Project Management for the resource-challenged

Project Managementfor the resource-challenged

Ari Davidowadavidow@jwa.org

Workshop for Museum Computer Network Conference 2010

Agenda

• What is Project Management?• The PMI project management lifecycle• Components of a project• Understanding the bones of your project

– Work Breakdown Structure– Critical Path– Gantt Charts

• Risk Management• Agile Development and Project Management• Tools for Managing Projects• Where to go to learn more

If we don’t manage projects…

• How do we know when they are done?

• How do we know if we succeeded?

• How will we do better next time?

• And in the middle, how will we know where we are and what it means?

Project Plans that aren’t

Project Plans that aren’t - 2

Why do projects fail?

Group discussion 1

Common reasons projects fail

• Too many projects competing for the same resources

• Insufficient or inadequate resources• Insufficient or inadequate business involvement• Project team isolated from the business• Team roles & responsibilities are unclear• Poor communications• Roadblocks are not resolved in a timely manner• Scope changes are not managed properly

[slide adapted from Lydia Milne, “Foundations of Project Management,” from Brandeis University Graduate Professional Studies.]

Project Management is …PMBOK:• A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or

result.– Temporary -- not on-going

• Does not imply short in duration• Does not apply to the product or service

– Has a beginning and an end– Unique product or service -- not a commodity or ongoing operation– Can be a subset of a larger program or a stand-alone effort– Requires coordination of tasks and resources

Wysocki, Beck, & Crane:• A project is a sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities having

one goal or purpose and that must be completed by a specific time, within budget, and according to specifications.

[slide adapted from Lydia Milne, “Foundations of Project Management,” from Brandeis University Graduate Professional Studies.]

The Triple Constraints

Quality

TimeCost

Project Management Knowledge Areas

IntegrationManagement

Scope ManagementObjectives, needs,

specifications

Time ManagementSchedules, activities,

control

Cost ManagementBudget, control

Quality ManagementPlanning, assurance

control

Risk ManagementProbability, impacts, actions

Procurement ManagementSolicitation, sub-contractors

CommunicationsManagement

Information System

Human ResourceManagement

Productivity and efficiency

[from Lydia Milne, “Foundations of Project Management,” from Brandeis University Graduate Professional Studies.]

Initiation (in 5 bullet points)

• This is where you take the idea

• Flesh it out

• Create a Project Charter (larger projects)

• Create RFP (in some cases)

• Identify and Engage Stateholders

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

In Agile development, we would talk about a “Feature Breakdown Structure (FBS), rather than a WBS

Gantt Charts

• Used to Model dependencies, milestones

• Helps visualize critical path

• Overall activity snapshot of project

Project Status

It’s 90% done

Project Summary Dashboard

'Example Program'Multi-Project Summary Dashboard

Division: ACME Software Works Revision 1.9 Manager: Peter White

Project Name Manager Customer Week Schedule Incidents Requirements Staffing

1) Eager Beaver Byron Murray FPQR 1-Mar-98 (1 of 20) 100.0% G 100.0% G 100.0% G 100.0% G

2) The Big Dig Ron Holliday FMNO 15-Mar-98 (15 of 30) 81.0% Y ò 97.6% G ñ 99.0% G ñ 101.4% G ò

3) We Need Programmers Jim Hassey FJKL 15-Mar-98 (5 of 20) 77.3% Y ñ 100.0% G – 98.0% G – 50.0% R ñ

4) Too Good to be True Joel Lehrer FGHI 15-Mar-98 (9 of 12) 100.0% G – 100.0% G – 100.0% G – 97.6% G ñ

5) Churn and Burn Tom Carter FDEF 15-Mar-98 (6 of 20) 83.3% Y ò 93.3% G ò 89.0% R ò 96.1% G ñ

6) Too Many Bugs Bob Albanese FABC 15-Mar-98 (15 of 20) 92.3% G ò 82.9% Y ò 99.0% G – 101.4% G ò

Notes:

- Percentages represent indices for 'Schedule Performance', 'Incident Closure', 'Requirements Stability', and 'Staffing'

- Color-coded status is determined by ranges that are defined for each project.

- Arrows indicate whether the status is improving (up) or worsening (down).

- For more information about any of these statistics or status codes, see the relevant project dashboard workbook.

Individual Project Dashboard

'The Big Dig'Project #: 998877005 Project Dashboard Manager: Ron Holliday

Division: ACME Software Revision 1.8 Customer: Pay More Inc

Staffing

Planned Actual Cum Planned Cum Actual

Requirements

024681012141618

Added Modified Deleted Cum Changes

Incidents

Opened Closed Cum Opened Cum Closed

Schedule

0102030405060708090

Planned Actual Projected

Main Menu

Update Chart Update Chart

Update All Charts

Risk Management

Risks?

• So many things can go wrong

• What are the risks you worry about on your projects?– Schedule?– Wrong requirements?– Stakeholder problems?– Budget overruns?– ….

Levels of Risk Management

from “Rapid Development” by Steve McConnell, Microsoft Press c. 1996, pg. 84

• Crisis management – Fire fighting; address risks only after they become problems

• Fix on failure (important to fix but not crisis)– Detect and react to risks quickly, but only after they have

occurred• Risk mitigation

– Plan ahead of time to provide resources to cover risks if they occur, but do nothing to eliminate them in the first place

• Prevention– Implement and execute a plan as part of the project to

identify risks and prevent them from becoming problems• Elimination of root causes

– Identify and eliminate factors that make it possible for risks to exist at all.

• Crisis management – Fire fighting; address risks only after they become problems

• Fix on failure (important to fix but not crisis)– Detect and react to risks quickly, but only after they have

occurred• Risk mitigation

– Plan ahead of time to provide resources to cover risks if they occur, but do nothing to eliminate them in the first place

• Prevention– Implement and execute a plan as part of the project to

identify risks and prevent them from becoming problems• Elimination of root causes

– Identify and eliminate factors that make it possible for risks to exist at all.

Cost of Correcting a Technical Problem

$1 ---

$10 ---

$100 ---

Normalized Projected Lifecycle

$1000 ---

Why we accurate requirements matter

K-J Technique1. Question: What are the next priorities for the MCN website?

2. Divide into two groups – 5 each

3. Now everyone write sticky notes: One note per priority

4. Stick notes to the wall so that you can see each other’s priority notes

5. Group similar items. Help each other. Talk about what belongs where. Don’t discuss the priorities, themselves, just how to group them.

6. Name the groups using the other sticky notes (2nd color). Each group , even with one item, should have a label. If you don’t like a label, change it, add your own, rearrange. Try, then discuss, until everyone is happy.

7. Now we’re going to figure out priorities:1. Write down individually the three most important items.

2. When you have your list, and only when you have your list, rank them.

3. Note your rankings on the group labels on the wall: Your top ranking gets three XXXs; 2nd gets two XXs; last gets one X.

8. Count the votes. If you realize that two groups are the same, combine them now, and add their votes together.

9. When you have consensus on what you have voted, you are done.

Source: http://www.uie.com/articles/kj_technique/

Agile Development

• A range of development methodologies based on the idea that projects are divided into short sequences – “sprints”

• Commonly, index cards or similar medium used to note feature requests, requirements

• Next sprint is derived from which features matter most, that can be delivered in the sprint (usually defined as 1-3 months)

• Goal is to put working tools into people’s hands quickly for feedback and learning, rather than get to the end of a two year project and discover that it no longer makes sense

Agile Core Values

• Delivering value over meeting constraints • Leading Team over Managing Constraints• Adapting to Change over Conforming to Plans

Closing Processes

At JWA, for web development projects, we require the following deliverables before we will accept a project as “done”:

• Code must be checked into a source control repository (CVS, Subversion, etc.) and/or be available as an AWS AMI

• Documentation must be available, usually via wiki

• We are able to successfully check out the code, and by following the documentation, install it on our site.

Final tests runContracts closedProject completedThen … Lessons LearnedAnd everything archived

Lessons Learned

Some good tools

• The “traditional” project management information system:– MS Word– MS Excel– MS Outlook– MS Project – note that MS Project, in and of itself, is

not a PMIS– MS Visio

• An online hosted service with similar capabilities: Zoho: http://www.zoho.com

www.zoho.com

Basecamp - basecamphq.com

Redmine - www.redmine.org

Redmine – another project

Additional Resources

• Project Management Institute (PMI)www.pmi.orgLook for local chapters!

• Brandeis University Graduate Professional Studies (includes distance learning using Moodle)www.brandeis.edu/gps/One good example of a Project Management Cert/Master program*

*Disclaimer: I have a degree from the program. I currently co-teach an online course in “Content Management” and am developing a new one in “Cloud Computing”

• Wysocki, Robert K. Effective Project Management. Wiley, 5e, 2009.

• Highsmith, Jim. Agile Project Management. Addison-Wesley, 2e, 2009.

• Don’t read the PMBOK unless you need it to get certified.

FeedbackOn any convenient piece of paper, please write the name of this workshop and answer the following:

1.Why did you take today's workshop?

2.Were your expectations met?

3.If not, why not?

4.Would you recommend this workshop to a colleague?

Thank you, all!

Survey adapted from Avinash Kaushick’s http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2007/04/the-three-greatest-survey-questions-ever.html

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