project management overview by darryl vleeming
TRANSCRIPT
Darryl Vleeming
June 13, 2012 [email protected]
Projects are: ◦ Temporary in nature (have a start and finish) ◦ Create a unique product, service or result
Operations are: ◦ On-going and repetitive ◦ No end date
Projects and Operations do share some of the
same characteristics: ◦ Performed by People ◦ Constrained by limited resources ◦ Planned, executed and controlled
2
There are many things you are involved in that are projects - even if you don’t think about them as ‘projects’:
◦ Legal Holds
◦ Acquisitions
◦ Divestitures
◦ Litigation
◦ Compliance investigations
◦ Ethics investigations
◦ Voter Ballots
Each one of the above examples has a start, a finish, and is different each time you do it
You can apply the principles of Project Management to all of these
3
“Project Management is the application of knowledge, skill, tools, techniques to Project activities to meet the project requirements”
Everyone has probably see the standard constraints that Projects under
4
It’s really about balancing competing priorities
5
Just extra overhead/extra cost
Useless/Adding no value
Distraction from “real work”
Unnecessary
6
Poor Project Management is one of the top five reasons that projects fail
Failure because of lack of expertise is actually quite rare
A PWC study found that only 2.5% of corporations consistently meet their targets for scope, time, and cost goals for all types of projects
7
Managing Projects is very much like driving a car.
Determine the destination, timeframe and how much you have to spend
Create a plan (route, speed, breaks, weather, etc)
Follow the plan
Continuously monitor progress and keep the car on the road
If you don’t:
8
Project Success occurs when: ◦ You have a delighted client (expectations met)
◦ Delivered the agreed objectives
◦ Met an agreed budget
◦ Within an agreed time frame
AND ◦ Done professionally and without killing the team
9
Most projects follow a standard flow:
10
Starting the Project (Initiating) ◦ Developing a Business Case ◦ Developing a Project Charter
Organizing and Preparing (Planning) ◦ Developing a Schedule ◦ Developing the Scope ◦ Developing a detailed Budget ◦ Developing a Communications Plan ◦ Developing a Risk Management Plan
Carrying out the work ◦ Tracking Progress ◦ Controlling Scope ◦ Managing Changes
Closing the Project
11
Initiating is where you formulate your “contract” with the client/customer /users/management
Define what/when/how much/why
Lack of agreement about what’s important is the biggest cause for disagreement
Lack of understanding of the impact of changes is the biggest reason for escalating costs (in cost, time and quality terms)
12
A business case lays out why a project is necessary
Could be because there is a positive return on investment, or may be for other reasons such as a legal requirement
Allows organizations to select which projects should proceed
The benefits laid out in the Business Case should be tracked post project to ensure that they are realized
13
Doesn’t have to be a huge document, or a huge amount of work
Lays the foundation of the project It protects you – defines what you’ve committed to doing,
on what timeframe, for X dollars, based on what assumptions
Stakeholders/Management cannot reasonably ask for changes without expecting an impact on the project – timeline, scope, costs, quality, etc
Lists what you need from the organization to accomplish the project (people, other resources, etc)
Its about setting expectations up front Its important to get the Sponsor/Key Stakeholder to sign
off and agree to it. In the case of ‘unofficial’ projects, this person may be your direct Manager.
14
This phase is all about the details – what the detailed schedule is, specifics on what will be delivered, how will progress be communicated, etc
The point of Planning is NOT to follow the plan 100%, but to gain a better understanding of what needs to be done.
“In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable” – Eisenhower
15
This doesn’t always need to be a massive Gantt chart that takes hundreds of hours to produce
At a minimum it should lay out the following:
Important Milestones
Key Dependencies between activities
Developing a schedule allows you to understand the impact of unexpected events on your completion date
Allows you to monitor progress on the project, and make adjustments BEFORE the project goes off track
If you don’t develop a schedule do you really think you have a good understanding of when you’ll finish something?
16
A Gantt chart is a bar chart with
◦ the horizontal axis time
◦ the vertical axis activities
◦ responsible people (optional)
It shows
◦ the sequence,
◦ overlappings
◦ interdependencies
17
Scope defines the boundary of the project
Extremely important to define it in detail
The sponsor needs to read, understand and sign off on the scope
Fail to do the above, and you will not meet expectations as people will assume different things
18
Depending on the size of project, this may not be needed, especially if most resources are internal
Benefit of developing a detailed budget is that it will give you advance warning if you’re going to end up over budget - so allows you to make adjustments before its too late
Detailed budget should include all costs – internal labour, external labour, materials, Finance charges, etc
If the project is a Capital Project, its important to understanding Finance Capitalization rules
19
Communication on projects is critical A Communications Plan could simply be a couple of
lines defining when and how you’re going to communicate
You should communicate to all Stakeholders. A Stakeholder is defined as “a person, group or organization with an interest in a project”
At a minimum you should communicate: Project Schedule Project Status Project Issues In absence of good communication, people will make
assumptions about the project that are usually not true
20
A risk is any factor that may potentially interfere with the successful completion of the project
It’s important to spend some time thinking about risks and what can be done to mitigate them
If you wait until the risk is ‘realized’, and you don’t have a mitigation plan, it’s often too late
21
Includes executing what needs to be done, and controlling and monitoring the work
Utilizes everything that was creating in the planning stage
Typically the longest phase of a project
Monitoring for risks, and reacting before they are realized is important
Leadership is critical during this phase – you need to keep your team members motivated
22
“Percent complete” is the most dangerous measure in tracking progress
Why?
People don’t know/are over-optimistic/lie
The last 1% tends to take a lot longer than it logically should
There are a number of solutions depending on the progress:
Use binary completion (is it done? Y or N)
Allow only 0%, 50% or 100% completion statuses
23
You can’t stop the stakeholders changing their minds, or requirements changing
You CAN make them aware of the impact
Let the customer prioritize – show them the cost of making the scope change
Go back to the project charter – your contract with your customer - does the change help towards the objective?
24
No project ever goes according to plan; how you handle changes will determine how successful it is
Create a solid Change Management strategy at the beginning of the project, and strictly follow it
All ‘significant’ changes need to be documented and signed off by the customer
The ability to understand the impact of change is crucial
25
Includes getting Stakeholder acceptance of the final deliverables
If you treat ‘go live’ as the end of the project, then you will get “undead” stakeholders – coming back from the past all the time with new requirements/fixes
It is also critical to document lessons learned so that future projects can take advantage and avoid the same mistakes. Typically done very poorly at most organizations.
Its important to celebrate team success. Your team will often give a lot to making a project successful – don’t forget this
26
Good Project Managers spend over 80% of the time communicating – to all people impacted by the project – stakeholders, team members, etc
If you don’t have good communication, you will not be successful
27
“Changes in Project Scope (Scope Creep) are the current leading cause of project failure globally according to the 2010 Global Survey”
To avoid that, involve your customer early and often in the requirements gathering so they feel ownership
Don’t shorten the requirements gathering portion – it will cost you more time in the long run
28
Assumptions presume that what you’re planning or relying on is true, real, or certain.
No assumption is too small to document
Assumptions should be very specific – e.g. “The price of iron will stay at current market rates for duration of project”
Assumptions should be realistic, especially if the entire project depends on the assumption being true
29
If your Sponsor isn’t 100% behind the project, it will be difficult to succeed
A good sponsor will help remove organizational roadblocks
If the project is big enough, insist on an Executive level sponsor
Sponsor needs to feel personally responsible for the success of the project
30
A motivated team will go the extra mile to deliver a project
Motivate them by involving them throughout the project, especially in the planning phase
"Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you can't be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people." - Lee Iacocca
31
Project scope isn't managed well ◦ No process in place if a change in scope is being
proposed
Poor scheduling ◦ Setting an unrealistic schedule by always being overly
optimistic
Ignoring problems ◦ Putting off dealing with difficult issues
Underestimating ◦ Not being realistic in the resources you need to be
successful
Being a yes man or woman ◦ Saying yes to everything often means you won’t be able
to deliver your primary objective
32
The Project Management Institute (PMI) is “world’s leading not-for-profit membership association for the project management profession, with more than 600,000 members and credential holders in more than 185 countries.”
www.pmi.org
33
34