PROJECT MANAGEMENT

An Introduction

Project Management intro

■ What is a project?

■ What is project management?

■ Which industries use project management?

■ Why do we need project management?

■ What makes efficient project management?

What is a Project?

■ A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to achieve a particular aim

■ Every project has a definite beginning and a definite end

■ Projects differ from operations in that operations are ongoing and repetitive while projects are temporary and unique

■ Project management can be applied to any project regardless of size, cost or timeframe

Activity point 1

■ Did you have a “project” in mind before you came today? – or can you think of a project you are involved with now?

■ In light of the definitions given on the previous slide, is the activity– A project?– Or a service?

■ Describe the techniques you are using at present for managing the “project” – discuss with your neighbour

What is project management?

■ Application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to a broad range of activities in order to meet the requirements of the particular project

■ Processes involved– Initiating– Planning– Executing– Controlling– Finalising– Maintaining– Evaluating ………& Communicating!!

What is project management? (continued)

■ Organisational approach to the management of ongoing operations sometimes treats various aspects of ongoing operations as projects in order to apply PM techniques to them

■ More generally:– “Project Management is widely regarded as the most

eff icient way of introducing unique change ”

Which industries use PM ?

■ Information systems

■ Financial services

■ Legal services

■ Construction

■ Healthcare

■ Education

■ Training

■ Art events

■ Virtually everything!

Why do we need project management? ■ Fierce global competition

■ International organisations trying to establish uniform practices for organising their work

■ Projects and services have grown larger and more complex

■ Sophisticated customers demand higher quality goods and services

■ Exponential technological growth

■ Downsizing (i.e. fewer people do to more tasks)

Activity point 2

■ Identify from the previous list reasons why you might need to develop PM techniques

■ Work for 3-4 minutes to make up your own list of obstacles to successful planning and running projects

■ Agree with your neighbour a composite list and prioritise it

What is the Project process?

In Theory

In Practice

1 Analyse the

project environment

2 Define scope

of project

3 Plan the project

5 Implement

project plan

6 Evaluate project

4 Decision

to Proceed

1 Analyse the project environment

2 Define the scope of the project

3 Plan the project 5 Implement project plan

6 Evaluate the project

4 Decision to proceed

What makes efficient project management? ■ Clear goal■ One leader■ Cautious planning■ Breaking down the project into meaningful and

manageable components■ Allowing margin for error■ Crisis management■ Cost-effective■ Taking risks

What makes efficient project management? (continued)■ Ability to

– Resolve conflicts■ Internal: amongst team members■ External: between teams, execs, customers

– Make educated guesses– Provide praise and constructive criticism– Handle change– Estimate

In summary

■ Project management is the discipline of managing projects successfully.

■ It comprises the management of all that is involved in achieving the project goals safely and within the agreed time, cost and quality.

■ It provides a “single point of integrative responsibility” needed to ensure project success.

An Intro to Project Management - Part 2■ Summarising Part1

– What is a Project?■ A specific time-bounded activity, with defined goals,

outcomes, planned tasks and resources

– What is Project Management?■ Application of a broad range of techniques to meet project

requirements

– What is the Project process?■ 7 stage process, as shown in Fig1Project process

The PM process in detail

■ Laying the foundations of success

– The Project environment

– Project politics■ All projects influenced by forces in the environment

■ Understand and manage project politics

– The bigger the project, the more time must be spent on communication

The Project environment

ProjectManager

Senior manage

rs

Functional

managers

OtherProject Manage

rs

Otherprojects

Users

Customers

Subcontractors

Suppliers

Project team

Define Scope of project

■ Define, understand and agree on the results the customer/user/client expects

– Project success criteria– Personal success criteria

■ Use various methods to understand what is really being asked for

– Mock-ups, prototypes, mindmaps

■ Involve the project team, if possible– This the start of requirements capture– Commence team building & build understanding of

project

Action point1!-Analyse your project environment for risk■ Identify all the factors that might impact the project

■ For each factor, quantify

– What is the likely impact?

– How likely is it to happen?

■ List actions required to manage

impact on project

Defining projectobjectives

■ 6 key steps

Step 1

DefiningProject

Objectives

Step 2

Definingthe work

Step 3

Estimatingduration,

work, costs

Step 4

Structuringand

schedulingtasks

Step 5

AssigningAnd

optimisingresources

Step 6

Review forrisks andfinalisingthe plan

Create the Objectives document

■ Critical reference for the project– Definition of success for PM– Goalpost statement for project team– Source document for change control process– Summary of a contract with customer

■ Key components– Project Goal statement– List of project deliverables

ProjectInternal project

documents

Project owners

Company sponsors

Business

case

Managementplan

Change control

Changes

Finance dept

Cashf low

Suppliers &contractors

Contracts

Customer

Contract docsAcceptance

specs

Project documents

The Project Goal Statement

■ A statement that conveys the basic thrust or intent of the project

■ Answers the 5W’s

– What? When? Why? Who? Where?

– But not How?

■ How is defined when the detailed schedule for the project is developed

Action point 2 !

■ For the project you are working on, write a goal statement

■ Can you identify a list of project deliverables?

■ Discuss with your partner

Defining the work- using Work breakdown structure (WBS)

Object of analysis -Break up the overall project into manageable tasks eg 40 hour duration

Work breakdown structures

■ The WBS process breaks the project down by levels– Each WBS level should be a more detailed

expansion of the level above– Tasks, Subtasks, Activities, Work

■ Subdivision should continue down to the level where you define– Work that can be assigned to an individual or

team– Clear responsibility and measurable results

Action point 3 !

■ Develop a WBS for your project

■ Do it by brainstorming with your partner

– It’s a lot easier to talk about!

In Summary

■ Understand the project environment

■ Define the project objectives

– Create the objectives document

– Own the Goal statement

– Define list of deliverables

■ Become practiced at WBS techniques

An Intro to Project Management - Part 3■ Summarising part 2

– Understand the project environment

– Define the project objectives■ Create the objectives document

■ Own the Goal statement

■ Define list of deliverables

– Become practiced at WBS techniques

Structuring and scheduling tasks 1

■ Starting point – an WBS brainstormed by the project team

Structuring and scheduling tasks 2■ Put the project tasks into a logical order

– Determine the predecessors and successors for each task

– Create a network diagram aka a PERT network

– PERT=Program Evaluation Review Technique

Structuring and scheduling tasks 3■ A typical network diagram, showing each task and

interconnections, and the order in which each task should be carried out

START FINISH

The Critical Path

■ Once a network is designed, the critical path can be calculated

■ The critical path shows the longest t ime sequence of tasks through the network

– All these tasks must be completed on schedule if the project is to be completed as planned

– Any delay to a task on the CP delays the whole project

■ All other paths are non-critical – they have “slack or float” BUT!! Can become CP if delayed enough

Gantt chart showing CP and float

In Summary

■ Create a network diagram from the WBS

■ Find the Critical Path

■ Look for slack in the CP

■ Familiarise yourself with these MS Project views and facilities!

An Intro to Project Management - Part 4■ Summarising Part 3

– Create Gantt and network diagrams from the WBS

– Assess the Critical Path

– Look for slack in the CP

– Familiarise yourself with these MS Project views and facilities!

Assigning resources 1

■ What are resources?

– People, equipment and material required to complete the project’s tasks

■ Two important aspects to a PM

– Availabil ity - when can a specific resource work on a task and how much work they can do?

– Costs – what’s the cost in using this resource?

Assigning resources 2

■ The scheduling formula

■ Init ially the task has a duration assigned to it from the WBS process

■ Work represents the amount of time a resource or resources will take to complete a task

■ Work(time) = Duration(time) x Units committed

Assigning resources 3

■ MS Project uses effort-driven schedulingeffort-driven scheduling

■ This means a task’s work remains constant regardless of the number of resources added to it

– Eg 40 hours work = 40 hours for 1 person– = 10 hours for 4 persons

■ What effect can this have on the Gantt timeline?

Activity point 1!

■ Discuss with your partner -

■ How do you negotiate to get the resources you need to complete the tasks?

■ As PM are you assigned to the critical path?

■ Brook’s law says :

“Adding workers to a late project makes it longer” : how could you avoid this?

Risk management process

■ Key elements– Risk awareness –must be considered

throughout project– Risk identif ication –id tasks which could be

affected by unexpected events– Risk assessment –id probability and impact

of each risk– Risk evaluation –rank in importance– Risk management –assign action &

responsibility

Tracking and Control

■ Establish T & C methods in your project

■ Controls must be

– Relevant –measure what matters

– Useful and usable –not seen as a waste of time

– Timely –report deviations quickly enough to enable timely corrections

– Accurate –sufficiently accurate(and no more) for the project team

Finalising the Plan

■ Add milestones, change control procedures, individual task contracts

■ Seek formal approval – ensure sponsors give decision to proceed

■ Place under change control immediately sign-off agreed

■ Baseline established!

Activity point 2!

■ How have you quantified the risks present in your project?

■ Which controls have been introduced in your project plan to keep the project on track?

■ Is change-control necessary?

In summary

■ Establish resources and assign to tasks

■ Revaluate modified schedule

■ Implement risk management throughout project

■ Introduce competent tracking and control method

■ Secure decision to proceed

An Intro to Project Management - Part 5■ Summarising part 4

– Assign resources to tasks

– Check modified schedule

– Be aware of risk management

– Introduce tracking and control

– Secure decision to proceed

Into the real world!

■ The plan

– Logical, consistent, well defined, simplified model, based on assumptions

■ The real world

– Illogical, inconsistent, fuzzy, complex and dynamic, reality

Running the Project

■ Control process

Monitor

Correct

Analyse

Project climate

■ Questions to ask when things go wrong

– “How do we fix it?”– “How do we prevent it happening again?”– “Is it on the critical path?”– “What new risks have been created?”– “Should we advise the customer/user/manager?”

Ask in this order

Activity Point 1

■ Discuss with your partner

– How do you monitor?■ Find out yourself – the bad news?

– Walk the walk? Weekly status reports?

■ Listen to others – the good news?

– Reign of terror?-wil l you get the bad news?

– Under which conditions do you inform the customer/user/manager? –make a list

Analysis and Correction

■ Track actual progress against the baseline

■ Ask “how long/how much/how many/when?”

■ Analyse why there is variation from plan

■ External/Internal causes?

■ Will it reoccur? What are the risks?

Correction

■ What’s the only part of the project the PM can change?

– The future!

■ What corrections can be made?– Partial or phased delivery function/quality– Increased budget– Extended deadline cost t ime

■ What’s the most visible measure of progress?– The schedule! Time!

Project closure

■ PM to report/act on

– Outstanding items

– Final project financial statement

– Formal notification of project closure

– Summary and analysis of all problems with action points

– Changes encountered and actions taken to resolve

Project Manager qualities!■ An open positive “can do” attitude

■ The ability to spot sensible, effective, straight forward, least risky, least complex solutions – the 80/20 rule:Pareto principle

■ Open mindedness, Adaptability, Fairness

■ Inventiveness, prudent risk taker

■ Commitment to the project’s success, user satisfaction and team working

And finally!

■ Remember –– “Poor communication is the

single most significant contributor to project failure”

■ After the handover:– Have a rip-roaring celebration

to thank wholeheartedly the whole team for their loyalty and hard work!