Project Management Techniques
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introduction-to-project-management.pptWhat is a Project?
- A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to produce a unique product or service
- Temporary – Definitive beginning and end
- Unique – New undertaking, unfamiliar ground
Temporary
Unique
Characteristics of
Projects
Project Success
Customer Requirements satisfied/exceeded
Completed within allocated time frame
Completed within allocated budget
Accepted by the customer
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Project Failure
Scope Creep
Poor Requirements Gathering
Unrealistic planning and scheduling
Lack of resources
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What is Project Management
- Project Management is the application of skills, knowledge, tools and techniques to meet the needs and expectations of stakeholders for a project.
The purpose of project management is prediction and prevention, NOT recognition and reaction
Triple Contraint
Scope
Time
Cost
Quality
Triple Contraint
- Increased Scope = increased time + increased cost
- Tight Time = increased costs + reduced scope
- Tight Budget = increased time + reduced scope.
Key Areas of Project Management
- Scope Management
- Issue Management
- Cost Management
- Quality Management
- Communications Management
- Risk Management
- Change Control Management
SCOPE MANAGEMENT – Ensuring all the appropriate work within the project scope is completed and only the work within scope is being conducted
TIME MANAGEMENT – Schedule Management
COST MANAGEMENT – How costs are controlled and incurred costs are paid
QUALITY MANAGEMENT – Quality Assurance Plan – How quality control is measured and satisfied
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT – Development of the project team, reporting structure, resource capacity
COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT – How project communications will be handled to ensure all project stakeholders are informed
RISK MANAGEMENT – Risk Management plan to have all project stakeholders in agreement on how project risks will be handled (aversion, mitigation or assumption)
PROCUREMENT MANAGEMENT – Procurement process, contract processes
INTEGRATION MANAGEMENT – Integration of all areas of project management to develop a cohesive project plan
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Scope Management
- Primarily it is the definition and control of what IS and
IS NOT included in the project.
This component is used to communicate
How the scope was defined
How the project scope will be managed
Who will manage the scope (e.g., PM, QA)
Change Control
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Issue Management
- Issues are restraints to accomplishing the deliverables of the project.
- Typically identified throughout the project and logged and tracked through resolution.
Rope not thick
Issue… already impacting the cost, time or quality
Issues not easily resolved are escalated for resolution.
Issues are typically identified throughout the project and logged and tracked through resolution.
In this section of the plan the following processes are depicted:
Where issues will be maintained and tracked
The process for updating issues regularly
The escalation process
The vehicle by which team members can access documented issues
Issue… already impacting the cost, time or quality
Risk… POTENTIAL negative impact to project
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Cost Management
- This process is required to ensure the project is completed within the approved budget and includes:
Resources
people
equipment
materials
Quantities
Budget
Resource Planning - Full Time Employees, Professional Services, Cost, and Contingency
Resource Planning - The physical resources required (people, equipment, materials) and what quantities are necessary for the project
Budget
Budget estimates
Baseline estimates
Project Actuals
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Quality Management
- Quality Management is the process that insure the project will meet the needs
“conformance to requirements” - Crosby
“fitness for use” - Juran
“the totality of characteristics of an
entity that bear on its ability to
satisfy stated and implied need’ - ISO 8402:1994
What is Quality - conformance to requirements’ - Crosby
‘fitness for use’ - Juran
‘the totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated and implied need’ - ISO 8402:1994
- Customer-Based -> Fitness for use, meeting customer expectations.
- Manufacturing-Based -> Conforming to design, specifications, or requirements. Having no defects.
- Product-Based -> The product has something that other similar products do not that adds value.
- Value-Based -> The product is the best combination of price and features. 5. Transcendent It is not clear what it is, but it is something good...
via:
Quality Planning, Quality Assurance, and Quality Control
Clearly Defined Quality Performance Standards
How those Quality and Performance Standards are measured and satisfied
How Testing and Quality Assurance Processes will ensure standards are satisfied
Continuous ongoing quality control
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Communications Management
- This process is necessary to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination, and storage of project information
Communications planning: Determining the needs (who needs what information, when they need it, and how it will be delivered)
Information Distribution: Defining who and how information will flow to the project stakeholders and the frequency
Performance Reporting: Providing project performance updates via status reporting.
Communications planning
Information Distribution
Performance Reporting
Define the schedule for the Project Meetings (Team, OSC, ESC), Status Meetings and Issues Meetings to be implemented
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Risk Management
- Risk identification and mitigation strategy
- Risk update and tracking
Tree – location, accessibility,
ownership
Weather
Risk… POTENTIAL negative impact to project
Change Control Management
- Define how changes to the project scope will be executed
Scope Change
Schedule changes
Technical Specification Changes
All changes require collaboration and buy in via the project sponsor’s signature
prior to implementation of the changes
Formal change control is required for all of the following
- Scope Change
- Schedule changes
- Technical Specification Changes
- Training Changes
All changes require collaboration and buy in via the project sponsor’s signature prior to implementation of the changes
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Project Life Cycle
Initiation Phase
- Define the need
- Return on Investment Analysis
- Make or Buy Decision
- Budget Development
Definition Phase
- Determine goals, scope and project constraints
- Identify members and their roles
- Define communication channels, methods, frequency and content
- Risk management planning
Planning Phase
- Resource Planning
- Work Breakdown Structure
- Project Schedule Development
- Quality Assurance Plan
Work Breakdown Structure
- For defining and organizing the total scope of a project
- First two levels - define a set of planned outcomes that collectively and exclusively represent 100% of the project scope.
- Subsequent levels - represent 100% of the scope of their parent node
Implementation Phase
- Execute project plan and accomplish project goals
- Training Plan
- System Build
- Quality Assurance
Deployment Phase
- User Training
- Production Review
- Start Using
Closing Phase
- Contractual Closeout
- Post Production Transition
- Lessons Learned
Project Management Tools
- PERT Chart- designed to analyze and represent the tasks involved in completing a given project
- Gantt Chart - popular type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule
Role of a Project Manager
Process Responsibilities
People Responsibilities
- Project issues
- Disseminating project information
- Mitigating project risk
- Quality
- Managing scope
- Metrics
- Managing the overall work plan
- Implementing standard processes
- Establishing leadership skills
- Setting expectations
- Team building
- Communicator skills
Process Responsibilities
The project manager normally is responsible for defining and planning the project. This results in the completion of a Project Definition and a project workplan. Once the project starts, the project manager must successfully manage and control the work, including:
Identifying, tracking managing and resolving project issues
Proactively disseminating project information to all stakeholders
Identifying, managing and mitigating project risk
Ensuring that the solution is of acceptable quality
Proactively managing scope to ensure that only what was agreed to is delivered, unless changes are approved through scope management
Defining and collecting metrics to give a sense for how the project is progressing and whether the deliverables produced are acceptable
Managing the overall workplan to ensure work is assigned and completed on time and within budget
To manage the project management processes, a person should be well organized, have great follow-up skills, be process oriented, be able to multi-task, have a logical thought process, be able to determine root causes, have good analytical ability, be a good estimator and budget manager, and have good self-discipline.
People Responsibilities
In addition to process skills, a project manager must have good people management skills. This includes:
Having the discipline and general management skills to make sure that people follow the standard processes and procedures
Establishing leadership skills to get the team to willingly follow your direction. Leadership is about communicating a vision and getting the team to accept it and strive to get there with you.
Setting reasonable, challenging and clear expectations for people, and holding them accountable for meeting the expectations. This includes providing good performance feedback to team members
Team building skills so that the people work together well, and feel motivated to work hard for the sake of the project and their other team members. The larger your team and the longer the project, the more important it is to have good team-building skills.
Proactive verbal and written communicator skills, including good, active listening skills.
Multiple Roles
Depending on the size and complexity of the project, the project manager may take on other responsibilities in addition to managing the work. For instance, the project manager may assist with gathering business requirements. Or they may help design a database management system or they may write some of the project documentation. Project management is a particular role that a person fills, even if the person who is the project manager is working in other roles as well.
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Gantt Chart
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PERT Chart
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Scope Management
- Project Scope Management is the process to ensure that the project is inclusive of all the work required, and only the work required, for successful completion.
- Primarily it is the definition and control of what IS and
IS NOT included in the project.
This component is used to communicate
How the scope was defined
How the project scope will be managed
Who will manage the scope (e.g., PM, QA)
Change Control
*
Issue Management
- Issues are restraints to accomplishing the deliverables of the project.
- Issues are typically identified throughout the project and logged and tracked through resolution.
- In this section of the plan the following processes are depicted:
- Where issues will be maintained and tracked
- The process for updating issues regularly
- The escalation process
- The vehicle by which team members can access documented issues
Issues not easily resolved are escalated for resolution.
*
Cost Management
- This process is required to ensure the project is completed within the approved budget and includes:
- Resource Planning - The physical resources required (people, equipment, materials) and what quantities are necessary for the project
- Budget
- Budget estimates
- Baseline estimates
- Project Actuals
Resource Planning - Full Time Employees, Professional Services, Cost, and Contingency
*
Quality Management
- Quality Management is the process that insure the project will meet the needs via:
- Quality Planning, Quality Assurance, and Quality Control
- Clearly Defined Quality Performance Standards
- How those Quality and Performance Standards are measured and satisfied
- How Testing and Quality Assurance Processes will ensure standards are satisfied
- Continuous ongoing quality control
What is Quality - conformance to requirements’ - Crosby
‘fitness for use’ - Juran
‘the totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated and implied need’ - ISO 8402:1994
- Customer-Based -> Fitness for use, meeting customer expectations.
- Manufacturing-Based -> Conforming to design, specifications, or requirements. Having no defects.
- Product-Based -> The product has something that other similar products do not that adds value.
- Value-Based -> The product is the best combination of price and features. 5. Transcendent It is not clear what it is, but it is something good...
*
Communications Management
- This process is necessary to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination, and storage of project information using:
- Communications planning
- Information Distribution
- Performance Reporting
- Define the schedule for the Project Meetings (Team, OSC, ESC), Status Meetings and Issues Meetings to be implemented
Communications planning: Determining the needs (who needs what information, when they need it, and how it will be delivered)
Information Distribution: Defining who and how information will flow to the project stakeholders and the frequency
Performance Reporting: Providing project performance updates via status reporting.
*
Risk Management
- Risk identification and mitigation strategy
- When\if new risks arise
- Risk update and tracking
Change Control Management
- Define how changes to the project scope will be executed
- Formal change control is required for all of the following
Scope Change
Schedule changes
Technical Specification Changes
Training Changes
- All changes require collaboration and buy in via the project sponsor’s signature prior to implementation of the changes
Bio
Avneet Mathur is currently CTO of Zeratec, Inc., and has been involved in IT for the last decade. He is a Certified Project Management Professional, as awarded by the Project Management Institute, USA. Avneet holds an MBA in General Business Administration, with an additional Master's Degree in Computer Science and Networking from University of Missouri, Kansas City. He also has a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from the Aurangabad University, India. He can be reached at [email protected]
Project Perfect is a project management software consulting and training organisation based in Sydney Australia. Their focus is to provide creative yet pragmatic solutions to Project Management issues.
Project Perfect sell “Project Administrator” software, which is a tool to assist organisations better manage project risks, issues, budgets, scope, documentation planning and scheduling. They also created a technique for gathering requirements called “Method H”, and sell software to support the technique. For more information on Project tools or Project Management visit www.projectperfect.com.au
