EM660 PROJECT MANAGEMENTClass 4

Class 4 Agenda

• Case Study 1Presentation

• Chapter 11 Planning• Smart Objectives

Note: chapters 11 & 12 will comprise a large portion of your final project. More on that later.

PlanningThe most important responsibility of the project manager is planning, integrating and executing project plans.The finished plan allows you to walk through the project and get it organized before the work is actually done.1) Determines if the project charter can be done.2) Shows how the project gets accomplished.3) Planning saves time, resources and money.

Project Plan

Project Plan

• At a minimum, a project plan answers basic questions about the project:

• Why? - What is the problem or proposition addressed by the project? Why is it being sponsored?

• What? - What is the work that will be performed on the project? What are the major products/deliverables?

• Who? - Who will be involved and what will be their responsibilities within the project? How will they be organized?

• When? - What is the project timeline and when will particularly meaningful points, referred to as milestones, be complete?

Show WWTP Project Charter

Project Planning & Control

Planning Responsibilities1) Project Manager– Goals, Objectives, Milestones– Requirements, Ground rules, Assumptions– Time, Cost & Performance Constraints– Procedures, Policies & Reporting

2) Line Manager– Work Task descriptions to implement project– Schedules and Manpower Allocations– ID areas of concern, risk, uncertainty, conflict

3) Project Sponsor– Chief Negotiator, Clarifier, Communicator

ObjectivesSince project planning is a shared responsibility, project objectives are really joint efforts.Some common problems are:• Not everyone agrees with the objectives• Priorities change & objectives are too rigid• Not enough time to do proper planning• Objectives don’t have measurements• Objectives are not well defined & documented• Project team and end customer not in sync• Project personnel have other assigned duties

Objective Requirements Analysis • What work elements are needed to satisfy

objectives & how are they interrelated?• Who will do the work and what is required?• Are enough resources available in-house?• How will project info & communication flow?This analysis will create four important project

planning outputs (p. 425):1) Statement of Work (SOW)2) Project Specifications3) Major Milestone Schedule4) Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Statement of WorkThe statement of work (SOW) is a narrative description of the work to be accomplished.

SCOPE: defines what is and is not included in the project & flushes out the needs of stakeholders.

OUTPUT: A scope statement by which project performance is measured.

The scope needs to be carefully worded or the project closure phase may end in conflict.

Project StandardsA project standards (specifications) list describes where man-hour, equipment and material estimates come from.

Often, there are legal or regulatory requirements to which organizations or customers must adhere to do business.

Specifications are standards for pricing out proposals. They can come from published sources or historical data from prior projects.

Milestone Schedules

A project milestone schedule will contain:

1)Project start date2)Project end date 3)Major milestones4)Report dates or scheduled reviews

These dates can be either forward-generated by the work content or backward-generated by a required due date (trade show or roll-out).

Work Breakdown StructureThe work breakdown structure (WBS) is an expansion of the project objectives & defines:

1)All effort to be expended.2)Responsibility of specific work elements.3)The schedules & budgets for those elements.

The WBS is not a Gantt chart or Pert networks, but rather a very detailed list of work to complete a project.

WBS FormatI. Total Program (multiple current projects)

1. Project1. Task

1. Subtasks1. Work Package

1. Level of Effort

You see where this is going…add some times … instant schedule. But the devil is in the details.

WBS DecompositionBefore we start linking work tasks into a network, the work elements need broken down into the smallest details possible.Why?1)It keeps you from forgetting stuff.2)Provides better time and cost estimates.3)Sometimes work has a specific sequence; something needs to be done 1st.

Changes or additions, once the project network is established, are usually costly.

Network DiagramsNetwork diagrams just show sequencing and dependencies and are not yet schedules.Figure 11-3 shows good examples.

Network Diagrams

Figure 11-3

Network Diagrams

• It is at this point that the project and functional managers start examining where the work, time and cost elements are piling up & can be spread out to get a better project flow.

• Formal authorization is granted once the triple constraint elements are fully determined.

Simple Task List-Start of House II

Simple Network from Tasklist

1. LS of B?2. ES of B?3. ES of C?4. LS of C?5. EF of E?6. ES of D?7. LS of D?8. Slack Time of C?9. Slack Time of B?10.Critical Path?

Possible Paths?

Path Duration1.A-B-E 152.A-C-E 213.A-D-F-E 24

Critical Path is A-D-F-E with largest duration equal to 24

Simple Network from Tasklist

Critical Path A-D-F-E Shown in Sequence

Latest Start of B?

Earliest Start of B?

Latest Start of C? C must finish before E starts

Earliest Start of C?A must finish before C starts

Earliest Finish of E? (24 d.)Earliest Start of D? (day 4)Latest Start of D? (day 4)

For days on the critical path the earliest start and latest start times are the same.

Slack Time of C? (7-4 = 3 days)Latest Start of C? (day 7)

Earliest Start of C? (day 4)

Slack Time of B?Latest Start of B = Day 13

Earliest Start of B = Day 4Slack Time of B = 13 – 9 = 4 days

Detailed SchedulesNOTE: We’ll cover network scheduling techniques & presentations in chapters 12 & 13.

The scheduling of activities is the next major requirement after go-ahead authorization.

Activity schedules show how resources are being used and allow “what if,” trade-off, schedule crashing fast tracking to draw in the final project completion date & create budgets.

Master Production SchedulingAn offshoot of the project schedule is the Master Production Schedule (MPS). The MPS is a statement of:

1) What will be made.2) How many units will be made.3) When it will be made.

The MPS compares the demand on a plant’s resources against the available capacity. The MPS is a very important step & must coincide w/the project dates promised to the customer.

Master Production Scheduling

• A Master Production Schedule or MPS is the plan that a company has developed for production, inventory, staffing, etc. It sets the quantity of each end item to be completed in each week of a short-range planning horizon.

NOTE: We are only about halfway done with the project planning elements necessary prior to project execution. We’re not making anything yet, but we’re thinking about it at this point.We still have to consider:1)Price, costing, & trade-offs (CH 14, 15, 16)2)Risk planning and management (CH 17)3)Purchasing & contract management (CH 19)4)Quality standards and requirements (CH 20)

These items are also planning components.

Configuration Management

Configuration management is a formal change review and approval process. It provides a focal point of input for internal and external parties wishing to add changes to the project.•The change requests need to be evaluated against the triple constraints (cost, time, scope).- What is the cost of the change; is it justified?- What is the impact to the delivery date?- Do the changes preserve/improve quality?

Project Bottlenecks• Hurry up and wait The client wants the project to begin as soon as possible, so you work overtime to get the scope document, budget, and timeline together. But when you are ready, the client fails

to make its resources — information and people — available in a timely manner.• Scope creep You work overtime to meet the client's expectations, even though

their expectations included deliverables that weren't part of the original scope discussion. This is especially problematic for fixed-price contracts.

• Endless brainstorming Sometimes the client has an idea of what they want you to discover during the course of a project, and if you don't find it, they want you to try again.

• Two departments, one project objective Sometimes, especially at larger companies, you get involved in a project and you find out that another department is working on a similar project.

• Late or no payment Some consultants fail to set proper payment expectations with clients, resulting in an excessively delayed payment.

Planning recommendationsIdentify the project champion, they can:

1-Ensure that you have access to client staff and information to prevent bottlenecks that could affect your project timeline. 2-Gather feedback on project hypotheses by researching findings and status from within the organization as a litmus test for how other client executives might react. 3-Identify any other projects within the organization that have similar objectives. You want to make sure that the client resources are being used effectively and that any complementary efforts are coordinated. 4-Establish clear project scope5-Clearly outline the project timeline6-Define how to handle billing issues7-Present your project plan in a kickoff meeting8-Maintain clear communication

Project Champion Definition

• A project champion is an individual who has the authority to use resources within or outside an organization for completion of a given project. A project champion is chosen by the management so as to ensure supervision of a specific project from its initiation phase to its execution phase.

MS Projects Tutorial

Next time

We’ll work on Network Diagrams and Graphics and review the project handouts.

• Case Study 2 Feb 12th• Project proposals are due March 5th.

Network Homework is 12-14 & 12-17 Due Feb 19th