a high level overview for managing the project life...

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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!


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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©2015 Project Management Institute, Inc. PMI.org/Pulse


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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


What is the purpose of planning?

Is this a waste of time?


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Why Plan?

PM

Scope

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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Role of the WBS?


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WBS Mechanics


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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Sequence

Work Packages—Project Building Blocks


Process Oriented WBS

Rock Concert:


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Rock Concert SME Discussion (Decomposition and Elaboration)


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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Software Development WBS (partially expanded)

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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2. Scope Management

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2. Scope Control


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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.)

3. Integration of plan elements


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PMP

Thoughts on Project Success 31

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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4. Reserve Pools


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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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Project Buffers


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5. Developing a Viable Schedule

(use of tools)

Classic Gantt Chart (Planning—circa 1917)


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Basic Schedule Components


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

Gantt Schedule MS Project Format

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Critical Path

DCMA 14 Point Schedule Assessment


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

Tornado Chart

Source: DoD 5000.2-R (Appendix F)

Technology Readiness Measures


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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

7. Tracking Status


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Tracking Project Performance

How is this project doing?


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Tracking Project Performance

This is the likely outcome!


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Project Complete


WBS Status Reporting

Setting Status Date


Rescheduling to Status Date

Buffer is consumed--overrun


Earned Value— Silver Bullet or Passing Fancy?


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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

EV Interpretation


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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9. Soft Skills—The Oft Forgotten Activity


Source: Richardson, Project Management Theory and Practice, 2014.

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?


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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