The Art of ExecutionTop 10 Secrets of Managing Successful

Projects

Crystal Taggart, PMPAtlas Innovations LLC

About Atlas Innovations

• Founded in 2012• Specializes in software prototyping, project

sourcing, and project management• About Crystal Taggart – Technologist and Entrepreneur– 16 Years of IT Experience from development to

management– PMP certified project manager since 2006– Led projects onshore, offshore, nearshore

Project Management? Why bother?

• Why do you care about project management?– Most projects fail in one (or more) of these

categories:• Scope• Schedule• Budget

Project Management Basics

• There are 5 key measurements that I track as a part of my projects:– Scope: What is being delivered– Schedule: When each feature will be delivered and

by whom– Budget: How much will it cost– Risk: Areas of concern within the project– Issues: Problems within the project

The Triangle

Scop

eSchedule

Budget

If ANY one of these change…they ALL change

Planning For Projects

• Procurement Strategies• Handling Issues/Risks• User Adoption

Procurement StrategiesFixed Bid – Vendor provides services for a fixed dollar amount

• Beware of:– Low quality– Long Timeframes– Scope Changes

• How to Mitigate– Find another Vendor for QA– Payment based on % complete– Incentivize to complete faster– Heavily document your

requirements and plan for change requests – it will happen

Time & Materials – Vendor is paid hourly for services

• Beware of:– Scope changes– Inaccurate time tracking– Inaccurate estimates

• How to Mitigate– Use a time tracking system– Track progress closely– Always write into the contract

‘not to exceed’ a specific dollar amount

Plan for Surprises

• In ALL projects, something happens to cause a delay– i.e. illness, resource issues, bad estimates, missed

requirements• Be prepared to adjust• Find ways to protect yourself– If working with a vendor, write into the contract to

protect yourself from resource changes

User Adoption

• If you build it, they may not come• This is often a huge failure point for many

projects

Agile vs. Waterfall

Agile• 1-3 week deliveries of

working software called a Sprint

• Developers work directly with teams to deliver

• Looser requirements• User Stories• Daily scrum meeting

Waterfall• Figure out what to build,

then build, and repeat• Developers work with

analysts who design software (less business interaction)

• Detailed Use Cases

These methodologies are NOT mutually exclusive

Waterfall Pros/Cons

Pros• Very clear scope definition• Very clear roles on the team

(analyst, developer, QA, business sponsor)

Cons• Can spend tremendous

amounts of time defining what to build only to find that it’s cost prohibitive to go build it

• Typically a much longer cycle

Agile Pros/Cons

Pros• Rapid delivery• Tight team communication• Great for bundling minor

enhancement/defect releases

• If you have a developer who understands both business and technology, Agile is perfect for this!

Cons• Easy to push scope into the

“next sprint”• Often start with vague

requirements and design software on the fly

• Easy to miss deadlines if someone is sick, on vacation, etc.

Top 10 Secrets for Getting Projects Done

1. Have a detailed plan and schedule

• Know who is doing what, when it’s due, and why it needs to be done

• Allow the team to estimate their own tasks• Ask questions/challenge the team• Be aware of the critical path– This is the shortest amount of time a project can take– If a critical path task slips on the project, the entire

schedule is delayed– Examples: Deployment to app store, infrastructure setup

• The plan is the plan until you have a new plan

2. Have a daily scrum

• Entire team meets 10-15 Minutes a day• Cover what happened yesterday, what is the

plan for today, any “blockers” or issues that are impeding progress

• Be consistent, same time every day• DOCUMENT the notes

3. Manage your issues and risks

• Don’t stick your head in the sand and hope it’s not a problem

• Understand WHY something is a problem– Sometimes a mountain is created out of a molehill– Understand the probability something will happen– There is usually manual workarounds that can be

devised– Don’t automate solutions for blue moon scenarios

• Track and follow-up!

4. Don’t Assume Your Developer Knows Business Priorities/Strategy

• Collaboration is good, too much and you end up at the beginning

• Most developers work on a mindset “I can build whatever you want if you tell me what you want”

• Focus on the Pareto curve– There is a happy medium between focusing on the

80% vs. 20%. Developers are detail-oriented and they focus on 20% of the scenarios

5. Answer the tough questions up-front

• Do NOT cross that bridge when you come to it• Get advice and feedback on how to solve a

problem before you have your development team begin

6. Communicate, communicate, communicate!

• Many people won’t start until prompted, many people won’t communicate when their task is complete to the next person in the project. Don’t assume that people are talking to each other!

• Find the ways that the team like to communicate

• Things won’t get done unless you are communicating

7. Mediate, mediate, mediate!

• There are many ways to solve an issue and often if you bring teams together to discuss, it’s easy to come up with the best solution

• Discuss all the ideas on the table, pros/cons, project impact and project risk, usually a clear winner will emerge

8. Manage your scope

• If you don’t manage your scope, it will manage you

• Scope changes come from everywhere, even your developers

• If you hear the words “refactor” you need to understand why– this means “rewrite” in Dev-speak – this means “regression test” in QA-speak – This means extra time and $$$ in PM-speak

9. Address Resource Issues Head-On

• If someone is constantly encountering issues or missing their deliverables, get rid of them! It drains the energy of the team and costs you money and time

• Here’s some things that I look for in the team members I hire:– What was the most complex issue they solved? Did they solve it or

did “the team” solve it?– What projects have they worked on with a difficult peer or business

customer? (Are they the difficult peer?)– What project did they work on that was late? (Everyone has had a

late project.) Look for people who accept accountability to deliver results, not people who blame someone on the project for the results.

10. CARE!

• If you don’t care about your project, noone else will either

• Be excited about creating something awesome • Celebrate every win! Create momentum every

where you can!

Some Resources

• The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management– Amazon.com - Great resource, an easy read, and

lots of templates• Paymo.biz: Time-tracking software at

$5/month per person• The Software Planning Checklist– On http://www.Atlas-Innovations.com/checklist

Questions?