Project Management CTC-ITC 310

Fall 2018Howard Rosenthal

Notice� This course is based on and includes material from the text:

A User’s Manual To the PMBOK GuideAuthors: Cynthia Stackpole SnyderPublisher: WileyISBN: 978-1-118-43107-8, Copyright 2013

� It also utilizes general information and figures from the PMBOK: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK 5TH Edition) Publisher: Project Management InstituteISBN: 978-1-935589-67-9, Copyright 2013 and

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK 6TH Edition) Publisher: Project Management InstituteISBN: 978-1-628251-84-5, Copyright 2017

� The course also includes and intersperses some materials, most often diagrams, provided by Mr. Wysocki’s PowerPoint slides, at the website:www.wiley.com/go/epm7eAnd the bookEffective Project Management - Traditional, Agile, Extreme 7TH EditionAuthors: Robert K. WysockiPublisher: WileyISBN: 978-1-118-72916-8, Copyright 2014

2

Lesson Goals

� Understand what project management is� Characteristics of good project management� The difference between a boss and a manager

� Project flexibility and change control� The five project management processes� What are scope and scope creep� What are requirements

3

4

What Does Project Management Do?� Project management is an organized common-sense approach that

utilizes the appropriate client involvement in order to deliver client requirements that meet or exceed expected incremental business value

� Good project managers are� Flexible� Proactive� Understand their customers� Understand their organizations and the organizational goals and

priorities� Understand what their projects are about and at least the basics of the

underlying products or technologies being created� Manage all the stakeholders� Are good team builders who can listen� Are willing to make decisions after listening

� There is a difference between being a project manager and being a manager, although there is some overlap in skills, especially in human resources management

5

A Boss vs. A Leader

6

The Importance Of Project Management� Good project management helps:

� Meet business objectives� Fulfill the requirements, including quality requirements� Manage and satisfy stakeholder expectations� Increase the chance of success� Deliver on time� Stays within and controls the budget� Resolve problems and issues� Leverages organizational resources� Follows the law and company practices

� Poor project management leads to:� Missed deadlines� Cost overruns� Poor quality� Requirements creep� Dissatisfied customers and stakeholders� Loss of credibility and reputation by the customer� Loss of staff

7

What Does Project Management Answer? (1)� Project management is a set of tools, templates, and

processes designed to answer six questions1. What business situation is being addressed by this project?

� It can be a problem that needs solving or an opportunity that needs to be exploited

2. What does the business need to do?� Needs to be documented to the extent possible

3. What will you do?� Define your goal and objectives in the Project Charter

4. How will you do it?� There are many options including:

� In-house vs. out-sourcing� New solution versus adaption of existing technologies� New process vs. new tools

5. How will you know you did it?� Need objective measurements

8

What Does Project Management Answer? (2)6. How well did you do?

� How well did your deliverables meet the stated success criteria? � The project was sold to management based on the incremental

business value that would be returned to the organization if the project were successful.

� Did the project deliver those results and to what extent? � How well did the project team perform?

� The project team usually follows some project management life cycle (PMLC) model in a software project or some other model and there needs to be some assessment of how well they followed that model.

� How well did the project management approach work for this project?

� What lessons were learned that can be applied to future projects� This process is required for every program and is answered

through the post-implementation audit.

9

Flexibility In Project Management

� Wysocki emphasizes flexibility as an important project management skill� He says that if it doesn’t make sense, don’t do it

� You do have areas of flexibility� You want to tailor your project based on its characteristics� You can select the correct life cycle model(s)� You can tailor the processes to meet the project’s needs� You can determine the depth and formality of some steps in the

process� A project manager cannot

� Circumvent or ignore the law, even if it doesn’t make sense� Ignore government regulations, in particular on government

contracts� Ignore company policies and processes� Ignore any element of your contract

10

Flexibility and Change Control

� While it is would be nice if every project had perfectly defined requirements and perfect resource availability this is not always the case (in fact it is rarely the case)� New requirements are often discovered during the design process� There are conflicts in resources

� You don’t always get the A-Team at every position� You need to pick your resource battles� Sometimes a lesser experienced player can do the needed work at a lower cost

� New requirements evolve� Market conditions change� Organizational changes can revise organizational priorities

� A sponsor in the organization can disappear� Opportunities may arise that require an immediate response

� The project manager needs to have a plan for managing change� The plan for managing change is found in the Change Management Plan� The iron triangle says that as one side of the triangle (or diamond, etc. )

changes, you need to make changes or adjustments to the other sides� Each significant change requires analysis and a Project Impact Statement

11

There Are Five Major Processes Associated With Every Project

12

� All projects begin after an initial statement of work with a business case is prepared by the sponsor

� These processes may be executed sequentially or in some iterative pattern based on the characteristics of the project

PMI Process Description

Initiate Charter DevelopedStakeholders Identified

Plan Develop Project PlansDevelop Schedules and Budgets

Execute Manage The WorkPerform Quality AssuranceConduct ProcurementsManage Stakeholders

Monitor and Control Work ChangeSchedule CostsQuality ProcurementsStakeholder Engagement

Close Close Project or Project PhaseClose Procurements

The Cost and Staffing For a Project Is Not Linear� The highest staffing levels are found when actually carrying out the work

� Matrix organizations work well in staffing projects if the company can phase programs

13

39©2013 Project Management Institute. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Fifth Edition

2

2 - ORGANIZATIONAL INFLUENCES AND PROJECT LIFE CYCLE

s� Starting the project,

s� Organizing and preparing,

s� Carrying out the project work, and

s� Closing the project.

This generic life cycle structure is often referred to when communicating with upper management or other entities less familiar with the details of the project. It should not be confused with the Project Management Process Groups, because the processes in a Process Group consist of activities that may be performed and recur within each phase of a project as well as for the project as a whole. The project life cycle is independent from the life cycle of the product produced by or modified by the project. However, the project should take the current life-cycle phase of the product into consideration. This high-level view can provide a common frame of reference for comparing projects—even if they are dissimilar in nature.

Time

Cos

t an

d S

taffi

ng L

evel

ProjectManagementOutputs

ProjectCharter

Startingthe

project

Organizing andpreparing

Closingthe

project

Carrying out the work

ProjectManagement Plan

AcceptedDeliverables

ArchivedProject

Documents

Figure 2-8. Typical Cost and Staffing Levels Across a Generic Project Life Cycle Structure

Licensed To: Howard Rosenthal PMI MemberID: 2552551This copy is a PMI Member benefit, not for distribution, sale, or reproduction.

PMBOK Fig. 2-8

14

Cost Of Change In A Traditional Program� In traditional program management late changes have a greater impact on costs

� Given the realization that there is almost always change in the project, different models have been developed to control the impact of those changes that we will describe in subsequent slides

15

40 ©2013 Project Management Institute. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Fifth Edition

2 - ORGANIZATIONAL INFLUENCES AND PROJECT LIFE CYCLE

The generic life cycle structure generally displays the following characteristics:

s� Cost and staffing levels are low at the start, peak as the work is carried out, and drop rapidly as the project draws to a close. Figure 2-8 illustrates this typical pattern.

s� The typical cost and staffing curve above may not apply to all projects. A project may require significant expenditures to secure needed resources early in its life cycle, for instance, or be fully staffed from a point very early in its life cycle.

s� Risk and uncertainty (as illustrated in Figure 2-9) are greatest at the start of the project. These factors decrease over the life of the project as decisions are reached and as deliverables are accepted.

s� The ability to influence the final characteristics of the project’s product, without significantly impacting cost, is highest at the start of the project and decreases as the project progresses towards completion. Figure 2-9 illustrates the idea that the cost of making changes and correcting errors typically increases substantially as the project approaches completion.

While these characteristics remain present to some extent in almost all project life cycles, they are not always present to the same degree. Adaptive life cycles, in particular, are developed with the intent of keeping stakeholder influences higher and the costs of changes lower throughout the life cycle than in predictive life cycles.

Risk and uncertainty

Cost of changes

Project TimeLow

High

Deg

ree

Figure 2-9. Impact of Variable Based on Project Time

Licensed To: Howard Rosenthal PMI MemberID: 2552551This copy is a PMI Member benefit, not for distribution, sale, or reproduction.

PMBOK Fig. 2-9

Controlling Project Change

� Even the most stable of projects is likely to have some changes in the scope

� The PM must have mechanisms for coping with change� A Change Management Plan and and associated processes are

essential to this task� The Change Management Plan describes the processes for

controlling change, not the changes themselves� Each change is likely to have an impact on cost and schedule –

usually, but not always lengthening the program or increasing the cost

� Scope can be impacted by changing market factors or the competition

� Not all change is the result of problems – some changes are the result of a desire to pursue a newly identified opportunity

16

Scope Creep

� Scope Creep� Refers to a project that has seen its original goals expand

while it's in progress. � Scope creep is a subtle process that starts with small

adjustments and ends up resulting in projects that take far longer to complete or even fail before they are finished.

� Even if the project is completed, scope creep can result in final deliverables that look nothing like what was originally envisioned.

� Scope creep can occur for a number of reasons, including:� A poor understanding of the original project� Changing market conditions� Competing forces within a company

17

Other Types Of “Creeps”� Feature Creep

� An employee or manager agrees to a customer request without going through a change process

� Feature creep can occur at the requirements, design or development phase of a project, as it may change the scope or the planning

� Usually done to keep the customer happy� However the customer is much less happy after the cost goes up and/or the schedule slips

� Hope Creep� Usually occurs when either an employee or contractor falls behind schedule but fails to

report the fact� Hope is that the problem will be solved and time can be made up� Sometimes employees push themselves to very long workdays to try to disguise schedule

slips � Employees and managers often feel that their careers can be ruined if they admit to slips� Projects should be scheduled based on a historical record, rather than the idea that

everything will proceed perfectly� Effort Creep

� Work progress is not equal to effort put in� You put in a full day of work but are producing only three lines of code instead of five lines of code

each day� You will have a large schedule variance even though you are on plan with respect to cost� Need to isolate the problem and/or bring on a higher level of expertise

18

19

What Are Requirements? (1)� According to the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) a

requirement is:� A condition or capability needed by a stakeholder to solve a problem or

achieve an objective.� A condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a solution or

solution component to satisfy a contract, standard, specification, or other formally imposed documents.

� A documented representation of a condition or capability as in the above two bullets.

� This definition can lead to thousands of requirements being generated early in the project� Not well connected to business values� These requirements are usually not gathered until after project

initiation and iterated on as the project progresses� The IIBA definition is the most usual definition of requirements, and

leads to requirements specifications at multiple levels of detail� At some point the requirements specifies design and design feature� Lower level specifications become requirements and are traced for

completion as a part of the contract

20

What Are Requirements? (2)� Wysocki provides an alternate definition

� A requirement is a desired end-state whose successful integration into the solution meets one or more needs and delivers specific, measurable, and incremental business value to the organization.

� Furthermore the set of high-level requirements forms a necessary and sufficient set for the attainment of incremental business value

� It is very hard to get the government to agree to this type of an approach on anything but a pure research project� Government might consider this as a Functional Description Document

� Leads to far fewer (under 20) high level requirements� Requirements are separated from the implementation� Requirements (and therefore project success) connect directly to

customer satisfaction rather than to specifications that in some cases are irrelevant to project success

� Especially important when the solution is not known from the outset

� Can be used in the Statement of Work that kicks off a projects and would be included in the Project Charter

21

Requirements Breakdown Structure Into Lower Level Entities In Wysocki’s Definition

22

Project

Requirement 1

Function 1

Sub-function 1

Process 1

Activity 1

Feature 1

Feature 2

Feature T

Activity 2 Activity S

Process 2 Process R

Sub-function 2

Sub-function P

Function 2 Function M

Requirement 2 Requirement NO O O

O O O

O O O

O O O

O O O

The Lower Levels Will Still Have Specifications� Each function will have inputs, processing and outputs

� This is called the high order input-processing-output (HIPO) specification

� Design is filled in as the solution becomes better known� The user has more input into the lower level design of the

activities and features especially the user interfaces and output formats� This is known as Rapid Application Design (RAD) and Joint

Application Development (JAD) � Incorporation of the customer’s needs at the requirements and

design phases via prototyping and simulations has been shown to significantly improve project success rates

� Experts are employed specifically to manage customers and their expectations during this phase

� Meets Wysocki’s objectives that a successful project creates business value and generates customer satisfaction

� Still need to guard against scope creep

23