1 © Shlomy Gantz 2002 Project Management for the MX generation Project Management for the MX generation Shlomy Gantz CFUN-02

1 © Shlomy Gantz 2002 Project Management for the MX generation http://www.shlomygantz.com

Project Management for the MX generation

Shlomy Gantz

CFUN-02


Project Buzzwords

• Process

• Requirements

• Teamwork

• Consensus

• “On-time, On Budget”

• Methodology

• Empower, Synergy, etc…


“Process”


Buzzwords - “Process”


Buzzwords - “Process”

• 4 Step, 5 Step, 12 Step…

• Who designed your process?

• Do you follow that process?

• Do you? Really?

• Do you update your process?

• How complex is your process?

• How abstract is your process?


“Requirements”


Buzzwords – “Requirements”

“I’ll need you to review these

300 use cases by Monday”


“Horror Story” #1

• Large airline industry project

• Thousands of documents

• 200 Consultants

• No consistensy

• No clear vision

• Project already late

• Too many project managers


“Horror Story” #1

• Re-State Goal

• New Document Templates and Management

• Buzzword free architecture

• Simple, Achievable Milestones


Buzzwords – “Requirements”

• Do you have enough requirements before you start coding?

• Do you, really?

• Can you have too much of it?

• Are they consistent?

• Can your requirements change?

• Are they simple to understand?


“Project Mangers”


Buzzwords – Project Managers

• Project Managers are overrated

• Project Leadership is needed instead of project management


“on time and on budget”


Buzzwords – “on time and on budget…”

• Nearly a third of IT projects

were CANCELED before

they could be completed.

• Over half of the projects cost

almost TWICE as much as

their original approved budget


“Teamwork”


Buzzwords – “Teamwork”

• Hierarchies can inhibit communication

• One Good programmer is worth 10 mediocre


“Consensus”


Buzzwords – “Consensus”

• Too much time and energy spent on consensus

• Great tool for Avoiding Accountability

• Promotes management by committee, slows development


“Famous first words”


Famous first words


Famous first words


Famous first words


Famous first words


Famous first words


Famous first words


Reasons for Failure

• In software, past performance

is your best indicator of

future performance

• “Project success is determined

in the first month”


Reasons for Failure

• Lack of clear vision

• Lack of communication

• Lack of flexibility

• Lack of creativity


Project Success Factors

1. User Involvement……………………..…….202. Executive Management Support………...….153. Clear Statement of Requirements………..….154. Proper Planning ……………………….……10 5. Realistic Expectations …………….….…….10 6. Smaller Project Milestones ………….……..10 7. Competent Staff …………………………….5 8. Ownership…………………………………. .59. Clear Vision & Objectives ………………….5 10. Hard-Working, Focused Staff……………. .5


“Horror” Story #2

• “Instant” company 0-60 employees

in one month

• Extremely Short timeframe

• Not enough developers

• No planning or Vision

• Constant Scope creep


“Horror” Story #2

• Stop• Force everyone think the product does do,and

write it down.• Owner and President given a multiple choice

questionnaire based on response.• Mini-plans, small milestones/tasks – complete a

feature• Momentum – team happier, more productive• Project gets done


Project Management – The problem

• Phase Isolation – “Plan, then do”

• Requirements done once and set in stone

• Requirements are not simple to understand

• Implementation is done in Isolation


Project Management – The Solution ?

• RUP?

• RAD?

• XP ?

• FliP ?

•

•


Project Management – The Solution

• An clear vision

• An evolving project plan

• An evolving functional specification

• An evolving risk list

• An evolving test plan


A Clear Vision

• Storyboarding / Wireframes– The Topic– The Classifications– The Specific Ideas

• Non-Functional Models

• Evolving Simplified Documentation


Storyboarding

• Team of 5-7 people

• 45 minutes to 1 Hour at most

• Visually represent your ideas


An evolving project plan

• Reality Check (Resources, Time, Quality)

• Don’t be afraid to change the plan !!!

• Pick any 2:– Fast.– Good.– Cheap.


The Plan

• What You Gonna Get?

• By When?

• How You Gonna Get there?

• How Much It Gonna Cost?


The Initial Plan

• The specification of what the final product or service will be capable of doing;

• The top-level plan for how everything is going to be done and how it will all fit together.

• The timetable of when the client can expect to be able to see and evaluate specific parts of the finished product.

• The budgets associated with those timetables


The Plan

• Differentiate the major tasks from the little stuff; group minor related tasks under the major tasks.

• Sequence the major tasks into some logical progression.

• Figure out who’s going to do which task(s) and what they’ll need to get it/them done well and right and about how long your team members think they will take to get done. Add 50% (build in the time cushion).

• Advise those people what you want done, but not necessarily exactly how you want it done. People’s creativity will amaze you sometimes.


The Plan

• Too Much Detail

• Not enough Detail

• Project and Product summary – Plain English– Who’s who


Risk Management

“since unplanned network outages are a big inconvenience, in the future I should be notified in advance of all unplanned outages...”


Plan your Risks

• Believe in Murphy What can go wrong, will

• Think about it• Plan for it• Accept it

• Find your constraints


Plan your Risks

• You don’t get enough money.

• You don’t get enough time.

• You don’t get enough people.

• You get the wrong people

• Your client is inaccessible.

• There are too many cooks.

• “Circumstances beyond your control”.


Roles - Introspective Roles

• Product focus.

• Project focus.

• Task execution focus.

• QA and testing focus

• Structural focus.

• Documentation and training focus.


Roles - Extrospective

• Client/Customer liaison.

• Sponsor liaison.

• Business point-of-contact.

• “Infrastructure”/maintenance liaison.


Estimating time

• There are three major ways projects get scheduled:

• Top-down;

• Bottom-up; and

• Dictated release date.


Keeping Track of it all

• Show and Tell instead of Reports

• MBWA

• Email, Email, Email !!! (or IM/ICQ)


Communication

• Good Reports– Short– Contain Summary– Have pictures !– One page long

• Too much information is– (a) useless, or– (b) distracting, or– (c) all of the above


Using Time

• You CANNOT manage time, you can only use it


Using Time - Meetings

• No specific objective (“We always meet on Tuesdays at 11.”);

• No agenda (“Well, we’re all here, what shall we talk about today?”);

• Too many participants or wrong participants

• Too long

• Failure to control the meeting , lack of focus

• No closure


Using Time - Meetings

• Meetings should be between 30 and 50 minutes

• Always have someone take notes, if you can’t find some one, buy a tape recorder.

• If possible have daily startup meetings

• Only invite those who have something to gain or contribute.

• END and Start on time


Overtime


Testing

• Feature Reliability

• Usage and Functionality

• Integration Testing.


Horror Story #3

• Call Accounting system• Project late, pressure to get things done earlier• Management thinks money can drive productivity• Spaghetti code• Planning inconsistent• CEO wanted to manage the project, no PM

experience• Multiple teams in several physically separated

locations


Horror Story #3

• What is essential• What is the goal• Modularize the existing code, even if it is working• Small tasks – get a feature working perfectly• Reuse of modules once the first feature was

working

• When re-architecting project mid stream do in simple form, not as complete as done at the beginning of the project


Project Recovery

• Stop. If you Know something is wrong, stop doing it.

• Consolidate all of the information in one central location … computer and non-computer. Make it all available to all of the team members.

• Find out what the goal is. The business goal. The technical goal.If it doesn’t get you closer to a business or technical goal, forget it.


Project Recovery

• People … remove problematic people. Don’t task them or give them non-critical tasks if can’t get rid of them

• Team morale. Most important. To improve … listen to the team, back them up. Avoid burn-out – make them leave the office.


Project Recovery

• Reschedule if possible. Phased launch. Build-every-night – small attainable goals. Regression testing – automated testing tools. Release in the morning instead of at night.

• Communications – ask the team what is wrong, respect their opinion.


Project Recovery

• Get a decision maker at the executive level with a scheduled time to make decisions. If not available, project gets delayed.

• Create a project log, why project not getting done. Any documentation better than no documentation.

• Do not commit to a new schedule, especially within 2 weeks of the recovery period. After 2 weeks you can usually get them a new schedule.


Why CF programmers Rock !!!

• We focus on Results

• We produce Results

• We can change code easily

• We usually avoid complexity

• We help each other, we learn quickly

• We just “Rock”


Tools

• Web Based tools

• SiteSpring (discontinued)

• Knowledge management

• Microsoft Project

• Online project management


Tools – Simple Project Site


Tools – Simple Project Site


Tools –Simple Project Site


Tools –Simple Project Site


Tools –SiteSpring


Tools –OnProject


Tools –Microsoft Project


Sites

• http://www.construx.com/

Steve McConnel

• http://www.shoottheprojectmanager.com/

Robert Brents

• http://www.extremeprogramming.org/


Books

• “The Inmates are running the asylum” • Alan Cooper

• “Rapid Development” • Steve McConnel

• “Necessary, but not sufficient” • E. Goldart

• “The Mythical Man Month” • Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.

• “Extreme Programming Installed”• Ron Jeffries, Ann Anderson, Chet Hendrickson


Q & A

Shlomy Gantz

http://www.shlomygantz.com

Documents

1 © Shlomy Gantz 2002 Project Management for the MX generation Project Management for the MX generation Shlomy Gantz CFUN-02