MODULE 2 WORKBOOK 1

MANAGING PROJECTS IN INDUSTRY

Module 2 Workbook 1

Managing Projects

In Industry

RISK MANAGEMENTSimply put, risk management minimizes the threats to your project. The insurance industry has turned risk management into a sophisticated science that they profit on. In project management, risk management means taking into account uncertainties about timeline, costs, and quality of the deliverable. But how can you manage uncertainty? Systematically, you should use a disciplined approach to control and reduce the risks and transform the uncertainties inherent to projects into specific risks. Then, you should develop strategies for managing these risks. In fact, all project management techniques are geared to reduce risks. Still, the risk management process includes a set of actions aimed specifically and consciously at identifying and managing risk.

Kinds Of Risks

Known Unknowns

These are potential problems, which we have already identified and know they have the potential to damage the project, but we don’t know when they will happen and to what extent. Weather issues, strikes, flight delays, personal changes, and sickness are examples of known unknowns.

Unknown Unknowns Or Unidentified Risks

These risks arrive unexpectedly, and we don’t know when and where to search for them. For example, in the pharmaceutical industry, there can be unexpected changes in demands or regulations, which may affect the existing pipelines, clinical trials, and even existing products.

Some “unknown unknowns” are impossible to predict, but experienced project managers can predict others. Thus, turning them into “known unknowns,” which can be assessed using project risk management. Note that, often, identified risks can lead to changes in the SoW, budget, anticipated timeline, other project measurements, and deliverables.

Module 2 Workbook 1

Managing Projects

In Industry

Risk Management Framework

To achieve successful risk management, you must understand that risks are part of the project manager’s reality, learn about risks from within your professional world and outside it, and be careful without being afraid. You should perform risk management from the beginning to the end of the project and strive to transform “unknown-unknowns” into “known-unknowns.”

The former Secretary of State Colin Powell coined the 40/70 rule, which says that leaders should be making decisions when they have between 40-70% of the information they need. According to Powell, if you decide with less than 40% of the information, you are “shooting from the hip.” In the project management framework, you can think of it like this: In each project, there can be 30-60% of unknowns. Some of which are unknown unknowns! This uncertainty is both scary and exciting. Manage your known unknowns well, so you will have the resources to minimize and manage your unknown unknowns.

CHANGE MANAGEMENTProsci.com defines change management as “a process that a change management team or project leader follows to manage change to drive individual transitions and ensure the project meets its intended outcomes.” In other words, change management is a process that changes the organization, enabling the team to achieve specific goals.

Change management inside project management can be defined as “using the triple constraint to manage change.” The triple constraint is the process of maintaining the balance between scope, budget, and quality. Therefore, change management involves controlling the triple constraint of your project whenever changes are introduced and being able to identify irregularities quickly. Project managers must have a plan in place to tackle and resolve changes as they appear.

Communicate risks and actions by reporting to the stakeholders and project sponsors

Continue performing risk management at all times

Module 2 Workbook 1

Managing Projects

In Industry

Steps Of The Change Management Plan

Reviewing, analyzing, and approving change requests

Re-setting the project’s baseline to coordinate changes across the project

Documenting the impact of the change

Customers and stakeholders often ask for changes, even after the project charter and SoW have been written, approved, and signed. These requests might come to you, the project manager, or your team members. Even though it might be tempting to say “yes” to please the consumers and stakeholders, doing so is not always wise. The changes can have significant implications on your team’s ability to complete the project within the triple constraint, sometimes in ways that the customers or stakeholders can’t understand. As a project manager, you need to remember that if a change cannot be introduced while keeping the triple constraint in place, you are allowed – and encouraged – to politely say “No.” You are also responsible for communicating and explaining this to your team.

You can negotiate adjustments to the project’s triple constraint in exchange for incorporating the changes that your client requested. Remember that in project management, asking for permission upfront is most times better than asking for forgiveness later. Introducing changes often increases the cost, and companies are reluctant to pay for things that were not justified in the SoW – so be careful with changes introduced without explicit approval.

Remember that changes also affect your team. So, your team members may tend to object to changes. It is your role as a project manager to get your project team on board with the changes and have them defending and promoting the new scope with you.

The key to successful change management is to defend the scope of your project and to adopt an efficient change request process that makes you and your team comfortable. Make sure that

Module 2 Workbook 1

Managing Projects

In Industry

your team will not approve changes, big or small, without running it by you. Make sure to have a clear project charter and SoW, use them as your baseline and protection plan, change them only if possible and desired, and document all the changes.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS AND SOFTWAREProject managers need to understand a wide variety of topics – from basic science to how to manage people, risks, and funds. They also need to organize all the components of a project into a coherent plan. Thus, project management tools can significantly facilitate your life. However, remember that these tools are for the project and should run in addition to your productivity method – not instead of.

Multiple tools, divided into different categories, have been designed to help project managers share and allocate resources, monitor progress, identify critical paths, and classify tasks and issues.

Collaboration And Seamless Team Communication Tools

According to a Harvard Business Review, collaboration is taking over the workspace. Especially as businesses become increasingly global and cross-functional. These tools focus on team collaboration, task assignment, comment sharing, dashboard organization, proofing, and approval. It is highly advisable to have a good project management tool that can centralize conversations across emails, chats, and meetings. Your project should also have custom, shareable dashboards to display active task assignments, ongoing tasks, and which stages of the work are active in the overall pipeline.

Documentation Tools

Documentation tools help project managers to create, keep track of, and store all the documents that support the project. These tools can be divided into three categories.

List of documentation, which list the documents needed to follow through and complete the project – e.g., project charter, SoW, reports, etc.

Module 2 Workbook 1

Managing Projects

In Industry

Document progress, which track the stage of your documents – whether it’s a draft, the final version, or the approved version.

Binning and document storage, which help improve efficiency and accuracy by providing a central documentation workspace and preventing file misplacements. Tools like shared drives or shared documents and software like Documentum and Box belong to this category.

Planning And Scheduling Tools

These tools allow you to plan and delegate work, as well as share workflows and calendars. Knowing which team members have available bandwidth and which are “fully booked” helps you reallocate your resources appropriately. Your project management software should allow you, and possibly other members of the team, to see the workload, projects, and tasks in a timeline context.

Work Breakdown Structure – WBS

Tools that use WBS are very useful in this category. WBS breaks down each project deliverable into small elements – products, services, data, etc. The Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK 5) defines WBM as “a hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of the work to be carried out by the project team.” WBS software can help to breakdown the project deliverables into its basic elements, provide the framework for detailed cost estimation, and outline the schedule of the deliverable. Note that WBS breaks down the deliverables, not the project.

Module 2 Workbook 1

Managing Projects

In Industry

Figure 2: Example of the work breakdown structure of a bicycleSource: https://www.aramgroup.com/blog/create-quality-work-breakdown-structure-eat-elephant/

Evaluation, Tracking, and Workflow

These tools, which often overlap with the planning and scheduling tools, track and assess team productivity through resource management and reporting. They also provide assistance as the team moves through the stages of the process. Thus, helping to track the tasks and projects. Evaluation, tracking, and workflow tools help to build Gantt charts, which have been used for a long time to illustrate and manage the project timeline.

Module 2 Workbook 1

Managing Projects

In Industry

Figure 3: Example of a software-generated Gantt chart

Software that provides a project dashboard can help with evaluation, tracking, and workflow, as well as with planning and collaborating. Network diagrams are an example of a project dashboard. These diagrams allow you to graphically view tasks, dependencies, responsibilities, workflows, and the critical path of your project. Network diagrams are used to map and track schedules, work sequences, and progress relative to the scope of the project, and in collaboration with the entire team. Using such tools can significantly reduce uncertainties among the team members, thus reducing stress and boosting performance, transparency, and productivity.

Critical Path Method (CPM) And Project Evaluation And Review Technique Tools (PERT)

The critical path represents the longest possible path you can take to complete the project, identifying the critical path allows you to prioritize resources properly. It is a common practice to track and manage a critical path with an algorithm for scheduling project activities called critical path method (CPM) or critical path analysis (CPA). These tools sometimes replace Gantt charts in projects having more than 50 activities.

CPM tools are complementary to the project evaluation and review technique tools (PERT), which analyze the time and tasks necessary to complete a project while incorporating the uncertainties.

Originally, the CPM was designed for planning and control, and the PERT for production and management. Both tools define the total duration of the project and identify the critical activities. However, CPM is a rather static time technique that also estimates costs, while PERT provides

Module 2 Workbook 1

Managing Projects

In Industry

information about the probability of completing the project within different deadlines, but does not estimate costs.

Productivity Tools

All leaders and managers tend to have their plates full. While it is easy to say “take fewer responsibilities,” this is rarely doable. Managing time and juggling tasks are also part of the excitement of being a leader and a project manager. However, even the most “on top” project managers should use a productivity method. Productivity methods help, not only to be in control but also to be consistently productive, provide consistent value to your company, and evade procrastination.

Here Is A List Of Productivity Methods Commonly Used By Leaders:

Get Things Done by David Allen

Mind Mapping

The Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Cirillo

Flowtime Technique by Zoë Read-Bivens

Zen to Done by Leo Babauta

The Seinfeld strategy / “Don’t Break the Chain” by Jerry Seinfeld.

Kanban method, often used for Agile projects

Each of these methods has its advantages and disadvantages. Mind Mapping, for example, is suitable to people who think visually, and “Get Things Done” is wonderful but requires a steep learning curve from start to implementation. The Pomodoro Technique is excellent if you need to perform a daunting task. The “Don’t break the chain” is useful when you have a task that requires long-time and constant engagement. You can try one or some of them and see how they work for you. The bottom line is that the more of these tools you can master, the more advantages you will have as a project manager. An effective personal productivity method is one of the best tools you can have as a project manager.

As you start your job search, you should get familiar with the different tools available for project

Module 2 Workbook 1

Managing Projects

In Industry

managers, as understanding these tools will portray you as a serious job candidate. If you are interviewing for a company, try to find out what methodologies they are using and learn all you can about these before your interview.

There are different project management tools, some of which are free. So, you can download and try them at home to see what works best for you. Even though your employer may have some preferred tools, as a project manager, you should be able to decide what methodology works better for specific projects and teams, and even for you.

Module 2 Workbook 1

Managing Projects

In Industry

QUIZ:1. Describe a situation where a project (academic, extracurricular, or otherwise) you’ve been

involved in failed. Identify the reasons that led the project to fail.

2. How did you identify and manage the risks associated with a previous project, such as your PhD project or a challenging experiment? What was the outcome?