Chapter 11 - Project

ManagementME101

Dr. Nhut Tan Ho

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Lecture Objectives and Activities

• Discuss the importance and components of project planning

• Introduce tools for planning and managing project

• Active learning activities• group-assignment: Create GANNT charts

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Introduction

• “Failure to plan is planning to fail.”

• A good plan is one of the most important attributes of successful teams and projects.

• Projects should be organized systematically.

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Eight Questions that can be Addressed with a Plan• What does your team do first?• What should come next?• How many people do you need to accomplish

the tasks?• What resources do you need?• How long will it take?• When can your team get the tasks

completed?• When will the project be finished?• How do we know we’re done with project?

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Creating a Project Charter

• First step: a project summary defining what your project is and when you will know when it is done

• Elements include• Deliverables

• Planning information• Tasks and time needed

• Milestones

• Personnel and roles

• Budget5

Task Definitions and Organization

• Identify the completion tasks to achieve the objectives and outcomes. Example:• Plan

• Design

• Build

• Deliver

• Determine task relationships and sequencing

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Defining Times

• Include the full time needed for tasks

• As a student, you don’t have a full eight-hour work day every day• Break tasks into week segments

• Weekday and/or weekend

• Class periods

• Break tasks into short time periods

• Be conservative with your time estimates7

Milestones

• Deadlines for deliverables

• Monitoring of your plans progress

• Completion of subcomponents

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Project Evaluation and Planning Technique (PERT) Charts

• Each task is represented by a box containing a brief description of and duration for the task

• The boxes can be laid out just as the project plan is laid out

• Useful as a “what if” tool during planning stages

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PERT Chart Example: Complete BS ME Degree in 4 Years

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StartME Program

Complete Math, Physics, Chemistry Courses

1 year

Complete ME, EE, CE Courses

3 years

Complete GE Courses2 years

CompleteME Program

• Critical path (in red) is the longest string of dependent project tasks• Tasks on critical path will hold up project completion if there are delayed

PERT Chart Example

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Gantt Charts

• Popular project management charting method for people to understand your team’s progress relative to your plan

• Horizontal bar chart

• Tasks vs. dates

• Example GANTT Chart

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Team Activity: GANTT Chart

• Examine the sample GANTT Chart in the Design Packet (page 13) and create a GANTT Chart for your project (30 minutes)

• Present your chart to the class (5 minutes)

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Details, Details

• Remember Murphy’s Law - “Anything that can go wrong, will.”

• Leave time to fix debug or fix errors

• Don’t assume things will fit together the first time

• Leave time for parts malfunction and order/delivery

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Personnel Distribution

• Get the right people on the right tasks

• Assign people after developing a draft of the plan

• Balance the work between everyone

• Weekly updates – does everyone understand what they’re doing and is everyone still on task?

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Team Roles

• Roles• Project Leader or Monitor

• Liaison

• Others: Procurement/Financial officer

• Project Documentation• Document milestones as they occur

• Leave time at the end for reviewing, not writing

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Lecture Recap: Project Management

• Engineering projects are complex, requiring systematic project management

• Tasks must come together to meet deadlines and satisfy requirements

• Next lecture: Engineering Design Process

• This week assignment: Teamwork for problems 12.1-12.9

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