IPD: Project Management

University of IllinoisAt ChicagoInterdisciplinary ProductDevelopment

Innovation CenterFall Semester

Project Managementand software

IPD: Project Management

University of IllinoisAt ChicagoInterdisciplinary ProductDevelopment

Innovation CenterFall Semester

Who does what, and when?

Project Management is concerned with the allocation of resources to complete a project.

_Project management determines who does what, and when._Usually, this is the responsibility of the project manager, who _has considerable authority._We have no such person! Still, we need to decide who does what, and when._Our solution: the team decides (and documents!)

IPD: Project Management

University of IllinoisAt ChicagoInterdisciplinary ProductDevelopment

Innovation CenterFall Semester

Goals

Our Goals:

_Deliver the deliverables._Let all team members have meaningful, interesting tasks._Divide the onerous tasks equitably. _Let the team govern itself._Give fair credit for the contributions of individual team members._Learn something about project management.

IPD: Project Management

University of IllinoisAt ChicagoInterdisciplinary ProductDevelopment

Innovation CenterFall Semester

The Basics

_Never call a meeting without an agenda._One early agenda item should be the status of tasks in progress._Never end a meeting without action items._You want your tasks to be formally recognized as action items._The team needs to make consensus decisions about all tasks.

(The need to vote to settle issues in such a small group is an early sign of dysfunction.

IPD: Project Management

University of IllinoisAt ChicagoInterdisciplinary ProductDevelopment

Innovation CenterFall Semester

Task Decisions

Task Decisions: When a task is considered at a meeting, there are four possible determinations:

1) The task is assigned to a person or people and given a due date.2) The task is declared complete.3) The due date or person responsible is changed.4) The task is declared incomplete and late.

The team makes consensus decisions. All parties sign off on the decisions; dissenters register their dissent in writing.

IPD: Project Management

University of IllinoisAt ChicagoInterdisciplinary ProductDevelopment

Innovation CenterFall Semester

Software

Software: _We strongly suggest a spreadsheet program (e.g., Excel)_Each row is a task; each task is a row; the file grows and grows_Each column is a date a decision was made_Each cell is a decision:

1) The task is assigned to someone and given a due date.2) The task is declared complete.3) The due date or responsible person is changed.4) The task is declared incomplete and late.

IPD: Project Management

University of IllinoisAt ChicagoInterdisciplinary ProductDevelopment

Innovation CenterFall Semester

What to do

Suggested Procedure:

_Pick a responsible person (scribe)—this job can rotate._Pick at least one meeting each week for project management:

define tasks, assign new end dates, or declare complete, as needed._The scribe enters the group decisions and prints a copy._The team reads and signs the printed copy agreeing or perhaps

contesting a point._No cell is ever deleted from the spreadsheet. The complete file should

be kept in dropbox.

IPD: Project Management

University of IllinoisAt ChicagoInterdisciplinary ProductDevelopment

Innovation CenterFall Semester

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