Project Management How To

PROJECT MANAGEMENT How to Formally Manage a Project Adapted from Kepner-Tregoe, Inc. Training Course – by Michael J. Frey Begin by Understanding Project Management

Understanding Project Management A project has a specific goal or end result. It consists of independent activities requiring oversight. It has a clearly defined start and finish. Project management defines requirements, plans activities, controls inputs, evaluates outputs, and creates the conditions that make success possible. Successful project management requires the technical skills to define, organize, and estimate work; schedule work and resources; manage risk; monitor and control resources and ensure the success of the project. Successful project management requires the people skills to lead and motivate the project team; gain stakeholder commitment; and communicate effectively. Project Manager’s Role . Selection of Project Manager . Project Management Flowchart . Begin my Project

Project Management 3 Phases – 13 Steps Phase 1 – Project Definition (4 Steps) Phase 2 – Project Planning (5 Steps) Phase 3 – Project Implementation (4 Steps) * From a time management perspective, you should be spending 40% of your time in Project Definition, 40% in Project Planning, and 20% in Project Implementation.

Step 1 – State the Project This step establishes the project boundaries to help define, plan, and control the project. Appraise the project background, likely constraints, priority, and worth. Decide on a short statement which consists of an action and end result (performance), time, and cost. Be prepared for lengthy discussions. Keep the project statement visible. Answer these questions in this step: What is the action and end result (i.e. “At the end of this project we will have…”)? What evidence suggests a need for this project? Are we capable of doing this? How long would it take? How much would it cost? Project Definition Go to Step 2

Step 2 – Develop Objectives This step describes results and constraints to be considered throughout the project in order to guide the project work and decisions. Write a list of short statements/objectives. Compare objectives to original concerns/problems. Obtain sponsor approval. Answer these questions in this step: What value should this project produce? What short- and long-term benefits do we want? What constraints do we face? What requirements must be met? How will we know the objectives are met (measure and standard)? Project Definition Go to Step 3

Step 3 – Develop Work Breakdown Structure This step determines how work will be organized in order to act as a basis for costing, planning, monitoring, and control. Highest level groups work by major deliverable, phase, and/or resource; middle levels define sub-deliverables; lowest levels are work packages. All work is done and all resources are used in the work packages. Work packages combine to produce all higher level deliverables. Develop a chart or outline. Check that work supports the objectives. Answer these questions in this step: What are the major outputs of this project? What are the components of …? How will we achieve the objectives. How will we organize the work to ease planning and control? Project Definition Go to Step 4

Step 4 – Identify Resource Requirements This step estimates resources needed to produce each work package in order to avoid future resource problems and help assign responsibility. Answer these questions in this step: What resources are needed? How much of each resource is needed? What will each resource cost? What knowledge and skills are needed? What facilities are needed? What equipment is required? What supplies and materials will be used? What special or unusual resources are needed? Document type, amount, and cost for each resource. Project Definition You’ve finished Project Definition – Go to Phase 2

Step 5 – Assign Responsibility This step identifies people responsible for completing each work package so that everyone knows who will be doing what. Answer these questions in this step: Who has resources for this work package? Who has knowledge, skills, and experience? Whose commitment is needed? For each work package: Identify the appropriate resources. Plan approach to gaining commitments. List roles and responsibilities. Identify primary responsibility. Project Planning Go to Step 6

Step 6 – Sequence Deliverables This step identifies the order in which deliverables should be produced in order to help schedule work efficiently. Determine precedence and duration for each work package. Answer these questions in this step: In what order must work packages by completed? What knowledge, experience, templates, or historical information exists? How much elapsed time will each work package take given the type and availability of resources? Develop precedence list and/or network diagram. Project Planning Go to Step 7

Step 7 – Schedule Deliverables This step identifies specific dates when work packages will be performed in order to provide a schedule baseline for monitoring. Answer these questions in this step: What assumptions are being made about working time, resource availability, or other constraints? When should work packages start and finish in calendar time? Set up the project calendar. Use work package precedence and duration. Compare finish date with required finish date and adjust the plan if necessary. Project Planning Go to Step 8

Step 8 – Schedule Resources This step confirms that resources will be available when required in order to deploy those resources effectively and maintain their commitment. Review the plan with resources. Answer these questions in this step: Are resources available when needed? Does the schedule need to be adjusted? Acknowledge priorities and constraints of resource providers. Project Planning Go to Step 9

Step 9 – Protect the Plan This step plans actions to reduce risk and to capitalize on opportunities that may arise during the project in order to help ensure that project objectives are met or exceeded. Identify areas of the plan where threats or opportunities are anticipated. Conduct a Potential Problem (or Opportunity) Analysis . Adjust the project plan to reflect the results of the analysis. Protecting the plan should have priority! Project Planning Go to Step 10 You’ve finished Project Planning – Go to Phase 3

Step 10 – Start to Implement This step confirms readiness and initiates project work in order to avoid common start-up problems. Communicate to: Review project statement and objectives. Review initial project assignments. Confirm performance expectations. Set ground rules for working together, communicating, and handling issues. Consists of a formal event or a series of informal communications. Answer these questions: Are the project statement, objectives, initial assignments, and performance expectations clearly understood? What ground rules have been set for working together, communicating, and handling issues? Project Implementation Go to Step 11

Step 11 – Monitor Project This step compares actual project performance to the Plan in order to make progress visible, assess variances, and apply correct control. Ask: How does the schedule compare to the Plan? How do costs compare to the budget? How do available resources compare to the Plan? How does performance compare to the Plan? How do preliminary results compare to expectations? How does the customer view the project? How is the team working together? What conditions have changed? Project Implementation Go to Step 12

Step 12 – Modify Project This step revisits the plan to respond to new threats and opportunities in order to ensure the customer’s needs are, in fact, met. Clarify and prioritize threats and opportunities. Identify which work packages are threatened. Locate the earliest time in the process when each concern has impact. Use Definition and Planning steps as required to revise the plan. Use sufficient involvement and discussion. Control and communicate changes. Ask: What concerns have surfaced? What is the earliest point of impact? What Definition and Planning steps need revision to address concerns? How will changes be controlled and communicated? Project Implementation Go to Step 13

Step 13 – Closeout and Evaluate This step compares the performance of the deliverables to the original need in order to understand the value created. Ask: How will success against objectives and lessons learned be reviewed? Did the project satisfy the project statement? How well were the project objectives met? How satisfied are customers, stakeholders, and end users with the project? How will closure be brought to the team? Were any requirements not met? Why weren’t they met and what needs to be done about it? How will the project summary be documented? How will the project’s ending be communicated? Project Implementation The 10 Most Critical Factors that Determine Success

Work Packages Detail the exact work to be done. For each work package, define and record: Performance measures and standards Resource requirements Responsibility assignments Timing Potential problems and opportunities Constraints, assumptions, agreements, and changes Reporting requirements Should vs Actual Add details during Definition, Planning, and Implementation. Return

Project Manager Role The Project Manager is the person with the responsibility and authority to deliver project results. The task at hand is to concentrate and streamline management responsibility. The Project Manager: Applies a project management process Uses appropriate methods to plan and communicate Involves others to gain needed commitment and information Guides problem solving and decision making Creates the necessary temporary performance environment Return

Project Manager Selection Make a best balanced choice for project leadership. The Project Manager should have: Project technical skills People management skills Project content knowledge Good relationship with team members Commitment to project success Time to devote to the project Support from their management Consider a wide range of candidates. Assess any risks with best candidates before making a choice. Return

Potential Problem Analysis Remember…this is a systemic process for protecting actions or plans in order to ensure that the intended value of the project is not jeopardized and to avoid being reactive. Identify potential problems. Identify likely causes (what could cause the problem?; what has happened in the past to cause it?; what changes during completion of the work package could cause it?) Take preventive action. Plan contingent action and triggers. Identify critical areas in the Plan, finding areas where serious trouble can be anticipated in order to focus limited time and resources on high-impact areas. You should answer these questions: Where is time, cost, performance most at risk? What work packages have no slack? What work packages are new or complex? Where have we failed before? Where is responsibility shared or unclear? Protect one critical area at a time. List potential problems, identifying future undesirable deviations in order to anticipate and prepare for future problems. What could go wrong with the work package? List quickly without discussion. Be specific – separate. Work on high-priority potential problems first Consider resource shortages, scheduling conflicts, personnel decisions, nature phenomena, misunderstood goals, environmental issues… Continued…

Potential Problem Analysis… continued Assess the threat in order to determine the degree of risk associated with each potential problem. Answer these questions: What is the likelihood of this potential problem occurring (probability)? What will be the impact of this potential problem (seriousness)? Document evidence of the likelihood and impact. Rate the probability and seriousness of each potential problem. Work on the most serious and probable problems first. Reduce overall risk to an acceptable level. Take preventive action in order to attempt to keep the likely causes from happening so that you can reduce the probability that a future problem will occur (and potentially derail your project). Ask: How can we keep this likely cause from happening? How can we make this likely cause less likely? How can we keep it from creating the potential problem? Pick feasible, practical, and cost-effective actions to implement. Make appropriate changes to the project plan. Plan contingent action in order to determine ways to minimize the impact of the potential problem so that you can quickly limit the damage if it occurs. Ask: What will we do if this happens? How can we minimize the impact? Continued…

Potential Problem Analysis… continued What actions can we take to recover quickly, cheaply, completely? List contingent actions that minimize the seriousness; are feasible, cost-effective, practical. Prepare contingent actions in advance and add to the plan. Set triggers, establishing a feedback system to indicate a potential problem is about to occur or has occurred in order to start a contingent action at the proper time. Ask: How will we know the potential problem has occurred? What or who will activate each contingent action? One trigger can start several contingent actions. Triggers can indicate severity and advance warning. The Potential Opportunity Analysis follows these same exact principles and steps…EXCEPT…you are looking for opportunities that might arise instead of problems. Return to Step 9

Ground Rules What should be reported to the project manager and how often? How will concerns be reported? How and when will the project team record time and expenses? How will changes to the plan be documented and communicated? Who can promise and/or approve changes? How much autonomy do team members have? How will conflicts be resolved? How will feedback on individual performance be communicated? How often? How will new ideas and suggestions be handled? How will the team communicate among themselves? How will project status and customer feedback be communicated? Return to Step 10

10 Critical Success Factors Project team commitment Accurate initial cost estimates Project team capabilities Funding throughout project Effectiveness of planning and control Minimum start-up difficulties Task vs. social orientation of the team Absence of bureaucracy Project manager on site Clear criteria for success Finish Read the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Projects

Project Management How To

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