vitae projectmanagementessentials 271108 v1 pdf

Project managementessentials

Skills session

© 2008 The Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited

Project Management Essentials published by The Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited www.crac.org.uk Project Management Essentials has been written by Dr. Sara Shinton, Shinton Consulting Ltd, and Dr. Robin Henderson, MY Consultants Disclaimer These resources have been developed by Vitae, based on our work with researchers, with Higher Education institutions, and trainers and developers. The recommendations for use are based on previous experience of what works well, and are intended as a guide. The resources can be adapted to fit the users own personal circumstances and needs according to the copyright of The Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited. Copyright Material from this document may be freely reproduced, in any medium, by UK higher education institutions only, strictly for their own non-commercial training and development purposes, subject to acknowledgement of copyright as detailed below. Materials may be adapted for your own non-commercial use provided that the original source and copyright is acknowledged. The copyright in any adapted resources shall be assigned (by way of present assignment of future rights) to CRAC. In no event may these materials be used for commercial purposes. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure these materials are accurate and complete, CRAC is not responsible for any errors or omissions, factual or otherwise, and does not accept any liability arising out of any reliance placed on the information contained within these materials. Any reproduction, including by way of adaptation, of these materials shall include the following acknowledgment: ‘This resource has been adapted by [name of institution] for our own non-commercial use. It is based on the original resource, Project Management Essentials, developed by Vitae, © 2008 The Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited’ If material is required for use outside the UK higher education sector, and/or for commercial use, please contact [email protected], or write to the following address: Vitae c/o CRAC 2nd Floor, Sheraton House Castle Park Cambridge CB3 0AX © 2008 The Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited.

Project Management Essentials has been developed by Vitae © 2008 Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited. Please refer to www.vitae.ac.uk/resourcedisclaimer for full conditions of use.

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Contents Summary 3 Facilitator brief 5 Participant handout 18


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Summary Overview and aims This session aims to introduce participants to the concept of project management. It leads them through the basic definitions of what a project is and introduces them to a range of planning and control techniques. Throughout the session a number of practical activities are used to reinforce the concepts and show how they can be applied to the workplace. Type of resource Skills session Recommended running time 2-3 hours Audience This material has been developed for postgraduate researchers (PGRs), but the principles would work with other audiences. Learning outcomes: primary Where run with postgraduate researchers, these are the learning outcomes as mapped on to the Joint Skills Statement of Training Requirements1: (C) Research management - to be able to: • apply effective project management through the setting of research goals, intermediate

milestones and prioritisation of activities Learning outcomes: secondary Can additionally touch upon the following learning outcomes: (D) Personal effectiveness - to be able to: • demonstrate a willingness and ability to learn and acquire knowledge • demonstrate flexibility and open-mindedness • demonstrate self-awareness and the ability to identify own training needs Additional notes This session is part of a wider series of skills sessions which form the Project Management Toolkit. This toolkit comprises a recognised range of skills required for postgraduate researchers to carry out research projects effectively. The skills sessions can be found at www.vitae.ac.uk and include:

• Introducing the Project Management Toolkit – Managing Your Research • Project Management Essentials • Objective Setting • Time Management • Effective Communication • Managing the Student-Supervisor Relationship • Conflict Management • Managing Meetings

The development portfolio The participant handouts for each of the skills sessions that make up the Project Management Toolkit are designed to build into an individual development portfolio which contains both the key advice from each session and the participant’s own learning from it. At 1 http://www.vitae.ac.uk/1690/Joint%20Skills%20Statement.html


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the end of each handout is a development plan or activity in which the participants identify what they want to change in relation to the skill in question and how this will happen. If the Project Management Toolkit is being run as part of a wider programme of activities, participants should be encouraged to complete a learning log each week, in which they identify an event that they have learned from. They should analyse this in their own time to help them see how they learn effectively and which skills or advice they are applying, in order to help them set realistic objectives in their development plans. The learning logs are designed to be a reality-check for the development plans.


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Facilitator brief Overview of session The focus of the session is on presenting the basic concepts associated with project management. This includes identifying the stakeholders and scope of a project, developing work breakdown structures, defining risk, developing project networks, looking at critical path and Gantt charts and identifying ways of monitoring progress. Participants take part in a series of group activities to demonstrate how these concepts work in practice. At the end of the session participants should be better equipped with project management skills that they can apply to their own research projects. Suggested timings

Slides Suggested timings 1-2: introduction + objectives 5 minutes 3–8: defining project management 20 minutes 9-10: stakeholders + activity 25 minutes 11–13: scope 5 minutes 14: scope activity 15 minutes 15–17: work breakdown structure (WBS) 5 minutes 18: WBS activity 20 minutes

BREAK IN SESSION 19-21: risk 5 minutes 22: risk activity 20 minutes 23-24: networks 5 minutes 25-26: critical path 20 minutes 27: Gantt charts 15 minutes 28-29: monitoring progress 15 minutes 30: summary 5 minutes Resources required The activities require flip chart paper and post-it notes; the small post-it notes are best suited to the activities. Preparation Background notes are provided for each slide. It is useful and helpful to illustrate the slides with examples drawn from your own experience. For this session particularly relevant examples would be: • a stakeholder has not been identified prior to the project which has impacted on the

outcome of the project • a project where the planning stages have been neglected which has led to project failure • a project where the goalposts have moved half-way through • example projects which the participants will all be familiar with (going on holiday, getting

married, organising a night out) • a project where a risk has not been identified until it was too late


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Project Management Essentials has been developed by Vitae© 2008 Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited. Please refer to www.vitae.ac.uk/resourcedisclaimer for full conditions of use.

Project management essentials

The aim of this session is to introduce some formal project management techniques to participants and suggest how these might be applied to their own projects.

Slide 2


Session objectives• Understand the basics of project

management

• Be able to apply a number of project management techniques to your work or research

• Cut through the project management jargon

• Develop a valued transferable skill

Project management is conceptually very simple but a lot more difficult to put into practice. What this session will do is to try and outline some of the tools and techniques commonly used in project management. Project management is a key transferable skill and therefore if participants can demonstrate the application of these techniques, it will be helpful to them when applying for jobs.

Slide 3


Definition of a project

‘The principle identifying characteristic of a project is its novelty. It is a step into the unknown, fraught

with risk and uncertainty…’ Dennis Lock

‘A unique set of activities to deliver an outcome which is finite and bounded…’

There are many definitions of projects and they all have key characteristics: • Projects are one-off undertakings • Projects have a beginning and an

end • A project is finite and bounded. With

this definition in mind, operating a manufacturing plant is not a project but producing a specific component from the same manufacturing plant is.

The standard definitions also include risk and uncertainty, which all projects face.


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Project management

‘The application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities in order to meet

stakeholders’ needs and expectations from a project…’

‘...the process of integrating everything that needs to be done as the project evolves through its life cycle in

order to meet the project objectives…’

Project management is about managing projects! However it involves more than just applying the theoretical tools and techniques to a series of tasks. It is about meeting the expectations of all the stakeholders to reach a successful endpoint. The second definition on the slide includes the concept of integration. Assuming that the project will not be completed by one person, there is an implicit assumption that project management involves managing people. In looking at different stages of a project, it is useful to consider the project lifecycle: idea > feasibility > plan > implement > control > review. It might be helpful to draw the lifecycle up on a flip chart. In relation to this you could ask where participants first got involved in their PhD or research projects and if this has caused any issues?

Slide 5


Project constraints

• Important to understand the constraints that the project is operating within

• Plan within these constraints• What are the constraints on your work?

COST

QUALITYTIME

Projects always operate under constraints. Ask participants what the constraints are on their PhD or research project. Record the answers on a flip chart. The responses should tally with the slide. The key to successful project management is to balance the constraints of cost, quality and time.


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What is a successful project?• Measures of success:

– on or under budget?– on time?– appropriate quality

• Think about some recent projects:– London Eye– Millennium Dome

• Have they been successes or failures?

Often projects are deemed successful if they meet the schedule and budget. However, looking at a couple of landmark projects (the Millennium Dome and London Eye), it is worth re-examining this definition of success. What could success be defined as in these cases? Ask participants what the measures of success for their projects are. There will probably be more than one definition of success.

Slide 7


Project manage from the start

• It is easier to change the plan now rather than in 18 months’ time

planning implementation completion

Accumulatedeffort and cost

Level of influence

Cost of change

It is always good practice to project manage from the start. If project management tools and techniques are introduced halfway through a project, when things are going wrong, the influence which the project manager can exert is very low. In any project, it is difficult to change the direction at 2 years but is much easier to do this at 6 months. The key thing is therefore to start to use project management tools sooner rather than later. The graph illustrates the typical cost profiles for introducing change within the whole project. Note that introducing change becomes more expensive as the project progresses. Also as the project gains momentum, the level of influence that the project manager can exert, is reduced. When the project is nearly complete, the project manager can only control, he or she cannot change. Note that the cost of change can be more than the accumulated effort and cost: knocking a wall down takes little effort and cost, but deciding afterwards that you did not want to knock it down and having to replace it, will cost a lot more!


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Planning your projectIdentify stakeholders

Define the scope

Identify the tasks

Identify the risks

Plan

Implement

Review

This slide outlines the basic steps in project management. The process is iterative and ongoing so when you are implementing the project, you do not stop looking to identify stakeholders etc. A classic example where this process was ignored is the Brent Spar project. Shell failed to identify Greenpeace as a stakeholder until the project was beyond saving! The Shell project was to dispose of the Brent Spar oil storage facility at sea. Greenpeace mounted a worldwide environmental campaign and succeeded in forcing Shell to abandon its plans to dispose of Brent Spar at sea and pursue on-shore disposal options. Each of the project management steps will be outlined in the following slides.

Slide 9


Who are the stakeholders?

• ‘Any individual or organisation who has interest in the performance or outcome of the project..’

• Stakeholders usually input resources into the project (towards success or failure!)

• Key to project management is meeting stakeholder expectations – project success if all expectations are met

Stakeholders are people who trade resources (time/money/values) within the project. Managing the stakeholders is key. This can range from making sure you keep them informed to delivering a product to them. The aim is to ensure that a balance of the expectations and objectives of all the stakeholders is reached by the end of the project.

Slide 10


Understanding stakeholdersWorking in small groups discuss:• Who are the stakeholders of your project?• What resources do they bring to the project?• What do they expect in return?• How much influence do they have in setting

– the outcomes of the project?– how these are achieved?

• How can the stakeholders be managed?• Are there conflicts between the interests of

stakeholders?

Activity – split the participants into small groups and ask the questions outlined on the slide. Make sure participants think as widely as possible when identifying the stakeholders. The most obvious ones might include: themselves, the organisation, their supervisor, their department, industrial partners, their partners/mums and dads, their bank manager…. The next issue is resources: some stakeholders will bring money, others time and others support. For each stakeholder ask what they expect in return. Determine the power exerted by each of the


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stakeholders: how much power over what should be done (research council for a grant) through to how to do it (the lab technician). Finally think about conflict and how stakeholders can be managed eg communication, results. This activity is important as it opens up the diverse aspects of a project. Expect it to take 25 minutes. Ask for feedback from the groups.

Slide 11


Defining the scope

• Scope – what needs to be done to complete the project

• Make sure it is clear to all involved• Defines the boundaries of the project (what is/isn’t

expected)• Confirms common understanding of all stakeholders• The scope should be verified/approved by all

stakeholders• Get this agreed up front as it will solve problems

later!

Defining the scope is crucial to the success of a project. Everyone who is involved in the project should agree on the scope and what the outcomes of the project should be.

Slide 12


How to define the scope• Can use similar techniques to design methods to

identify the project scope: e.g. objective treesResearch project

Experimental Work Modeling Publishing

Investigatevariable 1

Investigate variable 2

Conference paperduring year 2

Mathematicalmodel

Computerimplementation

Simulations A + B

Journal paper during year 3

This slide illustrates a simple technique to define the scope of a project using a top-down approach ie outlining the main requirement and moving down into the sub-requirement. This is an easily visualised technique for getting agreement from all the stakeholders. Note that this is not what needs to be done but a list of the project objectives and what the project will actually deliver.


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Changing the scope

• Most common reason for projects delivering late/over budget

When changing scope ensure that:• Changes are beneficial to the project• Everybody is aware of the impact on the schedule

and outcomes of the project

Scope changes often occur in projects and they are one of the most common reasons for late or poor quality delivery. When changing the scope, it is important that everybody is aware of the impact of the change in scope, eg. longer working days or late delivery.

Slide 14


Scope of your research project

Working in small groups discuss:• The scope of your project

– try and formalise it using an objective tree– write it down!!

• How well do you understand it?

• Is your understanding of it the same as your supervisor?

Split participants into groups (perhaps split by subject). Ask them to discuss the common themes in their PhD or research requirements; use flip charts to record their ideas. Suggest that they take their ideas back to look at with their supervisors or senior colleagues. This activity is included in the Participant handout.

Slide 15


Identifying the tasks• Once you have identified the scope you can now

identify the tasks you need to perform to complete the project

• Break the project down into tasks and subtasks

• The subtasks should be small enough chunks so that you can easily assess your progress

Having identified the scope, you can now work on the tasks which need to be done to complete the project. It is important to break the tasks down into subtasks as it is very difficult to assess progress if the task is very large.


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Work breakdown structure (WBS)• Identify all major activities that make up the project• Identify sub-activities to be completed for each major

activity• Continue to build by adding the next level of work• You will continue down to the level at which work is

actually done, and track and manage the project at this level

• Each sub-activity should comprise a discrete task with a given duration

• The work breakdown schedule must be complete, so when all activities are done, the project is finished

The formal technique for developing task lists is called a work breakdown structure (WBS). The process is outlined on the slide. The key thing with the work breakdown structure is that if all the tasks are complete, then the project is complete.

Slide 17


• With research projects the details of the activities may not be clear

• You should still however be able to identify the major activities and plan based upon these

Work Breakdown Chart

Sub-Sub Act.1.1.1

Sub. Act.1.1

Sub. Act.1.2

Major Activity1.0

Sub-Sub-Sub Act.2.1.1.1

Sub-Sub Act.2.1.1

Sub-Sub Act.2.1.2

Sub-Sub Act.2.1.3

Sub. Act.2.1

Sub. Act.2.2

Sub. Act.2.3

Major Activity2.0

Sub. Act.3.1

Major Activity3.0

Project

Work breakdown schedules (WBS) are easily visualised as trees. A major activity could be writing the literature review, whilst the sub activity would be a specific section of the literature review, and the sub sub activity a small chunk of that section. The key is that you need to know when you have completed the task.

Slide 18


In small groups:• Take a project which you are all familiar with (e.g.

planning a party, holiday, wedding etc.)

• Develop a work breakdown structure for the project (use the post-its provided)

• Remember that the work breakdown schedule only shows the activities and sub-activities, and not the order you perform the activities in

• After the session develop a work breakdown schedule for your work or research project

Activity: It is difficult to develop WBS for individual research projects in groups, so the best option is to develop a generic WBS for a project which is familiar to all participants (moving house etc). Get participants to brainstorm using post-it notes all the tasks which need to be done. Then cluster these and develop them on a sheet of flip chart paper into a tree structure. Often people worry about the ordering of the tasks at this stage. Emphasise that ordering tasks does not matter at this stage and will be dealt with at a later stage in the process. The post-it note WBS is required later in the session so make sure that the groups keep it safe.


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Projects and risk

Identify sources of risk

Assess the likelihood of risk

Assess magnitude of risk

Develop response

All projects have an element of risk attached to them. Rather than letting the risks hit you unexpectedly, it is best to plan for them so you have a management plan in place if anything adverse does happen. In order to create a risk management plan you need to identify the risks, assess how likely they are to happen and assess how bad (or good) the outcome will be!

Slide 20


Sources of risks

Project Risk

Information

People

Expense

Time

QualityProject Scope

Communication

feasibilitystandards

ideas/data

availability

budgetschedules

Equipment

people

availability/reliability

This slide outlines some common sources of risk. You could ask participants about risks they can identify within their own projects. Some specific examples for PhD projects include equipment availability, machines breaking down, not being able to access the necessary information, especially relevant if working with an industrial collaborator.

Slide 21


Prioritise the risks• Probability – how likely is it to happen• Impact – how serious is it?

1 2 3

2 4 6

3 6 9

probability

consequences / impact

Risk (Probability x Impact)1- 2 : Low3 - 4 : Medium6 - 8 : High9 : Extreme

This is a very commonly used grid that allows prioritising of the risks for any given project. Asking the questions ‘How probable?’ and ‘How bad (impact)?’ allows you to plot the risks on the grid and come up with a priority list.


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Risks in your projectWorking in small groups:• Identify risks which are relevant to your work or

research project• Prioritise these risks using the impact/probability

matrix• Can you as a group identify ways to manage these

risks?– design them out of the project (modify the work

breakdown schedule)– put in place an alternative course of action if the

risk occurs (Plan B!)

Activity – working in groups to think about the risks to their PhD or research project. Some might be obvious (poor data, machine breaking down) or not so obvious (supervisor moves to Australia, building at work burns down) to the silly (elephant sits on laptop whilst at the circus!!). Get participants to prioritise risks and identify ways to manage them. This might involve splitting large tasks into smaller items (easier to tell when things are going wrong), by keeping someone else in the loop on their project, by re-evaluation of the scope of the project, or by having specific review points. Finally ask for feedback from the groups.

Slide 23


Planning – project networks

• Having identified the tasks and the risks you can now plan in which order they will be done

• Need to identify any precedence– i.e. the experiments need to be done before I can

write the results section• In a research project, it is always a good idea to have

at least two activities occurring at once.– i.e. the literature review can be worked on at the

same time as the experiments

Having identified the risks and perhaps modified the plan, the project network can now be compiled. This depicts the possible ways the work can be completed. The first stage is to identify any precedences (ie. A must be finished for B to start). It is often useful in a PhD to have more than one thing on the go at any one time so that if you get stuck on something, then there is something else that can be done. The classic approach is reading literature at the same time as doing other tasks.

Slide 24


Project network• Assemble the activities identified in the WBS into a

project network

• B can’t start till A is finished• C, D and E can all be happening at the same time• When G is complete the project is over

D

A B C FG

E

The project network is just a graphical representation of the ways things can get done. For large projects the project network often gets very complicated so it is usually drawn up using a software package such as Microsoft project.


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Critical path

• 3 paths through the project network• The path which takes the longest to complete is

referred to as the critical path• In this case it is ABDFG

A B C F G

D

E

1 3 2 2 3

5

1

It is always important to know what the time limiting steps are, ie. the tasks which must be completed on time for the project to be completed on time. If an estimate is made of the different duration of all the activities, then the longest path through the network is referred to as the critical path. This must be completed on time for the project to finish on time. Therefore when controlling the project these activities along the critical path must be carefully monitored.

Slide 26


In small groups:• Take the project which you developed the work

breakdown schedule for and rearrange the post-it notes into a project network

• Identify the critical path

• Discuss how you could apply these techniques to the rest of your work or research project

Refer participants back to their work breakdown schedule (WBS) created earlier. Ask them to rearrange the WBS into a project network. If durations are estimated, then it should be possible to identify the critical path. This should take about 15 minutes. You may want to comment on the difficulty of attaching durations. For activities that have been performed in the past, it is possible to estimate how long they will take, eg.20 diagrams which take 60 minutes to prepare. However for more complex activities, eg. performing a new experiment, it might be difficult to attach a duration. In this case it is necessary to provide a best estimate. There are techniques to deal with uncertain project activity durations such as PERT and Monte-Carlo simulations. More information on these can be found in most project management textbooks.

Slide 27


Gantt charts

Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Literature Review

Experiment A

Experiment B

6 Month Report

Submit Report

Experiment C

Data Analysis

Development of Model

• This is a time line version of the project network• Easy to visualise what should be going on at any time

• Key deliverables are shown as milestones • These are important as a means of assessing progress

One way of visualising a project network is by mapping the activities from the network onto a Gantt chart. This chart simply depicts which activities should be occurring at any particular point in time. It is useful to place key milestones on the Gantt chart to help focus attention on the project deliverables. Based upon their critical path developed in the previous activity, you could ask participants to develop a Gantt chart (15 minutes)


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Monitoring progress

• Be systematic – evaluate against deadlines• Identify tasks which are slipping• Identify areas where additional resource might help• Identify unexpected conflicts on resource (e.g. lab

equipment / technicians)• Keep critical activities on track• Update project plans when things change, and

always work with latest version of the plan• Most importantly BE HONEST

A crucial aspect of successful project management is monitoring progress. The key here is to make sure that critical activities remain on track. Be aware that something which was not critical in the original project plan may become critical if timescales/deliverables slip. Honesty is important when monitoring projects. If you are not honest with yourself when monitoring how you are progressing, then it will be very difficult to assess your progress or make any necessary changes. It will also impact the overall management of the project.

Slide 29


Not going to plan?• Make everybody aware of costs/implications of delays• Discuss changes in plans• Adding resources does not always speed things up• Respond early before it is too late• Remember that the plan is a plan and is not rigid -

introduce some flexibility • If the project is in crisis involve the client and

stakeholders:– your supervisor/department/senior colleagues– industrial collaborators– research group– friends

This slide summarises different courses of action if the project is not going according to plan. The key is to involve the stakeholders. They will be more supportive if they know there are problems earlier rather than later. Also they may be able to offer support and advice to help bring the project back on track. Remember that adding extra resources will not always help: an inexperienced undergraduate student will not necessarily speed things up on a research project. Also note that a plan is just a plan and that it can be flexible, especially with the agreement of the key stakeholders. Give examples from your own experience where project plans have had to be adjusted for different reasons.

Slide 30


SummaryIdentify stakeholders

Define the scope

Identify the tasks

Identify the risks

Plan

Implement

Continuously review

Summarise the key points from the session. Ask participants how they intend to implement some of the techniques covered in the session.


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Participant handout Relevance Projects are about delivering specific pieces of work. These can range from short reports on a specific topic to multimillion-pound construction projects. The techniques that are used to manage projects are applicable to projects in any field. This session aims to introduce project management tools and techniques with a broad perspective but many of the activities will be focussed on your individual projects. The skills introduced within this session are important transferable skills as project management is a core competence for many industries. Projects Projects have distinct start and finishing points. Think back over the last three years and list some of the personal and work projects that you have completed or been involved in. What are the similarities between these? Project constraints All projects operate under constraints: the constraints of time, cost and quality. What are the constraints on your work? The project management process The project management process is iterative and ongoing with the initial stages being reviewed as the project progresses. The process is made up of the following stages: • identifying the stakeholders • defining the scope • identifying the tasks • identifying the risks • planning • implementing • review


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The following questions ask you to reflect on your own work and should highlight areas where project management techniques may be useful. Stakeholders – Who does it matter to? What resources do they bring? What do they expect in return? Scope – What is it you are aiming to achieve? What is the scope of your work? Does your understanding of the scope match that of your stakeholders? Identify the tasks – what do you need to do? Break the scope down into easily achievable tasks. List these below. Think a little harder! Are there any tasks that you have forgotten to include?


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Identify the risks – don’t think it won’t happen! What could go wrong in your project? Of the risks identified above what is the worst thing that could go wrong? For each of the risks identify how you could plan to minimise the impact of the risk. Stakeholders Have the above questions highlighted any additional stakeholders? List them below. Plan - before it is too late! Work out which order the tasks need to be done in. Can you organise it so that you can have more than one task on the go at any time? Draw a Gantt chart to illustrate your plan.


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Implement – just do it! What problems do you have in implementing your plan? Can you change the plan to reflect this? Review – check your progress • identify what is going wrong • change the plan before it is too late • let the stakeholders know • be honest


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vitae projectmanagementessentials 271108 v1 pdf

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