Project Management

Project Management

EMBAStrategy Implementation

Overview

• Morning• Introduction to project management• Work Breakdown Structure• Building the Project Plan• Implementing the Project Plan• Exercise

What is a project?

• A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique result• Projects have a beginning and end• A project has specific deliverables• Teams are usually disbanded at the end• Operations, in contrast, are repetitive and on-going

• Projects are an increasingly important means of executing strategy• So-called “strategic initiatives”• Project goals can be progressively elaborated over

time

What is PM?

• Project management is “the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet project requirements”.

• Now an IEEE Standard (IEEE1490)• Project Management Institute

• Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)

• PM is seen in a broad context• Management of the team, risks, quality &

external stakeholders as well as cost and time

Why adopt PM?

• Most projects are over time and over budget (often significantly)• On average only 25% of projects meet all of

their goals, around 25% fail completely• According to the CHAOS report the average

project in 2001 was:• 163% over time• 145% over budget

Benefits

• PM can:• Justify work and changes• Improve tracking of critical variables• Identify tasks at differing levels of complexity• Decrease project costs• Let everyone know how they fit in• Improve client reporting• Decrease development time/costs and

increase productivity and reusability

“If you fail to plan then plan to fail”

Critical Variables

Scope Time

Cost Quality/Risk

Stages of PM

• Initiating• Planning• Executing• Controlling• Closing

Initiating: Scope and Charter

• Project scope management• Defining and controlling what is, or is not,

included in the project deliverables• Project charter

• A written statement of project scope that is formally agreed with stakeholders and shared with the team

Project Charter• Problem/opportunity• Project name, sponsor, manager• Singular Project Goal• Objectives that are Specific, Measurable,

Assignable, Realistic, Time based (SMART)• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

• Success criteria• Assumptions, risks, obstacles

Issues in Scope Mgt

• Scope Verification• A process should be defined for how the

stakeholder will formally accept that deliverables have been achieved

• Can verify at various stages or phases• Verification may be conditional

• Scope Change• A process should also be defined for how scope

can be adjusted and the resulting impacts on cost, time, and risk quantified.

Work Breakdown Structure

• A WBS is a categorization and decomposition of project deliverables

• Work packages are the lowest level of the structure• They are the smallest deliverables

• 8-80 hours of work (1 day-2 weeks per person/team)• Can be further decomposed into activities or tasks

• The WBS is the input to all other project plans• Work that is not in the WBS is not in the project !

WBS Process

• Ideally a team-based activity (offline with whiteboard)• Break the project into phases

• By lifecycle, milestones, or obligations• Decompose the phases into discrete

deliverables• Decompose the deliverables into work

packages using the 8-80 rule• Must be able to assign time and resources• Create WBS diagram

WBS by Output  Screen clipping taken: 10/29/2007, 12:43 PM  

WBS by Phase  Screen clipping taken: 10/29/2007, 12:56 PM  

WBS Process ctd.

• Next steps• Include milestones to mark end of each

phase• Convert WBS to OpenProj to create timeline

(see Donaldson example)• Present to project sponsor and key project

stakeholders• Get formal approval

Gantt Chart of WBS

Geoff Choo on WBS

• Begins with a lifecycle of major phases• I work the WBS in iterative cycles

• Start with high level activities• Add sub-activities

(note that activities are not really part of WBS)• Decompose as deeply as you need

• Down to one individual working 1-10 days• The lowest level should have one individual• A list of assignments and accountabilities• Let the team fill in low-level activities

• Length of time predicted from personal experience, historical data and team

Exercise

• In your teams, create a WBS for the EMBA trip next year• Use OpenProj to determine how early the

planning needs to start if the trip must start no later than December 4, 2011

• OpenProj Skills• Enter phases, tasks, and durations• Link phases (create dependencies)• Set milestones• Determine start date

Building the Project Plan

• By now, we have the project charter, scope, and WBS

• We need to add:• Schedule and cost estimates• Performance measurement baselines• Milestones and target dates• Required staff

• Extras• Risk, quality, staffing, communications

Note on Activities

• Technically, the WBS contains only deliverables not activities

• The work packages need to be decomposed into activities (even sub-activities)

• Choo’s advice is useful – 1 person for 1 to 10 days

Activity Sequencing 1

• Once the activities have been defined they need to be sequenced

Activity Sequencing 2

• Constraints (see advanced tab)• Do what? Start/Finish • When? No earlier than/ No later than/ On

this date / As Soon as Possible /As Late as Possible

• Lead or Lag time is also possible• Double click on a link to set all sequence

information

Activity Duration

• Once sequencing has been done, the duration required for each activity has to be estimated• Estimates based on experience/history• Time units –m, h, d, w, mo• Duration is the time required to complete an

activity or task

OpenProj

• By default, • One day equals 8 hours, one week equals 40 hours,

and one month equals 20 working days. • 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. is the default work day.• Tools: Change Working Calendar

• Options…sets default working time• Ability to change default, add extra time, add non-working

time (e.g. holidays)• Change Gantt chart/entry table

• Add columns to WBS• Split screen display

Calculating Duration

• Duration = Work/Resource Units• If a resource’s workday is eight hours and he or she is

assigned to work on a task at 100% Units (for eight hours of work), then the Duration is eight hours (one day by default).

Now let’s say you change the Units to 50%. Then the Duration becomes 16 hours or two days, because if a person is working half of an eight-hour day on this task, then it will take them 16 hours (two days) to complete eight hours of work.

• Duration stays fixed for first work assignment • Recalculates after subsequent work assignments

Network Diagrams

• Working with units of time rather than specific dates allows more flexibility

• We have used Gantt charts, a project network diagram is an alternative way of representing a project.• Establishes the “critical path”• Contingency planning

• Allows the team to “tinker” with alternate dependencies and constraints

Critical Path Analysis

• The critical path is the longest duration from project start to finish• If any activity on the critical path is delayed the project is

going to be late• Slack is the limit an activity not on the critical path

can be delayed• Free slack – the time a single activity can be delayed

without delaying successors• Total slack – the time an activity can be delayed without

delaying the entire project• Project slack – the time the project can be delayed before

missing the customer deadline

Adjusting the critical path

• Fast tracking• Parallel rather than sequential (FS to SS)• Can add some lag to second task to create

a partial overlap• Can be risky if first task delayed

• Crashing• More resources – but not all tasks can be

shortened with more resources

Management Reserve

• Always reflect the accurate amount of time it should take to complete a task• Don’t inflate time to allow for mistakes, rework,

and late activities• Parkinson’s law – work will expand to fill the time

available• A management reserve is an artificial task at

the end of a project• 10-15% of total time• Overruns are applied to the reserve

Assigning Resources

• A resource is defined as any people, equipment, or materials• View Resource Breakdown Schedule

• Key variables• Type – work (per hour), material (per unit), or cost (per

activity) • Max Units: 50% or 3 engineers• Rates –per time period (m, d, mo, y) or per use• Double click for resource information

• Flexible availability, costs, calendar• Accrual methods – start, prorated, end

Interview with Niral Modi

• Insights• Includes 12-15% variance for unknowns• Assessing time required and assigning

resources with no slack (or over-allocation) are the toughest tasks

• Consult team members so you don’t create a schedule you can’t deliver

• Don’t be too generous though• On going deliverables and communication

with client can make a difficult project easier

Exercise

• Take your WBS from the first exercise and convert it to a project schedule by adding activities using the 8-80 rule• Assign resources

• Keong, Dean Jarley, Lisa, Travel Agent, Other Internal & External Parties

• Find the critical path and then try shortening• What risks does this entail?

Implementing the Project Plan

• Team has to be motivated and monitored• Project status meetings (usually weekly)

• Reporting – compare to baseline, • Generating a sense of responsibility &

ownership (peer pressure helps the former)• Acknowledgements and thank yous• Review of status and risks• Remediation (if necessary)

Tracking

• Tools to track include:• E-mail, spreadsheets, web forms, OpenProj,

Projects on Demand (cloud-based)• Each report should include costs and % of

total work completed• If work is getting off schedule

• Add additional resources• Invoke the management reserve (reduce the

reserve and add time to late task)• Reassign the work unit

Tracking Finances

Term Definition Sample Value

Budget at Completion (BAC) Estimated total cost of project $100,000

Percent actual complete (%A) Actual reported amount of work completed

20%

Percent planned complete (%P) Planned proportion of work that should have been completed

25%

Earned Value (EV) %A x BAC $20,000

Planned Value (PV) %P x BAC $25,000

Actual Costs (AC) Funds actually expended $15,000

Tracking Finances

Term Definition Sample Value

Cost Variance EV-AC +$5000

Schedule Variance EV-PV -$5000

Cost performance index (CPI) EV/AC 20/15 = 1.33

Schedule performance index (SPI) EV/PV 20/25=0.8

Estimate at completion (EAC) BAC/CPI 100/1.33=75.19

Estimated time Total Est time/SPI 6 mths/.8=7.5mths

Interview with Jason Duigou

• Lack of supervision is fatal• Coming in on time and budget is bloody

difficult• Try using dynamic digital dashboards for

feedback (especially when team is dispersed)• Throttle resources up and down as needed• Ongoing reward and recognition• Communication and feedback is the key• Learn from lessons learned – after action

GROUP ACTIVITY

• In your teams, complete• the POM+ Project, or• Blue Zuma for more of a challenge

• If you finish early…• help others • compare your answers!