OPPM Workshop 2 Dr. Naeema Jabur
OPPM
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Schwalbe, K. ( ) Information Technology Project Management. vpSufQC&o287http://books.google.com.om/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Bq
&dq=teaching+project+management+in+information+8i=fnd&pg=PPQI&re6X93CsPVPCe6i&sig=lzUSNEVbOTCkx7hVS8j3s9studies&ots=
i20management%20project%20dir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=teaching%studies&f=false20information%20n%
A Project: Definitions
• A Project is a “temporary endeavor
undertaken to create a unique product,
service, or result.”
• It can be large or small, involve one
person or a team, can be done in one day
or take years to complete,
What should be?
• A project should have a well-defined objectives,
• A project should have a definite beginning and a definite end, thus the major researcher or the supervisor expect a report and an executive presentation of the results periodically or based on pre-defined phases
• A project should use a progressive explanation. Projects are often defined broadly when begin, and as time passes, the specific details of the project become clearer
• A project requires resources, including: people, hardware, software, and other assets
GOALS
• Successful project management should meet all three goals (scope, time, and cost) to satisfy the project’s sponsor or degree. These goals might become constraints to project management
In addition, these
elements are
interrelated with
other element,
that is the quality
which is a key
factor in projects
to satisfy
sponsors,
advisors,
supervisors, even
users
Quality Goals
Scope= domain, area, field, extent
scope is of a size that one person can
be the lead.
What is Project Management?
• It is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities (1) to meet project requirements as well as (2) to meet the needs and expectations of the people involved in or affected by the project activities
Feelings
• The previous goals might become
constraints:
HOW???
??
Researcher Problem No. 1
• Is the “detail syndrome أعراض المرض”
• The question is:
Do we know how much is too much?
This what it is know as
“Request for simplicity” “The most effective way to describe, explore, and summarize a set
of numbers –even a very large set- is to look at the pictures of those numbers”
Tufte, Professor at Yale Univ.
Still, One of the most complex issues about larger-scale project management is visualizing what is happening., communication may
be time consuming and might not appear to produce immediate results.
Einstein’s perspective
“Everything should be made simple as
possible, but no simpler”
Means= Be as simple as is practicable
Practicable = capable of being used (Latin)
Practicable = fit for action (Greek)
Synonyms = achievable, attainable,
feasible, and executable)
Complexity = a slippery idea
The Real Problem
The main problem exists in preparing a research is the too much details. These come from:
• Duplication
• Extra discussion which lead to extend further beyond the subject matter
• Including weak and less relevant topics to enlarge the project
• Two many essential and not essential objectives
• Designing procedural steps randomly far from logical integration
• Dependency of the project units and separated from each one
Confusion
Sit alone !!
Browsing drafts
!!
Read Notes !!
Cover My
face and
submit
excursions!
!
Let me
submit
what I
have
and
That’s
it
What can I
do?
I am
overloade
d with
data!
Still more
to collect!
As A team
We
Discuss
issues
WHAT
To do
????
OPPM
• Is a communicative tool that oblige a
project manager to communicate in
sufficient and efficient way to right balance
of too much and too little.
• The power of the OPPM comes from its
use of graphic to present ideas
Practicing: Teamwork Project
It is Friday afternoon, your supervisor just
told you that s/he must present a report
(Monday) to the Department Board about
your project. s/he needs a summary using
text, graphs, and charts, he wants to know: • How well the project is meeting its objectives,
• What major problems have cropped up
• How well the project is presently progressing and a
forecast for the next three months
• How the project is performing in terms of the Budget
(Your scholarship over)
More Assumptions The time required to prepare the a
comprehensive report
• The Board members have limited time, they
read only the highlights and not multi-page
report. They look for key indicators and the
most vital information
• If your report proves incomplete or
unsatisfactory, they will be relentless ( عاجزين)
in pursuit of understanding ( في الوصول إلى فهم)
What you do?
• Would you delay submitting the report and ask the team to get
together to prepare it?
OR • Should you do the best you can, alone, and hope the Board will be
busy of other issues and therefore might not seriously look at it?
Neither of these is the best solution!!!
• What you should do is simply provide a
copy of one-page project manager
(OPPM)
• It conveys all relevant information the
project’s supervisor needs to know in a
timely, easy-to-understand, and easy to
compile format
Project’s Elements
• Every project has five essential elements
Tasks
The how — Tasks are the center of a
project and need to be complete to
accomplish the objectives. They are the
nuts and bolts of a project, the specifics of
what needs to be done — the work
Objectives
The what and the why — Objectives are
the vision, the where - you - are - going of a
project. Objectives can be general or
specific — the scope
Time line
The when — The time line measures when
things are supposed to be done and when
they are actually done. Time lines can be
elastic. If a project is expanded, for example,
the time line (and the budget) will probably
have to be expanded.
Cost
The how much — Project expenses can
have hard costs, like consulting and
machinery, or soft costs, as with internal
staff deployed on the project. Cost
accounting can be complex, and every
project needs input from accounting
professionals.
Owners
The who — Task owners are the “ who. ”
This is vital. The OPPM makes clear to
management who owns what tasks. Clear
ownership makes obvious who deserves
commendations, awards (الثناء) for jobs well
done and who needs to be assisted.
1- Add header details
This information will go at the
top of your OPPM. It includes
the project's name, project
leader, project objective, and the
current date (updated
automatically). A best practice is
to complete the header together
with the executive assigning the
project. It is a good time to reach
out for mutual understanding on
the cost, schedule, scope, and
quality priorities which will help
guide you in making trade off
decisions throughout the project.
2- Fill in Task Owners
Task owners are the workers, researchers
These are the people who will
manage the major components of
the project. As you know, your
success, to a large degree,
depends on them. They are the
owners - they may be direct
reports, colleagues, or even
consultants. It's hard to
overemphasize the importance of
ownership. When one's "name is
on the line," they become engaged
in realistic expectations, and are
often personally committed to
exceeding those published
milestones. Look for capacity,
competence, and commitment,
together with a variety of
viewpoints.
3- Check the matrix
This is about not
making assumptions
Think of the Matrix as the focal point, the hub or
compass of the project as expressed on the
OPPM. It links all of your project's essential
elements and communicates them to your
readers. The Matrix flows naturally out of the
creation of the entire OPPM. During this step,
as project manager, you will want to present
your team with an overview of the project,
discuss how to handle the project, and go
thoroughly through the pieces of the OPPM
format. As project manager, you are also project
mentor and teacher. Reviewing the matrix
provides the perfect time to kick off the project
with your team, discuss objectives and priorities,
and launch the teaching process, which will
continue throughout the project, as you tutor
project management fundamentals, specific
skills required for this project, and any required
learnings provided in the PMBOK (Project
Management Body of Knowledge).
4- Add 3-4 sub-objectives
Arrange by importance
Identify capability requirements
Identify current capabilities
Communicate the gap
Describe how to bridge the gap
Now, with your team in place,
you and your team start to break
down the project into sub-
objectives of the project's overall
objective as shown in the
Header. These are shown on the
lower left-hand corner of the
OPPM. MyOPPMâ„¢ provides for
up to 4 sup-objectives. These
simple, easily understood
statements reflect the major
accomplishments you want as
project deliverables. A best
practice is to write them SMART
(Specific, Measurable, Attainable,
Relevant, Time-bound).
5- Name major project tasks
Arrange by importance
MyOPPM provides for up to 30
tasks. This is suitable for all the
major tasks of a relatively small
project. Larger projects, where the
WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) is
extensive, or where the full project
plan is contained in Microsoft
Project, Oracle's Primavera, or
some other comprehensive project
software, OPPM tasks will be
summarized into the 30 or so high
level summary tasks. Your OPPM is
designed to be sufficient to manage
and communicate small projects,
and to communicate essential,
sufficient information, efficiently for
large projects.
6- Link tasks with
Objectives (using dots)
Each task is aligned with
one or more sub-objectives
by placing an open circle in
the boxes corresponding to
the intersections to tasks
and objectives.
7- create a timeline Could be days weeks, months
These are the dates on which you
will provide a status report on your
project. Determining these dates
requires collaboration with your
team, and with the person
assigning you the project. When
your OPPM is completed, it should
not only have "buy-in" from all
stakeholders, but should actually
be a simple, pictorial
representation of what you plan to
do, why, by whom, what cost, and
when status reports are expected.
Building "buy-in" is a powerful
component of OPPM.
8- Link tasks with time
(Using dots
This is a high level picture of
your schedule. You create a
time line for each of the
project's tasks by placing an
empty circle in the boxes
alongside the task, representing
the start, length and completion
date for each task. Clicking
once adds an empty circle,
clicking twice bolds the circle,
clicking a third time adds an
open square, clicking a 4th fills
in the square. The squares
identify additional scope added
to the project. Clicking the
"Mark Major Milestone" will
allow you to highlight any cell
as a major milestone.
9- Link tasks with owners
(Using ABC priorities)
The primary owner for each
task is designated by the letter
A. You may show subordinate
owners as either B or C in
their responsibility
This is the portion of the OPPM that deals
with subjective or qualitative tasks. These
are often matters of judgment, opinion or
taste rather than absolute fact. Not
everything about a project can be clearly
measured. Architectural beauty and cell
phone performance are good examples,
we know it when we see it or hear it, yet it
is hard to specifically measure. You will
later show performance by the colors
green, yellow, or red. This section also
provides for a forecast of your team's
future expectations like do you now expect
the project to finish on time. Be sure to
align objectives and owners to these
qualitative tasks. MyOPPMâ„¢ provides for
6 qualitative tasks. Type the task, and then
fill in the open circles as you did for step 6
and step 9. Do not place open circles as
you did for step 8, as colors will later fill
those boxes.
10- Subjective tasks
11- Cost
On the lower right-hand side of
the OPPM is where the budget
is represented. The budget is
dealt with simply, using bar
graphs, with a bar graph for
each portion of the budget.
When the portion is on budget,
it will be depicted with green,
when running slightly over yet
recoverable, it is shown in
yellow. And when it is incurably
over budget, it will be depicted
as red. MyOPPM provides for
3 different budget lines. You
may also use these bars to
represent metrics other than
cost
12- Summary and Forecast
For the reader, this section
answers why, and what next. A
good summary clears up any
ambiguities or glaring questions,
and heads off potential future
misunderstandings by answering
questions prompted by the
graphics. Do not explain what is
clearly shown by the OPPM
graphics themselves. Your
language should add future
expectations to your analyses.
The space for the summary and
forecast is limited by design. This
lack of space encourages
efficiency, and is most powerful
when read as part of a future
status report.
A PRACTICE
Project Name: Award Distribution Center
Project Name: It will be in front of every body involved with the
project everyday, thus should be reflective and:
1. Having the objectives of the project be part of the name and
reinforcing the purpose of the project. That is recognizing
the power of language
2. Descriptive
3. Sound simple
Project Objectives: Comes from people who assigned the
project. The following questions will help those people focusing
in what the project all about:
1. What do you hope to achieve from the project?
2. How should we measure the progress?
Who involved in setting the objectives?
• Senior management (fund providers)
• Team members (workers in the project)
• Others (affected by or benefited from the project)
Project Manager: Each project must have one manager who
must be the one in charge, and s/he :
1. Is not an advisor or a consultant or anyone who is not a
full-time employee or researcher at the organization
Description
2. Has to be an excellent communicator to be ready to
communicate:
• Up with senior management
• Down with subordinates
• Out with peers , collogues, and associates
Project Owners: List of the team members who are
responsible for the parts of the project, they are the
instruments of the project success. The team consists of:
1. Owners: primary responsible of each major task
2. Helpers: with secondary responsibility for each major task
To define the owner or helper, consider each person’s:
• Experience
• Knowledge
• Skills
And see how can each fit the project’s need.
* Keep the number as smaller as possible, 3-4 will be fine.
Project Matrix: It is the interaction where all points meet. Thus
it can be considered as the compass that will guide the project
from start to finish, as a manger, you should:
1. Gather your team and start the discussion of how to handle
the project
2. Within this stage, the manager tutors each member on how
to build and use the OPPM
Sub-objectives: Here, manger and team start to breakdown the project
objective into sub-objectives to support the project’s overall objectives.
These sub-objectives should be:
1. Specific not general
2. Not Complex
3. Measurable
4. Challenging
5. Realistic
6. Consistent with the available resources
7. Consistent with the organizational plans, politics and procedures
These are not more than 3-5 sub-objectives to respond to:
• Is being on time
• Vital
• Is cutting cost important
• What we need to achieve this project
Means:
• Time required
• Resources to complete the project
• Scope (who the customers, readers, or benefited people are)
The Major Tasks: This is the most important, think of it as what it will
take to finish the project. Each task must be of a manageable size,
where the scope is of a size that one person can be the lead. Each of
the listed task, such as:
1. Award contracts
2. Install computer hardware
3. Train staff, ……etc.
Would, in turn, have its own OPPM
In addition to being of manageable size, each task should be distinct –
separate from other tasks. You can’t have accountability if it is hard to
tell where one task ends and another begins.
Tasks should be measurable in terms of their progress so that you can
estimate their advancement and report on them in the OPPM.
One reason this step is so critical is it involves not just tasks, but
owners and helpers. If one owner, let us say the financial person, is
strong and others are weak in the area, s/he will likely take on most
tasks involving finance. Thus we should think of it if some tasks with
relatively minor financial control assign them to the team member who
knows about finance
Aligning tasks with sub-objectives: Here, manger should check to
make sure the tasks on the list will, when completed, produce the
objectives s/he is aiming for. You might find a task not aligning with
objectives, go back and add some..
This process offers the OPPM greatest strength in that, it will have a
continual improvement, but you should know that over-analysis
constitutes the death of many projects.
Some of the tasks are aligned with two objectives, but most prefer to
align to one.
If a tsk cannot be aligned to an objective, this either there’s no point in
doing the task and it should be not included in the list, or your sub-
objectives are not complete.
The Report Dates: This rectangle can be break down into discrete steps,
for example weekly, monthly, quarterly, … etc. The management is the
one that determines these dates.
Before you commit to the timeline, think carefully about what you are
committing to. When you let everyone know the project’s timeline
schedule, you become responsible for meeting them.
Aligning Tasks to Report Dates: Here, we connect the time-line with the
tasks. This requires to decide how long each task will take. We put empty
circle for each month if we apply the monthly schedule. If the task takes 7
months we put seven circles next to it as it matches with the months.
Still there should be a plan to accomplish the task monthly and not leave
it open.
Aligning Tasks and Schedule to Owners: Here, As we understood that
tasks have owners. Never have more than one owner to carry out each
tasks, but you might have helpers or third owner. The overall
responsibility should be assigned for the owner. OPPM codifies the
team as following:
• A= for the owner of the task
• B= for the helper or helpers
• C= for third owner (have lesser shared responsibility, secondary
responsibility)
Who will appoint the owners/
• The one who volunteer to carry the responsibility
• The personality and leadership
• Experience and skills
• Transparency of communication
Risks, Qualitative, and Other Metrics: This portion deals with subjective
or qualitative tasks. Many tasks not easily lend to quantitative analysis.
Software performance is in this category, for example, the billing screens
are not easy, not adequate, not fast responding.
Be a ware that objectives and owners are aligned with these subjective
tasks as with the quantifiable tasks
Cost and Metrics: In this part, the budget is represented. In this
example the budget divided into three parts:
Building
System
People
The three lines move over time, but it does not mean related to the time
line. Many tasks requires more budget than others, so you always
need to work with accounting department to use the accurate
information and regulations
Summary forecast: Here, you add finishing touches to your plan. To
clear any ambiguities or glaring questions or misunderstandings
• The limit space for the summary forces the manager to be selective
about what is required to describe and efficient to discuss. This
section is important to communicate with readers to answer
unanswered questions, for example, problems with suppliers might
lead to the project to fall beyond the schedule.
• It provides the opportunity to make thinks clear and to avoid
misinterpretation.
• It should be about WHY, What you are going to do about it, and what
you should do about it.
• Why you are behind schedule?
• Why you are over budget?