Project Management Overview by Darryl Vleeming

Project Management Overview by Darryl Vleeming

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  Darryl Vleeming June 13,2012 [email protected]
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   Projects are: ◦Temporary in nature (have a start and finish) ◦ Create a unique product, service or result  Operations are: ◦ On-going and repetitive ◦ No end date  Projects and Operations do share some of the same characteristics: ◦ Performed by People ◦ Constrained by limited resources ◦ Planned, executed and controlled 2
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   There aremany things you are involved in that are projects - even if you don’t think about them as ‘projects’: ◦ Legal Holds ◦ Acquisitions ◦ Divestitures ◦ Litigation ◦ Compliance investigations ◦ Ethics investigations ◦ Voter Ballots  Each one of the above examples has a start, a finish, and is different each time you do it  You can apply the principles of Project Management to all of these 3
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   “Project Managementis the application of knowledge, skill, tools, techniques to Project activities to meet the project requirements”  Everyone has probably see the standard constraints that Projects under 4
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   It’s reallyabout balancing competing priorities 5
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   Just extraoverhead/extra cost  Useless/Adding no value  Distraction from “real work”  Unnecessary 6
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   Poor ProjectManagement is one of the top five reasons that projects fail  Failure because of lack of expertise is actually quite rare  A PWC study found that only 2.5% of corporations consistently meet their targets for scope, time, and cost goals for all types of projects 7
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   Managing Projectsis very much like driving a car.  Determine the destination, timeframe and how much you have to spend  Create a plan (route, speed, breaks, weather, etc)  Follow the plan  Continuously monitor progress and keep the car on the road  If you don’t: 8
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  Project Success occurswhen: ◦ You have a delighted client (expectations met) ◦ Delivered the agreed objectives ◦ Met an agreed budget ◦ Within an agreed time frame AND ◦ Done professionally and without killing the team 9
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   Most projectsfollow a standard flow: 10
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   Starting theProject (Initiating) ◦ Developing a Business Case ◦ Developing a Project Charter  Organizing and Preparing (Planning) ◦ Developing a Schedule ◦ Developing the Scope ◦ Developing a detailed Budget ◦ Developing a Communications Plan ◦ Developing a Risk Management Plan  Carrying out the work ◦ Tracking Progress ◦ Controlling Scope ◦ Managing Changes  Closing the Project 11
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   Initiating iswhere you formulate your “contract” with the client/customer /users/management  Define what/when/how much/why  Lack of agreement about what’s important is the biggest cause for disagreement  Lack of understanding of the impact of changes is the biggest reason for escalating costs (in cost, time and quality terms) 12
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   A businesscase lays out why a project is necessary  Could be because there is a positive return on investment, or may be for other reasons such as a legal requirement  Allows organizations to select which projects should proceed  The benefits laid out in the Business Case should be tracked post project to ensure that they are realized 13
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   Doesn’t haveto be a huge document, or a huge amount of work  Lays the foundation of the project  It protects you – defines what you’ve committed to doing, on what timeframe, for X dollars, based on what assumptions  Stakeholders/Management cannot reasonably ask for changes without expecting an impact on the project – timeline, scope, costs, quality, etc  Lists what you need from the organization to accomplish the project (people, other resources, etc)  Its about setting expectations up front  Its important to get the Sponsor/Key Stakeholder to sign off and agree to it. In the case of ‘unofficial’ projects, this person may be your direct Manager. 14
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   This phaseis all about the details – what the detailed schedule is, specifics on what will be delivered, how will progress be communicated, etc  The point of Planning is NOT to follow the plan 100%, but to gain a better understanding of what needs to be done.  “In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable” – Eisenhower 15
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   This doesn’talways need to be a massive Gantt chart that takes hundreds of hours to produce  At a minimum it should lay out the following:  Important Milestones  Key Dependencies between activities  Developing a schedule allows you to understand the impact of unexpected events on your completion date  Allows you to monitor progress on the project, and make adjustments BEFORE the project goes off track  If you don’t develop a schedule do you really think you have a good understanding of when you’ll finish something? 16
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   A Ganttchart is a bar chart with ◦ the horizontal axis time ◦ the vertical axis activities ◦ responsible people (optional)  It shows ◦ the sequence, ◦ overlappings ◦ interdependencies 17
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   Scope definesthe boundary of the project  Extremely important to define it in detail  The sponsor needs to read, understand and sign off on the scope  Fail to do the above, and you will not meet expectations as people will assume different things 18
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   Depending onthe size of project, this may not be needed, especially if most resources are internal  Benefit of developing a detailed budget is that it will give you advance warning if you’re going to end up over budget - so allows you to make adjustments before its too late  Detailed budget should include all costs – internal labour, external labour, materials, Finance charges, etc  If the project is a Capital Project, its important to understanding Finance Capitalization rules 19
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   Communication onprojects is critical  A Communications Plan could simply be a couple of lines defining when and how you’re going to communicate  You should communicate to all Stakeholders. A Stakeholder is defined as “a person, group or organization with an interest in a project”  At a minimum you should communicate:  Project Schedule  Project Status  Project Issues  In absence of good communication, people will make assumptions about the project that are usually not true 20
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   A riskis any factor that may potentially interfere with the successful completion of the project  It’s important to spend some time thinking about risks and what can be done to mitigate them  If you wait until the risk is ‘realized’, and you don’t have a mitigation plan, it’s often too late 21
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   Includes executingwhat needs to be done, and controlling and monitoring the work  Utilizes everything that was creating in the planning stage  Typically the longest phase of a project  Monitoring for risks, and reacting before they are realized is important  Leadership is critical during this phase – you need to keep your team members motivated 22
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   “Percent complete”is the most dangerous measure in tracking progress  Why?  People don’t know/are over-optimistic/lie  The last 1% tends to take a lot longer than it logically should  There are a number of solutions depending on the progress:  Use binary completion (is it done? Y or N)  Allow only 0%, 50% or 100% completion statuses 23
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   You can’tstop the stakeholders changing their minds, or requirements changing  You CAN make them aware of the impact  Let the customer prioritize – show them the cost of making the scope change  Go back to the project charter – your contract with your customer - does the change help towards the objective? 24
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   No projectever goes according to plan; how you handle changes will determine how successful it is  Create a solid Change Management strategy at the beginning of the project, and strictly follow it  All ‘significant’ changes need to be documented and signed off by the customer  The ability to understand the impact of change is crucial 25
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   Includes gettingStakeholder acceptance of the final deliverables  If you treat ‘go live’ as the end of the project, then you will get “undead” stakeholders – coming back from the past all the time with new requirements/fixes  It is also critical to document lessons learned so that future projects can take advantage and avoid the same mistakes. Typically done very poorly at most organizations.  Its important to celebrate team success. Your team will often give a lot to making a project successful – don’t forget this 26
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   Good ProjectManagers spend over 80% of the time communicating – to all people impacted by the project – stakeholders, team members, etc  If you don’t have good communication, you will not be successful 27
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   “Changes inProject Scope (Scope Creep) are the current leading cause of project failure globally according to the 2010 Global Survey”  To avoid that, involve your customer early and often in the requirements gathering so they feel ownership  Don’t shorten the requirements gathering portion – it will cost you more time in the long run 28
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   Assumptions presumethat what you’re planning or relying on is true, real, or certain.  No assumption is too small to document  Assumptions should be very specific – e.g. “The price of iron will stay at current market rates for duration of project”  Assumptions should be realistic, especially if the entire project depends on the assumption being true 29
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   If yourSponsor isn’t 100% behind the project, it will be difficult to succeed  A good sponsor will help remove organizational roadblocks  If the project is big enough, insist on an Executive level sponsor  Sponsor needs to feel personally responsible for the success of the project 30
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   A motivatedteam will go the extra mile to deliver a project  Motivate them by involving them throughout the project, especially in the planning phase  "Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you can't be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people." - Lee Iacocca 31
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   Project scopeisn't managed well ◦ No process in place if a change in scope is being proposed  Poor scheduling ◦ Setting an unrealistic schedule by always being overly optimistic  Ignoring problems ◦ Putting off dealing with difficult issues  Underestimating ◦ Not being realistic in the resources you need to be successful  Being a yes man or woman ◦ Saying yes to everything often means you won’t be able to deliver your primary objective 32
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   The ProjectManagement Institute (PMI) is “world’s leading not-for-profit membership association for the project management profession, with more than 600,000 members and credential holders in more than 185 countries.”  www.pmi.org 33
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