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A High Level Overview for Managing the Project Life Cycle
Speaker: Gary L. Richardson Company: University of Houston Website: www.uh.edu/technology Welcome to the PMI Houston Conference & Expo and Annual Job Fair 2015
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Thoughts on Project Success
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Doctor, Doctor My Arm Hurts When Does It Hurt? When I do this… {And the answer is?}
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Question #1: Is project management more
mechanical or more soft skill oriented?
Let’s delay taking on that answer until later!
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5 Source: Chaos Manifesto, 2011, The Standish Group, http://versionone.com/assets/img/files/ChaosManifest_2011.pdf
50%
2011 Improvement?
40%
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Organizational culture—visions, policies, motivation, risk tolerance, leadership, work environment
Talent– over 80% of organizations are lacking in this aspect
Processes—project, portfolio and organizational
Project management practices (technique)
Success Driving Variables
Classic Project Management Mistakes
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1. team motivation—has more impact on quality and results than any other factor
2. Problem employees—bad apples spoil the barrel
3. Poor work environment—physical and social
4. Planning practices—too little, not following plan, not replanning, etc. 5. Cutting out “nonessential” activities—testing, training, etc. 6. Inadequate change control—scope leads to overruns
7. Silver bullet theory—finding the magic answer with a new tool or idea
8. Failure to obtain initial buy-in from key stakeholders--leads to issues later 9. Incomplete user specifications—seek strong linkage to users 10. Overly aggressive schedules—often pushes the project too hard resulting
in morale and other non-productive actions
TEN PM Knowledge Areas
CORE AREAS
SUPPORT AREAS
INTEGRATION
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Output
Input
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Project Success
Customer Requirements satisfied
Completed within allocated time frame
Completed within allocated budget
Accepted by the customer
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Key Items in the Management Process
1. The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)—work definition
2. Scope control—stopping a runaway train
3. Integration of plan elements—all knowledge areas
4. Reserve pools—risk, management and scope
5. Developing a viable schedule—structure, resources, etc
6. Project Budget Structure—the control strategy
7. Status tracking—gap analysis; Earned Value techniques; communication
8. Plan compression techniques—influencing the results
9. Impact of soft skills on the outcome
10. Other miscellaneous items to consider
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A WBS is the fundamental and core project
management tool for plan development, scope
management, schedule development, cost
management, risk management, procurement
management, project control, and information
distribution.
1. WBS
How can a WBS ease project life? Elaborate Project
Scope
Summarize Project Information
Reference for future project
Translational Process
… ETC.
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WBS Mechanics
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Inputs from SMEs. Top to Bottom approach SME sticky notes
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Project
Deliverable 1.0 Deliverable 3.0 Deliverable 2.0
Work Package 1.1
Work Package 1.2
Work Package 1.3
Work Package 2.4
Work Package 2.3
Work Package 2.2
Work Package 2.1
Work Package 3.3
Work Package 3.2
Work Package 3.1
WBS Format
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Rock Concert SME Discussion (Decomposition and Elaboration)
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What about? Food Sanitary
Facilities Clean Up
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1. Traceability—version control 2. Affordability--cost 3. Feasibility—technical, organizational, political 4. Usability—operational function 5. Producibility—ease of build 6. Maintainability—cost of ownership 7. Simplicity-design approach 8. Operability—ease of operation 9. Reliability—MTBF, safety, quality product 10. Sustainability—long term viability (Mercedes)
The Scope Ibilities
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WBS Dictionary Elements (companion to the WBS)
• Name • Task ID • Person Responsible • Task Description • Quantified
Objectives • End Result • Resources Assigned
• Duration
• Cost
• Due Date
• Interdependencies
• Approved by
• Acceptance Criteria
• Deliverables
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Scope
Collect Requirements
Define Scope
Scope
Create WBS
Scope
Act. Definition
Resource Planning
Time
Time
Time
Act. Sequencing
Time Act. Dur. Estimating
Cost
Cost Estimating
Risk
Risk Mgt
Time
Schedule Development
Cost
Cost Budgeting
Integration
Project Plan Dev.
Basic Role of the WBS
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Think of this process as a rolling wave!
What leads to How that then leads to When and
How Much.
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1. Produce a good project Charter—Clear goals 2. Work with stakeholders to identify the requirements 3. Identify the sponsor and the project board-- Key
management entities for project 4. Identify what will and what will not be delivered 5. Prioritize the objectives into critical and nice to have 6. Be as specific as you can-- Quantify 7. Document key deliverables-- Define clearly 8. Describe the benefits and value created by the project--
Tangible and intangible (cont.)
Project Scoping Notes
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9. Identify both assumptions used and constraints 10. Ask for feedback from appropriate stakeholders 11. Get sign off on key defined items—Scope, dollars, human
resources, change control, etc. 12. Present your final plan to appropriate management and
stakeholders—View this as a contract between the project and these groups. Your goal is now to deliver what you described.
13. How much variance is OK– (10%, 20%, None?)
Project Scoping Notes (Cont.)
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Building the Project Plan 1. Requirements first 2. Formalize requirements into work units (Scope) 3. Construct schedule (Time) Activity list Work estimate Duration estimate Define sequence Construct schedule of work units
4. Project Budget (Cost)
Load resources into work units to develop direct cost Define how overhead charges are to be shown Define reserve pools—risk, management and scope change
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Attack the Padding Mentality
1.Padding used to cover duration overruns
2.Padding used to cover future change requests
3.Padding used to cover risk events
*** Padding is a typical approach to make the plan come out right, but hides away the management side of the problem
4. Needed Reserve Pools
Task Estimating Variance
Scope change
Risk Events (Contingency)
Direct Project Plan
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Basic Schedule Components
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ID WBS Activity Duration Pred.1 1 Total Project
2 1.1 Feasibility3 1.1.1 Develop presentation 6 days
4 1.1.2 Make presentation to Bd of Directors 1 day 3
5 1.2 Analysis6 1.2.1 Develop logical process model 8 days 27 1.2.2 Develop logical Data model 5 days 28 1.3 Design 7,69 1.3.1 Task 1 5 days10 1.3.2 Task 2 10 days 911 1.4 Execution 1012 1.4.1 Module 1 10 days13 1.4.2 Module 2 10 days 1214 1.4.3 Module 3 10 days 1315 1.5 Testing 1416 1.5.1 Module 1 3 days17 1.5.2 Module 2 3 days 1618 1.5.3 Module 3 3 days 1719 1.6 Implementation 1820 1.7 lessons Learned 3 days 1921 1.8 Project close 0 days 20
Simulating Project Time and Cost
Tasks are not variable, so we should anticipate a variable completion date approach
Simulation offers a method to evaluate various scenarios
Simulation is a “What if” view and not an optimization view
Better insight into the workings of the plan can be obtained this way
Schedule Components
• Activities—tasks, work packages • Summary activities—aggregations • Milestones—review points • Time estimates for activities • Dates—project, activity, required • Constraints—required dates • Contingency buffers—safety buffers • Critical path items
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After Planning--
• Is your plan realistic, that is, achievable?
• Are all stakeholders and participants committed to supporting the project objectives?
• Have all involved parties formally agreed with the project plan?
• Does your project scope or any of the objectives need to be modified?
• Have you documented lessons learned from the planning process?
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Schedule Checklist • Confirm that all activities are included • Check precedence relationships • Insert Project Management activities in the second
operational level • Setup required milestones and checkpoints • Match plan to WBS structure • Review activity time estimates for reasonableness • Confirm that completion date is acceptable-- If not iterate
plan until acceptable • Confirm that planned resources are understood and
available • Obtain formal management approval of plan • Set baseline for future status tracking
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Project Budget
PMB Management Reserve
Work Packages
Contingency Reserve
Internal Team
Third Party LOE Hybrid
Scope change
6. Project Budget Structure
Operational Layer
Risk Layer
Variability Layer
Tracking Project Performance
This is the likely outcome!
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Project Complete
EV Geometry
$
Time
Status Date
BCWS = PV BCWP = EV ACWP = AC BAC = Baseline Budget
Symbols
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Beware of Silver Bullet Solutions
Material costs are not productivity oriented
Third party costs are not necessarily linked to team productivity
Level of Effort tasks do not reflect productivity (often constant billing)
MS Project uses Effort Level scheduling for costs—Actuals must be used
Blindly created computer generated solutions will likely generate false answers
8 . Plan Compression Techniques
Cut scope (from WBS view)
Fast Tracking —moving activities to parallel
Crashing —adding resources to CP activities to shorten duration
Work overtime—free resources to recover
Critical Chain technique –Viewing the project like a track meet. All PMs need to become knowledgeable regarding this model.
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Reserves—Using planned reserves for unscheduled overruns
Substitution—Do other tasks while waiting for the scheduled task to be ready
Preparation—Early Preparation for the next set of tasks so that they might be able to go more quickly.
Adding resources--Sometimes putting more people on a task is a viable way to speed it up. (Beware of Brooks’ Law).
Overtime—Unfortunately this is the usual approach. However, this method does not come without high costs in morale, quality, etc. Use this method sparingly.
Miracles—All project managers have these in their pocket. Should not be your first option however.
Overcoming Schedule Problems
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The Soft Side of PM—Key to Success Communication—honest broker of information—should be 90%
of your job
Manage conflict—20% of your job
Team management—creating a high productivity environment
Resource management—quantity, quality and timing
Stakeholder management—communication & expectations; they define project success
Change management—stopping the runaway train
Establish a culture of lessons learned and continuous improvement—the kaizen message from Japan
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Most Important Project Management Skills (According to Project Managers)
1. Communication skills (84%)
2. Organizational skills (75%)
3. Team building skills (72%)
4. Leadership skills (68%)
5. Coping skills—stress factors (59%)
6. Technological skills (46%)
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10. Other Related Management Issues
Risk events—These will change the original plan
Scope creep—This will also change the original plan
WP overruns—Change the planned cost and schedule
Resources—Will receive quality and quantity on plan schedule? Probably not!
Status measurement—The 90% complete syndrome
Project management overhead—10% to 15%; not needed?
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Other Evolving Items to Track
Communications technology options emerging
Quality Management—is 7 Sigma coming?
Risk management—known/unknowns tough
Procurement/Outsourcing—Buying a cloud
Stakeholder management--expectations
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Closing Thoughts Organizational alignment improvements
Looking at new management models—agile, Critical Chain, rolling wave, etc.
Organization maturity—improving the environment
Stakeholder management
Improving the tool kit—communication, lessons learned, simulation, templates, etc.
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Contact Information
• Speaker: Dr. Gary L. Richardson • Company: University of Houston, College of Technology • Website: www.uh.edu/technology • Phone: 713.743.4018 • E-mail: [email protected]
Thank You
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