His other publications include articles, conference proceedings, and The Portable MBA in Project Management (2003), also published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. .
Introduction
Project Management in a Changing World
Project management works because it is a way for the big to use the strengths of the small.”5. Far from being mysterious, these five essential factors can be achieved through diligent and consistent use of the science of project management.
Entrepreneurs Leverage Project Management
The Project Environment
At first glance, this life cycle may appear to be the same as the project management function. The importance of the first two phases in the project life cycle cannot be overemphasized.
Hospital-wide Process Redesign
From July to December, the team worked out the new processes down to the lowest level of detail as part of the third phase, detailed design. The COO served as the primary point of contact and was the most visible member of the HSC to the project and hospital staff.
Defining the Project
Project Stakeholders 3
The project manager must work closely with functional managers to get the best people for the job. The sponsor is the person with formal authority who is ultimately responsible for the project.
Making the Rules 4
Purpose Statement
Knowing the answers allows the project team to make more informed decisions throughout the project – and the goal becomes clearer to the customer. There may be many whys here, but the purpose statement doesn't attempt to answer them all. Neither the statement of purpose nor the work description form a complete business case for a project.
Avoid purpose statements such as: "The purpose is to produce the product as described in specification document XYZ." "The purpose is to deliver the product that the customer requested." Neither of these statements explains why the project is being done, so they are useless as a guide to decision making. The project team knew that the product's lifetime was so limited that it would not require lengthy documentation for future maintainers.
Scope Statement
The deliverables section of the work statement and the work breakdown structure also set boundaries that can later be used to determine whether to add more work to the project. For example, a project to design a new part for an aircraft will be a subset of the life cycle of the overall product (that is, the entire aircraft; see the discussion of projects versus products in Chapter 2). Be sure to specify what the project will not deliver, especially if it is something that could be included in the project.
Some activities may be outside the scope of the project, but nevertheless important for successful completion. For example, in Table 4.1, "Recruit trainers with subject matter expertise" is obviously an essential part of training development and delivery, but it is specifically excluded from the project by listing it as activities "outside the scope of the project." .
Deliverables
The scope statement is the right place to emphasize this project's relationship to other projects and to the overall product development effort. The distinction lies in whether the deliverable is the final product that fulfills the purpose of the project - in this case the house - or whether it is used to manage the project or development process, like a plan. A document that specifies the requirements for a new piece of software is an intermediate deliverable, while the finished software product is a final deliverable.
A description of a target market is an intermediate product, while an advertising campaign using magazine ads and television commercials is a final product. Trying to capture all the important parameters such as cost, schedule, resource projections, and material requirements is futile if the product specification is not complete because the project team doesn't really know what they are building. .
Cost and Schedule Estimates
Again, don't try to put the product description in the statement of work; just refer to it. The statement of work may request deliverables, such as status reports and change logs, specifying frequency and audience. Additionally, because cost and schedule goals must be practical, it makes sense to ask other questions, such as: Why was the budget set at $2.5 million.
Any reasonable cost or schedule estimate will require the use of the techniques set out in Part 3, “The Planning Process.” How nice that the customer is such an optimist and has such great confidence in the project manager and his or her team!).
Objectives
Since one of the goals of rulemaking is to set realistic expectations for project stakeholders, these numbers must be realistic and accurate. Someone once observed that when a customer is given a series of possible dates and costs, they only remember the lowest price and the earliest date. The ad agency won't measure this goal when the magazine ads and TV spots are finished, but the client will certainly be aware of it a year after the campaign begins.
Stakeholders
Chain of Command
A responsibility matrix shows the main activities in the project and the main stakeholder groups. The basic content of the draft proposal matches the content found in the statement of work. At a high level, describe the expected duration of the project (scheduled start and finish), milestones and milestones.
The project team, client, and management must all agree on the goals of the project. The statement of work represents the formal agreement between the project stakeholders about the project's goals and constraints.
Downloadable Project Proposal*
Downloadable Project Charter*
Downloadable Statement of Work*
Downloadable Responsibility Matrix*
Downloadable Definition Checklist*
The assumptions used to write the statement of work, especially the cost and schedule estimates, are identified as assumptions and are realistic. A communication plan is in place to identify strategies to keep all project stakeholders properly informed. A responsibility matrix has documented the roles of various stakeholders in relation to key decisions and activities within the project.
The stakeholders on the responsibility matrix agree that it accurately reflects their involvement. A process has been established for reviewing and approving changes to the statement of work, specifications, requirements and other control documents.
The Planning Process
The plan analyzes in detail how to balance cost, schedule and quality and provides data that the project manager uses to manage stakeholder expectations. The resource projections contained in the plan for each project can be combined to create departmental or company-wide resource projections. Like Kipling's Honest Servants, a plan contains the what, who, and when of a project.
In Chapters 5 through 9, you'll discover the tools to build the plan and the process to balance it against reality. Like a ship's rudder, information alone is not enough; but without it, both the vessel and the project wander recklessly out of control.
Risk Management 5
Schedule and budget development are the detailed plans required for the day-to-day management of the project. Is there sufficient recognition, support and involvement of all the senior management necessary for the success of the project. Set senior management deadlines or budget constraints independent of the project manager's schedule and budget estimates.
This removal of part of the project could impact more than just the project; business risk can also be influenced. The risk assessment template should be completed for each risk that has a reasonable chance of threatening the project.
A Model for Risk Profiles
Risk identification becomes more systematic, leading to better identification of potential risks and more accurate assessment of their likelihood and impact. Over time, this leads to a better understanding of the effectiveness of a particular mitigation strategy for a specific risk. Project managers in the world of software development and information technology can pick up the taxonomy and questionnaire and get started right away.
Project managers in other industries can use the taxonomy and questions as a model for developing their own risk identification process. Special permission to reproduce Continuous Risk Management Guidebook, © 1996 Carnegie Mellon University, granted by the Software Engineering Institute.
Downloadable Risk Analysis Template
Fill Out for a Specific Risk*
Downloadable Risk Log* Project Name Last Updated RiskDateCloseout IDWBSRankfoundAssigned ToDescriptionStrategyStatusdate Description of fields: Risk ID:A unique identifier.
Work Breakdown Structure
Since the WBS shows all the project work, it is essentially a detailed illustration of the processes involved in the project. As long as work packages remain, the scope of the project is the same (compare Figure 6.5 with Figure 6.4). The best task names include analysis or research products, such as "Determine Hardware Requirements," "Write a Problem Statement," or "List Candidate Vendors." Focusing on producing a product gives the task—and the team—a clear conclusion, which makes it easier to evaluate and track the task.
Project • The owner is developing a two-level deep WBS to use as a basis for creating bidding packages. The work breakdown structure divides the project into many small, manageable tasks, called work packages. The process of deciding who will perform these tasks and how they will be arranged provides the structure for the actual work of the project.
Realistic Scheduling 7
The early start of task 2 is assumed to be the first day of the project. Late Start—The latest date a task can start without delaying the project's end date. Late Completion - The latest date that a task can be completed without delaying the project completion date.
40242424 8 hours per day •The resource spreadsheet shows the labor hours per day for each resource. The initial schedule in Figure 7.11 is not realistic because the teenagers were reassigned during the first half of the project.
The Dynamics of
Accurate Estimating
The best bidders – those who make both themselves and their customers happy – are also good estimators. The best estimate is the project manager's most accurate estimate based on detailed specifications. This book cannot provide an exhaustive presentation of all these estimation methods; instead, our purpose is to help you understand the dynamics of accurate estimation by presenting a number of established estimation techniques—the basic building blocks used by all skilled estimators.
At each decision point, make two estimates: A commitment to the cost and schedule for the next phase, and an order-of-magnitude estimate for the remainder of the project. If the project team is required to commit to a cost and schedule estimate for the full product development cycle before it has sufficient T H E P L A N N I N G P R O C E S S .
