulatory constraints a particular organization or solution must meet, different compliance
categories may be appropriate.
• Several different types of compliance categories may be necessary based on a particular industry and solution
scope.
• Categorizing makes things easier to track and communicate.
• Compliance is extremely complex, and when regulations Environmental Risk
Workplace Health
are categorized they can be tracked and compliance can be and Safety
quantitatively measured.
• Project professionals should aim to understand the
regulations that apply to the project.
Corrupt Practices Social Responsibility

Quality Process Risks

317
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Determine Potential Threats

• Project managers are used to handling project risks; however, compliance risks occasionally fall beyond the scope of the project itself.
• Successful project managers ensure continual identification, communication, and management of compliance requirements. Also identify
changes to compliance requirements, assess impact, and update the project plan to reflect the changes.
• Potential Threats to Compliance:
 Identification of new vulnerabilities.  Errors or bugs in deliverables.
 Changes in legal or regulatory requirements.  Lack of awareness of compliance requirements.
 Errors in testing and validation to confirm compliance.

Risk Register
• Used to track and manage risks during the project
• Compliance-related risks might include:
o The identified risk
o Risk owner
o Impact of a realized risk
o Risk responses

• Create testing and validation plans to ensure project deliverables meet compliance requirements
• Recommended to perform a summary check of compliance before the end of the project
• When possible, legal and regulatory compliance for deliverables should be validated on an ongoing basis during the project.

318
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Support Compliance
• Supporting compliance means using several tools to ensure that you have met the compliance requirements for a project.
• In order to do this, rely on execution reports and variance analyses, also make sure you understand tolerance levels.

Execution Reports
• Project managers regularly provide execution reports related to project activities, deliverable status, and overall progress.
• The execution report includes the status of risks, including compliance related risks and actions taken to manage the risks.
• These might include testing and validation activities, audits, or other actions to verify deliverable compliance with any legal or regulatory
constraints.

Variance Analysis for Compliance

• Along with reporting on execution, project managers regularly report on any project variances, along with actions taken to control the
project and keep things on track.
• Variances related to compliance are critical as they could potentially impact the usability of the project's deliverables.
• The variance analysis should detail the variance identified, plans for bringing the project or deliverable back into compliance, along with
any proposed changes required in order to meet compliance requirements.

Tolerance
• Tolerance levels enable the project manager to effectively manage certain issues without needing to escalate every issue.

319
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Quality Audit
• Quality audits are used to verify compliance with organizational policies, processes, and procedures.
• Generally, they are conducted by a team external to the project, such as an internal audit team or PMO.
• Use audits to do the following:

 Identify that all good and best practices are being used
 Identify any nonconformity, gaps, and shortcomings
 Share good practices from other projects in the organization or industry
 Proactively offer improvements to improve productivity
 Highlight contributions to lessons learned

• Any remediation should reduce the overall cost of quality and increase customer acceptance of the project's deliverables.
Remediation may also be used to verify implementationof change requests including updates, corrective actions, defect
repairs, or preventive actions.
• Often it's necessary to change the thresholds for quality as the project progresses, and sometimes even during an audit. Don't be
afraid to make data-driven decisions and document the results to review. Projects are about deliverables, but those deliverables
rely on continuous improvement.

320
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

QA Tools
• Data gathering: Checklists and other lists of acceptance criteria
• Data analysis: Alternatives analysis, document analysis, process analysis, or formal root cause analysis
• Decision making techniques
• Data representations: Affinity diagrams, cause and effect diagrams, flowcharts, histograms, matrix diagrams, and scatter diagrams
• Audit reports
• Design for X: Focuses on a particular value X and its impact on design quality
• Problem solving techniques
• Quality management methods: Six Sigma, Plan-Do-Check-Act

Sampling
• It might not be viable for QA to inspect every product or deliverable.
• Substituting a sampling of different outputs of the processes and procedures for review might be appropriate.
• Sampling approach can provide similar results in identifying quality issues and reducing the cost of quality.
• Helps to better align the cost of quality assurance with the overall value to the project.

321
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Sign-offs and Approvals

• Identify the necessary stakeholders authorized to sign-off and approve on deliverables.
• The solution and its deliverables must meet compliance requirements.
• Sign-off and approval can happen throughout the project or at completion.
• After testing and validating deliverables, a compliance sign-off provides the following benefits:
o Early warning of potential threats to compliance.
o The ability to capture variances and determine a course of action.
• Remediate issues to avoid:
o Negative impact on the project timeline
o Cost overruns
o Increased project risks

322
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Measure Compliance
• When assessing project compliance, leverage quality management to both validate compliance and identify
noncompliance issues and potential corrective actions.
• Some guidelines include:
 Use QA outputs to confirm deliverable and process compliance and identify the needs for corrective actions.
 Establish project tolerances and enable either the project manager to initiate corrective actions within
tolerances or quickly escalate any noncompliance outside of the t olerances.
 Establish a clear quality management plan and execute it on an ongoing basis to identify any noncompliance issues
as early as possible.
 Establish where external audit teams can confirm and validate use of appropriate processes and procedures
and how audit results can enable the team to identify improvements.
 Leverage effective QA tools and techniques to assess quality deliverables and identify required improvements,
corrective actions, or defect repairs.

323
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Analyze Consequences of Noncompliance

• Noncompliance carries penalties or sanctions that may threaten the very existence of the company.

• During the project, the project manager identifies and manages legal, regulatory, and other compliance requirements.
Guidelines for analysisinclude:
 Define the legal, regulatory, and other constraints in addition to the business rules based on compliance requirements that
will constrain the project solution and improve the likelihood of maintaining compliance
 Define the parts of the potential solution subject to compliance requirements, the scope of the compliance requirement,
and the stakeholders responsible for reviewing, approving, and signing off on compliance of the component
 Track and manage the review and approval activities related to compliance requirements
 Track and manage the risks and risk responses related to compliance requirements

Escalation Procedures
• When noncompliance issue is identified, determine if it’s within the tolerance level for the project manager to handle.
o If yes, the project manager and team work together to propose a resolution.
o If beyond the tolerance level, then escalate the issue for adjudication.

• For all compliance requirements, identify the stakeholder responsible for reviewing the noncompliance issue and determine how the team
will proceed.
• These procedures should be defined during project and risk planning.

324
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Guidelines to Analyze the Consequences of Noncompliance

• To identify and manage legal, regulatory, and other compliance requirements, the project manager needs to:
• Define the legal, regulatory, and other constraints, and define the business rules that constrain the project solution
and improve the likelihood of compliance.
• Define parts of the potential solution subject to compliance requirements, the scope of the compliance
requirement, and the stakeholders responsible for reviewing, approving, and signing-off on the component’s
compliance.
• Track and manage the review and approval activities related to compliance requirements.
• Track and manage the risks and risk responses related to compliance requirements.

325
This page is intentionally left blank to match the printed book.
Define activities and prepare Lesson
your schedule 06

Project schedule* An output of a schedule model that presents linked activities with planned dates,
durations, milestones, and resources.
• Includes starting and finishing activities on specific dates and in a
certain sequence.
• Specifies planned dates for meeting project milestones.
• Coordinate activities to form a master plan in order to complete the
project objectives on time.
• Tracks schedule performance and keeps upper management and
project stakeholders informed about the project's status.

Schedule management plan* A component of the project or program

management plan that establishes the criteria and the activities for
developing, monitoring, and controlling the schedule.
• It’s a part of the high-level project plan
• Describes how activities will be defined and Identifies a scheduling method and scheduling tool to be used.
• Determines the format of the schedule and Establishes criteria for developing and controlling the project schedule.

327
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Schedule in Agile Projects

• Although a final completion date may be scheduled in an agile/ adaptive approach, activities that occur
throughout the project tend to use iterative scheduling with a backlog or on-demand scheduling.
• This allows priorities to be adjusted as the project environment evolves.
• The agile approach uses short cycles for work, review, adaptations, or adjustments.
• Rapid feedback about the approach and deliverables received becomes the basis for iterative scheduling and on-
demand, pull-based scheduling.
• The On-Demand Scheduling method does not use traditional schedules at all, but rather has team members 'pull'
work from a queue as their availability allows.
• Based on Kanban and Lean methodologies, the On-Demand Scheduling approach also provides incremental
business value, while leveling out the work of the team members.
• It works best when work can be divided into relatively equal amounts but does not work well with activities that
have complex dependency relationships.

328
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Schedule in Agile Projects

Iterative Scheduling with a Backlog On-Demand Scheduling

• Progressive elaboration (rolling wave) techniques • Does not use traditional schedules
used to schedule activities
• Team members “pull” work from a queue when
• Uses a specific time window, often two weeks available
• Requirements defined in user stories • Based on Kanban and Lean methodologies
• Stories prioritized • Provides incremental business value
• Selected based on priority and time box • Levels out work of team members
• Remaining stories added to backlog • Works best when activities can be divided into
equal amounts
• Constructed later based on their priority
• Does not work well when there are complex
• Delivers business value early and incrementally dependency relationships
• Allows changes/adaptations during entire project
• Does not work well when there are complex
dependency relationships

329
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Enablers to Prepare Schedule

• Estimate project tasks (milestones, dependencies, story points). (ECO 2.6.1)
• Utilize benchmarks and historical data. (ECO 2.6.2)
• Prepare schedule based on methodology. (ECO 2.6.3)
• Measure ongoing progress based on methodology. (ECO 2.6.4)
• Modify schedule, as needed, based on methodology. (ECO 2.6.5)
• Coordinate with other projects and other operations. (ECO 2.6.6)

Benchmarks and Historical Data

• Learning from the past is a key consideration for project planning. Utilizing benchmarking and historical data allows
you to make decisions grounded in data and lessons learned.
• Benchmarking in scheduling is the comparison of a project schedule with a schedule for a similar product or service
produced elsewhere.
• Benchmarks can be useful in the initial stage of scheduling to help assess the feasibility of a project.
• Historical data can come from other projects completed within an organization for which detailed information is
available.
• Historical data provides a good “starting point” for how long something should take prior to detailed analysis.

330
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Estimate Tasks
• Activity* A distinct, scheduled portion of work performed during the course of a project.
 In general, the terms activities, work packages, and tasks might be used interchangeably.
 In this project management environment, each has a distinct meaning:
 A work package is the lowest level of the WBS.
 An activity is a smaller component of a decomposed work package. 5

4
 A task is used when referring to project management software.
3
• Milestone* A significant point or event in a project, program, or portfolio.
2
• Familiarize yourself with how to define task guidelines. In order to
understand how long each task in the project should last, you need a 1
comprehensive view of the work ahead and its context.
• Work Packages: Work packages are defined as the smallest elements from
the work breakdown structure. Each work package is a deliverable within the
full project.

331
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Estimate Tasks
• Features
 Used to group related functionality together to deliver business value.
 Activities and efforts, such as documentation, bug fixes, testing, and quality/defect repairs.
 Delivers the capability that can be estimated, tracked, and managed as a set.
 Scheduling aligned to features ensures associated work is coordinated.
 Estimating features offers a view of when blocks of functionality can be released to the business and end
users.
 Progress can be measured based on the features that have been accepted compared to features remaining.

332
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Estimate Tasks
• Activity Dependency
 An activity dependency is a logical relationship that exists between two project activities.
 Relationship indicates whether the start of an activity is contingent on an event or input from outside the
activity.
 Activity dependencies determine the precedence relationships.
 Example: Designing room layouts.
• Architect needs to assess the functionality of his room design.
• Assessment cannot start until workers finish framing the walls, windows, and roof.
• After structure is in place, then architect can reassess design plans to determine if modifications are necessary.

 Precedence relationship* A logical dependency used in the precedence diagramming methods.

• The logical relationship between activities that describes the sequence in which the activities should be carried out.
• Each activity has start and finish dates.
• Precedence relationships are always assigned to activities based on the dependencies of each activity:
o Predecessor activity drives the relationship, and most often, occurs first.
o Successor activity is driven by the relationship.

333
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Estimate Tasks
Types of Activity Dependencies Types of Precedence Relationships

Mandatory*

• A relationship that is contractually required or inherent in the

nature of the work.

Discretionary*

• A relationship that is established based on knowledge of best

practices within a particular application area or an aspect of
the project where a specific sequence is desired.

External*

• A relationship between project activities and non-project

activities.

Internal

• Contingent on inputs within the project team’s control.

334
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Estimate Tasks

Guidelines for Estimating Project Activities Guidelines to Sequence Project Activities

• Review the schedule management plan. • Review the schedule management plan for information
on the scheduling method and tool, and information on
• Review the scope baseline for the WBS, deliverables, how activities may be sequenced.
assumptions, and constraints.
• Review the activity list for all project schedule activities.
• Review the EEFs.
• Review the activity attributes for each activity.
• Review the OPAs. • Review the milestone list for the dates for specific
• Analyze and decompose each work package of the schedule milestone events.
WBS into activities that will be required to produce the • Review the project scope statement.
deliverable.
• Review the EEFs.
• Consult SMEs about unfamiliar material. • Review the OPAs.
• Evaluate all constraints and assumptions for their • Use tools and techniques such as PDM, dependency
possible impact on activity definition. determination, and leads and lags to develop the project
• Once you have decomposed each work package into schedule network diagram.
activities, evaluate your activity list. • Document the project schedule network diagram and
update any project documents, as needed.

335
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Estimate Tasks
• Activity Duration Estimates
 Activity duration estimate* The quantitative assessment of the likely number of time periods that are
required to complete an activity.
 Elapsed time: The actual calendar time required for an activity from start to finish.
 Effort* The number of labor units required to complete a scheduled activity or WBS component, often
expressed in hours, days, or weeks. Contrast with duration.
 Estimating time on a project using agile versus traditional practices can be quite different.
 Estimating Tools including top-down, planning poker, and affinity grouping.
 Using a 'bottom-up' versus a 'top-down' approach can yield better results, depending on your chosen
methodology. Each approach uses tools for implementation.
 Story Points: Story points are used in agile practice to estimate the amount of time it will take to complete a
story item from the project backlog.

336
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Estimate Tasks
• Guidelines to Estimate Activity Durations
 Involve the work package owners or others who are very familiar with the work of the activity.
 Consult lessons learned and historical information.
 Review the schedule management plan.
 Determine how you want to quantify the work that needs to be done.
 Consider resource requirements and capabilities.
 Review the resource requirements for each activity.
 Check the resource calendars for when resources are available.
 Consider interactions with other projects or operations.
 Review the project scope statement for assumptions and constraints.
 Review the risk register to consider any risks that may affect resource estimation.
 Review the resource breakdown structure of resources listed by category and type.
 Use tools and techniques.
 Document the activity duration estimates.

337
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Schedule Presentation Formats

Gantt Chart Milestone Chart

Project Schedule
Network Diagram
with Dates
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

338
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Schedule Presentation Formats

1. Gantt chart* A bar chart of schedule information where activities are listed on the vertical axis, dates
are shown on the horizontal axis, and the activity durations are shown as horizontal bars placed
according to start and finish dates.
• Shows start and end dates, duration, and order.
• Shows precedence relationships.
• Shows percentage completion and actual progress.
• Used to present project status to the project team and
management.

These definitions are taken from the Glossary of Project Management Institute, A Guide to the
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management
Institute Inc., 2017.

339
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Schedule Presentation Formats

2. Milestone Chart
• Provides the summary level view of a project’s milestones.
• Uses icons or symbols.
• Useful for upper management, who are not interested in fine details.

340
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Schedule Presentation Formats

3. Project Schedule Network Diagram
with Dates
• Assigns start and finish dates to activities.
• Communicates the project status in terms of activity 7 Mar 13 Mar 13 Mar 25 Mar 25 Mar 13 Apr
ES 4.2.3 EF ES EF ES EF
precedence relationships. 25 29 29
4.2.4
37 37
4.2.5
50

Activity C Activity D Activity E

LS DU LF LS DU LF LS DU LF
36 4 40 40 8 48 48 13 61

TF = 11 TF = 11 TF = 11
3 Feb 14 Feb 14 Feb 7 Mar 28 Apr 6 May
ES 4.2.1 EF ES 4.2.2 EF ES 4.2.8 EF
0 10 10 25 61 66

Activity A Activity B Activity H

LS DU LF LS DU LF LS DU LF
0 10 10 10 15 25 61 5 66

TF = 0 TF = 0 7 Mar 31 Mar 10 Apr 28 Apr TF = 0

ES 4.2.6 EF ES 4.2.7 EF
25 41 49 61
FS 8
Activity F Activity G
LS DU LF LS DU LF
25 16 41 49 12 61

TF = 0 TF = 0

341
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Schedule Presentation Formats

3. Project Schedule Network Diagram with Dates

• Critical path* The sequence of activities that represents the longest path through a project, which
determines the shortest possible duration
Activity 2 Activity 4
4 weeks 3 weeks

Activity 1 Activity 6
Start Finish
6 weeks 1 week

Activity 3 Activity 5
5 weeks 4 weeks

1[6w] + 2[4w] + 4[3w] + 6[1w] = 14 weeks

These definitions are taken from the Glossary of Project Management Institute, A
Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth 1[6w] + 3[5w] + 5[4w] + 6[1w] = 16 weeks Critical Path
Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017.

342
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Schedule Presentation Formats

3. Project Schedule Network Diagram with Dates
• Critical path activity* Any activity on the critical path in a project schedule.
ES 4.2.3 EF ES 4.2.4 EF ES 4.2.5 EF
25 29 29 37 37 50

Total float of zero. Activity C Activity D Activity E

(ES = LS and EF = LF) LS

36
DU
4
LF
40
LS
40
DU
8
LF
48
LS
48
DU
13
LF
61

TF = 11 TF = 11 TF = 11
FF = 0 FF = 0 FF = 11
ES 4.2.1 EF ES 4.2.2 EF ES 4.2.8 EF
0 10 10 25 61 66
Critical activities:
Activity A Activity B Activity H
LS DU LF LS DU LF A, B, F, G and H LS DU LF
0 10 10 10 15 25 61 5 66

TF = 0 TF = 0 TF = 0
FF = 0 FF = 0 FF = 0
ES 4.2.6 EF ES 4.2.7 EF
25 41 49 61
FS 8
These definitions are taken from the Glossary of Project Management Institute, A Activity F Activity G
Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth
LS DU LF LS DU LF
Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017.
25 16 41 49 12 61

TF = 0 TF = 0
FF = 0 FF = 0

343
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Schedule Presentation Formats

3. Project Schedule Network Diagram with Dates

• Float: The amount of time an activity can be delayed from its ES without delaying the project finish date or
the consecutive activities.

Activity 2 Activity 4
4 weeks 3 weeks

2 weeks
float
Activity 1 Activity 6
Start Finish
6 weeks 1 week

Activity 3 Activity 5
5 weeks 4 weeks

344
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Schedule Presentation Formats

3. Project Schedule Network Diagram with Dates

• Total float* The amount of time that a

ES 4.2.3 EF ES 4.2.4 EF ES 4.2.5 EF
schedule activity can be delayed or extended 25 29 29 37 37 50

Activity C Activity D Activity E

from its early start date without delaying the LS DU LF LS DU LF LS DU LF
36 4 40 40 8 48 48 13 61

project finish date or violating a schedule TF = 11 TF = 11 TF = 11

constraint. ES 4.2.1 EF ES 4.2.2 EF ES 4.2.8 EF

0 10 10 25 61 66

Activity A Activity B Activity H

LS DU LF LS DU LF LS DU LF
0 10 10 10 15 25 61 5 66

TF = 0 TF = 0 TF = 0
ES 4.2.6 EF ES 4.2.7 EF
25 41 49 61
FS 8
Activity F Activity G
These definitions are taken from the Glossary of Project Management Institute, A LS DU LF LS DU LF
Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth 25 16 41 49 12 61
Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017.
TF = 0 TF = 0

345
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Schedule Presentation Formats

3. Project Schedule Network Diagram with Dates
ES 4.2.3 EF ES EF ES EF
• Free float* The amount of time that a 25 29 29
4.2.4
37 37
4.2.5
50

Activity C Activity D Activity E

schedule activity can be delayed without LS DU LF LS DU LF LS DU LF
36 4 40 40 8 48 48 13 61
delaying the early start date of any TF = 11 TF = 11 TF = 11
FF = 0 FF = 0 FF = 11
successor or violating a schedule ES 4.2.1 EF ES 4.2.2 EF ES 4.2.8 EF
0 10 10 25 61 66
Activity H’s ES (61) – Activity E’s EF (50) = 11
constraint. Activity A Activity B Activity H
LS DU LF LS DU LF
Free Float for Activity E = 11 LS DU LF
0 10 10 10 15 25 61 5 66

TF = 0 TF = 0 TF = 0
FF = 0 FF = 0 FF = 0
ES 4.2.6 EF ES 4.2.7 EF
25 41 49 61
FS 8
Activity F Activity G
LS DU LF LS DU LF
These definitions are taken from the Glossary of Project Management Institute, A Guide to the 25 16 41 49 12 61
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management
Institute Inc., 2017. TF = 0 TF = 0
FF = 0 FF = 0

346
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Schedule Presentation Formats

3. Project Schedule Network Diagram with Dates

• Agile Release Planning

347
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Schedule Presentation Formats

3. Project Schedule Network Diagram with Dates
• Ongoing Progress Based on Methodology
 Measuring the project’s progress with respect to the schedule consists of:
o Monitoring the status of the project to update the project schedule.
o Managing changes to the schedule baseline.

 In an agile approach, evaluate progress by:

o Compare the total amount of work delivered and accepted to the estimate of the work to be completed for the
current time period.
o Review completed work in regular Sprint demos.
o Conduct scheduled reviews to record lessons learned (or retrospectives).
o Determine the rate at which deliverables are produced, validated, and accepted.

• Coordination with Other Products

 If the project is part of a program or a portfolio, the schedule status of the project should be evaluated for any effect
it has on the other components of the program or portfolio.
 In some situations, a delay (or acceleration) of a project may not impact other projects.
 However, if the delay or acceleration is caused by activities on the project’s critical path and that project is critical to
the schedule of other projects, the overall effect can be significant.

348
Secure your project needs Lesson
from resources 07

Resource & Procurement Management Processes

Plan Resource
includes Estimate Activity Make Plan Procurement
Planning procurement Resource /Buy (Detailed Plan)
strategy

Acquire Resource Develop Team For your exam, you

Executing should know that
Manage Team schedule, cost, and
Cond. Procurement resource management
are closely related.

Control Resource
M&C Work Performance info and Report
Control Procurement

349
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Estimate Activity Resource

• Estimate Activity Resources is the process of estimating team resources and the type and quantities of materials,
equipment, and supplies necessary to perform project work.
• Once you have defined the activities, you’ll need to think through what resources you’ll need to do the activities. you
need information about what resources you can use for various activities, and when they’re available to you.
• The output of this process is Resource Requirements (no. of required labors/developers/implementers per activity and
total of labors of the project – no. of required equipment - list of required materials with type and quantities – and any
other required facilities)
• Expert judgment means bringing in experts who have done this sort of work before and getting their opinions on what
resources are needed.
• Resource calendars help you identify when and how long a specific resource is available for your project. They are very
useful when resources are shared with other projects. The resource calendar includes human resources, equipment,
consumables, etc.
• Data analysis is one of the T&T used in this process, alternatives identification enables you to determine whether there
are alternative resources for the activities.
• Project Management Information System like Microsoft Project will often have features designed to help project
managers play around with resources and constraints and find the best combination of assignments for the project.

350
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Make or Buy Analysis

• During Estimate Activity Resource Process, you will have a clear picture of the required resources for your project. after
checking the resource availability with functional departments and sponsor.
• Make-or-buy analysis* The process of gathering and organizing data about product requirements and analyzing them
against available alternatives including the purchase or internal manufacture of the product.
• Make-or-Buy Analysis considerations:
 What is the impact on cost, time, or quality?
 Is there an on-going need for the specific skill set?
 How steep is the learning curve?
 Are required resources readily available within the organization?
 Cost—Benefit Analysis (financial justification)
• Cost—Benefit Analysis: You will need to analyze “whether it’s more cost-effective to buy the products/services, or to
obtain them internally”.
• Make or Buy is a general management decision and should conclude with a justified decision to do one or the other.
• The output of make or buy analysis is Make-or-buy decisions* Decisions made regarding the external purchase or
internal manufacture of a product. These decisions will specify which resources will be from the internal assets of the
organization and the procurement items which will be obtained from outside the organization.

351
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Plan Procurement
.. Once the make-or-buy analysis is complete and the decision is made to acquire from outside the project, a detailed procurement
management plan should be prepared as follows:

 Evaluating the Market Conditions  Selecting a contract type for each procurement.
 Creating a procurement management plan.  Creating the procurement documents / Bid documents
 Creating a procurement statement of work for each procurement.  Determining the source selection criteria.

1 Evaluating the Market Conditions

An evaluation of the marketplace is needed to determine what products/services are available and from whom and on
what terms and conditions they are available. The following are three specific terms to know for the PMP exam that you
may encounter:

Sole source: Only one qualified seller exists Single source: The performing organization prefers to contract
in the marketplace. with a specific seller.

Oligopoly: There are very few sellers, and the actions of one seller will have a direct effect on the other sellers’
prices and the overall market condition.

352
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Plan Procurement 2 Create the procurement management plan

• Procurement Management Plan* A component of the project or program management plan that describes how a project
team will acquire goods and services from outside of the performing organization.
• Specifies the types of contracts that will be used
• Describes the process for obtaining and evaluating bids. Documents whether international competitive bidding, local
bidding, etc., should be done.
• Mandates the standardized procurement documents that must be used
• Describes how multiple providers will be managed
• Describes Stakeholder roles and responsibilities related to procurement, specially when the performing organization has a
procurement department.
• Describes How procurement will be coordinated with other project aspects.
• Identifies Risks, Constraints and assumptions that could affect planned procurements;
• Identifies requirements for performance bonds or insurance contracts; and The legal jurisdiction and the currency in which
payments will be made;
• Describes Qualified Vendors: Vendors approved to deliver products/services based on the procurement requirements identified
for a project. The list of qualified vendors can be created based on historical information about different vendors. If the required
resources are new to the organization, market research can help identify qualified resources.

353
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Plan Procurement
3 Creating A Procurement Statement Of Work
• Procurement SOW* describes the procurement item in sufficient detail to allow prospective sellers to determine if they are
capable of providing the products, services, or results.
• Distributed to potential vendors to evaluate their capability to perform the work or provide the services.
• Serves as a basis to develop the procurement documents during the solicitation process.
• A project scope baseline is used to create the procurement SOW.

4 Creating Procurement Documents/Bid Documents

Bid documents are used to solicit proposals from prospective sellers. These documents include a description of the desired form
of the response, the relevant procurement SOW, and any required contractual provisions.

5 Determining the source selection criteria

Source selection criteria* A set of attributes desired by the buyer which a seller is required to meet or exceed to be selected for a
contract. The source selection criteria may include but are not limited to:
 Delivery dates;  Specific relevant experience;
 Technical expertise and approach;  Financial stability of the firm;
 The proposed approach and work plan.  Management experience.

354
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Plan Procurement
6 Selecting a Contract Type

Fixed Used for acquiring goods or services Cost-

Price with well-defined specifications or Reimbursable Used when the work is uncertain
Contracts requirements contracts

Firm Fixed Price (FFP), e.g. $1.2 million

Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF), e.g. the contract states
Fixed Price Incentive Fee (FPIF), e.g. the $1.2 million cost plus fee as 10% of cost
contract states $1.2 million plus $1000 for every
Cost Plus Incentive Fee (CPIF), e.g. the contract
month IF seller performance exceeds target
states $1.2 million cost plus additional fee based on performance
Fixed Price with Economic Price Adjustment
Cost Plus Award Fee (CPAF), e.g. the contract states $1.2 million cost
(FPEPA), e.g. the contract states $1.2 million plus
plus additional fee based on manager´s satisfaction
additional pricing based on exchange rate

Used when the level of effort cannot be

Time and Material
defined at the time the contract is
Contracts (T&M)
awarded

T&M, e.g. the contract states $1,000 per day plus material cost

355
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Plan Procurement
Guidelines to Manage Suppliers and Contracts
• Index and store all contract correspondence for ease of retrieval.
• Develop and implement an effective contract change control system.
• Evaluate the risk of each contract change request.
• Document all contract changes and incorporate any effects of the changes into the project plan.
• Develop and implement an effective performance reporting system for the seller.
• In the contract, specify any performance reporting specifications to be imposed on the seller.
• Set performance milestones to monitor project progress.
• If work is performed at another site, conduct site visits to determine how the seller’s work is progressing.
• Submit approved invoices for payment in accordance with the contract and the project’s payment system.

356
Lesson
Determine your budget
08

Cost Estimates
• Developing an approximation of the cost for each activity in a project.
• Cost should include: Costs Can be Estimated using the
Create same techniques used in Schedule
o Direct labor WBS Management.
o Materials
Define
o Equipment Activities
o Facilities Estimate
Activity
o Services Resources Estimate
o Information technology Activity
o Contingency reserves Durations
Develop
o Indirect costs Schedule
• Logical estimates provide basis for making sound decisions and they establish Estimate Costs
baselines.
It’s sometimes risky to use just one cost estimate for a project’s activity, especially when the work hasn’t been completed before.
And like any project work, you don’t know how much it’s really going to cost until you pay for it.
Learning curve: The cost per unit decreases the more units workers complete, because workers learn as they complete the required
work and perform the tasks more quickly and efficiently.

357
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Cost Estimates
Cost Estimating Techniques
Analogous Estimating
Previous
New
similar
Project
project

Parametric Estimating

New
Project

Regression analysis: It is one of the Parametric Estimate types, This statistical approach predicts what future values may
be, based on historical values.

Three Point Estimates

Optimistic
New
Realistic Project
Pessimistic

358
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Cost Estimates

Bottom-up Estimating

New
Project

Note:Note:
Lessons-learned registers
Lessons-learned contain
registers valuable
contain cost-estimating
valuable information—both
cost-estimating information—bothsuccesses
successes and
and shortcomings.
shortcomings.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages and Disadvantages ofof Estimating
Estimating Techniques
Techniques

Technique Advantage Disadvantage

Analogous Can ensure no work is inadvertently omitted Can sometimes be difficult for lower-level
estimating from work estimates. managers to apportion cost estimates.
Bottom-up Is very accurate and gives lower-level May be very time consuming and can be used
estimating managers more responsibility. only after the WBS has been well-defined.
Parametric May be inaccurate, depending on the integrity of
Is not time consuming.
estimating the historical information used.

359
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Cost Estimates
Accuracy:
Accuracy: (-25% to +75%)
The Estimating Funnel & How Is Estimating Done?
(-5% to +10%)

…an estimate is an approximate calculation…

Rough
Order of
Definitive Magnitude
estimate

Estimate Type Accuracy Range Phased

estimate
Rough Order of Magnitude -25% to + 75%
Budget Estimate -10% to + 25%
Definitive Estimate -5% to +10%
Project Cost
Project Governance
• As applied to cost estimates, it is managing project phases.
• A different type of cost estimate and level of accuracy may be required for different phases of the project life cycle.
• A cost estimating method might be chosen due to: Software availability, Team member experience, Project life cycle phase,
Time constraints, Project definition, Personal preference

360
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Cost Estimates

Guidelines to Estimate Costs

• Gather cost figures that go into the cost estimates for individual work packages.
• Check with the resource supplier to make sure no incorrect assumptions have been made.
• Gather any relevant input information that may help you prepare the estimates.
• Determine which estimating technique to use.
• Look for alternative costing options.
• Determine the units of measure that will be used.
• Consider possible risks that may impact cost.
• Ensure that all cost estimates are assigned to the appropriate account.
• Make sure estimates include costs for resources, level of estimate, and a list of assumptions.

361
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Budget Estimates
• Estimating the project budget consists of aggregating the estimated costs of individual activities or work packages to establish
an authorized cost baseline.
• This budget contains all the funding needed to complete the project as defined in the scope and the project schedule.
• The project cost performance is then measured against this cost baseline.
• Cost baseline* The approved version of the time-phased project budget, excluding any management reserves, which can be
changed only through formal change control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results.

Budget Challenges
• Projects do not exist in a perfect world and the following can pose a challenge to the project manager:
o New or changed project requirements.
o New risks, or changes to the probabilities or impacts of existing risks.
o Changes to cost estimates resulting from economic factors, procurement contract modifications, resource costs, etc.
• When any of these things occur, one or more of the following must change:
o The project cost/budget.
o The project schedule/ scope.
• If the budget remains fixed and additional funds are not available, then the project must change.

362
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Budget Estimates
Contract Price
Cost Budget
Margin

Management Reserve
Contract Budget

Cost Baseline
Project Manager Cost Baseline Management Reserve
Authority Level
Contingency Reserve

Project
Distributed Undistributed Management
Budget Budget Reserve
Control Account Contingency
Reserve
Project
Work packages Budget
Contingency Reserves are reserves attributed to identified Cost Baseline
project risks, also referred to as “known-unknowns Work package
Activities cost

Management Reserves are meant to address unforeseen

risks, also referred to as “unknown-unknowns”.

363
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Budget Estimates

Project Funding Requirements

• Total funding requirements and periodic
funding requirements (e.g., quarterly,
annually) are derived from the cost
baseline.
• The cost baseline will include projected
expenditures plus anticipated liabilities.
• Funding often occurs in incremental
amounts, and may not be evenly
distributed, which appear as steps.
• The total funds required are those
included in the cost baseline plus
management reserves.

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute,
Inc., 2017, Page 255.

364
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Funding Limit Reconciliation

Funding limit reconciliation* The process of comparing You didn’t tell before. I need fund for
I don’t have now the project
the planned expenditure of project funds against any
limits on the commitment of funds for the project to
identify any variances between the funding limits and No
the planned expenditures. Money……No

• The expenditure of funds should be reconciled with any

funding limits on the commitment of funds for the project.

• Funding Limit Reconciliation to ensure that you stay within the Sponsor Project Manager
budget set by your sponsor throughout the project.

• A variance between the funding limits and the planned

expenditures will sometimes necessitate the rescheduling of
work to level out the rate of expenditures.

365
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Budget Estimates
Guidelines for Estimating the Cost Baseline
• Gather the inputs you will need to establish the baseline, such as the WBS, the project schedule, the cost estimates, and the
risk management plan.
• Use the project schedule to determine when activities will take place.
• Use one of the methods for assigning costs to allocate funds for each activity or work package for the time period in which it
will take place.
• Consider adding a contingency reserve to accommodate the risk of incurring extra expenses.
• Avoid adding contingency reserves for small one-time miniscule amounts.
• Total the costs for each time period. Plot the costs for each period on a chart to create an S-curve of the baseline.
• Publish and distribute the cost baseline to the appropriate project stakeholders.
Guidelines to Anticipate Future Budget Challenges
• Keep stakeholder register current and be aware of changes to project requirements if new stakeholders are added to the
project.
• Monitor risks frequently to look for new risks and changes to existing ones.
• Monitor the performance of suppliers and vendors.
• Monitor all changes to the project and follow the Change Management System to try to keep them within budget.

366
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Budget Estimates
Guidelines to Determine a Budget
• Review the cost management plan.
• Review the human resource management plan.
• Review the scope baseline for project scope statement, WBS, and WBS dictionary.
• Check the project schedule for type, quantity, and duration of resources.
• Review the risk register to consider any risks that may impact cost estimation.
• Review the EEFs.
• Review the OPAs.
• Use appropriate tools and techniques.
• Document the project budget, creating a cost baseline.
• Understand project funding requirements or cash flow to enable the project.
• Update project documents, as needed.

367
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Completed Costs Per Week

368
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Completed S-Curve Graph

$ (K)

Weeks

369
This page is intentionally left blank to match the printed book.
Lesson
Develop detailed communication plan
09

Communication Management Plan

• The purpose of the Communications Management Plan is to define the communication requirements for the project and how
information will be distributed. The Communications Management Plan defines the following:
 What information will be communicated—to include the level of detail and format
 How the information will be communicated—in meetings, email, telephone, web portal, etc.
 When information will be distributed—the frequency of project communications both formal and informal
 Who is responsible for communicating project information
 Communication requirements for all project stakeholders
 What resources the project allocates for communication
 How any sensitive or confidential information is communicated and who must authorize this
 How changes in communication or the communication process are managed
 The flow of project communications
 Any constraints, internal or external, which affect project communications
 Any standard templates, formats, or documents the project must use for communicating
 An escalation process for resolving any communication-based conflicts or issues

• This Communications Management Plan sets the communications framework for the project and will be created during the
detailed planning stage.

371
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Communication Management Plan

• It will serve as a guide for communications throughout the life of the project and will be updated as communication
needs change.
• This plan identifies and defines the roles of persons involved in this project. A project team directory is included to
provide contact information for all stakeholders directly involved in the project.
• It also includes a communications matrix which maps the communication requirements of this project.
• An in-depth guide for conducting meetings details both the communications rules and how the meetings will be
conducted, ensuring successful meetings.
• The Communications Management Plan includes:

372
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Stakeholder Communication Requirements

• As part of identifying all project stakeholders, the project manager will communicate with each stakeholder in order to
determine their preferred frequency and method of communication.
• This feedback will be maintained by the project manager in the project’s Stakeholder Information Needs Register
attached with this document.
• Standard project communications will occur in accordance with the Communication Matrix; however, depending on the
identified stakeholder communication requirements, individual communication is acceptable and within the constraints
outlined for this project.
• In addition to identifying communication preferences, stakeholder communication requirements must identify the
project’s communication channels and ensure that stakeholders have access to these channels.
• Once all stakeholders have been identified and communication requirements are established, the project team will
maintain this information in the project’s Stakeholder Information Needs Register and use this, along with the project
communication matrix as the basis for all communications.

373
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Guidelines to Determine Critical Information Requirements

• Review the project stakeholders identified for the project.
• Review and update the communication needs and expectations for each stakeholder.
• Determine the primary points in the project that have the most touchpoints or stakeholders affected.
• Evaluate those project points for the information contained.
• Assess whether that information is best communicated to stakeholders.
• Examine smaller points around the primary points to assess their value to stakeholders.
• Prioritize the points of information needs.
• Agree as a group or with the impacted stakeholders a cutoff line between the most business-critical information
and those less critical.
• Set those at higher priorities to be critical information requirements.
• Review and update these requirements regularly.

374
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Communication Method

Push Communication is when information is sent to specific stakeholders who need to receive it (e.g., letters,
1
memos, reports, emails, faxes, voice mails).

Pull Communication requires stakeholders to access information on their own from E posted location (e.g.,
2
website, intranet, a-learning module, information systems, or other databases).

Interactive Communication occurs between multiple stakeholders engaged in a multidirectional exchange of

3 information. This method is the most efficient way to ensure all parties under-stand the information (e.g.,
meetings, phone calls, instant messages, video conferencing).

4 Interpersonal communication. Information is exchanged between individuals, typically face-to-face.

5 Public communication. A single speaker addressing a group of people.

375
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

The Communications Model

The Communications Model describes a formal way of how messages are sent and received - And clarifies the
responsibilities between both the sender and receiver of communications.

Sender’s
Transmit Receivers
Responsibilities Noises Responsibilities
Message
Encode the message —
—
clearly are Decode the
informati
Select a communication barriers message
on is
method that may
sent by Confirm that the
compro
Send the message Sender message was
mise
using the received
Confirm that the message
medium
message was delivery
understood of choice Respond

Encode -> Transmit -> Decode -> Acknowledge -> Feedback

376
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Important Notes - Around 4 questions in exam

• Take Care of below issues which have one solution : Notes:

1. The Sponsor shout you , why you have sent this report • Communication Management plan includes who will
to the Marketing Manager ( It means that you have send and who will receive so you must review the
sent to wrong person) . plan before sending .
2. You sent the Report 3 Times, but the Customer • Communication Management plan includes
informed you that you must send it 4 Times . (Who is frequencies of sending so you must check the Plan
wrong ? you or he ?) . to know the Frequencies of sending .
3. One of Your Project Team do a lot of meeting with the • You must inform your team and agree with them
Sponsor & Customer without informing you . ( What about the Communication plan , who will contact
shall you review and Show him) . who , who will send and who will receive so you
must include it in Communication plan and review
4. you have noticed that the IT Department always late with him and show as well .
the Deliverables and talked to the Responsible then
informed his Manager but still there are delays (What • In case of no response from any parties to your
should you do Next). request so you must go with Escalation Process
which is in communication Plan .

All above Problems have one solution (Communication Management Plan).

377
This page is intentionally left blank to match the printed book.
Lesson
Plan and Manage Project / phase closure
10

Enablers
• Determine criteria to successfully close the project or phase.
• Develop transition planning artifacts.
• Validate readiness for transition (e.g., to operations team or next phase).
• Conclude activities to close out project or phase.

Close Project or Phase

Several important activities occur during closeout:
• The planned work is completed.
• Project or phase information is archived.
• Project team resources are released to pursue other endeavors.

Close Procurements
• Procurements are closed when the contract terms of a procurement have been satisfied by both the buyer and
seller.
• This occurs throughout the life of the project, not during project closure.
• Contracts are not kept open any longer than necessary, to avoid erroneous or unintentional charges against the
contract.

379
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Close Project or Phase Criteria

• Any one of the following events can result in closure:
o The project or phase successfully met its completion objectives.
o The requirements changed during execution to the point where the project is no longer feasible.
o Adequate funding is no longer available to complete the requirements.
o Significant risks are encountered that make the successful completion of the project impossible.
o The organization no longer needs the project deliverables.
• External factors arise that do away with the need for the project. Examples of these factors include:
o Change in laws or regulations.
o Merger or acquisition that affects the organization.
o Global or national economic changes.
Acceptance
• Acceptance criteria: A set of conditions that is required to be met before deliverables are accepted.
• Project deliverables are deemed accepted when certain acceptance criteria have been met.
• These criteria generally refer to some or all of the requirements that were established at the beginning of the project (and
which might have been modified during the project’s life cycle).
• Deliverables that meet these acceptance criteria are formally signed off and approved by the customer or sponsor.

380
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Paymen
ts • Payments made to a supplier or vendor are made in accordance with the terms of the contract between the buyer
and the supplier or vendor.
• Unless a contract is closed at the completion of the project or phase, payment will most likely have been made at
the time of contract closure.
• It should not be delayed until project or phase closure (unless specified in the contract), to avoid the potential for
accidental charges to the contract.

Close-Out
Meetings
• Sessions held at end of project or phase
• Involve:
o Discussing the work
o Reviewing lessons learned

• May include stakeholders, team members, project resources, and customers

381
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Knowledge
Management
• Lessons-learned repository* A store of historical information about lessons learned in projects.
• Knowledge management during project or phase closure consists of finalizing the lessons-learned register, which
is compiled throughout the project life cycle.
• This document should then be added to the lessons-learned repository, which is a database of lessons learned
from multiple projects.

• Lessons-learned register* A project document used to record knowledge gained during a project so that it can
be used in the current project and entered into the lessons-learned repository.
• Considerations:
• Scheduling lessons learned
• Conflict management lessons learned
• Sellers lessons learned
• Customer lessons learned
• Strategic lessons learned
• Tactical lessons learned
• Any other aspects of lessons learned
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

382
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Retrospective
• The close-out meeting in an agile project is called a retrospective.
• Includes the agile team, Product Owner, and key stakeholders.
A retrospective session is most effective when
• Encourages participants to review: everyone on the team is honest about what
o What went well went well, and also what didn't. ...
o What could have been done better

• This assessment includes the work on the product and also:

o Processes
o Level of collaboration inside and outside the agile team
o Other areas that influence the effectiveness of product
delivery
5 Steps To Better Agile Retrospectives
1. Setting the Stage for a Retrospective
Step 1: Set the Stage.
Setting the stage helps people focus on the purpose of the
Step 2: Gather Data. ...
Retrospective, reviews the goal of the conversation and creates
Step 3: Generating Insights. ...
the space where the participants feel comfortable discussing the
topic at hand.
Step 4: Decide What To Do. ...
Step 5: Close The Retrospective.

383
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

2. Gather Data in the Retrospective 4. Decide What to Do:

At this point in the Retrospective, we want to develop a As we draw near the end of our time in the Retrospective,
shared understanding of what transpired during the last the Team will need to select one or two action items that
cycle. It is very important that everyone’s perspective is will make an improvement in the way they work
given an opportunity to be brought forth and considered together. No need to solve world peace here, just
by the entire Team. something that will make everyone’s day-to-day
experience better.
3. Generate Insights:
5. Close:
Now is the time to ask “Why?” and begin to examine
alternatives. The goal of this phase is to see the big Provide a clear, crisp ending to the Retrospective and use
picture, understand root causes, consider new this time to ask the Team how to make the next
possibilities and look for connections between the data Retrospective better. Be sure to thank the Team for their
gathered moments ago. efforts during the Retrospective and the Sprint that just
ended.
Brainstorming Five Whys
• Quiet writing • Cause and effect exercise
• Small groups
• Round robin
• Ask why five times
• Free for all • The goal is to find root cause
Fishbone Analysis
• Also known as a cause and effect diagram
• Also known as an Ishikawa diagram

384
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Transition Planning Artifacts

• Coordination and strategy about how to best deliver and transition the product and other deliverables is needed.
• Releasing and deploying deliverables in the most suitable manner ensures end-user awareness and increases the proper usages
and adoption of outputs.
• Preparation of artifacts includes:
o Training
o Documentation
o Communication
o Support

Transition Readiness
• Releasing, delivering, and deploying the project’s work into an environment that is not ready may negate its value.
• Project teams must examine the readiness of all parties and prepare them for delivery, including:
o End users
o The business
o The physical resources
o The project team
• Most critical in situations where there is an upgrade or improvement to an existing product or service.
• Assess the readiness of all parties, implement the transition plans accordingly, and capture lessons learned for the next release or
project.

385
Creating The Detailed Project Plan

Guidelines to Close a Project or Phase

• Review the project management plan.
• If applicable, use a project termination checklist.
• Gather and organize performance measurement documentation, product documentation, and other
relevant project records.
• Confirm project's products meet compliance requirements.
• Release project resources.
• Update records to ensure that they reflect final specifications.
• Be sure to update the resource pool database to reflect new skills and increased levels of proficiency.
• Analyze project success and effectiveness and document lessons learned.
• Prepare lessons-learned reports and a final project report.
• Obtain project approval and formal project acceptance.
• Archive a complete set of indexed project records.
• Celebrate the success of the project with the team and other stakeholders.

386
EXECUTING THE PROJECT
GETTING THE WORK DONE
This page is intentionally left blank to match the printed book.
Chapter 4
Getting the Work Done

Content
• Aquire Resources and Conduct Procurement.
• Execute Project to Deliver Business Value
• Manage Quality
• Manage Communication
• Engage Stakeholders
• Lead a Team & Manage Conflict
• Ensure Knowledge Transfer to Project Continuity
• Support Team Performance & Apply Emotional
Intell.
• Address and Remove Impediments,
Obstacles, & Blockers
• Manage Risks, Issues and Changes
This page is intentionally left blank to match the printed book.
Aquire Resources & Conduct Lesson
Procurement 01

1. Acquire Resources
Acquire Resources is the process of obtaining team members, facilities, equipment, materials, supplies, and other resources
necessary to complete project work.
The key benefit of this process is that it outlines and guides the selection of resources and assigns them to their respective
activities.
Project Management Plan Acquire Resources Physical Resource Assignments

OPA & EEF Project team assignments

TOOLS
Project Documents Change Request Resource calendars

Virtual Teams refers to a group of individuals Decision making Project Document Updates
who work from different geographic
locations and may rarely meet face-to-face Interpersonal and team skills This process is fully integrated with conduct
with other project team members. procurement process.
Virtual teams Pre-assignment
If resources are not available due to Decision-making techniques that can be used in
constraints the project manager or project Pre-Assignment: When physical or team Acquire Resources process include multi-criteria
team required to assign alternative resources, resources for a project are determined in decision analysis
perhaps with different competencies or costs. advance, they are considered pre-assigned. Failure to acquire the necessary resources for the
The impact of the unavailability of required resources in the project schedule, project budget, project may affect project schedules, budgets,
project quality, and other project management plans should be documented customer satisfaction, quality.

391
Getting the Work Done

2. Conduct Procurement

Client Organisation (Buyer) Performing Organisation

(Seller)
Make decision Part, or all of the Issue
to do the project will be Invitation Make decision to tender
project subcontracted For Bid

Create Procurement Strategy ‘make or buy’ Create an estimated

costed plan for the tender
Selection Criteria is
a set of attributes
desired by the Winning Receive Sellers
buyer which a seller Submit proposal to the Buyer
bid chosen proposals and
is required to meet evaluate them
or exceed to be
“Buyer are also known as clients, customers,
selected for a
prime contractors, acquiring organizations,
contract to procure
Both parties negotiate government agencies, service requestors, or
a good or service.
purchasers”
A contract is an agreement made between two or Seller/Supplier ““An organization, including
more parties that creates legally binding obligations contractors and consultants, which supplies
between them. The contract sets out those obligations Contract signed goods or services”
and the actions that can be taken if they are not met

392
Getting the Work Done

Conduct Procurements is the process of obtaining seller responses, selecting a seller, and awarding a contract

The steps of conduct procurement are:

 Let us assume that three companies, A, B, and C Inc. are included in the qualified seller list. They have been pre-screened
for their qualification and past experience. Advertising and internet searches can help identify more potential sellers, if
required.
 The Procurement Document are then sent to the three qualified sellers.
 The buyer calls for a Bidder Conference to clarify issues related to the SOW prior to the submittal of the proposal.
 After the Bidder Conference, Seller Proposals are created by the sellers and are sent to the buyer.
 To select a seller, be sure that we have Independent Estimate. The procuring organization may elect to either prepare its
own Independent Estimate, or have an estimate prepared by an outside professional estimator. The Independent Estimate
should be prepared in plan procurement process.
 The buyer uses Proposal Evaluation Techniques to select sellers. These techniques involve using our previously defined,
weighted criteria to evaluate seller proposals.

393
Getting the Work Done

Vendor A Vendor B
Vendor A Vendor B
Criteria Weight weighting weighting
score score
factor factor
Technology 5 4 20 5 25
Hardware 3 3 9 4 12 Note:
Support 5 3 15 3 15 Weighting =
Software 4 5 20 4 16 1 to 5
Training 3 2 6 4 12
TOTALS 70 80

 Based on the weighted scores from the selection criteria, and the cost estimates, the buyer should select vendor B.

 After the seller is selected, we should conduct Procurement Negotiations to finalize the contract.
 Procurement Negotiations clarify the structure and requirements of the contract so that mutual agreement can be
reached prior to signing the contract. Procurement Negotiations can be an independent process with inputs and
outputs of its own.

 Finally, the procurement contract or Agreement is awarded to the selected seller. In this context,
 The Agreement can be a simple purchase order or a complex document.
 Termination and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) conditions should be clearly specified in the contract.

394
Getting the Work Done

Negotiation Tactics

“If your organization cannot manage the details of its own operations, perhaps it should
Attacks
get out of the business!”

Personal insults “If you do not understand what you are doing, perhaps you should find another job!”
Good guy/bad guy One person is helpful to the other side, while another is difficult to deal with.
Deadline “We have a flight leaving at 5 p.m. today and must finish negotiations before that time:’
Lying Lying may be obvious or hidden.
“I can’t agree to shorten the schedule by six months. I have only been authorized to offer
Limited authority
three months.” Limited authority statements may or may not be true.

“Only my boss can agree to that request, and he isn’t here. Why don’t we agree to only
Missing man
do __ ? I can agree to that.”
Fair and
“Let’s be fair and reasonable. Accept this offer as it stands:’
reasonable

395
This page is intentionally left blank to match the printed book.
Execute Project to Deliver Lesson
Business Value 02

1. Creating a Culture of Urgency

• Ingrain a sense of urgency in the project environment and culture.
• Establishing and cultivating the appropriate project urgency culture is an ongoing task.
• The project manager can lead the way by articulating the project's importance and vision.
• Everyone involved can commit to and be accountable for striving towards that vision.
• Bringing in the voice of the customer can express the desires and personalize the value.
• The project team can promote the culture in their daily actions, responsiveness, and attentiveness.

2. Examination of Business Value

• Business value* The net quantifiable benefit derived from a business endeavor. The benefit may be tangible,
intangible, or both.
• Determining exactly what is of value requires examination, evaluation, and confirmation.
• Throughout a project, a variety of means for determining what is of value can be used.
• Business value can be: Financial, Improvements, New customers, First to market, Technological.
• The Value-delivery framework which is created during the high-level plan will guide the team to execute this
task.

397
Getting the Work Done

3. Product Roadmaps
• Product Roadmap: Serves as a high-level visual summary of the product or products of the project.
• Objective is to display the strategy and direction of the product being built and value to be delivered.
• Roadmaps start with the overarching vision of the product.
• Over time, the roadmap is progressively elaborated as more information is known, work is being completed
or not completed, and vision is refined.
• Themes, which equate to goals, emerge to provide structure and associations.
• Product roadmaps provide short-term and long-term visualization of the product.
• The vision and the product Roadmap should be prepared by the customer and included in the business case
document.
• During the high level-plan the product roadmap will be refined or created if it is not created before.

398
Getting the Work Done

4. Incremental Delivery
• Provides the means to deliver value sooner rather than later.
• Early and regular incremental releases lead to higher customer value and increased market share.
• Enables the customers to receive parts or elements of the product prior to the full product delivery.
• Allows users and the business to consume the targeted value and provide feedback to the project team.
• Feedback enables adjustments to the direction, priorities, and quality of the product.
• Conversation with stakeholders is required to finding suitable increments.
• Stakeholders receive a usable product with the expectation that additional features and revisions will come.

5. Minimum Viable Product

• MVP: The smallest collection of features that can be included in a product for customers to consider it
functional. In Lean methodologies, it can be referred to as "bare bones" or "no frills" functionality.
• An MVP allows all stakeholders to see and experience some form of project outcomes.
• A tangible output channels target conversations, which generates feedback and ideas.
• MVP provides inspiration to the team and ignites shorter-termed urgency and a sense of accomplishment.

399
Getting the Work Done

6. Minimum Business Increment

• MBI: The smallest amount of value that can be added to a product or service that benefits the business.
• MBI is more viable when an MVP might be disruptive to the users and business.
• MBI works best when:
• The product and functions are understood.
• An incremental increase of value can be pinpointed.
• The delivery of some of that value benefits the business.
• Advantages of MBIs:
• Enables project team to deliver bits of value sooner.
• Helps team validate whether or not improvement has been captured.
• Enables team to incrementally build on that success or pivot as needed.

400
Getting the Work Done

7. Direct & Manage Work in Waterfall Projects

Direct and Manage Project Work is the process of leading and performing the work defined in the project
management plan and implementing approved changes to achieve the project's objectives.
The Direct And Manage Project Work Process Involves:
 Managing people and keeping them engaged in the project,
 Doing the work, improving the processes involved in the work,
 Requesting changes and implementing approved changes.
 It is about being of service to the team to help them get the work completed,
 Ensuring a common understanding of the project among stakeholders to keep everyone focused and informed.
 The project manager needs to do things like facilitate meetings and technical discussions.
 Make sure the stakeholders whose scope was not included in the project understand they will not receive that scope.
 Keep the team and functional managers informed of the next month's schedule,
 Increase efficiency by following the process improvement plan,
 Inform other departments within the organization how the project may affect their work.

401
Getting the Work Done

Direct & Manage Project Work Output

Deliverables
• A deliverable is any unique and verifiable product that is required to be produced to complete a phase, or project.

Work Performance Data

• The raw observations and measurements identified during activities being performed to carry out the project work.
• Data is gathered through work execution and passed to the controlling processes for further analysis.

Issue Log
• The issue log is a project document where all the issues are recorded and tracked.
• The issue log will help the project manager effectively track and manage issues, ensuring that they are investigated and
resolved.
 Data on issues may include:
 Issue type.  Who is assigned to the issue.
 Who raised the issue and when.  Target resolution date.
 Description.  Status.
 Priority.  Final solution

402
Getting the Work Done

8. Doing the Work in Agile Projects

A. Cycles, Timeboxes and Limited WIP
• Cycling the project through similar timeboxes provides progress
measurements from one timebox to the next.
• Lead time is useful to understand cycle time from the first look at
a particular feature to the length of time it took to release it to
the customer.
• Each feature is unique, so its cycle time is unique. However, a product
owner might notice that smaller features have smaller cycle times.
• With time and repeated cycles, the team gains more predictable
measurements that can communicate expectations of cycle times,
throughput, and velocity.
• The work in progress (WIP) limits at the top of each column,
shown in boxes here, allows the team to see how to pull
work across the board.
• When the team has met its WIP limits, the team cannot pull
work from the left into the next column. Instead, the team
works from the right-most full column and asks, “What do
we do as a team to move this work into the next column?”
• The product owner wants to see throughput, so the product
owner creates smaller features or works with the team to do
so.

403
Getting the Work Done

B. Backlog Refinement (Grooming)

• In iteration-based agile, the product owner often works with the team
to prepare some stories for the upcoming iteration during one or more
sessions in the middle of the iteration.
• The purpose of these meetings is to refine enough stories, so the team
understands what the stories are and how large the stories are in
relation to each other.
• There is no consensus on how long the refinement should be. There is
a continuum of:
 Just-in-time refinement for flow-based agile. The team takes the next card off the to-do column and
discusses it.
 Many iteration-based agile teams use a timeboxed 1-hour discussion midway through a 2-week iteration.
(The team selects an iteration duration that provides them frequent-enough feedback.)
 Multiple refinement discussions can be used when the team is new to the product area, or the problem
domain.
• Refinement meetings allow the product owner to present story ideas to the team and for the team to learn about the
potential challenges or problems in the stories.
• If the product owner is unsure of the dependencies, the product owner can request the team to spike the feature in order to
understand the risks.

404
Getting the Work Done

C. Daily Standups
• Teams use standups to micro-commit to each other, uncover problems, and ensure the work flows smoothly through
the team.
• Timebox the standup to no longer than 15 minutes. The team “walks” the Kanban or task board in some way, and
anyone from the team can facilitate the standup.
• In iteration-based agile, everyone answers the following questions in a round-robin fashion:
 What did I complete since the last standup?
 What am I planning to complete between now and the next standup?
 What are my impediments (or risks or problems)?
• Questions like these generate answers that allow the team to self-organize and hold each other accountable for
completing the work they committed to the day before and throughout the iteration.
• Encourage any team member to facilitate the standup instead of a project manager or leader to ensure it does not turn
into a status meeting, but instead is used as a time for the team to self-organize and make commitments to each other.

405
Getting the Work Done

D. Demonstrations/Reviews
• Work in agile project, Iterations help a team create a cadence for delivery and many kinds of feedback. Teams produce
increments of value for delivery and feedback.
• Teams receive feedback about how the product looks and operates through a demo. Demonstrations or reviews are a
necessary part of the agile project ﬂow. the team periodically demonstrates the working product. The product owner
sees the demonstration and accepts or declines stories.
• The demonstration and review helps check progress against the plan and determines if any changes are necessary.
• Encourage the PMO and other interested parties to watch demonstrations so the people deciding on the project
portfolio can see the actual progress.

E. Retrospectives
• Based on the demonstration, relevant stakeholders and the team conduct a retrospective review.
• Retrospectives help the team learn from its previous work on the product and its process. One of the principles
• These sessions also help manage stakeholder engagement by showing increments of work done and discussing future
work and allows issues with the execution approach to be identified and discussed in a timely fashion along with ideas
for improvements.

406
Getting the Work Done

F. Execution Practices That Help Teams Deliver Value

If the team does not pay attention to quality, it will soon become impossible to release anything rapidly. The following
technical practices may help the team to deliver at their maximum speed:

• Continuous integration and Test at all levels.

• Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD). In ATDD, the entire team gets together and discusses the
acceptance criteria for a work product. Consider how to test the work as the team completes chunks of value.
• Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Behavior-Driven Development (BDD). Writing tests before creating the
product actually helps people design and mistake-proof the product.
• Spikes (timeboxed research or experiments). Spikes are useful for learning and may be used in circumstances
when the team needs to learn some critical technical or functional element.

407
Getting the Work Done

Guidelines to Measure Ongoing Progress

• Define value from the customer’s, business, and/or user’s perspective.

• Determine value expectations.
• Set targets and baselines based on expectations.
• Determine metrics that communicate progress towards those value expectations.
• Select one or more means of collecting metric data that is not too cumbersome or time consuming for the team.
• Collect data at a regular interval.
• Present the data of the progress.
• Compare the progress with the baselines and expectations.
• Improve on success or correct areas where progress is not meeting expectations.

408
Lesson
Manage Quality
03

Quality Audits
• Quality audit* A structured, independent process to …to identify ineffective and inefficient processes
and procedures…
determine if project activities comply with organizational
and project policies, processes, and procedures.
Trained Auditors or Third- Regularly scheduled
• Improves quality performance of a project. Party Reviewers or random
• Topics include:
• Quality management policy Quality audits aim to do the following:
• Collection and use of information • Document the best practices the project is using.
• Analytical methods
• Document any variances in the project quality
• Cost of quality
approach.
• Quality process design
• Recommend best practices that should be
Guidelines to Manage Quality implemented in the current project.
• Ensure that random and/or scheduled quality audits are conducted
by qualified auditors • Assist the project manager and project team in
implementing recommendations for quality
• Use one or more of the quality assurance tools and techniques to improvement.
determine the causes of quality problems of the project’s product,
service, systems, or processes • Document the outcomes of the quality audit in
the project’s lessons learned documentation.
• Identify and implement the appropriate actions to take to increase
the effectiveness and efficiency of the project team’s work results

409
Getting the Work Done

Quality Audits
This process uses the quality management plan, Organization Organization Organization
including quality requirements, and analyzes Policies Processes Procedures
measurements gathered in Control Quality to answer
the following questions:
Do the project activities comply with……??
1. Are the quality requirements, organizational
policies, and processes identified in the quality
management plan giving us the results we
intended? Project Project
Project Policies
Processes Procedures
2. Based on what we know now, is the work we
planned the right quality work for this project and
Identify organizational
the right work to meet customer requirements?
improvements that the
3. Are we following the procedures and processes as Perform company should make
planned? Integrated
4. Can the processes and procedures be improved? Change
Control Recommended Changes
5. How can we increase efficiency and prevent
problems?
Correct deficiencies

410
Getting the Work Done

Manage Quality T & T

1- Design for X
➢ Design for X means designing your product to solve a particular problem. You might design a product to be
particularly fast or to use fewer resources, for example.
➢ a set of technical guidelines that may be applied during the design of a product for the optimization of a specific
aspect of the design. .
➢ DfX can control or even improve the product’s final characteristics.
➢ DfX may result in cost reduction, quality improvement, better performance, and customer satisfaction.
➢ By designing to optimize a specific aspect of your product, you might be able to deliver higher value to a customer
than if you had focused only on feature delivery.
2- Document analysis
3- Process analysis: Examines problems, constraints, and non-value-added activities that occur during a process.
4- Root cause analysis (RCA)
 Used to determine the basic underlying reason that causes a variance, defect, or risk.
 Used as a technique for identifying root causes of a problem and solving them.

411
This page is intentionally left blank to match the printed book.
Lesson
Manage Communication
04

• Manage Communications is the process of ensuring timely and appropriate collection, creation, distribution,
storage, retrieval, management, monitoring, and the ultimate disposition of project information.
• The Communications Management Plan is implemented during the Manage Communications process. The
project manager is involved with managing the flow of information by following the Communications Mgt Plan. It
provides opportunities for stakeholders to make requests for further information, clarification, and discussion.
• Manage Communications Process should allow for flexibility in the communications activities.
• This process seeks to ensure that only appropriate project information is provided when communicating.
Information must be in the right format, at the right time, to the right people, and have the right impact.
• A big part of managing communications focuses on performance reporting. This involves pulling together the
information from the work performance reports and communicating it to the appropriate stakeholders in a way
that will make sense to them, as outlined in the communications management plan.

Inputs Outputs
Project Management Plan Project Communications
Manage
Project Documents Communications Project Management Plan update
Work Performance Reports Project Documents update

413
Getting the Work Done

Manage Communication Input

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN PROJECT DOCUMENTS

 Resource management plan.

The resource management plan describes
the communications that are needed for
management of team or physical resources.

 Communications management plan.

The communications management plan
describes how project communications will
be planned, structured, monitored, and
controlled.

 Stakeholder engagement plan.

The stakeholder engagement plan describes
how stakeholders will be engaged through
appropriate communication strategies.

414
Getting the Work Done

Manage Communication Input PERFORMANCE REPORTS

Types of performance reports include:

1.Status Report; Describes the state of
the project overall.
2.Progress Report; A progress report
describes what has been accomplished in
detail.
3.Trend Report; it examines project
results over time to see if
performance is improving or
deteriorating.
4.Forecasting Report; Future project
status and performance.
5.Variance Report; Compares actuals to
baselines
6.Earned Value Report; it integrates
scope, cost, and schedule measures to
assess project performance
7.Lessons Learned ◌Report;
ٍ lessons
learned for future projects

415
Getting the Work Done

Information Radiators
• "Information radiator" is an Agile's umbrella term for highly visible displays of information, including large
charts, graphs, and summaries of project data.
• These tools, sometimes referred to as "visual controls;' are usually displayed in high-traffic areas to maximize
exposure, where they can quickly inform stakeholders about the project's status.
• Information radiators use highly visible charts or graphs that "radiate" information about the project quickly
to anyone who is interested. The sort of data that might be displayed on an information radiator includes:
 The features delivered to date versus the features remaining to be delivered
 Who is working on what
 The features selected for the current iteration
 Velocity and defect metrics
 Retrospective findings
 List of threats and issues
 Story maps
 Burn charts

416
Getting the Work Done

Communicating with Stakeholders

1. Face-to-Face Communication
• The preferred way for stakeholders to communicate is
Effectiveness of Different Communication Channels
through face-to-face (F2F) communications.
• The figure below, which is based on Alistair Cockburn's
model, maps two key factors-interactivity and information
density-for several ways of communicating.
• This concept is important for agile since the interactivity
and information density of a communication method
indicate its power to transfer complex information
efficiently.
• Although agile recommends face-to-face communication
because of its efficiency and high bandwidth, other
communication formats may still be used for specific
purposes on an agile project.

417
Getting the Work Done

Communicating with Stakeholders

2. Two-Way Communication
• The figure below compares this two-way model of collaborative communication to the "dispatching" model traditionally used
in a command-and-control approach to running a project.

• In the traditional top-down dispatching model, instructions

• By comparison, in the collaborative, two-way
for doing the work are communicated down the chain of
communication style used on agile projects, hierarchies are
command to those who actually perform the job.
flatter and feedback from the receiver is expected-in fact, it
• The project manager (PM) tells the team leads (TL) what to
is necessary for the project to reach its goals.
do, and the team leads pass those instructions on to the
team members (TM).

418
Getting the Work Done

Create Project Artifacts

• Project artifact: Any document related to the management of a project. The project team will create and maintain many
artifacts during the life of the project, to allow reconstruction of the history of the project and to benefit other projects.
• Artifacts are living documents and updated to reflect changes in project requirements and scope.

Project artifacts might include: Artifacts unique to agile projects:

o Acceptance Criteria o Product Backlog
o Assumptions o Product Increment
o Business Case o Product Roadmap
o Change Requests o Product Vision Statement
o Constraints o Release Plan
o Lessons learned o Sprint Backlog
o Minutes of status meetings
o Project Charter
o Slide decks
o Requirements
o Scope
o Scope Baseline
o Subsidiary project management plans

419
Getting the Work Done

Create Project Artifacts

• Configuration management: A tool used to manage changes to a product or service being produced as well as changes
to any project documents. Configuration management is used to:
 Control product iterations.
 Ensure that product specifications are current.
 Control the steps for reviewing and approving product prototypes, testing standards, and drawings or blueprints.

• Configuration management system* A collection of procedures used to track project artifacts and monitor and
control changes to these artifacts.

• Version control: A system that records changes to a file in a way that allows you to retrieve previous changes made
to it.
 Each time the file is updated, it is automatically saved and then given a new version number.
 The version control system can contain a date/time stamp and the name of the user who made the changes, thus providing a
digital “paper trail” of the document’s history.
 A robust project management system will contain version control for important artifacts such as the project management
plan, the subsidiary project management plans, the scope, and other documents.

420
Getting the Work Done

Storage/Distribution of Artifacts
• Artifacts should be stored in a location that is accessible to the people who use them.
• The system should be manageable given the complexity of the project—not a cumbersome system that is better suited for a large
project. The system chosen to distribute project artifacts should also be based on the size and complexity of the project.
• Cloud-based document storage and retrieval systems are appropriate for larger projects, especially where team members are
geographically distributed.
• Features of off-the-shelf systems might include:
o Built-in version control.
o Document check-out and check-in.
o User-based document security.
o Automatic email notification to specified users when a document is created or edited.

Feedback
• Communication is a two-way street.
• Feedback can be positive if the message is received and understood as the sender intended.
• Feedback can be negative if the receiver does not understand what the sender intended.
• No feedback provides an implicit acceptance of the message by the receiver.
• Effective feedback should be clear, specific, and offered in a timely manner.

421
Getting the Work Done

Project Artifact Management

• An effective archive management system includes these provisions:
o A way to produce and control documents without unnecessary administrative overhead.
o Standardized formats and templates.
o A structured process for the review and approval of documents.
o Version control and security.
o Timely distribution of documents.

Guidelines to Continually Assess the Effectiveness of Management of Project Artifacts

• Use an appropriate degree of configuration management for your project.
• Follow any organizational procedures regarding project management documentation.
• Develop an archive management system that is of appropriate size and complexity for your project. Pay particular attention to these
issues:
o Types of documents needed and their purpose.
o Templates to facilitate document creation.
o Authors, reviewers, and approvers of documents.

• Implement version control of documents, so you will be able to reconstruct changes and revert to an earlier version if necessary.

422
Getting the Work Done

Guidelines to Effectively Manage Communication throughout the Project

• Gather and distribute contact information for all involved parties.
• Determine the communication needs of project stakeholders.
• As a rule of thumb, project team members require more detail on a more frequent basis. Senior management
typically requires summary information on a less frequent basis.
• Analyze the value to the project of providing the information.
• Evaluate any constraints and assumptions to determine their possible impact on communication planning.
• Determine the appropriate communications technologies to use for communicating project information.
• Make sure your communications management plan includes all key elements.
• Integrate the communications management plan into the overall project plan.
• Distribute the plan to project stakeholders.

423
This page is intentionally left blank to match the printed book.
Lesson
Engage Stakeholders 05

• The PMP exam content outline includes the term "stakeholder engagement." However,, a more appropriate term for this effort
would be "stakeholder stewardship:' The idea of stewardship basically involves comprehensively looking after something that is
worth nurturing, safeguarding, and preserving-in.
• Stakeholder stewardship means looking after everyone on the project and making sure they have everything they need to succeed.
• Stakeholder stewardship includes the initial efforts to identify who the stakeholders are. It's important to identify all the
stakeholders and carefully follow their involvement in the project, because excluding any of them may put the successful execution
of the project at risk.

The Project Manager executes the Stakeholder Management Plan through activities that:

 Engage stakeholders to obtain their continued commitment. As Commitment Increases as Involvement Increases
stakeholders' involvement in the process increases, so too does their
commitment to the outcome, as illustrated below.
 Manage stakeholder expectations through effective negotiation and
Commitment
communication
 Address potential concerns and anticipate problems
 Clarify and resolve identified Issues
Involvement

425
Getting the Work Done

Interaction Between Communication and Stakeholder Managements

When planning communications, 1 5
the following techniques are very
helpful: …analyzing the needs, Then, during execution
interests, and potential implement the communication
1. stakeholder engagement assessment
impact of Key Stakeholders… plan to engage stakeholders
matrix or – a table which shows
current and desired engagement
levels of stakeholders, thereby helps
to identify communication 4
requirements. 2
The Communications
2. Communication styles assessment –
understanding stakeholder …then develop the Management Plan emphasizes
communication styles help in Stakeholder the details about the
tailoring communications for them. Engagement Plan… technology, methods, and
models of communication-the
3 how of communication.
Inspecting The Project Report and Documents
helps to ensure that everyone is adhering to the …in order to effectively manage
stakeholder engagement plan. You’ll also their expectations and increase
establish ground rules in the team charter for their engagement within the
the team to support the stakeholder project, you need the
engagement strategy and treat stakeholders communication plan.
with respect.

426
Getting the Work Done

Keeping Stakeholders Engaged

• An ongoing dialogue with our stakeholders will also help us identify potential risks, defects, and issues.
• Another key reason to keep stakeholders engaged is to ensure we will hear about change requests as soon as possible.
• Agile methods provide multiple touch points with stakeholders and regular communication events designed to facilitate early
and continuous feedback. For example, in Scrum, sprint planning and sprint review meetings act like the bookends to an
iteration, during which the team initiates and incorporates stakeholder feedback. Other agile methods include similar
practices.
• One point to keep in mind when engaging stakeholders in project events is that not all stakeholders can be handled in the
same way. Some people may cause problems and actually be impediments to project progress. In such cases, the
ScrumMaster, project manager, or other designated person needs to use their emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills
to try to understand these stakeholders' concerns and find a positive way to engage them with the project. If this is not
possible, it may be necessary to try and shield the team from their disruptive or corrosive influence.
• Another aspect of stakeholder stewardship is establishing a process for escalating issues that need a high level of authority-to
resolve. Agreement on such a process is essential to keep the project operating smoothly. Then, if the team encounters a
problem or issue that they don't have the authority or influence to resolve, they will be able to follow the established
procedure to quickly escalate it to the appropriate stakeholder for resolution.
• In Agile Projects, during an iteration, we meet with stakeholders, agree on what should be done, do some work, and then
one to four weeks later, we show them what we have developed. One benefit of short iterations is that they prevent
stakeholders from losing interest in the process.

427
Getting the Work Done

Principles of Stakeholder Engagement

• Get the right stakeholders. Projects won't be successful without the right stakeholders, so we should push hard to get
the people we need.
• Cement stakeholder involvement. It is essential for stakeholders to stay engaged with the project, so we need to do all
we can to make stakeholder involvement "stick:’
• Actively manage stakeholder interest. To keep stakeholders engaged, we should add some carrots to the mix. This
means taking actions to recognize and reward stakeholder involvement.
• Frequently discuss what ''done" looks like. This principle is essential if the team hopes to avoid nasty surprises,
mismatched expectations, or poorly accepted products.
• Show progress and capabilities. stakeholders stay engaged and informed about when things will be completed.
• Candidly discuss estimates and projections. By tracking and discussing the features delivered versus the features
remaining, the team and the customer can make important trade-off decisions based upon solid data.

428
Getting the Work Done

Interpersonal and Management Skills To Engage Stakeholders

• Conflict Management is Application of one or more strategies to deal with disagreements
• Leadership to communicate the organization’s vision and inspire the project team to focus on the goals of the project.
• Facilitation to effectively guide a group to a successful solution to a problem.
• Political awareness to keep the project manager aware of the organization’s political environment.
• Networking to facilitate relations among project stakeholders so that knowledge is shared at all levels.
• Cultural Awareness: An understanding of the differences between individuals, groups, and organizations and adapting the project’s
communication strategy in the context of these differences.
• Observation and Conversation: is one of the interpersonal and team skills that provides a direct way of viewing individuals in their
environment and the way they perform their jobs or tasks and carry out processes.
• Other management skills: Ability to present project information, Ability to negotiate with stakeholders & Ability to speak in public
Facilitation
• Project managers generally take the lead when it comes to facilitating project management activities.
• Modeling good project facilitation skills is observed and internalized by all.
• Encouraging participation from stakeholders in the activities builds their knowledge and comprehension.
• Guiding and offering advice provides relevant feedback and confidence in what they are doing.
• Increasing the abilities of all project stakeholders increases the shared understanding and efficiency of project tasks and practices.
• When all contribute, all gain.

429
Getting the Work Done

Guidelines for Facilitating a Meeting

 Ensure meetings are appropriate to the stakeholder’s engagement in the project.
 Set and distribute an agenda prior to the meeting start.
 Start meetings promptly to support a sense of urgency.
 Review the agenda set prior to the meeting and change as stakeholders deem necessary.
 Allow others to speak and share as appropriate.
 Take notes or record the meeting, with permission.
 Keep the meeting discussions on topic. Save off-topic discussions for another time.
 Recap the meeting and any action items to follow the meeting.
 Thank everyone for attending.
 Adjourn the meeting per the scheduled time or earlier.
 Distribute the meeting notes or recording as agreed.
 Pay attention to group behaviors.
 Be relaxed and have a sense of humor to make sure discussions are enjoyable as well as educational.
 Seek consensus with methods like dot voting or fist of five

430
Getting the Work Done

Collaboration
• The Agile Manifesto highlights stakeholder collaboration in both its third value ("Customer collaboration over contract
negotiation") and its fourth principle ("Businesspeople and developers must work together daily throughout the
project").
• Effective collaboration builds trust between all parties.
• Open dialog and meaningful communication optimizes understanding of aims and expectations.
• Everyone’s involvement and engagement levels may fluctuate during project.
• Keep discussions transparent to ensure stakeholders are knowledgeable and expectations are set.
• Leverage communication and interpersonal skills, feedback, and meeting management to maximize feedback loop and
engagement between stakeholders.
• The benefits of collaboration are:
1. Generates wiser decisions through the understanding of complex, cross-boundary problems via shared information
2. Promotes problem solving rather than procedural decision making
3. Fosters action by mobilizing shared resources to get work done
4. Builds social capital by building relationships and understanding
5. Fosters ownership of collective problems by valuing participation and shifting power downwards

431
Getting the Work Done

Collaboration Activities
• Stakeholders collaborate daily in a project.
• Frequency of engagement is based on mutual needs and expectation.
• Determining and optimizing collaboration activities is an ongoing team effort spearheaded by the project manager.
• Activities that encourage regular collaboration include:
o Daily stand-up meetings
o Co-locating teams for face-to-face communication
o Scheduled sessions, such as milestone reviews, backlog grooming sessions, and project update meetings
o Retrospectives are a form of workshop, as are estimating sessions and planning sessions. Workshops should have clear goals
and a schedule that is visible to everyone.
o User story workshop ( also known as "story writing workshop "): The reason for conducting user story workshops is to engage
the key stakeholders. As they work with the development team and discuss the trade-offs and priorities of the work.
o Brainstorming is a collaborative technique in which a group tries to rapidly generate a lot of ideas about a problem or issue.
Project teams can use this approach to help identify options, solve issues, and find ways to improve processes. There are many
different methods that can be used for brainstorming such as: Quiet Writing, Round-Robin, and Free-for-All.
o Collaboration games, also known as innovation games, are facilitated workshop techniques that stakeholders can use to get a
better understanding of complex or ambiguous issues and reach consensus on options and solutions.
o Participatory decision-making: Engaging the project stakeholders in the decision-making process.

432
Getting the Work Done

Brainstorming methods
1. Quiet Writing: With this method, the participants are given five to seven minutes to generate a list of ideas individually
before the group gathers to share their ideas.
2. Round-Robin: In this format, people take turns by passing a token around the group. When a participant receives the token,
he or she will suggest an idea and then pass the token to the next person.
3. Free-for-All: With this method, people just shout out their ideas spontaneously. This method can be collaborative, as people
build on each other's suggestions through discussion-but it can only work in a supportive environment.

Collaboration Games
• Remember the Future: This is a facilitated exercise that asks project stakeholders to imagine that an upcoming release or
iteration has been successfully completed. They are asked to "look back" and describe what happened to allow the iteration or
release to be successful.
• Prune the Product Tree: This group exercise engages the participants in
brainstorming a product's features and functionality.
• We start by drawing an outline of a big tree with a trunk and branches on
a whiteboard or flip chart
• We explain to the group that the tree is the product & its trunk
represents what we already know or have built so far, and its outer
branches represent new functionality that has yet to be designed.

433
Getting the Work Done

Collaboration Games The goal is to identify factors that are preventing you from moving
• Speedboat (aka Sailboat) forward. In this case the sailboat represents your group or
organization. The issues holding it back are symbolized by
 The Speedboat game ( which is also called anchors. Anything propelling you forward is wind in your sails.
Sailboat) starts with the features and user
stories identified in the Prune the Product
Tree game. It focuses on gathering risks that
pose threats to the project and
potential/opportunities.
 To start, place another whiteboard or flip
chart to the left of the product tree diagram
created in the previous exercise. On it, draw a
waterline and a picture of a boat, with the
boat moving in the direction of the product
tree.
 What are the anchors ( or threats) that could
slow us down or even sink us? And what are
the helpful winds ( or opportunities) that
could fill our sails and help propel us toward
our goal?"

434
Getting the Work Done

Collaboration Games
Participatory Decision Making: Below we'll describe several approaches that can be used to make collective decisions.
• Simple Voting: One simple approach is to ask the team to vote "for" or "against" an idea by
a show of hands.

• Thumbs Up/Down/Sideways: With this technique, we ask those who are holding their
thumb sideways why they cannot make up their mind.

• Fist-of-Five Voting: people vote by showing the number of fingers that indicates their
degree of support.
• One finger: "I totally support this option:
• Two fingers: "I support this option with some minor
reservations that we probably don't need to discuss.
• Three fingers: "I have concerns that we need to discuss."
• Four fingers: "I object and want to discuss the issue
• Five fingers : I am against this decision

• Highsmith's Decision Spectrum: team members indicate how they

feel about a decision by placing a check mark on a spectrum ranging
from "fully in favor" to "mixed feelings" to "absolutely no, or veto.”

435
Getting the Work Done

Facilitating Group Decision Making

Active Listening
1. Build the foundation  Face the speaker
o Establish ground rules, roles and responsibilities
o Frame the problem, constraints and desired outcome
 Maintain eye contact

2. Explore possibilities  Minimize external distractions

o Generate options  Respond appropriately
o Solicit expert opinions  Focus solely on what the speaker
o Storyboard potential solutions is saying
3. Seek agreement  Keep an open mind
o Show of hands
 Avoid letting the speaker know
o Roman vote
how you handled a similar
o Fist of Five situation
o Multi-voting
 Wait until they finish to defend
yourself
 Engage yourself

436
Getting the Work Done

Mentor Relevant Stakeholders

Project management is an art and a science. The discipline gets better with practice, learning, and experience. You learn from others
every day. Lkewise, there are plenty of opportunities for you to share your knowledge and experience with others.

When we are initially engaging stakeholders in an agile project, we need to recognize some of the concerns that the stakeholders may
have and address them directly. Here are some examples of common concerns about agile:
• Executives and project sponsors: Executives and sponsors are often concerned about the risk of failure due to the use of
unprecedented practices and counterintuitive planning approaches, even though an agile approach provides better feedback loops
for preventing failure.
• Managers: Managers may fear a loss of control or erosion of their role when projects assume an agile approach.
• The development team: The development team may resist agile methods if they feel that this new approach is being forced upon
them by management.
• The user community: The user community is often worried they will not get all features they want or require, or that the early
iterations will result in poor quality deliverables.
• Supporting groups: Other groups may be concerned about an apparent lack of control, continual requests for their involvement, or
the lack of a clear end point.

If the project stakeholders are new to agile methods, they may need some basic education about how agile projects operate to help
them understand the approach that will be used and guide their expectations.

437
Getting the Work Done

Determining Relevant Stakeholders

• When refining the backlog, mentoring the product owner on grooming best practices.
• When onboarding a new project team member, guiding her on the processes used by the team.
• When a team member must purchase material for the project, showing them the procurement best practices and process for
the organization.
Training and Sharing Plans
• Setting aside time for sharing and learning can increase the opportunities to capitalize on mentoring.
• Formal or informal plans can be established for training and sharing.
• Retrospectives and lessons learned sessions can be leveraged to call out successes and failures in the management and
operation of the project.
• Scheduling training sessions formalizes the mentoring and coaching.
• These sessions can be facilitated by anyone.
Coaching and Mentoring
• Coaching and mentoring others helps them become more proficient team members.
• Raising the abilities of the team increases their output and their value.
• Increasing the knowledge base and the skill sets of all project stakeholders promotes more successful and effectively managed
projects.
• With limited time and resources, you must make sacrifices on how to mentor others.
• Start mentoring the relevant stakeholders in a project and expand from there throughout the organization.

438
Getting the Work Done

Individual Mentoring and Coaching

Sharing Explicit Knowledge with an Individual while

Process or Task One-on-One Mentoring
Performing a Task
Encouraging others to take lead on activities Encouraging self-organization and initiative
Facilitating opportunities for others to practice project management
Facilitating meetings and sessions
tasks
Practice taking on new roles Coaching individuals on how to contribute in other project roles
Informal opportunities Coaching an individual with tacit knowledge
Formal opportunities Leading formal training sessions
Transferring skills Passing on and practicing skills
Modeling behaviors Demonstrating desired skills and best practices every day
Self-organizing teams that coach and mentor each other every day in
Teammates assisting each other
their work

439
Getting the Work Done

Mentoring and Coaching as a Group

• Mentoring and coaching also occurs in whole team settings.
• When project managers demonstrate the best way to complete a project management task, all involved in the activity
are learning.
• Project managers can call out and explain what is happening and why.
• Others in the group can contribute and guide the practice.
• The entire team learns and grows as a unit.
• All on the team are relevant stakeholders.

440
Lesson
Lead a Team & Manage Conflict 06

1- Lead a Team
You need to lead a team of diverse experts towards the project outcomes. Team members and stakeholders both
require motivation and inspiration. Recognizing and acting upon the most suitable and reasonable approach to lead all
stakeholders is a skillset worth developing. Whether that approach is to take charge and serve as a cheerleader or
quietly work behind the scenes, a project manager must adapt their leadership style to the situation and the
stakeholders.

By completing this section, you practice how to:

Guidelines to Manage a Team
 Set vision and mission
• Use emotional intelligence and other style-typing
 Support diversity and inclusion methods to flex your style to work best with each
 Value servant leadership stakeholder.
• Establish good communication among team members,
 Choose your leadership style internally and externally.
 Inspire, motivate, and influence • Monitor performance of team members on an ongoing
basis.
 Understand team and stakeholder influence
• Manage conflict.
 Figure out options for leading
• Establish an issues log to track and assign project
 Maintain the team issues.

441
Getting the Work Done

The following are guidelines for managers to Lead high-performing team:

• Create a shared vision for the team. This enables the team to make faster decisions and builds trust.
• Set realistic goals. We should set people up to succeed, not to fail, so goals need to be achievable.
• Build a sense of team identity. A sense of team identity helps increase the team members' loyalty to the team and
support for other team members.
• Provide strong leadership. Leaders should point out the way, then let the team own the mission.
• Encourage Constructive Disagreement: Constructive conflict is encouraged because it ultimately leads to better
decisions and stronger buy-in for those decisions once they are made.
• Create a Safe Place for Experiments: in leading agile teams we want to create a safe place where people can
experment, try new approaches, and make mistakes-and then get help, learn, and recover from their mistakes.

442
Getting the Work Done

Vision and Mission

• The project manager is the visionary leader for the project:
o Educating the team and other stakeholders about the value achieved or targeted
o Promoting teamwork and collaboration
o Assisting with project management tools and techniques
o Removing roadblocks
o Articulating the project’s mission

• Promoting the project’s mission and value inspires the team to remained focused and feel pride

Diversity Awareness and Cultural Competencies

• Use the leadership approach and style that best suits the situation and the stakeholders.
• Be aware of individual and team aims and working relationships.
• Motivations and working styles of groups and individuals vary based on experiences, age, culture, job roles, and many
more influences.
• Projects that include more diverse locations, industries, organizations, stakeholders, working styles, and cultures require
communication and openness to build trust.
• Diversity awareness is a person's ability to recognize and respect the unique qualities of every person
• Behavior modeling is the process of setting an example using your own behavior as a guiding force.

443
Getting the Work Done

Value servant leadership

The Project Manager’s Role
• Managing conflict is a responsibility of all stakeholders.
• The PM heavily influences the direction and handling of conflict.
• Interpersonal and team skills help to ensure positive results when handling conflict.
• In agile projects, the PM facilitates conflict resolution while the team is empowered to resolve conflicts.
• As a servant leader, a PM assists in the removal of impediments or sources of conflict.
Leadership Styles
• Strong personal ethics, integrity, and trustworthiness
• Interpersonal skills (communicator, collaborator, motivator) Leadership ≠ Management
• Conceptual and analytical skills
• Servant leadership: A type of leadership commonly used in Agile which encourages the self-definition, self-discovery,
and self-awareness of team members by listening, coaching, and providing an environment which allows them to
grow.
 Facilitate rather than manage
 Provide coaching and training
 Remove work impediments
 Focus on accomplishments

444
Getting the Work Done

Choose Your Leadership Style

• The servant leadership philosophy informs the leadership role for project managers, but you should adopt a leadership
style that best fits your project's and your own needs.
• You must possess and demonstrate leadership skills that guide your team toward accomplishing the desired result.
This requires ethical, interpersonal, and conceptual skills to help you analyze situations and interact appropriately.
• An effective leader should have the qualities and skills necessary to manage relationships, build trust, collaborate with
others, solve problems, exhibit integrity, and guide the team toward a successful project close.
• Challenge the Status Quo
 Past experiences and processes provide guidance but should not dictate the current project.
 Challenging the status quo provides an avenue for new ideas and perspectives.
 Through challenge and introspection, the best approach can be discovered, and complacency and blind acceptance are
avoided.

• Removing impediments in a project involves using your influences first, resources second, and authority third to
ensure the project team has what it needs to progress in its work.

445
Getting the Work Done

Inspire, Motivate, and Influence

• To achieve the highest levels of performance, stakeholders need to be inspired, motivated, and influenced by your team,
and any virtual teams or team members you have. Leading by example is just the beginning.
• Project teams perform better when they are made confident with group cohesion and solidarity. Good project leadership
facilitates bonding among project team members. Facilitating team-building activities builds unity, trust, empathy, and
focuses on the team rather than the individual.
• Entrusting them with their own reward system also helps them feel more like they are part of the process.

• Reward and recognition Plans can be used to Rewards Recognition

reinforce performance or favorable behaviors
• Tangible, consumable items • Intangible, experiential event
and actions. Reward and recognition systems
• Given as a result of reaching a • Given as a result of recipient’s
are generally standardized throughout an specific outcome or behavior rather than outcome
organization and approved through corporate achievement • Not restricted to a set time
channels. Rewards might be monetary-based • Definite start and finish, or fixed • Usually unexpected by recipient
like bonuses, time-based-such as vacation time time • Purpose is to increase recipient’s
and early departure-or other perks such as • Usually expected when goal is feeling of appreciation; can be
trophies or small gifts. Recognition is focused on met given without a reward
• Purpose is to motivate towards
the person and group of people and may not a specific outcome; never given
include a reward, instead focusing on without recognition too
acknowledgment and appreciation.

446
Getting the Work Done

Team Motivation
 Provide Feedback
You can’t expect your team to operate in a vacuum.

 Recognize Performance
Give constructive feedback so they can meet your expectations. Reinforce what you
like so they can continue to meet those expectations or exceed them.

 Negotiate
Recognize that some team members will not feel comfortable with some goals set for
them. Negotiate realistic outcomes.

 Persuade
Get to know each of your team members personally and find out what motivates
them.

 Respect
Respect is fundamental in any relationship. You will get the very best from people if
you have mutual respect.

447
Getting the Work Done

Understand Team and Stakeholder Influence

• Your ability to lead your team requires flexibility and influence. You also need to take into account the spheres
of influence of your team and stakeholders. Balancing these will help achieve the desired outcomes.

• Influence Matrix
 Leading a team is based partially on your influence and the influence of the other project stakeholders.
 Influence goes in many directions.
 The direction is often dictated by roles or titles:
 Upwards (senior management)
 Downwards (team or specialists)
 Outwards (external)
 Sideward (project manager's peers)

 The salience classification model can also distinguish influence based on prioritization, urgency, and other aspects.

• Salience model: A classification model that groups stakeholders on the basis of their level of authority, their
immediate needs, and how appropriate their involvement is in terms of the project.

448
Getting the Work Done

Engage and Support Virtual Teams

• Many project teams are now completely virtual or include virtual team members. This creates opportunities for finding
team members with greater skills, at lower costs, and allows projects to forego relocation expenses.
• Virtual team members can create challenges for managing communications and enabling effective team performance, but
technology solutions allow teams to facilitate communications, to store and share files, create threaded discussions and
wikis, and manage calendars.
• Agile tools allow for the publishing and sharing of team Kanban boards, burndown charts, and other information radiators
to improve visibility and promote collaboration.

1. Understand Virtual Team Requirements

• Like conventional teams, virtual team members need shared goals, clear purpose, and clarity on their roles and responsibilities.
• Geographically distributed teams can work effectively across time zones, but some consideration from leadership is required.
• Virtual team building can be more difficult for the following reasons:
 Bonding and team identity can be hard to create when team members are geographically distributed
 Communication and information sharing needs to rely on various forms of technology because teams cannot meet face to
face
 Roles, reporting, and performance can be harder to track on a dispersed team, and individual contributions may be
overlooked
• Begin researching and planning the project by learning what each team member or group needs from others, including you.
This allows you to sort out the communication, prioritization, and project management processes you will use going forward.

449
Getting the Work Done

2. Be Creative About Engagement

• Creating a high-performing team from a group of individuals takes time and focus, even when they are working in the same
location. Adding the element of virtual team members requires using technology and creativity to ensure that all team members
are equally connected and engaged with the objectives.
• New technologies join the market frequently, so keep your eyes open, and don't forget to include your resident and virtual team
members in decision-making to help keep everyone working together smoothly.
• Managing engagement requires persistence and a focus on team dynamics. Teams communicate better face to face, but
technology like videoconferencing enables team meetings to simulate face-to-face meetings at low cost when meeting in person
is not possible.
• Work and project status can also affect team performance. Even small teams have trouble aligning work activities without tools
that promote collaboration and visibility. Many tools enable the use of Kanban-style boards to visualize and track work in
progress. While technologies can certainly support your team, how the team uses tools and how much that use reflects the
team's values and priorities is critical.
• Make sure that your office-based and virtual teams all engage with the selected tools as you implement them. Ensure that
communications, changes, and progress are being shared regardless of geography.
• Coordinating virtual teams and team members is critical to positive relationships and successful outcomes. Virtual teams must
go through a formation stage and some level of storming and norming to become a high-performing team. Be aware that some
individual team members may be at risk of becoming isolated from their team, or of a team avoiding shared commitments to
focus on the execution of activities.

450
Getting the Work Done

3. Keep Engagement High

• As the work progresses, stay focused on assessing the efficacy and quality of your virtual team member engagement techniques.
You may find that some things work better than others, or that it's time for a change.
• A successful virtual team culture should be instilled starting with the creation and implementation of a team charter. The
selection of appropriate tools and the adoption of certain behavior patterns will reinforce collaboration and promote visibility.
Project managers of virtual teams must reinforce team goals over individual performance and enable teams to self-organize and
be accountable for the deliverables.

Options for Virtual Team Member Engagement

• Focus on collaboration and team norms. Have the team figure out how and why they need to communicate and collaborate with
one another, then look at how technologies and tools can help.
• Recognize that team formation in a virtual environment is difficult. Reinforce mutual commitments, achievements, and
opportunities.
• Focus on providing more feedback and reinforcement of the team goals.
• Provide opportunities for team members to meet in person.

451
Getting the Work Done

Evaluating Virtual Team Member Engagement

• Track the progress of your teams as they carry out the work.
• Prioritize communications and visibility of other team members.
• Listen for blockers or other potential issues that team members may be uncomfortable discussing.
• Look for clues in body language or tone of voice that indicate potential unshared concerns.
• Ensure meetings like daily standups value commitments to the team.
• Track team progress.
• Encourage project managers or agile coaches to ensure the team is recommitting each day.
• Use videoconferencing tools.
• Timebox meetings.
• Have a clear agenda, objectives, and approach to running meetings.
• Identify which resources are needed to meet project objectives.

452
Getting the Work Done

Lead with Adaptability

• Work between different leadership styles during a project to approach situations with the appropriate toolkit and
attitude. Be aware of how the team responds to you and tailor your style and approach until you get a productive
result.
• Some teams and individuals are more effective with specific leadership styles. Sometimes you will find it more
effective to use a different leadership style for certain individuals, situations, or organizational cultures. Use a fluid,
adaptable approach to leadership.
• Common leadership styles that project managers can adopt include transformational, charismatic, transactional,
interactional, laissez-faire, and servant leader.
• Through the application of these leadership styles, project managers can lead relevant stakeholders using effective
communication tools and techniques.
• A leader will recognize and act on opportunities to coach a team member with discretion to build trust.
• Leading your team is an ongoing effort. Setting them up for success means continuing to support and encourage
them continuously throughout your project.

453
Getting the Work Done

Effectively leading a team includes leveraging the following processes:

• Using emotional intelligence and other methods to tailor pour behavior to a style that works best for each stakeholder
• Establishing good communication among internal and external members
• Monitoring performance on an ongoing basis
• Monitoring the progress of team members by speaking with them one-on-one
• Developing metrics to measure team performance
• Providing constructive feedback to team members on a frequent basis
• Considering additional training for team members who need to improve their performance

454
Getting the Work Done

2- Organizational Change Management

Organizational Change Management
• Organizational change management covers the skills and techniques for
influencing changes that support agility.
• The PMI publication, Managing Change in Organizations: A Practice Guide
[2], describes a comprehensive and holistic approach for successfully
introducing meaningful change. The recommendations offered there
include:
 Models for describing change dynamics,
 Framework for achieving change, and
 Application of change management practices at the project, program, and
portfolio levels.

Drivers for Change Management

There are two key factors that further motivate the use of change management practices in an agile context:
• Changes associated with accelerated delivery. Agile approaches emphasize delivering project outputs early and often.
However, the receiving organization may not be fully prepared to incorporate those outputs at an increased pace.
Accelerating delivery will test the organization’s ability to accommodate that delivery.
• Changes associated with agile approaches. Organizations just beginning to use agile approaches also experience
high degrees of change. Higher degrees of collaboration may require more frequent handoffs between teams,
departments, or vendors. Decomposing work into iterative prototypes involves rework that could be viewed
negatively.

455
Getting the Work Done

Readiness for Change

• Organizations beginning to use agile approaches should understand the relative compatibility of those methods with their
current approaches. Some organizations will have characteristics that more easily support agile principles of cross-
department collaboration, continuous learning, and evolving internal processes. Examples of these change friendly
characteristics include:
 Executive management’s willingness to change;
 Organization’s willingness to shift the way it views, reviews, and assesses employees;
 Centralization or decentralization of project, program, and portfolio management functions;
 Focus on short-term budgeting and metrics versus long-term goals; and
 Talent management maturity and capabilities.

• Characteristics that may be roadblocks to achieving the changes associated with organizational agility. Examples of these
include:
 Work is decomposed into departmental silos, creating dependencies that prevent accelerated delivery instead of building
cross-functional teams with guidance from centers of competencies.
 Procurement strategies are based on short-term pricing strategies, rather than long-term competencies.
 Leaders are rewarded for local efficiencies rather than end-to-end flow of project delivery or optimizing the whole.
 Employees are specialized contributors with limited tools or incentives to diversify their skills instead of building T-shaped
specialists.
 Decentralized portfolios pull employees simultaneously onto too many projects at once instead of keeping them focused on
one project at a time.

456
Getting the Work Done

The degree to which an organization is willing to review and modify these practices will determine how quickly and
effectively agile approaches can be adopted. However, in response to these organizational impediments to agility,
project leaders can try various approaches to accelerate a cultural compatibility for:
 Visible and active executive sponsorship,
 Change management practices, including communication and coaching,
 Progressively pacing the adoption of agile practices on a project-by-project basis
 Incremental introduction of agile practices to the team; and
 Leading by example by using agile techniques and practices where possible.

Creating an Environment of Safety

• Organizational culture is difficult to change, but the most important cultural norm in an organization willing to try any
new method or technique is enabling a safe work environment.
• Only in a safe, honest, and transparent environment can team members and leaders truly reflect on their successes to
ensure their projects continue to advance, or apply lessons learned on failed projects so they do not fall back into the
same patterns.

457
Getting the Work Done

Assessing Culture
• Every project finds itself in tension with competing aspirations. How can the team go fast without compromising quality?
How can the team preserve flexibility while also hitting a firm date? Most importantly, how does the team satisfy and
meet the requirements of the customer?
• Project leaders may feel their job is to meet every expectation of every stakeholder; but, when compelled to make a
choice, there is often a priority depending on the culture and requirements of the organization’s business environment.
For example, a mobile telecom project has a greater bias for speed, where a government program may have a greater
bias for generalization and stability.

Transformation Skills
• The organization, business, and the world are constantly changing and evolving.
• Supporting the transformation requires patience and compassionate mentoring.
• Most noticeable in teams transforming from one project management approach to another.
• In today’s digital world, the skill set being used today may be obsolete or limited tomorrow.

458
Getting the Work Done

3- Manage Conflict
Causes of Conflict
• Competition
• Differences in objectives, values, and perceptions
• Disagreements about role requirements, work activities, and individual approaches
• Communication breakdowns

Conflict Management
• Application of one or more strategies to deal with disagreements
• Effective conflict management leads to improved understanding, performance, and productivity
• Ineffective conflict management leads to:
o Destructive behavior
o Animosity
o Poor performance
o Reduced productivity

• Use various conflict resolution methods

459
Getting the Work Done

Managing conflict by using the appropriate approach based on the situation and individuals involved including:

 Providing people with the opportunity to explain their perspective

 Demonstrating respect and acknowledging people's positions

 Actively listening to what people are telling you

 Finding areas where both sides are in agreement

 Encouraging both parties to find a win-win resolution to the problem

 Focusing on the goals that require finding a resolution to the problem

 Avoiding unnecessary conflict by setting expected ground rules in the beginning

460
Getting the Work Done

Conflict Management Approaches

Withdraw/Avoid
• Team Charter* A document that records • Retreat from conflict situation
• Postpone the issue
the team values, agreements, and
Smooth/Accommodate
operating guidelines as well as establishing
• Emphasize areas of agreement
clear expectations regarding acceptable • Concede position to maintain harmony and relationships

behavior by project team members. Compromise/Reconcile

• Search for solutions that bring some degree of satisfaction to everyone
• Temporarily or partially resolve the conflict through compromise

Force/Direct
• Pursue your viewpoint at the expense of others
• Offer only win/lose solutions

Collaborate/Problem Solve
• Incorporate multiple viewpoints
• Enable cooperative attitudes and open dialog to reach consensus and
commitment

461
Getting the Work Done

Conflict Levels
Level 1 (Problem to Solve): The language is generally open-
hearted and constructive, and people frequently use
factual statements to justify their viewpoints. For example,
team members may make statements such as, "Oh, I see
what you are saying now. I still prefer the other approach,
however, because in the past we've seen fewer bugs and
less rework using that technique.”

Level 2 (Disagreement): The language starts to include self-

protection. For example, team members may make
statements like1 "I know you think my idea won't work as
well, but we tried your approach last time, and there were
a lot of problems.”

Level 3 (Contest): The team members start using distorted

language, such as overgeneralizations,
presumptions, and magnified positions. They may make
statements like, "He always takes over the
demo" and "If only she wasn't on the team

462
Getting the Work Done

Conflict Levels
Level 4 (Crusade): The conflict becomes more ideological
and polarized. The team members begin to make
statements like, "They're just plain wrong" and "It's not
worth even talking to them:’

Level 5 (World War): The language is fully combative. The

opposing team members rarely speak directly to each
other, instead speaking mostly to those "on their side,"
expressing sentiments like, "It's us or them" and "We have
to beat them!"

After observing and diagnosing the level of conflict, we

can decide what to do about it. If the conflict is at level
I through 3, do not take any immediate action to
resolve it. Instead, first give the team a chance to fix it
themselves. If the team can overcome the conflict on
their own, they will have developed and exercised their
own skills for resolving conflicts.

463
Getting the Work Done

6- Using Critical Interpersonal Skills

Conflict Resolution the following guidelines can be useful in resolving the conflict:

• Level l (Problem to Solve): For a conflict at this level, try constructing a collaborative scenario to illustrate the
competing issues and use that scenario to help build consensus around a decision that everyone can support.
• Level 2 (Disagreement): At level 2, conflict resolution typically involves empowering the relevant team
members to solve the problem. This approach builds the team members' support for the decision and restores
a sense of safety to the group.
• Level 3 (Contest): At this level, the conflict has become accusatory. To help fix the issue, we need to
accommodate people's differing views. Although this may involve compromising on the work to be done, we
should not compromise the team's values.
• Level 4 (Crusade): Resolving a level 4 conflict requires diplomacy. Since the communications between
opposing sides have largely broken down, the team may need a facilitator to convey messages between the
different parties. Our focus should be on de-escalating the conflict in an effort to take it down a level or two.
• Level 5 (World War): If a conflict gets to level 5, it may actually be unresolvable. Instead of trying to fix it, we
may need to figure out how we can give people ways to live with it. At this level we might separate the
opposing individuals to prevent further harm to each other.

464
Ensure Knowledge Transfer to Lesson
Project Continuity 07

1. Types of Knowledge
• Explicit knowledge* Knowledge that can be codified using symbols such as words, numbers, and pictures. This type
of knowledge can be documented and shared with others.
• Tacit knowledge* Personal knowledge that can be difficult to articulate and share such as beliefs, experience, and
insights. This type of knowledge is essential to provide the context of the explicit knowledge.

2. Knowledge Management
Level Description
• Each team member needs to know how to perform their work in accordance with each assigned task’s
scope, schedule, and cost.
• Required knowledge can be acquired by:
Individual
• Research
• Collaborating with team members
• Examining the project’s or organization’s knowledge repository
• The focus is on achieving the goals of the current project.
• Project manager solicits knowledge about other projects that can be applied to the current project.
Project
• Project Management Office (PMO) is an excellent source of knowledge, as it exists for the purpose of
defining and maintaining standards for project management within an organization.
• The focus is on managing programs or portfolios.
Organization • The program manager or portfolio manager seeks information from peers who manage other programs
or portfolios, in an effort to adapt this knowledge to their specific need.

465
Getting the Work Done

3. Knowledge Sharing
• Knowledge sharing is a key component of agile methods.
• Agile projects are encouraged to take an abundance-based-rather than scarcity-based-attitude toward sharing
knowledge.
• This means we aim to share information and make it available to everyone who might want to consume it, rather than
hoarding it to secure our jobs or increase our project stature.
• Agile knowledge sharing happens at many levels, in both obvious and subtle ways. Product demonstrations are an
obvious example. The main purpose of such demonstrations is not to show off the product, since the team knows very
well what works and does not work; instead, demos are done because they are high-ceremony ways to share
knowledge, through the following kind of dialogue:
• Team to customer: Here is what we think you asked for and what we have been able to build. Please tell us if we are on
the right track.
• Customer to team: I like these bits, and this is okay, but you got this piece wrong. Oh, and that reminds
• me-we really need something over here to do X.

466
Getting the Work Done

3. Knowledge Sharing
• Agile methods also emphasize knowledge sharing by using low-tech, high-touch tools like cards on a wall to plan
and schedule the project.
• These simple approaches help more team members get involved and require less skill to update than software
programs like Microsoft Project or Primavera. Simple tools also help build a common understanding of the plan.
• Another, less obvious way to share information is team co-location. This practice is not done to save space or ease
management overhead; instead, it is done to speed the sharing of information that occurs in face-to-face
environments through osmotic communication and tacit ( unwritten) knowledge.
• "individuals are most commonly rewarded for what they know, not what they share:' This reward system actually
discourages knowledge sharing. To promote the idea of sharing knowledge, the organizational culture should
instead encourage and reward the discovery, innovation, and transfer of information.

467
Getting the Work Done

4. Lessons Learned
• Knowledge gained during a project can be useful to subsequent phases of a project and to other projects.
• Both positive and negative experiences that occur throughout the project life cycle.
• Reinventing the wheel is both time-consuming and costly.
• The amount of time and effort on documenting lessons learned can pay big dividends in the future.

Considerations of Lessons Learned

 Scheduling lessons learned

 Conflict management lessons learned
 Vendor lessons learned
 Customer lessons learned
 Strategic lessons learned
 Tactical lessons learned
 Other aspects of lessons learned

468
Getting the Work Done

4. Lessons Learned
• Lessons-learned register* A project document used to record knowledge gained

Project A
during a project so that it can be used in the current project and entered into the

Project B
Project A

Project C
lessons-learned repository.
• Lessons-learned repository* A store of historical information about lessons learned
in projects.
• Agile Retrospective: Agile cultures that implement methods like Scrum have already Lessons-Learned Lessons-Learned
Register
incorporated a lessons learned method in their "sprint" process called the Repository
retrospective. According to the Scrum guide , the Sprint Retrospective is an
opportunity for the Scrum Team to inspect itself and create a plan for improvements
to be enacted during the next Sprint.
5. Working Environment Expectations
• Knowledge is not constant: what we knew yesterday can change based on what we did today.
• Continuously evaluate the project environment for new risks and follow the risk management plan to proactively address them
before they become issues that will affect the project objectives.
• Don't hoard knowledge; follow the communications management plan and inform stakeholders of changes affecting their work.
• Use appropriate tools to share knowledge with stakeholders:
o Face-to-face during formal meetings & Face-to-face during informal meetings and discussions
o Telephone & Email
o Wikis/Intranet & Printed documents

469
Getting the Work Done

5. Knowledge Transfer Approach

• Knowledge transfer consists of connecting individuals, in person or virtually, to share tacit knowledge and collaborate
together.
• Techniques include:
o Networking.
o Facilitating special interest groups.
o Meetings, seminars, and various other types of in-person and virtual events that encourage people.
o Training that involves interaction between attendees.
o Work shadowing and reverse shadowing provide a more individualized method to the exchange of specialized
knowledge.

6. Guidelines to Maintain Team and Knowledge Transfer

• If your organization has a Project Management Office, follow its guidelines on documenting new knowledge.
• Be alert to new sources of project knowledge and follow the communications management plan to convey that
knowledge to stakeholders.
• Proactively seek new knowledge.
• Compile a lessons-learned register throughout the project’s lifecycle and add it to a lessons-learned repository with
registers from other projects.

470
Support Team Performance & Apply Lesson
Emotional Intell 08

1- Support team performance

By completing the tasks in this section, you practice how to:
1. Support team growth 4. Match team performance to KPls
2. Support task accountability 5. Verify performance improvements
3. Select a feedback approach

471
Getting the Work Done

1. Support Team Growth

Keeping your team motivated and inspired will not guarantee optimal performance. Team members need personal satisfaction
to contribute their best work. Continuing to seek opportunities for growth will be a regular part of your team's success story.

a) Effective Teams
It’s the project manager’s role to build the team and foster teamwork.
• Work collaboratively.
• Communicate effectively.
• Develop trust among team members.
• Manage conflicts.
• Promote collaborative decision making and problem solving.
• Teams are Cross-Functional
This is not a cross-functional team: This is a cross-functional team:

Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4 Sprint 5

Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4 Sprint 5
Analysis Coding Testing Analysis Analysis Analysis
Analysis Coding Testing Coding Coding Coding
Coding Testing
Analysis Coding Testing Testing Testing Testing

472
Getting the Work Done

1. Support Team Growth

a) Effective Teams
Self-Directing Teams Self-Organizing Teams Self-Organizing Teams are
Characterized by:
• The members of empowered teams are freed from • Self-organizing teams are empowered to work
• Small team size
command-and-control management and can use their collectively to create their team norms and make
own knowledge to determine how to best do their job. their own local decisions.
• Dedicated resources
• Agile encourages self-managing teams, where team • This means they not only figure out the best way • Customer value orientation
members decide who will perform the work within the to accomplish the work they have committed to • Individual competence
next period’s defined scope. do in an iteration, but they also resolve many of • Sustainable self-discipline
• This acknowledgement that the team members are in the day-to-day issues that crop up along the way. • Intense collaboration
the best position to direct the project work is liberating • Project managers and team leaders can support • Easy information transfer
and motivating for them. and reinforce this behavior by respecting the • Low decision feedback time
• People work harder and take more pride in their work team's estimates and decisions and allowing • Constant learning & interaction
when they are recognized as experts of their domain. them to make mistakes and learn from them.

Self organizing principles guide a team so they can operate with minimal management control Self-organizing teams:
o As a team member, I will contact the ScrumMaster if I see a tweak that can be made to a feature, • Exhibit a high degree of collaboration
that will maintain it’s business value, while reducing time, cost or risk associated with
implementing that feature • Operate with a high degree of trust
and autonomy
o As a team member, when I complete my work, on a task, I will either help another team member,
or start a new task, depending on what will most likely allow us to deliver the maximum value in a • Work towards high performance
Sprint • Produce measurably great results
o As a team member, I will provide honest and open feedback to my peers, to the ScrumMaster, to • Are very fulfilling to work on
the Project Manager, whenever that feedback will help the performance of the team

473
Getting the Work Done

1. Support Team Growth

b) Team Structure, Culture and Empowerment
• Empowering a team involves moving problem solving and decision making to the team members.
• Empowering the team to make decisions in a timely manner increases the team’s responsibility to deliver a product with
complete ownership.
• Encourage the team to foster team collaboration and decision making.
• Important elements for leading and managing projects is the team’s environment and location.
• Team members need to be able to contribute from everywhere and at any time.
• Everyone is engaged at all times and can take initiative when needed.
• Co-locating the team in a shared workspace fosters more informal and immediate collaboration.
• Establishing a culture of fluid communication and engagement in a workspace that promotes positive interactions makes leading
and managing a team easier.

c) Management by Objectives
• Teams with clear objectives are more productive and driven.
• Project managers and team should collaboratively set objectives.
• Objectives should be challenging, yet attainable.
• Objective settings can be conducted:
o At the start of a project or phase
o Throughout the project life cycle, as in an iteration planning session

474
Getting the Work Done

d) Creating Collaborative Team Spaces

Agile teams often commandeer a large open area, like a conference room, to serve as their team space. In this area there
should be plenty of wall space for whiteboards to be used during collaborative discussions, as well as room to post information
radiators of the project metrics.
Tacit knowledge works best for small, co-located teams-in fact, the emphasis on facilitating and maintaining tacit knowledge is
one of the reasons why agile methods recommend limiting teams to 9 or fewer people.
Burndown Informatio
Chart n Radiator
Team Workspaces
• Common area for collaboration
o Open flow of information
• Caves for privacy
o Intense problem solving Cubicles
Cubicles
o Creative solitude
o Private phone calls
o Research
o Rocking silently and weeping

• Shared Visual Workspace

o Information transfer maximized through collocation
o Constant face-to-face communication and collaboration
o Allows for Osmotic Communications
o Self-organization & management facilitated by information radiators
Whiteboard Covered Wall

475
Getting the Work Done

d) Creating Collaborative Team Spaces

Team Room Examples

1. Portable easel
2. Smart board
3. Risks & Issues noted
4. Magnetic whiteboard
5. Plant needs water
6. Task board
7. Pair programming station
8. Status tracking by color
9. Nice chairs

476
Getting the Work Done

d) Creating Collaborative Team Spaces

Osmotic Communication
Osmotic communications is normally accomplished by seating team members in the same room. Then, when one person asks a
question, others in the room can either tune in or tune out, contributing to the discussion or continuing with their work. Osmotic
communication makes the cost of communications low and the feedback rate high, so that errors are corrected extremely quickly,
and knowledge is disseminated quickly.

Distributed Teams
• Distributed teams are teams that have at least
one team member working off-site. We've said
Scrum of Scrums is
that agile recommends that teams be co-
a scaled agile
located. Although this might have been true,
technique that
today the majority of agile teams are
offers a way to
distributed.
connect multiple
• As projects get bigger and require more
teams who need to
specialized resources, it is inevitable that
work together to
project teams will increasingly be distributed.
deliver complex
• Distributed teams have cross-functional teams
solutions.
in different locations. Dispersed teams may
have each team member working in a
completely different location, either in an office
or from home.

477
Getting the Work Done

d) Creating Collaborative Team Spaces

Manage Communication in Distributed Teams
• When teams have geographically distributed members, the team decides how much of their workplace is virtual and how
much is physical.
• Technology such as document sharing, video conferencing, and other virtual collaboration tools help people collaborate
remotely.
• Geographically distributed teams need virtual workspaces. In addition, consider getting the team together in person at
regular intervals so the team can build trust and learn how to work together.
• Some techniques to consider for managing communication in dispersed teams are fishbowl windows and remote pairing:
1. Create a fishbowl window by setting up long-lived video conferencing links between the various locations in which
the team is dispersed. People start the link at the beginning of a workday and close it at the end. In this way, people
can see and engage spontaneously with each other, reducing the collaboration lag otherwise inherent in the
geographical separation.
2. Set up remote pairing by using virtual conferencing tools to share screens, including voice and video links. As long
as the time zone differences are accounted for, this may prove almost as effective as face-to-face pairing.

478
Getting the Work Done

1. Support Team Growth

e) Team Development Stages
When it comes to managing team dynamics, keep "Tuckman's Stages of Group Development" in mind. You may need to reflect on
some of the stages and think about how you apply them to your project team. As the project manager, you will use these stages to
lead the team as it develops.
Forming No identity. Confusion and anxiety, Individuality at its highest
Directing
Team members get to know each other and trust one another.
Dependency
Conflict arises, loud and aggressive talking, some are silent Some
Storming Coaching members think that the team is wasting time (I’m eight Mentality) Team
Tuckman 5
Counter-dependency members begin to assert themselves and control emerging issues.
Stages of
Team Individual assume their respect roles, and conflict starts to decline. ‘We
Development Norming Participating Can Work Together’. Team begins to work productively, without worrying
Cohesion about personal acceptance or control issues.

The team becomes ‘Closed’ and is unapproachable. Team is working at

Performing Delegating optimum productivity and is collaborating easily, communicating freely,
Interdependency and solving its own conflict problems.

A sense of loss as the team disbands individuals struggle to move on.

Adjourning Supporting Team members complete their assigned work and shift to the next
Closeout project or assigned task.

479
Getting the Work Done

1. Support Team Growth

f) Team Building Activities
• When a team feels like they’re all working together to achieve the project’s goals, they’re able to do so much more than
each member can do individually.
• Using team-building activities to influence diverse individuals from many functional areas, each with their own goals,
needs, and perspectives, to work as a cohesive team, for the good of the project.
• Also known as “team-building strategies.” , could be Formal or informal, could be Brief or extended.
• Facilitated by the project manager or a group facilitator.
• Trust building is all about sharing information with all of your stakeholders so that they know they can trust one another.

Team-building activities are approaches to develop the team through facilitated events. Events can include the following:
1. Training the project team
2. Team involvement during the planning processes
3. Defining rules for handling team disagreements
4. Offsite activities
5. Quick team-involvement activities
6. Activities to improve interpersonal skills and form relationships

480
Getting the Work Done

1. Support Team Growth

g) Pairing and Mentoring
• Training alone may not ensure that the required knowledge and skills are translated. In some cases, the training can be
augmented by pairing team members or creating mentoring situations to ensure the learning is transferred appropriately
into performance.
• What is mentoring? A strategic approach to developing an employee. It shortens the learning curve, enhances productivity,
and helps align to business strategy.

481
Getting the Work Done

1. Support Team Growth

g) Pairing and Mentoring

Coaching: The goal of coaching is to

help the team members stay on
track, overcome issues, and
continually improve their skills.
Coaching is done at two levels-the
team and the individual team
members. The figure below shows
how the emphasis switches from
coaching the team as a whole at the
iteration boundaries to coaching
individual members during the
iterations

482
Getting the Work Done

1. Support Team Growth

h) Value Steam Map
• Bottlenecks, slowdowns, delays, or other forms of nonvalue effort create waste and distraction. Anything not delivering or
contributing to value is wasteful.
• Value Steam Map is a Lean manufacturing technique adopted by agile presents visual representation of a process and the
actions in each step to detect deficiencies and wasteful efforts. It is a Lean enterprise technique used to document, analyze, and
improve the flow of information or materials required to produce a product or service for a customer.
• Producing a Value Steam Map can call out how information and materials in the project and among team members may be
diluted, clogged, or otherwise wasted of their value.
• PMl's Agile Practice Guide defines value stream as an organizational construct that focuses on the flow of value to customers
through the delivery of specific products or services.
How To Create a Visual Stream Mapping?
 Identify the product or service to be analyzed
 Map current processes steps, queues, delays, and information flows
 Review the map for delays waste and constraints
 Create a new value-stream map of the desired future state for the process
 Develop a road map for creating the optimized state
 Plan to revisit the process in the future to continually refine andoptimize

483
Getting the Work Done

1. Support Team Growth

h) Value Steam Map

Before After

484
Getting the Work Done

1. Support Team Growth

h) Value Steam Map

485
Getting the Work Done

1. Support Team Growth

h) Value Steam Map

Process Cycle Efficiency is the key measure of Leanness

(sum of time for Value Added process steps)

PCE =
(sum of time for All process steps)
Process map entire value-stream at a high level, drilling down into more detail only as potential areas of interest
are identified
o Value-added: This step in the process adds form, function, and value to the end product and for the customer.

o Non-Value-Added: This step does not add form, function, or assist in the finished goods manufacturing of the product.

o Non-Value-Added-But-Necessary: This step does not add value but is a necessary step in the final value-added product.

486
Getting the Work Done

1. Support Team Growth

h) Value Steam Map
Example

487
Getting the Work Done

2. Support task accountability

Project managers need to understand the individuals on their teams and to identify and organize around team strengths.
This allows you to set up systems to ensure teams are empowered and accountable for their tasks and that everyone
follows the rules because they are accountable to the whole team.

a) Play to Your Strengths

• In any team scenario, endeavor to maximize the value in your team. Seek knowledge of your team's strengths and
weaknesses, their motivations, and how all of these can affect successful outcomes.
• Try to understand their soft skills, their boundaries, aspirations, and tolerances so that you can create a negotiable
climate within the team to address and mitigate conflicts.
• Organize your team and leverage informal and formal research to make sure you are putting the right human assets on
the right tasks.
• Estimate tasks and time to completion collaboratively and use a suitable method, depending on whether your approach
is traditional, agile, or hybrid.
• Involve team members in this process since they know most about their work, timescales, dependencies, and risks.
• Asking for help from your team is not a sign of weakness. Instead, it is modeling the desired behavior of being open and
transparent. When done correctly it also demonstrates we value their input and respect their insights.

488
Getting the Work Done

2. Support task accountability

b) Show Accountability
• Team members want to work on important things, so by creating structured accountability, they will see the importance of their tasks
and how they contribute to the entire project's success.
• Team members often "self-organize" in agile practice to determine the work that must be done in order to meet an objective, and to
identify how to perform that work and who should perform it. While dependencies may drive the order of performing the work, many of
the other tasks can be performed in a number of orders.
• One benefit of agile practice is that the team makes commitments to perform certain work and deliver certain results within a given
iteration. Regardless of the methodology chosen, you need to know who is performing which tasks - and when - to ensure effective
collaboration and use of team resources.

• Task accountability is typically performed within performance evaluations. To increase the perceived value of task accountability, make
sure this is part of a regular routine.
• Determine how to track and manage task accountability. Within the work breakdown structure (WBS), identify tasks to produce the
deliverables, preferably by the team
• T&T: in agile projects, Kanban boards visually depict work at various stages of a process and to help allocate resources and coordinate
teams performing the work. In waterfall projects, A WBS is a key project deliverable that organizes the team's work into manageable
sections.
• Having conversations with team members about accountability for their actions can seem awkward. However, coaching them by showing
the positive returns of accountable behavior across the team and implementing visible award or recognition systems often helps.

489
Getting the Work Done

2. Support task accountability

c) Model Accountability
• Leading a team includes modeling desired behaviors and traits, including accountability for work and personal conduct. Team
members look to the project manager or leader to set the tone for work and the code of conduct.
• Use an appropriate and realistic way of encouraging accountability and following ground rules. For example, show the
appropriate level of detail and use of language in your written communications so that team members have a clear
expectation for their work.
• Recognizing the efforts of others and the ground rules is a great way of maintaining transparency and accountability.
Advocate positive action and others will follow suit.

d) Share Authority
• Great! Sharing authority means endorsing others with the power to make decisions. Giving people the authority to come to
you and include others builds trust. A virtual platform or similar technology can facilitate this. A regular meeting at a suitable
interval is also a great way of allowing proper space for making suggestions or airing grievances before they become serious.
• High-performing teams often share decision-making authority among team members. Deciding the best fit for decision-
making authority and providing the support that your team members need is your next challenge.
• In general, decisions should be made at the "right" level, tailored for the project. Therefore, project managers should defer
appropriate decisions to the team, while maintaining control and visibility into the overall plan and progress.

490
Getting the Work Done

3. Select a Feedback Approach

• Providing feedback, both positive and negative, is the best way for your team to know if they are making the right kind of
progress. Constructive feedback is essential if we are to learn, adapt, and grow. But giving feedback can be stressful, especially
when it is negative, so it is important to consider multiple approaches.
• Continuous feedback is essential for agility and responsiveness.
• Regular feedback is crucial for all teams in all methodologies and team environments.
• Discovering the most appropriate and timely feedback is the project manager’s responsibility.
• Agile practices follow iterative and incremental development, and within each iteration the product improves. With every
iteration, team members provide feedback and assistance to each other, and a working product is demonstrated to the customer
for feedback and direction. That feedback feeds the subsequent iterations and product backlog.
• Regular customer input gives the team the opportunity to improve on the product before the final deliverable is sent to the
customer, rather than when it may be too late.
• An effective project team should regularly review its performance and identify lessons learned and specific improvements that
will improve overall efficiency and effectiveness. The lessons learned register is used to record knowledge gained during a
project. This knowledge can be used to improve that team's project performance and potentially other teams and projects. Agile
teams schedule a ceremony called a retrospective at the end of each iteration to identify potential issues and solutions and
improve processes the team uses to improve its overall performance.
• One-on-one discussions can be beneficial to understand any unique needs your team has and to see how differences can be
leveraged in a positive way.

491
Getting the Work Done

4. Match Team Performance to KPls

• Key Performance Indicator (KPI): A set metric used to evaluate a team’s performance against the project vision and
objectives. To be valuable measurement tools, KPls need to satisfy the SMART criteria: specific, measurable,
achievable, relevant, and time-bound. .
• Align team performance to project KPls to measure team performance at the end of a project and create tangible
parameters for success.
• Benchmarking is a process by which best in class external parties are identified and studied in hope that their
methodology, if appropriate, can be implemented or leveraged.
• Effective communication achieves the best team performance, develop trust among team members, manage
conflicts, and promote collaborative decision making and problem solving. Seeking leadership or stakeholder
support helps you construct an effective project team. This will help improve people skills, advance technical
competencies, build a good team environment, and increase project performance.

492
Getting the Work Done

5. Verify Performance Improvements

• After providing training, offering feedback and coaching, and establishing KPls, how will you check that performance has
improved? All project team members have their own areas of expertise that, if identified and used appropriately, can help to
deliver successful project outcomes.
• Project team performance assessment is performed to assess and identify the potential of each team member to help improve
interaction among team members, solve issues, and deal with conflicts.
• Technical success is measured on the basis of meeting project objectives and finishing the project on time and within budget.
Continual formal or informal evaluations of team performance is an effective way to improve the skills and competencies of
project team members and increase team cohesiveness.
• Purpose of assessment:
 Improve interaction between team members
 Solve issues
 Deal with conflicts
 Improve skills and competencies of team members
 Increase team cohesiveness
• Team performance assessments is a deliverable of this task: These documents include performance assessments for individual
team members as well as performance assessments of the entire project team. This can be measured via technical success
factors or human resources factors such as staff turnover rate, team cohesiveness, etc.
• Your team has tasks and assignments which they are completing in groups or as individuals, but it is your job to ensure the
project is progressing. Ensuring your team members understand what they are accountable for individually will help them
allocate their time.

493
Getting the Work Done

5. Verify Performance Improvements

Techniques for assessing team performance: Performance Assessment Tasks
• Ask key questions to the team members. • Comparing performance to goals
• Speak to team members frequently through one-to-one • Reclarifying roles and responsibilities
meetings and regular project meetings.
• Delivering positive as well as negative feedback
• Provide constructive criticism and acclaim to team
members, as necessary. • Discovering unknown or unresolved issues
• Evaluate individual performance. • Creating and monitoring individual training plans
• Remove under-performing team members or reassign • Establishing future goals
their work to a new resource.

RACI Chart
• The RACI chart is a common type of responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) that uses responsible, accountable, consult, and inform
(RACI) statuses to define the involvement of stakeholders in project activities.
• The RACI matrix helps identify who is responsible for making decisions and how the people responsible are supported.
• RACI is generally used to provide clarity on the roles and responsibilities assigned to each project team member.
• The RACI chart may also be called a RASI chart, where "S" stands for "support."

494
Getting the Work Done

5. Verify Performance Improvements

Performance Tracking Tools

Tool Description
Based on the Japanese management method of pulling cards to various stages as they are worked
Scrum/Agile/Kanban boards on, physical or electronic boards can track work as it progresses across various stages or
categories.
Measurement of the team’s work that has moved from one stage to another stage over a certain
Throughput Metrics
time.
Cycle Time Measurement of work that has progressed all the way from plan to completed or delivered.

Quality Metrics Various measurements to track quality deliverables, defects, and acceptable output.

Earned Value Tracking cost and effort performance against a planned value.

Bar Charts (Gantt) Using the project schedule to track performance over time.

Velocity Measurement of total output from an iteration to attempt to predict future iteration outputs.

Note: Try to ensure team members understand what the tools being used are meant to do and what they are not. Everyone has different
assumptions and levels of knowledge. A shared set of team assumptions about each tool will create increased transparency and trust.

495
Getting the Work Done

5. Verify Performance Improvements

Remember that:
• Expected performance is always set with assumptions in mind. Actual performance may have been impacted by unforeseen
circumstances. Not meeting expectations could actually mean several problems were resolved, while exceeding expectations
could mean something was missed. Context is important!
• the best way to evaluate performance is to compare the actual project output in terms of quality, quantity, and what was
planned or expected.

496
Getting the Work Done

2. Apply Emotional Intelligence to Promote

Team Performance
Interpersonal and Team Skills The skill set need be used to managem team and engage stakeholders
Personality Profile Assessments
• Theory of Psychological Types by Carl Jung
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) by Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers
• DiSC Assessment Model by William Moulton Marston
• True Colors Methodology by Don Lowry
• Social Style Model by TRACOM
• Whole Brain Thinking by Ned Herrmann

497
Getting the Work Done

6- Using Critical Interpersonal Skills

Active listening
• Active listening is hearing what someone is really trying to convey, rather than just the meaning of the words they are speaking.
The expression "Do what I mean, not what I say" speaks to this concept.
• On agile projects, we need to listen for the message, not just the string of words being spoken.
• Leading and coaching agile teams requires that we listen intently to people. And we cannot listen when we are talking ourselves,
so it's important to talk less and listen more.
• Wait for others to speak. Try counting slowly to ten to give other people enough time to get comfortable and speak up. In
general, while our mouths are flapping, we are not learning.

Reflecting Attending Following

• Repeat the gist of the • Lean slightly toward the • Respond with non-verbal
message speaker gesture or verbal
• Stay at eye-level response
• Verify your
understanding of the • Maintain eye contact • Ask questions
message without staring • Allow speaker a moment
to collect their thoughts

498
Getting the Work Done

Active listening

• Active listening is a skill that can be improved with practice. According to the
authors of Co-Active Coaching: our listening skills progress through three levels, as
shown below.
• Level 1: Internal Listening : At this first level of listening, we hear the words being
spoken, and although we may be very attentive, we interpret them through our
own lens. When listening, we are thinking "How is this going to affect me?" and
miss the speaker's real message.
• Level 2: Focused Listening: When listening at this level, we let go of our own
thoughts and put ourselves in the mind of the speaker. We empathize with their
thoughts, experiences, and emotions as they tell us about the situation.
• Level 3: Global Listening: When listening at this level, we build on the approach
taken in level 2, adding a higher level of awareness, like longer antennae, to pick
up on subtle physical and environmental indicators.

499
Getting the Work Done

Emotional Intelligence
• An important interpersonal skill of all project managers is Emotional Intelligence (EI). EI helps you understand your emotions and
those of others to help minimize conflict.
• Being able to read the emotions and feelings of others, as well as recognizing how your emotions and behaviors positively or
negatively affect others, is crucial for effective management and team performance. The following sections describe the
elements of the five EI skills.

Quadrants of Emotional Intelligence

500
Getting the Work Done

1. Self-Awareness Elements

Self-awareness measures how well you know your own emotions in a variety of situations.

Element Description
• Knowing feelings.
• Perceiving connections between feelings and behavior.
Emotional awareness
• Recognizing how emotions affect performance.
• Being conscious of values, goals.
• Perceiving strengths and weaknesses.
Accurate self-assessment • Becoming aware of blind spots.
• Knowing emotional triggers.
• Expressing potentially unpopular opinions.
• Taking risks.
Self-confidence • Displaying poise, self-assurance.
• Having knowledge of self-esteem, proficiencies.
• Being decisive.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

501
Getting the Work Done

2. Self-Regulation/management Elements

Element Description
Self-regulation defines how
• Remaining cool under pressure.
well you can control those
Self-control • Staying focused in a stressful environment.
emotions. • Controlling rash, destructive emotions.
• Acknowledging errors, challenging others’ immoral conduct.
• Establishing confidence via reputation for honesty, credibility.
Trustworthiness
• Standing by principles.
• Behaving in morally correct way, above suspicion.
• Having well-ordered, meticulous approach to work.
Conscientiousness • Being accountable for fulfilling goals.
• Satisfying obligations, delivering on promises.
• Adapting to changing events.
Adaptability • Interpreting events in a flexible way.
• Handling numerous demands and changing priorities.
• Producing fresh ideas.
• Considering innovative answers to problems.
Innovation
• Embracing new approaches and possibilities.
• Looking for novel ideas.

502
Getting the Work Done

3. Motivation Elements
Motivation describes your intrinsic reasons for achievement.

Element Description
• Setting tough goals, taking chances.
• Driving hard to get results.
Achievement drive
• Discovering how to upgrade capabilities.
• Striving to minimize uncertainty.
• Making decisions based on team's core principles.
• Realizing benefit in comprehensive quest.
Commitment
• Sacrificing to fulfill company goal.
• Searching for opportunities to achieve team's mission.
• Working above-and-beyond toward goals.
• Inspiring others through extraordinary feats.
Initiative
• Cutting through rules to finish job.
• Grabbing opportunities.
• Hoping to succeed instead of fearing failure.
Optimism • Seeing reversals as caused by controllable factors.
• Working toward goals regardless of barriers.

503
Getting the Work Done

4. Social Awareness/ Empathy Elements

Element Description
Social skills address how • Serving others based on needs.
well you build relationships Understanding others • Observing emotional cues and listening carefully.
and rapport with others. • Displaying tact and appreciating others' points of view.
• Happily providing proper help.
• Understanding customers’ point of view.
Service orientation
• Seeking strategies to increase consumers' satisfaction.
• Recognizing consumers' needs.
• Recognizing, rewarding associates' achievements.
Developing others • Providing helpful criticism.
• Coaching and mentoring.
• Appreciating various ideologies.
• Creating conditions where different types of groups can thrive.
Leveraging diversity
• Showing consideration for diverse groups.
• Objecting to discrimination and bigotry.

• Understanding political truths and realities of companies.

• Grasping influences that set opinions of clients, consumers, rivals.
Political awareness
• Recognizing critical social systems.
• Correctly interpreting power connections.

504
Getting the Work Done

5. Social Skills Elements Empathy is how well you read and understand the emotions of others.

Element Description
• Managing tough problems directly.
• Effectively exchanging information.
Communication
• Cultivating clear communication.
• Achieving a mutual awareness.
• Building connections with colleagues.
• Establishing large, casual networks.
Building bonds
• Keeping others informed.
• Searching for mutually rewarding relationships.
• Fostering a collaborative environment.
Collaboration and • Cultivating options for cooperation.
cooperation • Balancing job duties and professional relationships.
• Working together; sharing strategies, knowledge, assets.
• Challenging current situation to appeal for change.
• Advocating for change.
Change catalyst
• Appreciating importance of change.
• Exhibiting change anticipated of others.

505
Getting the Work Done

5. Social Skills Elements

Element Description
• Detecting clashes, moving disputes into the open.
• Managing difficult individuals.
Conflict management
• Urging open discussion of issues.
• Engineering resolution for both sides.
• Polishing presentations.
• Winning people over.
Influence
• Coordinating impressive events to sell an idea.
• Building solidarity and approval.
• Stimulating interest for collective vision and goal.
• Modeling effective leadership.
Leadership
• Taking on leadership role regardless of official title.
• Directing others' performance.
• Building team character.
• Attracting group members.
Team capabilities
• Displaying team characteristics.
• Safeguarding team and its good name.

506
Getting the Work Done

Organizational Theory
• Organizational theory: The study of how people, teams, and organizations behave.

• Purpose of organizational theory

o Maximize efficiency and productivity
o Solve problems Modern organization
o Motivate people theory considers emotional
o Meet stakeholder requirements intelligence as the index of competencies
• Common organizational theorists that help organizations to develop a vision
for competitiveness. It also
o Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
allows organizational leaders to commit to
o McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y the vision, and
o McClelland’s Achievement Theory energize organizational members to
o Herzberg’s Motivation Theory achieve the vision.

507
Getting the Work Done

Guidelines for Building Emotional Intelligence with Key Stakeholders

• Recognize your own emotions and behaviors.

• Assess how your emotions, attitudes, actions, behaviors control you.
• Observe how your emotions affect those around you.
• Take note of physical nonverbal cues of others, such as a shrug or smile.
• Interpret those cues against the context, situation, and your emotions.
• Remain mindful of the emotions of others.
• Mirror the behaviors of others when suitable to become better connected.
• Practice controlling or changing your emotions to better suit the situation.

508
Address and Remove Impediments, Lesson
Obstacles, and Blockers 09

Enablers
• Determine critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team.
• Prioritize critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team.
• Implement solutions to remove impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team.
• Re-assess continually to ensure impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team are being addressed.

Deliverables and Tools

Deliverables Tools

Reprioritize backlog Daily standup

Updated risk lists Sprint reviews

Action plans Risk reviews

Updated impediment task board Backlog assessment

509
Getting the Work Done

• Impediment* An obstacle that prevents the team from achieving its objectives.
 Impediments reference situations, conditions, and actions that slow down or hinder progress. (For example, the
team not coming to a decision on a file saving location.)
 Obstacles reference barriers that should be able to be moved, avoided, or overcome with some effort or strategy.
(For example, the construction crew is unable to arrive at the worksite before permits are signed.)
 Blockers reference events or conditions that cause stoppages in the work or any further advancement. (For
example, the company has halted the use of any products in a certain firm until a new contract is signed.)

• Backlog Assessment
 Impediments and obstacles may block work or planned efforts.
 Assess product backlog, scheduled activities, and other lists of work items in reference to the hindrances.
 Evaluate the impediments against the pending work.
 The team and business stakeholders must assess the backlogged work in terms of value and priority.
 Backlog assessment and refinement can explore alternatives to overcome or avoid the risk, such as removing the work
item or blockage.

510
Getting the Work Done

• Daily Standup* A brief, daily collaboration meeting in which the team reviews progress from the previous
day, declares intentions for the current day, and highlights any obstacles encountered or anticipated. Also
known as a Daily Scrum.
 Conducted at the start of working hours.
 Presence of all team members involved in the Sprint is mandatory.
 During the meeting, these questions are answered:
o What has been done since the last meeting?
o What needs to be done before the next meeting?
o What does anyone need help with?

• Tracking Impediments
 By tracking impediments as they are raised, addressed, and resolved, communication and proper oversight is increased.
 Methods for tracking impediments might include:
o Impediment task boards
o Software applications

 Task boards need to convey the status and efforts associated with the identified impediments.

511
Getting the Work Done

• Risk Reviews / Risk List

 Impediments may be due to, or a result of, project risks or issues.
 Risks raised formally during the daily standup meetings, iteration reviews, or informally, are added to the risk list.
 Newly identified and existing risks are updated based on the current knowledge and situation.

• Handling Impediments as Servant Leaders

• Servant leaders aim to clear an unobstructed path for the project team so they may contribute and deliver.
• Project managers want to optimize the workplace to be free of obstacles and other impediments.
o Physical team space
o Shielding the team from non-value activities

• Removing distraction, randomization, and other confusion enables the project team to be more effective and
efficient.
• Project managers can take on most of the burden of addressing and removing impediments so the team can do their
best work on the project to achieve its desired objectives.

512
Getting the Work Done

• Guidelines for Working with External Stakeholders, Other Projects, and Work Demands
 Discuss with the team to assess and evaluate the impediment.
 Review efforts previously attempted or considered.
 Discuss impact and solutions.
 Relay the impediment to the external source.
 Establish a single point of contact (SPOC) within the team, typically the project manager or person with the most
subject matter knowledge. Shield the rest of the team as appropriate to focus on other work.
 Create action plan and schedule.
 Follow up and communicate per agreements.
 Document resolution and lessons learned for future reference.

513
Getting the Work Done

• Guidelines to Prioritize Critical Impediments, Obstacles, and Blockers

 Define the prioritization categories appropriate for team, project, and/or organization. Redefine levels as
needed.
 Anchor the priority levels with real examples.
 Clarify the new and still open impediments.
 Review the impact or potential impact to the team and to the project objectives.
 Assign a priority to each impediment as a team or a selected subgroup based on connection to the
impediment. Use any technique suitable for the team:
 Fist to five—Participants give a priority level from 0 (fist) to 5 (full hand)
 T-Shirt sizes—Participants repurpose the t-shirt sizing estimation to the priorities
 Unique naming—Team designs their own unique naming conventions for scale that works for their needs
 Planning Poker—Participants repurpose the estimating technique for priorities

 Communicate the priorities in an accessible area, such as an information radiator.

 Begin creating action plans for the highest priority impediments.
 Continually reassess to ensure impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team are being addressed.

514
Lesson
Manage Risks, Issues and Changes
10

Implement Risk Responses is the process of implementing agreed-upon risk response plans.
Clear risk roles and Manage, monitor and Carry out risk
responsibilities control response actions
Project Manager Risk Owner Risk Action Owner
…Report… …Report…

Implemented
Inherent response More than one
(Primary) risk = Risk response?

Reduce or
remove other Secondary risks?
risks?

515
Getting the Work Done

Strategy for Identified Risks

2.If yes, what was the

1.Had the risk been 3.Implement the
initial strategy among
identified strategy
the 5 strategies

6.If not, implement a

5.If yes, update risk
fallback plan if there is 4.Was it effective
register with risk status
one.

9.If not effective and the risk profile is

8.If not effective, substantially different, then update
7.Check the
implement the accept issue log, evaluate the impact,
effectiveness of your
response and use Identify options for workaround and
fallback plan.
contingency reserve. submit a change request

516
Getting the Work Done

Issues
• Issue: A current condition or situation that may have an impact on the project objectives. In other words, it is an action
item that the project team must address.

Risks Issues
• Focused on the future • Focused on the present
• Can be positive or negative • Will always be negative
• Is documented in the Risk Register • Is documented in the Issue Log
• Response is called a “risk response” • Response is called a “workaround”

• Issue log: A document where information about issues is recorded and monitored. It is used to track problems,
inconsistencies, or conflicts that occur during the life of the project and require investigation in order to work
toward a resolution.

ID Description Opened Due Date Priority Owner Response Status Comments

Tasks are on the

25 Truck strike 10/15/20xx 11/01/20xx High R. Smith TBD Open
critical path

517
Getting the Work Done

Issue Resolution
• As issues arise, promptly add them to the issue log.
• Each issue should have an owner who is responsible for tracking the progress of the workaround and reporting back to
the project manager.
• The due date should be realistic and every reasonable attempt should be made to meet it.
• Issues should be a regular topic of every status meeting, with the goal to keep the number of open issues to a
manageable number.
• Don’t hesitate to escalate an issue to the project sponsor if it begins to have a major effect on the project.

Guidelines to Resolving Issues

• Use your organization’s Issue Log template, or in the absence of one, create an Issue Log.
• Train team members to promptly report potential issues to the project manager, who will determine if they belong in the Issue Log.
• Enter the issue into the Issue Log and assign an owner and a due date.
• Monitor progress and discuss each open issue at every project status meeting.
• Develop a response (also known as a workaround) to the issue.
• Assess the impact of the response.
• Approve the response.
• Close the issue.

518
Getting the Work Done

Strategy for Unidentified Risks

3.What are the impacts
1.Record and document 2.Why did it happen?
now it has happened?
what has happened in Understand Cause-Risk-
Analyze project
the issue log Effect
constraints

6.After approval of the change

request, Update the change log, 5.Prepare and submit a
project plan and other change request to CCB 4.Brainstorm for the BEST
documents with relevant info (don’t forget to update Workaround
and inform stakeholders the change log)

7. Implement the workaround

which included in the approved 8.Verify the workaround
change request Consider using is effective and
Management Reserves implemented correctly

519
Getting the Work Done

Change Control Systems

• Change control system* A set of procedures that describes how modifications to the project deliverables and
documentation are managed and controlled.
• Change control systems can include: Forms, Tracking methods, Processes and Approval levels required for authorizing or rejecting
requested changes
• Change Control Board (CCB)* A formally chartered group responsible for reviewing, evaluating, approving, delaying,
or rejecting changes to the project, and for recording and communicating such decisions.

Change Control Strategy Causes of Project Changes

Inaccurate initial estimates

Specification changes
Analyzing the
Change Change Course of Updating
impact of the
identification documentation action related plans
change
New regulations

Missed/New requirements

520
Getting the Work Done

Change Management Process Flowchart

Change Request Change initiators PM logs change request Send rejection notice
Form

Change
• Approved change requests: Requests that have been received request Rejected
passes
and approved in accordance with the integrated change control filter?
plan and are ready to be scheduled for implementation.
Accepted
• Approved changes can include:
 Corrective action—adjusts the performance of the project work with Deliverable No
the project management plan. affected?

 Preventive action—ensures future performance of the project work

Yes
with the project management plan.
PM prepares impact statement for
 Defect repair—modifies a non-conformance within the project. change request
 Update—modifies a project document or plan.
Minor impact PM Moderate impact PM & Major impact PM, sponsor, &
reviews stakeholder review stakeholder review
Rebalance the project

Build & communicate the Yes Change No

Execute the change
change authorized?

521
Getting the Work Done

Guidelines to Manage Project Changes

• Make sure your change control system is cost effective.

• Establish or make use of an existing CCB composed of project stakeholders to evaluate change requests.
• Document the effect the changes have on the applicable project baselines.
• Obtain approval from the appropriate parties for all change requests before implementing the change.
• Use configuration management to document and control changes to original product characteristics.
• Coordinate changes across knowledge areas as appropriate. For example, does a proposed schedule change affect
cost, risk, quality, and/or staffing?
• Use performance reports to measure project performance.
• Identify corrective action necessary to bring expected performance in line with the project plan.
• Update the project plan to reflect changes made that affect performance baselines.
• Document the causes of variances, the steps taken to correct performance problems, and the rationale behind the
decision-making process.

522
M&C Project Work
Make Sure Project Performance
Alignment With Project Goals
This page is intentionally left blank to match the printed book.
Chapter 5
M&C Project Work

Content
• Scope verification and validation
• Performance Tracking & Control
• Continuous Improvement
This page is intentionally left blank to match the printed book.
Lesson
Scope verification and validation
01

Monitor/Control Scope
• Control Scope is the process of monitoring the status of the project and product scope and managing changes to the scope
baseline.
• Variance Analysis – the difference between the scope baseline and what was actually created – and can be used to
determine root causes between such differences
• Ensuring that scope change requests are property determined and managed and preventing unnecessary changes.
• The uncontrolled expansion to product or project scope without adjustments to time, cost, and resources is referred to as
scope creep. 'Scope Creep' is a notorious aspect of scope and refers to additional changes or uncontrolled growth that
occurs after the project begins.
• Many stakeholders will want to give their best work to the project, especially more junior team members who want to
'prove' themselves. Be sure that work packages are not being over-engineered. Scope creep doesn't always come from
outside the project team!
• As unknowns are clarified and processes are crystallized, you need to monitor and correct scope as necessary to meet
quality expectations.
• The requirements traceability matrix links product requirements from their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them. The
purpose of this matrix is to justify each requirement and link it directly to the business and project objectives. This matrix
can be used to track the progress of requirements throughout the project life cycle and verify that they have been met once
the project closes out. The matrix can also help manage a project's scope and any proposed changes to the scope.

527
M&C Project Work

Control Quality
• Quality control measures the product of the project against the metrics and criteria identified in the quality
management plan.
• A quality metric is a description of a project or product attribute and how to measure it. The tolerance is the allowable
variation in this measurement. For example, a quality metric on the schedule could say that the schedule is to stay
within +10% and -10% of the actual schedule. When the measurement falls outside this range, action needs to be
taken. Other examples of quality metrics include budget variance, defect count, requirements coverage, and failure
rate.

Quality Control Guidelines:

• Conduct quality inspections to detect errors
• Consult the quality management plan for procedures and guidelines
• Check results against operational definitions and checklists
• Use statistical sampling to determine whether large batches of a product should be accepted or rejected based on the
quality of the sample(s)
• Use Pareto diagrams to focus actions on the problems having the greatest effect on the overall quality
• Use control charts to analyze and communicate the variability of a process or project activity over time
• Identify ways to eliminate the causes of unsatisfactory results to minimize rework
• Use flowcharts to identify redundancies, missed steps, or the source of quality problems
• Initiate process adjustments by implementing corrective or preventive actions necessary
• Monitor, measure, and adjust quality throughout the project life cycle

528
M&C Project Work

Validate Scope
• Validate Scope is the process of formalizing acceptance of the completed project deliverables
• Scope Validation is verifying that the project’s product, service or result is within the boundaries of the documented
scope. It checks that the products are complete and acceptable.
• Inspection includes tools such as User Acceptance Testing, Walkthroughs, Reviews, etc.
• This is the performance of acceptance tests to ensure product compliance with the requirements and scope
• Deliverables are formally signed off by the customer or sponsor

Direct & Manage Deliverables

Control Quality
Project Work

Verified Deliverables
Accepted Deliverables
Close Project or Phase Validate Scope
(Accepted by Customer)
Final Product, Service or
Result Transition

529
M&C Project Work

Scope Baseline
Create WBS • WBS & Dictionary
• Project Scope Statement
• Work Packages

Direct and
Control Verified Validate
Manage DELIVERABLES
Quality Deliverables Scope
Project Work

Requirements
Collect
Documentation &
Requirements
Traceability
Matrix Close Project or Accepted
Phase Deliverables

530
M&C Project Work

Demonstrations/Reviews
• Teams receive feedback about how the product looks and operates
through a demo.
• The demonstration and review helps check progress against the plan
and determines if any changes to the project scope, schedule, or
execution processes are necessary.
• As the team completes the features usually in the form of user stories,
the team periodically demonstrates the working product. The product
owner sees the demonstration and accepts or declines stories.
• Encourage the PMO and other interested parties to watch
demonstrations so the people deciding on the project portfolio can see
the actual progress.
• With Frequent Verification & Validation, We are checking to ensure that
we can resolve the errors/issues at fast pace to improve product quality

531
M&C Project Work

Product Improvement
Definition of Done

Testing

1. Exploratory Testing
Exploratory are used to find extreme behavior. Exploratory tests would usually be performed by experienced
tester who are used to unknown issues and unexpected behavior.

2. Usability tests
Usability tests, are used to test how the end user interacts with the product

532
M&C Project Work

Very Important Keywords

1) Validate Scope ( Formal acceptance )
2) Close Project Or phase ( Final Acceptance )
3) Verified deliverables ( By Quality Control Team )
4) Accepted Deliverables ( By Customer Or Sponsor )
5) Scope creep ( Uncontrolled expansion to product or project scope )
6) Variance Analysis (Compare the baseline to the actual results )
7) Trend analysis (Examines project performance over time )
8) WBS ( Hierarchical decomposition of the total scope )
9) Product Scope ( Features and Functions )
10) Project Scope ( Work Performed )

533
This page is intentionally left blank to match the printed book.
Lesson
Performance Tracking & Control
02

Monitor and Control Project Work in Agile Projects

• Iterative, agile, and adaptive approaches track, review, and regulate progress and performance by maintaining a
backlog.
• Metrics for agile projects contain meaningful information that provide a historical track record, because agile
projects deliver value (finished work) on a regular basis. Project teams can use such data for improved forecasts and
decision making.
• Surrogate measurements such as percent done are less useful than empirical measurements such as finished
features.
• Agile monitoring comes in a variety of forms:
 Frequent delivery
 Co-location
 Daily Team Meeting (standup meeting)
 Timebox Review Meeting (Retrospective)
• Frequent delivery allows the Product Owner to declare a product “done” at any time or the Business Sponsor to
declare the project finished at any time.

535
M&C Project Work

Monitor and Control Project Work in Agile Projects

• Agile teams try to promote face-to-face communication and to reduce the channels of communication in general. A
keyway to do this is to be co-located in the same area.
• Key measures are:
 Velocity
 Work Remaining on Tasks
 Project Cost
• Velocity is a measure of the team's capacity to delivery in a Timebox. The unit of measure is the same as that used
for estimating:
 For User Stories this is Story Points.
 For Tasks this is actual hours.
• In most organizations the cost of a project must be tracked to ensure it does not go over budget. Since you’re
tracking on it you may as well report it.
• Each day the team estimates the work remaining on each active Task. The estimate of work remaining Task will
hopefully go down over time, This is where the data for the Timebox Burn Down Chart come from.

536
M&C Project Work

Key Performance Indicators (KPls)

Let's examine four of these metrics that are commonly used.
1. Rate of progress. How many features or user stories are getting completed and accepted by the product owner per
week or month?
2. Remaining work. How much work is left in the backlog? This KPI attempts to quantify the remaining work.
3. Likely completion date, We look at how much work there is left to do and divide it by our current rate of progress.
4. Likely costs remaining. For simple projects, this will be the salary burn rate for the team multiplied by the
remaining weeks left. There may also be other fixed costs that we need to take into account, such as licenses,
equipment, deployment and training costs, and so on.

537
M&C Project Work

Estimating Dates with Velocity & Estimating Cost

• Sponsors usually want to know when the project will be done. Once the team establishes a reliable velocity
(average stories or story points per iteration) or the average cycle time, the team can predict how much longer
the project will take.
• Velocity is defined as the "measure of a team's capacity for work per iteration:' This powerful metric allows the
team to gauge how much work they will be able to do in future iterations, based on the amount of work they
completed in past iterations. This provides a way to track and communicate what they have accomplished,
anticipate what they will be able to accomplish in the future, and forecast when the project (or release) is likely
to be done.
• Teams might discover it can take four to eight iterations to achieve a stable velocity. The teams need the
feedback from each iteration to learn about how they work and how to improve.
• Once a team has tracked their velocity over multiple iterations, they can use their average velocity to estimate
when the next release or project will be done.

538
M&C Project Work

Estimating Dates with Velocity & Estimating Cost Velocity Chart

For example: Your team's velocity has been 40, 48, 52, 59 and
51 points per iteration since starting the project. Your backlog
of remaining work has 600 points of functionality in it. Your
sponsor wants to know when you expect to be done. How
many more iterations of work will be required to complete the
backlog?

You first need to calculate the average number of points

per iteration: (40 + 48 + 52 + 59 + 51) / 5 = 50
You then divide the remaining work by the average points
per iteration: 600 / 50= 12
Therefore, the backlog will likely require 12 more
iterations of work to complete.

539
M&C Project Work

Estimating Dates with Velocity & Estimating Cost

Exercise

1. Based on the velocity chart in the attached

figure, in what iteration can the business
expect 33 more story points completed?

2. If each sprint costs $20k, what would be the

project cost at the end of iteration 15?

540
M&C Project Work

Monitor Variations and Governance Processes

• Variations are practically inevitable. But how you handle them and how you proceed within your project governance will
ultimately determine a project's success or failure. Tools like earned value management (EVM) and budgetary tools will help
you manage this process.
• Often issues that arise on a project are dealt with by solutions that may not be in line with proper organizational
governance. Be sure to take the time to assess whether the quality of a solution to a particular variation is in line with the
expected quality of work

Measure Progress
• As your project proceeds, you need to measure if the team is making sufficient and meaningful progress based on the
master schedule. Ensure that you are familiar with the tools and techniques in this section, especially when to use each.
• Use a structured process for change in any kind of project, even when using an agile approach. Making changes to the
schedule is disruptive and can create a cascading effect throughout all project tasks.
• Informal qualitative assessments can be performed by chatting with individuals executing work packages. These
discussions often reveal important information that may affect the project downstream. Try to keep consistent time for
these informal moments.

541
M&C Project Work

Variance Analysis
• Variance is the measure of how much they vary from each other. For example, if you ask multiple people to estimate the
same job, there will be some variance (differences) between their estimates. And once the work has been executed,
there will be a variance ( difference) between the planned estimate and the actual results.
• Qµality expert W. Edwards Deming classifies variance into common cause variation and special cause variation, Common
cause variation refers to the average day-to-day differences of doing work, and Special cause variation refers to the
greater degrees of variance that are caused by :Special or new factors.
• The main point is that we should simply accept common cause variation on our projects; we only need to investigate or
take action in the case of special cause variation.
• we should look to external indicators and the daily stand-up meetings where the team reports any issues or impediments
to their work to see if there are special issues that need to be resolved.

Defects Found per Release Defects Found per Month

542
M&C Project Work

Trend Analysis
• Trend analysis is a particularly important tool for detecting problems because it provides insights into future issues
before they have occurred.
• This trend is useful not only because it tells us. we are receiving change requests faster than we can process them,
which is increasing our WIP, but also because it indicates that we may not be spending enough time validating feature
requirements before developing them.

543
M&C Project Work

Evaluate Quality Standards Regularly

• When you create a project team, you look critically at their skills and perform a gap analysis to figure out if your team needs
any additional training. When assessing quality, the process is similar. Determine if there are any gaps in the quality of your
project and make improvements on your deliverables and/or products.
• Effective quality management provides confidence that the project's product or service will satisfy relevant quality
requirements and standards.

• Control charts and variability control charts are used to analyze and communicate the variability of a process or project
activity over time. Control charts help show the potential capability of the process and also suggest the range of variability in
the process. This range of variability can assist a project manager in determining if the variance is caused by common or
assignable sources.

• A Pareto chart is a histogram that is used to rank causes of problems in a hierarchical format. The goal is to narrow down the
primary causes of variance on a project and focus the energy and efforts on tackling the most significant sources of variance.
The variables in the chart are ordered by the frequency of occurrences.

• Statistical sampling is defined as choosing part of a population of interest for inspection. lt1s a technique that is used to
determine the characteristics of an entire population based on the actual measurement of a representative sample of that
population. Sampling is a way to determine if large batches of a product should be accepted or rejected without hav1ing to
test every single item produced. Its goal is to produce a process that does not require inspection of every item. The size of
samples and the frequency and cost of sampling must be determined when planning for· project quality.

544
M&C Project Work

Evaluate Quality Standards Regularly

• A quality checklist is a tool used to conduct the inspections to confirm the acceptance or rejection of the products based on
the quality metrics. It can be a simple check of one or two items or a complex list of frequently performed tasks.

• Sometimes expectations of quality change throughout the project And the reasons are often difficult to narrow down. For
example, a competitor product in the marketplace may cause stakeholders to second-guess a current project, or perhaps
budget reductions cause the acceptable level of quality to drop if it means a faster turnaround. Watch out for changing
expectations!

• Gap analysis helps discover areas for improvement and define opportunities for change. Analyze potential quality
improvement against available resources (time, personnel, budget) and prioritize the new changes accordingly.

• Monitoring and controlling project quality ensures that the quality complies with relevant quality standards. Meeting quality
standards enhances the team's ability to deliver an overall project performance that meets the project objectives.

545
M&C Project Work

Control Limits
• One way we can use control limits on an agile project is
to monitor our velocity to gauge how likely it is that we
will be able to complete the agreed-upon work by the
release date.
• For example, if we have 600 points' worth of
functionality left in the backlog and 10 months until
deployment preparations begin, we should set our
lower control limit at 60 points per month ( 600 / 10 =
60), since that is the minimum velocity required to
meet this goal.

• Kan ban and task-boards that limit WIP are also a form
of control limits on agile projects. These tools prevent
too much work from being included in an activity, and
they help the team control the amount of work in
progress.

546
M&C Project Work

Modify Schedule
• The Iterative Scheduling with a Backlog method uses progressive elaboration (rolling wave) techniques to develop and
schedule activities in a specified time window, often two weeks, based on requirements defined in user stories. The stories
are prioritized and selected based on how long each will take. The highest priority is constructed first, allowing a team to
deliver business value early and incrementally.
• Remaining stories are added to the backlog and will be constructed in subsequent time cycles based on their priority. A
benefit of this scheduling approach is that it allows for changes/adaptations during the entire project but does not work well
with activities that have complex dependency relationships.

• The earlier a change is made to the schedule, the better. Don't leave changes to the last minute. You need enough time to
assess the impacts of any issues that arise from the change, and that can only happen if changes are made as soon as
possible through the proper change management strategy.

• Schedules and their changes can certainly have impacts on resources and projects that are interdependent or rely on a
common set of resources. Ensuring that the schedule takes other schedules into consideration will help plan timing.
• having a master deliverables schedule that shows internal resource risks and external product delivery schedules, as well as
dependent subtasks within the project, is the best way to create a holistic schedule.
• When people feel like they are a part of a team and have a certain level of decision-making authority, they are more likely to
do their best work Schedule slippage can happen for many reasons, but if everyone feels like they have a say, there is a
higher probability that the schedule will stay on track as people work together.

547
M&C Project Work

Cost Control & Earned Value

Acronym EV Term Older Terms Earned Value = % Complete x Budget
PV Planned Value Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS) % Complete = Earned Value …and ONLY then – compare
Earned Value with Planned Cost
EV Earned Value Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP) Budget and Actual Cost…

Always start with what you’ve GOT

AC Actual Cost Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP)

Performance Indices variances …both variances are

relative to Earned
Value…
Cost Performance Index (CPI) Cost Variance (CV)
CPI = Earned Value/Actual Cost CV = Earned Value – Actual Cost

Schedule Performance Index (SPI) Schedule Variance (SV) EV

SPI = Earned Value /Planned Value SV = Earned Value – Planned Value

Positive Variances are good (under-spent/ahead of schedule)

ES
Negative Variances are bad (over-spent/behind schedule)

Ratio’s greater than 1 are Good!

548
M&C Project Work

Cost Control & Earned Value

Budget Forecasting Using Earned Value

Forecasting
EAC = AC + ETC.

Case 1: If the original plan Case 2: If current cost variances Case 3: If current cost Case 4: It may be necessary to come
is no longer valid, we will are not typical for the entire variance is typical for the up with an EAC considering both SPI
have to create a new project, and the remaining work is entire project, then use and CPI factors if both are expected
estimate for the remaining expected to be performed at the EAC = BAC / CPI. to influence the remaining work. In
work, ETC will be given. planned rate, then use Default Case this case,
EAC = AC + ETC EAC = AC + BAC — EV. EAC = AC + [(BAC — EV)/ (CPI x SP1)]

549
M&C Project Work

Cost Control & Earned Value

Budget Forecasting Using Earned Value
To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI)

This is the calculated projection of cost performance that must be achieved on the remaining work to meet the
specified target (either BAC or EAC). It is the ratio of “work remaining” to “funds remaining”.
Note that if work remaining and funds remaining are not equal, then it
TCPI is calculated as follows would be better if funds remaining (on the bottom) was the higher number.
So, a TCPI < 1 is better than a TCPI > 1. This is the opposite of CPI (and SPI).

TCPI = Fixed Earning Rules

or 0-100 Rule: When calculating EV for a task that is in process, you would
TCPI = assign the work complete as 0%, and only assign 100% when the entire
task is complete; this is easier than trying to calculate the actual amount
complete and may make more sense for some tasks.
(if there is an approved EAC)
There is also the 50-50 Rule where you would assign the work complete
on a partial task as 50% and the final 50% at the end of the task.
Similarly, the 25-75 Rule and 20-80 Rule work along the same lines
because they assign more weight to finishing work than to starting it.

550
M&C Project Work

Anticipate Future Budget Challenges

• While you cannot predict the future, heuristics can be used to anticipate budget challenges. Heuristics are a "rule of
thumb", or simple way to make quick decisions based on limited data. Controlling costs is key to successful project
outcomes, so use every resource available to you diligently and wisely in the anticipation process.
• Delivering incrementally is a subjective exercise. If the project sponsor feels like there is a consistent flow of value, they
will be incentivized to champion a consistent flow of money to the project. Try to engage the project sponsor on a
regular basis to gain insights on what funding may look like in the future.
• These are prudent measures for ensuring that the project stays on track and doesn't go over budget. Controlling cost
can require a lot of monitoring, reporting, analyzing, and investigation.

551
M&C Project Work

Earned Value in an Agile Context

• If a team needs to measure earned value, it can consider using this burnup chart in Figure

• For example, if the team planned to

complete 30 story points in an
iteration, but only completed 25
then the SPI is 25/30 or 0.83 (the
team is working at only 83% of the
rate planned). Likewise, CPI is the
earned value (completed features
value) to date divided by the actual
costs to date or, as shown in Figure,
$2.2M / $2.8M = 0.79. This means a
result of only 79 cents on the dollar
compared to plan (but of course this
assumes that the prediction is still
correct.)

552
M&C Project Work

Cost Control & Earned Value

Exercise 1

AC=$900
SV=
CV=

Performance Index
SPI=
CPI=

553
M&C Project Work

Cost Control & Earned Value

Exercise 1

AC=$900
SV= EV - PV = 600 - 800 = -200
CV= EV - AC = 600 - 900 = -300

Performance Index Project Status

SPI= EV / PV = 600 / 800 = 0.75 (Behind Schedule & Over Budget)
CPI= EV / AC = 600 / 900 = 0.66

554
M&C Project Work

Cost Control & Earned Value

Exercises - 2

555
M&C Project Work

Evaluate Organizational Impact

• Use the appropriate tools and techniques to help you determine the organizational impact of your work. This is another
strategic task, often underutilized in project management. Simulating organizational impacts of projects shows you how a
project lines up with organizational goals and strategic objectives.
• Simulation is a technique that uses computer models and estimates of risk to translate uncertainties at a detailed level into
their potential impact on project objectives. Simulations involve calculating multiple project durations with varying sets of
activity assumptions. A project simulation uses a model that translates project uncertainties into their potential impact on
project objectives. The project model is run many times with different variables to calculate a probability distribution.

Verify Benefits are Tracked

• The long-term benefits of your project should be measured in some way in order to properly allocate benefits to completed
work. In order to ensure that benefits are tracked, make sure that measurement continues after your project ends.
• Projects often start with large aspirations, but if the proposed benefits can't be tracked then it's hard to deliver results. For
every project benefit, make sure to also think of how you will measure it throughout the project.
• This is the way to ensure that benefits are tracked correctly. Benefit owners must keep track of their progress while project
managers account for the risks and look for new benefits.
• Tracking accountability and responsibility for benefits is important. Sometimes stakeholders may be hesitant to be
accountable for something, so at least make sure there is assigned responsibility. Stakeholders want to know they will be
supported when things get tough (and they will!)

556
M&C Project Work

Inform Stakeholders of Value Delivered

• In an agile project, at the end of each iteration or sprint, the team will host other stakeholders and conduct a sprint
review or demo. Part of the purpose of agile approaches is that the team is focused on completing whole user stories in
each sprint. In other words, everything is done, and the capability is 'potentially shippable'. At an early stage, the team
wishes to gain acceptance of the story from the product owner because it should meet all of the defined acceptance
criteria and to get early feedback from other stakeholders which may unearth changes or additional undefined
requirements. The sprint review then is used to review progress on the overall product, and to get feedback early while
it's still relevant. Certain aspects of the solution may need to be changed or enhanced to optimize business value.

• Projects don't always go as planned, so try to celebrate the small wins as much as possible. Nothing builds a strong team
like crossing the finish line together, and the more finish lines crossed, the stronger the team will be.

• The direct way is often the best way. Simply sending out a congratulatory email, even with documents attached, isn't
enough to make the point that you have delivered a quality product against the company's strategic vision to provide
value and benefits.

557
M&C Project Work

Work Performance Report

Direct and Manage
Key Benefits project Work
• It allows stakeholders to understand the
current state of the project.
Control
• To recognize the actions taken to address Work performance data processes Work
any performance issues. performance
reports
• To have visibility into the future project
status with cost and schedule forecasts. Work performance
information
▪ Comparing actual performance against the project plan.
▪ Checking the status of individual project risks. Monitor and Control
project Work
▪ Providing information to support status reporting, progress measurement forecasting.
▪ Providing forecasts to update current cost and current schedule information.
▪ Monitoring implementation of approved changes as they occur.
▪ Ensuring that the project stays aligned with the business needs.

558
M&C Project Work

Information Radiators

1-Jun
3-Jun
5-Jun
7-Jun
9-Jun
11-Jun
13-Jun
15-Jun
17-Jun
19-Jun
21-Jun
23-Jun
25-Jun
27-Jun
29-Jun
Cumulative Flow,
Burnups,
Burndowns…

are only the beginning

559
M&C Project Work

Burndown Charts
A burndown chart tracks the work that remains to be done on a project. As work is completed, the progress line on
the chart will move downward, reflecting the smaller amount of work that still needs to be done. The most
common use of burndown charts is for measuring the team's progress in completing the project work.

560
M&C Project Work

Risk Burndown Graphs

• Risk burndown graphs are essentially stacked area graphs of cumulative project risk severity. The severity scores for each
risk are plotted one on top of-another to show the project's cumulative severity profile.
• When risks and their history of severity are displayed in this format, it is much easier to interpret the overall risk status and
trends of the project.
• Risk burndown graphs quickly inform stakeholders whether the risks are moving in the right direction (downward), or if
they are escalating.

561
M&C Project Work

Burndowns to Provide Context

Product Owner Speaking
To date, we have completed
Burndowns can provide context to make tough decisions at both the feature 1 through feature 4.
sprint and release level Unfortunately, we lost several
key members of our team
during iteration 6 and we are
unlikely to get all planned
Backlog features done for this release,
Feature 1 unless we execute with
Feature 2 perfection, which is unlikely.
Feature 3
To Date Feature 4 We will likely delay feature 9
Feature 5 and 10 until the next release,
Feature 6 unless we make some
Feature 7 tradeoffs.
Feature 8 We already started discussions
Feature 9 with sales and marketing and
Feature 10 we may limit our work on
feature 5 and 6 in the next
Sprint.

562
M&C Project Work

Burnup Charts
• Some project teams prefer burnup charts. Burnup charts show the work completed. Especially with teams new to
agile, the burnup will show changes in scope during the iteration. Burnups allow teams to see what they have
accomplished, which helps the team proceed to the next piece of work.

• Whether teams use burndown or

burnup charts, they see what they have
completed as the iteration progresses.
• At the end of the iteration, they might
base their next measure of capacity
(how many stories or story points) on
what they completed in this iteration.
• That allows the product owner along
with the team to replan what the team
is more likely to succeed in delivering in
the next iteration.

563
M&C Project Work

Feature Burnup/Burndown Charts

The team can measure completed work in a feature burnup/burndown chart and in a product backlog burnup
chart. These charts provide trends of completion over time, as shown in Figure

Product Backlog Burnup Chart Feature Chart

564
M&C Project Work

Cumulative Flow Diagram

On this chart, we can see how the total scope ( the top line) increased from 300 features to 400 during the project.
We can also see the work in progress ( the dotted section) and the completed work ( the striped section). The team's
true rate of progress is the gradient of the line at the top of the "Completed" section, which tracks the completion of
features.

565
M&C Project Work

Cumulative Flow Diagram

Bottlenecks and the Theory of Constraints (TOC)
One example of TOC thinking is question 3 from the daily scrum or stand-up
meeting, which asks for any impediments ( or blockers) to making progress. With
this question, we are looking for roadblocks on the project so that they can be
removed.

In this example, the work in progress has been broken out by activity, and the
The vertical (B) line tells us how many items are in
activities are stacked sequentially. Analysis, database procedures, coding and unit
the queue, and the horizontal line tells us the cycle
testing, and user testing work are being done on the project by different groups.
time, or how long it will take to complete those
When examining CFDs for bottlenecks, we look for areas that widen before the final
items.
activity is done.

566
M&C Project Work

TROUBLESHOOTING AGILE PROJECT CHALLENGES Agile Pain Points and Troubleshooting Possibilities
Agile approaches were born out of the
need to solve issues associated with
high rates of change, uncertainty, and
complexity on projects.

Due to these origins, they contain a

variety of tools and techniques for
dealing with issues that present
problems in predictive approaches.

567
M&C Project Work

TROUBLESHOOTING AGILE PROJECT CHALLENGES Agile Pain Points and Troubleshooting Possibilities

568
M&C Project Work

Agile Pain Points and Troubleshooting Possibilities

TROUBLESHOOTING AGILE
PROJECT CHALLENGES

569
This page is intentionally left blank to match the printed book.
Lesson
Continuous Improvement
03

Enablers
• Assess existing organization continuous improvement framework.
• Plan continuous improvement methods, procedures, tools.
• Recommend and execute continuous improvement steps.

Deliverables and Tools

Deliverables Tools

Update processes and standards Quality Theory methods

CI approaches

Lessons learned

Retrospectives

Experiments

571
M&C Project Work

• Continuous improvement: An ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes.

• Effort can look for small incremental improvements or large breakthroughs.
• Institute of Quality Assurance definition includes improving business strategy, business results, and customer, employee,
and supplier relationships.
• A business strategy that is developed at the organizational level for projects to adopt and use.
• Might be implemented by an organization’s PMO.

Culture of Continuous Improvement

• W. Edwards Deming’s four concepts
o Better design of products to improve service.
o Higher level of uniform product quality.
o Improvement of product testing in the workplace and in research centers.
o Greater sales through global markets.

• Deming's philosophy was that improving quality would reduce expenses, increase productivity, and thus increase market
share.

572
M&C Project Work

Quality Theory Methods

• An approach to improving business results through emphasis on customer satisfaction, employee development,
and processes rather than functions.

Theorist Approach
The Deming cycle focuses on continuous process improvement in which quality
W. Edwards Deming
must be continuously improved to meet customer needs.
The Juran trilogy breaks quality management into quality planning, control, and
Joseph M. Juran
improvement.
This method emphasizes four absolutes: conforming to requirements, quality is
Philip B. Crosby achieved by prevention, standard of zero defects, and quality is measured by
determining the cost of quality.
The Taguchi method emphasizes that quality should be designed into the
Genichi Taguchi
product so factors that cause variation can be identified and controlled.
Six Sigma emphasizes responding to customer needs and improving processes
William (Bill) Smith, Jr.
by systematically removing defects.

573
M&C Project Work

Continuous Improvement Tools

• Lessons Learned Register is an important component of each project.
o Use it as a source of improving the processes in other projects.
o Avoid filing it away at the end of a project and not referring to it.

• Retrospectives
o Common in agile projects at the end of each iteration.
o Help the team look back at an iteration and plan improvements for the next one.

• Experiments provide a way to improve team efficiency and effectiveness.

o Some techniques include AB testing and team feedback to identify improvements.
o Perform experiments one at a time to isolate the results.

Update to Process and Standards

• Lessons learned at the project level can apply to the organization's continuous improvement process, in addition to
the project management processes.
• These lessons should be escalated and evaluated for consideration at the organizational level.

574
M&C Project Work

1. Product Improvement
Product Quality can be improved contiguously by seeking feedback on the product by incremental delivery and
frequent demonstrations in order to improve the value the product.

1. Iterative Development
2. Frequent Verification & Validation
3. Revisiting Definition of Done
4. Testing (Exploratory and Usability Tests)

Product Reviews Agile Review Rules

• Product feedback • Let the data speak for itself
• Retrospective and demos • Respect individuals
• Diverge and then converge

575
M&C Project Work

1. Product Improvement
Product Feedback Loops and Learning Cycles
• Does it meet the customers needs and expectations
• Does it work and all conditions
• Did we break anything while building this
• How can we improve efficiency
• How can quality be improved
• How can we share lessons learned

Product Feedback Methods

• Prototypes
• Simulations
• Demos
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

576
M&C Project Work

2. Process Improvement
1. Retrospectives
Tailor and adapt the project process by periodically reviewing and
2. Value Stream Mapping Method
integrating team practices, organizational culture, and delivery goals In
3. Process Tailoring
order to ensure team effectiveness within established organizational
4. Failure Analysis
guidelines and norms.

Purpose of Iteration Retrospective: Why You Need Retrospectives

• Inspect how the last Sprint went with regards • Improve productivity

to people, relationships, process, and tools; • Improved capabilities

• Create a plan for implementing improvements to • Quality improvement

the way the Scrum Team does its work. • Capacity improvement

577
M&C Project Work

2. Process Improvement
Value Stream Mapping
• Lean manufacturing technique adopted by agile
• A visual map of a process flow to identify delays waste andconstraints
Value Stream Maps are a Lean tool for envisioning waste in your processes.

Value Stream Maps traditionally track a single feature (e.g. User Story) from request to fulfillment.

Board Detailed Build & Test &

Req’s Costing Code
review Req’s Integrate Release

VA 4 weeks 1 week .5 week 1 week 8 weeks 0 weeks 2 weeks

Time
PCE = 16.5 weeks = 66%
Total 6 weeks 2 weeks 1 week 2 weeks 10 weeks 1 week 3 weeks 25 weeks
Time
Cum. 6 weeks 8 weeks 9 weeks 11 weeks 21 weeks 22 weeks 25 weeks
Time

578
M&C Project Work

2. Process Improvement
Process Tailoring
Process tailoring refers to adapting our implementation of agile to better fit our project environment. Process Tailoring can be
effective and productive, but we also should be aware of the risk involved in this practice
• Adapting agile for your environment
• There is some risk with tailoring
Methodology Success Patterns
• Better to create processes for each project as needed • Interactive face-to-face communication is the
cheapest and fastest channel for exchanging
• Consider risk and reward
information
• Excess methodology weight is costly
Risk and Reward of Process Tailoring • Larger teams need heavier methodologies
• First embrace traditional agile processes before attempting to • Projects with greater criticality require greater
change ceremony
• Second examine the motivation for changing processes • Feedback and communication reduce the need
for intermediate deliverables
Process Analysis • Discipline skills and understanding counter
process formality and documentation
• Reviewing and diagnosing issues with agile methods • Efficiency is expendable in on bottleneck
• Trying to discover what does and does not work activities
• Often done after process tailoring

579
M&C Project Work

2. Process Improvement

Pre-Mortem (Rule Setting, Failure Analysis)

The pre-mortem is a facilitated team exercise that aims to identify the possible failures on a project before they happen.
 Aims to find failure points before they happen
 imagine the Failure
 Generate Reasons for the Failure
 consolidate the list
 Approved actions are turned into user stories
 Revisit the plan

580
M&C Project Work

3. People Improvement
Team Self-Assessment Scoring Model
Create an environment of continued learning by providing opportunities
for people to develop their skills in order to develop a more productive
team of generalizing specialists.

Retrospective for People Improvement

• What is going well

• What areas could use improvement

• What should we be doing differently

581
M&C Project Work

Continuous Improvement Approaches

• Agile project management contains small development cycles that are used to develop the product by feature and
receive client feedback on each feature.
Kaizen Plan Do Study Act
• Many small changes or improvements.
Act
• Small changes less likely to require major • Identify issues Plan
and root causes,
• Define objectives
expenditures of capital. then modify to
and processes
improve process
• Ideas come from workers—not expensive
research, consultants, or equipment.
• All employees should continually improve their
own performance. Study
• Evaluate data
Do
• All are encouraged to take ownership of their and compare • Execute plan and
results to collect data
work to improve motivation. expectations

582
M&C Project Work

Kaizen
At Toyota, home of the lean
production system, kaizen usually
follows the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)
cycle developed by W. Edwards
Deming-which closely mirrors agile's
Plan-Develop-Evaluate – Learn Cycle

583
M&C Project Work

Kaizen
• Kaizen is a process for continuous improvement that is named after the Japanese word kaizen, which means "change for the better."
The kaizen approach is the basis for agile's way of doing continuous improvement.

• Kaizen focuses on encouraging the team-the people who are doing the work-to frequently initiate and implement small,
incremental improvements.

• Create systemic improvements by disseminating knowIedge and practices across projects and organizational boundaries in order to
avoid re-occurrence of identified problems and improve the effectiveness of the organization as a whole.

• Since agile is based on lean, we would expect agile to have its own kaizen process, and it does the team's retrospectives.

• It's true that agile retrospectives aren't exactly the same as kaizen, which looks for continuous daily improvements rather than
learning after each iteration.

• However, retrospectives are the closest thing that agile has to kaizen, and the techniques used in these meetings include kaizen
tools such as Five Whys and Fish bone Analysis.

• Nevertheless, kaizen isn't really a set of practices; it's basically an attitude or mindset that can help us understand why agile
methods approach improvement as a continuous team-based, iterative process.

584
M&C Project Work

Guidelines to Execute Continuous Improvement Steps

• Review the organization’s continuous improvement strategy.
• Develop a continuous improvement approach for your project, keeping in mind the project goals and the
expectations of the stakeholders.
• Use lessons learned from your project as well as from other projects, as sources of continuous improvement.
• For agile projects, use retrospectives as opportunities to improve the next iteration of the project.
• Use lessons learned at the project level to improve the organization’s continuous improvement process.

585
This page is intentionally left blank to match the printed book.
Closing the Project
Release to Operation
This page is intentionally left blank to match the printed book.
Chapter 6
Closing the Project

Content
• Closing the project or phase & Celebrate
• Project Management Processes Interaction
This page is intentionally left blank to match the printed book.
Closing the project or Lesson
phase & Celebrate 01

• Close Project or Phase is the process of finalizing all activities across all of the Project Management Process Groups to
formally complete the project or phase.
• In the Close Project or Phase process, we deliver the final product, service, or result expected from the project or phase.
This includes all the deliverables which were accepted during the Validate Scope process. We also update The
Organizational Process Assets with lessons learned.
• When is it done? At the end of each project phase/Release, At the end of the project, and If the project is terminated prior to
completions.

• Close Project or Phase Output

The final report includes information such as: Organizational Process Assests Updates
• Summary level description of the project or phase.  Project documents/Artifacts: Documentation resulting from the
• Scope objectives, the criteria used to evaluate the scope, project project’s activities.
and evidence that the completion criteria were met.  Operational and support documents: Documents required for an
• Quality objectives, the criteria used to evaluate the project organization to operate, and support the product delivered by the
and product quality, the verification and actual milestone project.
delivery dates, and reasons for variances.  Project or phase closure documents: Consisting of formal
• Cost objectives, including the acceptable cost range, actual documentation that indicates completion of the project or phase
costs, and reasons for any variances. and the transfer of the completed project or phase deliverables to
others.
• Summary of the validation information for the final product,
service, or result.  Lessons learned repository

591
Closing the Project

 The Closing processes are the processes performed to formally complete or close a project, phase, or contract.
 Work on iterative, adaptive, and agile projects is prioritized to undertake the highest business value items first.
 Agile Project Closure is about handing over to the operations team, tidying up any loose ends, reviewing the project,
celebrating
 So, if the Closing Process Group prematurely closes a project or phase, there is a high chance that some useful business
value will already have been generated.
 When closing the project, the project manager reviews the project management plan to ensure that all project work is
completed and that the project has met its objectives
 Different organizations will have different process, standards, and documentation for this. From an Agile perspective the
only requirement is to hand over the working code, build scripts, and associate test suite.
 During the project, the Agile Team run retrospectives to see how they’re going. You need to do one at the end as well.
 You need to investigate the backlog list and work with the business to get the importance of the remaining features. In
addition, you'll need to find out if there were new features the business would like to have implemented.
 If the set of backlog features are important and there are additional new features to be considered, it's possible a new
project is warranted if the funds can be acquired. If the backlog contains lower priority features, it is likely a new project will
not be initiated.

592
Closing the Project

Activities related to the completion of the contractual agreement:

• Confirming the formal acceptance of the seller’s work.
• Finalizing open claims.
• Updating records to reflect final results.
• Archiving such information for future use.

Actions and activities necessary to satisfey completion or exist criteria for the phase/Release such as:
1. Ensure those operations and any and all other departments/units/parties who will use the product(s) of the project have
the necessary training, tools, documentation, and capability to perform their role.
2. Ensure that the project/phase has satisfied the strategic goal(s) for which it was undertaken.
3. Ensure that the scope of work has been completed, and make sure to receive formal documented acceptance from the
client/sponsor.
4. Review all contracts with the project team and suppliers. Make sure that all parties have satisfied their contractual
obligations.
5. Make sure that all issues are resolved.
6. Review project management practices.
7. Making certain that all documents are up-to-date
8. Document lessons learned for future reference.
9. Elaborating the final project reports as required by organizational policies.
10. Reallocating project facilities, equipment, and other physical resources. Disband the project team and officially return
resources to their functional locations. Dealing with excess project material.

593
Closing the Project

As a result of Phase-end Review and close project phase, the project team will be able to conduct all the following in
the coming phase(s)/Release(s):
1. Better align the project to its business case.
2. Baseline the deliverables of the previous phase and plan future work accordingly.
3. Obtain acceptance of work done in the previous phase and eliminate scope creep and reduce future dissatisfaction and requests.
4. Comply with organizational procedures and requirements.
5. Verify that all contractors have completed all of their obligations to the project, and that the organization has completed all of its
obligations to the contractor.
6. Refine the plan for the coming phase knowing what worked and enhancing/avoiding what did not.

What liability can poor closing create to the organization?

As mentioned above, a project that is not properly closed can leave the organization liable to external parties for
incomplete payments on contracts, liable to customers for incomplete scope, or liable to regulators for
incompliant practices and/or products.

594
Closing the Project

Successfully closing phases of a project, or the entire project, depends on the unwritten expectations of
stakeholders. Here are some key considerations:
• The definition of done and acceptance criteria can be quite different between two stakeholders who may interpret the
project charter or project management plan in different ways.
• Consistent knowledge gathering can help to identify when and why these interpretations may differ, and whether they
will impact closing the project or phase.
• Similar to changes in a project, planning for the closing of a phase or the project should begin when the project charter
is drafted and continue throughout the entire life cycle of the project.

Many projects continue to progress for months if not years expending organizational resources and efforts only
to end up with a result that is different from what was projected in the initial business case. The project
management team can avoid this failure by ensuring that the project is still in alignment with the organization's
strategic objectives. This can be achieved through the periodic validation of the project and its business case,
during a phase-gate review or closing project phase process. Project teams conduct this validation exercise on
two levels:
• Validate that the benefits identified in the business case are still valid?
• If the business case is still valid, the next priority for the project team should be the validation that the project will still meet
the business case.

595
Closing the Project

The results of this validation exercise will lead to one of the following decisions:
1. Proceeding with the project as is—it is in-line with the business case's requirements and will deliver those
requirements as opposed to any other project that could be undertaken for the same purpose
2. Modifying the project scope, duration, or other attributes to better meet the requirements of the business case
3. Terminating the project as it does not meet the business case's requirements and is not expected to yield the
required results.

Example: Assuming an external party was contracted to develop or contribute to the design of a specific product,
the phase-gate review is an opportunity for the project team to work with that contractor on closing out the
contract by:
a) Reviewing that all work on the contract has been completed—and taking corrective actions as applicable.
b) Reviewing that both parties have completed their contractual obligations toward each other, and if not, fulfilling all
such obligations.
c) Obtaining approval that the work of the contractor has been accepted, and like point 1 above, eliminating any future
objections that can leave the contractor or the project team liable.
d) Ensure that all payments have been made, and all products/services received, and avoid unnecessary delays or
missing requirements.

596
Project Management Lesson
Processes Interaction 02

Initiating Process
Project Group
Initiator • Project statement of work
or Sponsor • Business Doc. Agreements Stakeholder Project
Register Charter
Project Management Plan
Organizational Process Assets
Enterprise Environmental Factors Planning Process
Group

Enterprise/ Project Monitor

Organization Documents and
controlling
Teaming • Approved Change requests Process
Agreements • Quality control measurements
• Performance Reports Group
Requirements
Executing Process
Customer
Group
• Deliverables
Seller Proposals • Change Requests
• Work Performance Data
Final Product • Selected sellers
Procurement Doc.
service Sellers
or result contract award • Accepted Deliverables
Closing Process • Procurement update
Group

597
FINAL COMMENTS

Congratulations to you on making the commitment to obtain your PMP® credential.

the designation, and the knowledge gained by achieving it, will set you apart from
your peers and help you achieve higher levels in the performance of your work

Mohamed Kamal hopes this book benefits you greatly on your path to
success.

Remember
Strength grows in the moments when you think you can't go on, but you keep going
anyway.
You're still looking at your dream, reviewing it every day and say to
yourself:

ITS NOT OVER UNTIL I WIN

Good Luck in all your Future Endeavors!

EoT Mock Writing Exams - T2!23!24-12 Adv-1
No ratings yet
EoT Mock Writing Exams - T2!23!24-12 Adv-1
16 pages
6th - WRITING ENTRY 6 - ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGAES ESSAY
No ratings yet
6th - WRITING ENTRY 6 - ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGAES ESSAY
5 pages
00 PMP Basisi
No ratings yet
00 PMP Basisi
54 pages
Somatic Therapy Coping Skill Cards A4
No ratings yet
Somatic Therapy Coping Skill Cards A4
7 pages
PRE4122 Exercise No. 5 Diffusion
No ratings yet
PRE4122 Exercise No. 5 Diffusion
6 pages
Molecule-Ordinal Molecule-Original-Name Molecule-Category Molecule-Targetability
No ratings yet
Molecule-Ordinal Molecule-Original-Name Molecule-Category Molecule-Targetability
154 pages
Molecule-Ordinal Molecule-Original-Name Molecule-Category
No ratings yet
Molecule-Ordinal Molecule-Original-Name Molecule-Category
135 pages
Molecule-Ordinal Molecule-Original-Name Molecule-Category
No ratings yet
Molecule-Ordinal Molecule-Original-Name Molecule-Category
136 pages
Molecule-Ordinal Molecule-Original-Name Molecule-Category
No ratings yet
Molecule-Ordinal Molecule-Original-Name Molecule-Category
134 pages
RT UAT Template - Research
No ratings yet
RT UAT Template - Research
168 pages
Imperfections in Solids Worksheet
No ratings yet
Imperfections in Solids Worksheet
9 pages
Volvo Penta 7748089 5.0-5.7 Engine Manual
86% (28)
Volvo Penta 7748089 5.0-5.7 Engine Manual
176 pages
Cash Disbursement Journal October 2017
No ratings yet
Cash Disbursement Journal October 2017
54 pages
Williamsn Aplitmajorassignment6
No ratings yet
Williamsn Aplitmajorassignment6
2 pages
Playlist
No ratings yet
Playlist
136 pages
2018-2019 OR Project Tasks
No ratings yet
2018-2019 OR Project Tasks
26 pages
03-2004 - Workshop Manual 4,3GL-A, B, C, D, 4,3GXi-ABCDE
100% (2)
03-2004 - Workshop Manual 4,3GL-A, B, C, D, 4,3GXi-ABCDE
264 pages
PRE4122 Exercise No. 2 Atomic Structure and Interatomic Bonding
No ratings yet
PRE4122 Exercise No. 2 Atomic Structure and Interatomic Bonding
10 pages
(1v1 完结) 《小兔子乖乖（双性）》作者：没有名字
No ratings yet
(1v1 完结) 《小兔子乖乖（双性）》作者：没有名字
119 pages
Plain 3 Line Paper
No ratings yet
Plain 3 Line Paper
1 page
The TOEFL Writing Test
No ratings yet
The TOEFL Writing Test
1 page
Calculus - Paper 1 Test IB Type
No ratings yet
Calculus - Paper 1 Test IB Type
10 pages
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
100% (1)
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
7 pages
Historia Clinica Fisioterapia
100% (1)
Historia Clinica Fisioterapia
7 pages
Historial Clínico de Fisioterapia
No ratings yet
Historial Clínico de Fisioterapia
7 pages
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapiaa
No ratings yet
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapiaa
7 pages
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
No ratings yet
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
7 pages
Blank Document Analysis
No ratings yet
Blank Document Analysis
7 pages
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
No ratings yet
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
7 pages
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
No ratings yet
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
7 pages
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
No ratings yet
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
7 pages
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
No ratings yet
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
7 pages
D
No ratings yet
D
7 pages
Historia Clínica de Fisioterapia
No ratings yet
Historia Clínica de Fisioterapia
7 pages
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
No ratings yet
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
7 pages
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
100% (1)
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
7 pages
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
No ratings yet
Historia Clinica - Fisioterapia
7 pages
SB2X 61 03
No ratings yet
SB2X 61 03
5 pages
KINGDOM ORIGINAL Layout
No ratings yet
KINGDOM ORIGINAL Layout
1 page
Historial Clínico Msc. Madrid
No ratings yet
Historial Clínico Msc. Madrid
7 pages
SB2X 22 05
No ratings yet
SB2X 22 05
6 pages
SB2X 55 10
No ratings yet
SB2X 55 10
5 pages
Digital Mailer Survey - 2012
No ratings yet
Digital Mailer Survey - 2012
21 pages
Controle Multas Transito
No ratings yet
Controle Multas Transito
854 pages
Tall, Small, Fall Filled in
No ratings yet
Tall, Small, Fall Filled in
1 page
2 C 258 A 9 B
No ratings yet
2 C 258 A 9 B
169 pages
SB2X 61 02R1
No ratings yet
SB2X 61 02R1
5 pages
Formato Historia Clínica
No ratings yet
Formato Historia Clínica
5 pages
Spine Poncho
No ratings yet
Spine Poncho
2 pages
Fleet Management Spreadsheet - Demo
No ratings yet
Fleet Management Spreadsheet - Demo
3,588 pages
Id Card Daniel Phill
0% (1)
Id Card Daniel Phill
1 page
Independent Assignment
No ratings yet
Independent Assignment
2 pages
Id Cards
No ratings yet
Id Cards
1 page
Writingtemplate 1
No ratings yet
Writingtemplate 1
2 pages
Writingtemplate 1
No ratings yet
Writingtemplate 1
2 pages
Nethusan Rajagunathas 102083675 Wall
No ratings yet
Nethusan Rajagunathas 102083675 Wall
3 pages
Blank Document Template
No ratings yet
Blank Document Template
2 pages
First Aid & CPR Certification Details
No ratings yet
First Aid & CPR Certification Details
3 pages
SHA256E s2187283
No ratings yet
SHA256E s2187283
153 pages
St. Joseph's College of Engineering, Chennai-119 Department of Mechanical Engineering Sub. Name: Dynamics of Machinery Sub - Code: ME2302
No ratings yet
St. Joseph's College of Engineering, Chennai-119 Department of Mechanical Engineering Sub. Name: Dynamics of Machinery Sub - Code: ME2302
7 pages
Marine Fuel Oil Insights
No ratings yet
Marine Fuel Oil Insights
118 pages
(聖經) Lvovsky2018 Book QuantumPhysics
100% (2)
(聖經) Lvovsky2018 Book QuantumPhysics
318 pages
Vedic Mathematics Lesson 1
No ratings yet
Vedic Mathematics Lesson 1
24 pages
Chemistry Worksheet 5
No ratings yet
Chemistry Worksheet 5
4 pages
Science 10 Second Grading Exam
No ratings yet
Science 10 Second Grading Exam
2 pages
Angle of Lift PDF
No ratings yet
Angle of Lift PDF
1 page
A Review of Engine Downsizing and Its Effects
No ratings yet
A Review of Engine Downsizing and Its Effects
6 pages
CS6402 - Daa 16marks With Answers
No ratings yet
CS6402 - Daa 16marks With Answers
20 pages
Digital Transmission
No ratings yet
Digital Transmission
48 pages
Selecting The Right Thermodynamic Models For Process Simulation PDF
No ratings yet
Selecting The Right Thermodynamic Models For Process Simulation PDF
5 pages
Blended DLP G10 Week3 Lesson 2
No ratings yet
Blended DLP G10 Week3 Lesson 2
10 pages
Webasto BlueCool Classic Operation, Settings, Troubleshooting
No ratings yet
Webasto BlueCool Classic Operation, Settings, Troubleshooting
54 pages
RT - Specific Exam
100% (1)
RT - Specific Exam
3 pages
Oop DS U3
No ratings yet
Oop DS U3
17 pages
CEM - Part VI - Chap 5 pt1
No ratings yet
CEM - Part VI - Chap 5 pt1
176 pages
PCI Precast Concrete Design Standards
No ratings yet
PCI Precast Concrete Design Standards
20 pages
Gamoyeneb. Tox.17.red
No ratings yet
Gamoyeneb. Tox.17.red
82 pages
SOP Pronouns EXERCISE
No ratings yet
SOP Pronouns EXERCISE
1 page
Essar 32
No ratings yet
Essar 32
2 pages
Metallurgy Dual Phase Steel: November 29
No ratings yet
Metallurgy Dual Phase Steel: November 29
4 pages
Transformed Exponential Model for Step-Stress Testing
No ratings yet
Transformed Exponential Model for Step-Stress Testing
8 pages
Using The Swift Futura Remote Video Unit
No ratings yet
Using The Swift Futura Remote Video Unit
12 pages
Astm D4239 18 Sulphur
100% (5)
Astm D4239 18 Sulphur
8 pages
Gurgaon
No ratings yet
Gurgaon
48 pages
Nanopositioning Technologies 2016
No ratings yet
Nanopositioning Technologies 2016
412 pages
Lines and Planes
No ratings yet
Lines and Planes
3 pages
Timoshenko Beam Theory
No ratings yet
Timoshenko Beam Theory
8 pages
Final Revisiom T 2 Grade 12 G M101
No ratings yet
Final Revisiom T 2 Grade 12 G M101
39 pages