Project and Program Management Final Exam study guide
Material costs
- reflect the cost of acquiring materials needed to complete work. These vary directly with project scope.
What are the 4 dimensions for a project to be successful?
1. Efficiency (cost, schedule) 2. Customer impact/satisfaction (scope) 3. Business/direct success 4. Future potential
What is Scrum?
Popular agile management approach. Can be done in under 10 minutes
What is the problem with using risk scores in selecting risk mitigation actions? What is the solution?
Ranking alone is not enough, you also need a budget. Solution is budget constrained risk mitigation
Mitigate Risk
Reduce impact and/or likelihood
Why are bubble diagrams useful?
They are useful for representing a set of projects and visualizing a project portfolio
Free slack
is the number of days that an activity can have before it starts delaying the next (successor) activity.
(Risk score formula) Risk score =
probability level x impact level
What is the critical chain?
project management (CCPM) is a method of planning and managing projects that emphasizes the resources (people, equipment, physical space) required to execute project tasks
How do you identify risks?
- Look at prior projects and risks (from postmortems) - Industry checklist - Assumptions analysis - SWOT analysis - Expert judgment
Process Management vs Project Management
- Process management seeks to eliminate variability - project mangagement must accept variability beacuse each project is unique
Benefits of risk matrix
- a clear framework for assessing individual risks and portfolios of risks - convenient tool for ranking and prioritizing risks - a relatively simple inputs and outputs
Direct costs
- resource costs, including expediting costs. These vary inversely with task duration.
Where is Project Management Used
1. Engineering-construction(buildings) 2. R&D (airplanes) 3. Software Development (MS windows) 4. New product development (drugs) 5. organizational change, implementing new it systems 6. all consulting work is project work
Need for Project Management
1. controls organizational change, allowing organization to introduce new products, new processes, and new programs effectively 2. helps control cross-functional teams to become more effective 3. projects are becoming more complext and more difficult to control
Characteristics of a project team
1. diverse backgrounds/skills 2. May use different technical teams, or even speak differnt Languages 3. Need to work together effectively, often under time and cost pressures 4. may not have worked together before 5. have a sense of accountability as a unit
Project Goals
1. only 39% of project succeeds 2. 43% of projects are challenged (late, over budget, and or with less than the required features and (functions) 3. 18% of projects are cancelled
Project Portfolio
set of all company projects
What is termination by Integration?
The project is included into an existing business. That structure absorbs the assets of the project The most common way to terminate a project
What is a project audit?
A formal review of any aspect of a project. The main purpose of an audit is to help achieve project's success (S11, p12)
What is a Portfolio
A group of projects or programs with a strategic objective as the goal
What is a Program?
A group of projects that are related and gives a benefit not possible by working independently
Brooks's Law
Adding more people to a late project helps less than you might think and it helps less an less the more people you add
Earned Value (EV)
Budgeted cost of work completed
What is termination by extinction?
Extinction occurs in any scenario when project goes away: - successful/unsuccessful - changes in environment (priorities) - Takes to look
Forward Pass
Forward pass is a technique to move forward through a diagram to calculate activity duration.
What is the step after Track Risks?
Communication Risks Outside the Program Team - with senior management, customers, other teams. Continuous activity
What are some strategic reasons to pick projects?
Competitive necessity: keep a foothold in the market, not get left behind - Market expansion opportunities: not yet profitable, but need to establish a presence - Consistency: in line with overall organization's mission statement - Image: potential impact of project on corporate image
What are audit and ancillary goals?
Examples of ancillary goals include: - Identify or train future project managers - Treat animals used in project experiments in ethical manner - Improve understanding or management of parent organization - Improve team effort on the project - Identify strengths and weaknesses - Better identify project risks - Project progression accessible for external stakeholders
What are the problem with multitasking? What is the solution?
Multitasking has hidden costs since it can reduce idle time but delay completion time.: 1)switching costs due to ramp up time. 2)People work more hours potentially lead to burnout and morale will be affected. Solution: Work one activity at a time and finish it earlier
Modern Project Manangement
Must of project management are developed by the military/government 1. Navy's Polaris Program (1950's) (Pert) 2. NASA's space program (1960's-70's) 3. Strategic Defence Initative 1980s 4. Chain Project Mangement 1997 5. Agile project 2001
What is the problem with subjective interpretation of risk levels?
Prospect theory - theory that describes the way people choose between probabilistic alternatives that involve risk, where the probabilities of outcomes are known.
Feeding Buffer (FB)
Protects from merge bias
Project Buffer (PB)
Protects whole project
What actions are taken when you protect constraints?
Schedule tasks as late as possible. Insert buffers (feeding, resourrces, project)
How do you calculate project buffer size? What does this do?
See slide 14 in week 10 notes for formula. This formula uses the expected duration and the pessimistic duration for each task k on the critical path.
What are the three areas we are monitoring in a project?
Time, cost, scope
Actual cost (AC)
money spent up to reporting date
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Visually breaks down project scope. Defines and displays all work elements to perform
What is Student's syndrome? What is the solution?
Waiting to long until it's too late in the project. Push first task to start as late as possible and include feeding buffer.
What is the Agile manifesto?
Was developed by a group of 17 leading software developers in 2001 to respond to needs of stochastic projects
How do we value a project? What does it say?
We use Net Present Value (NPV) = See NPV formula (Session 11 slide 6) If we are learning more than the discount rate, the project should be taken on. NPV is positive. The best project has highest NPV
What is a project?
a project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or service
What is a project
a unique process, consisting of a set of coordinated activities, with a specific start and finish, pursuing a specific goal with constraints on time, cost and resources
What is pair-programming? How do you decide if this is a good approach?
technique in which two programmers work together at one workstation. specification, design, and complex programming tasks
What is a project manager?
the person in overall charge of the planning and execution of a particular project.
What is Project Mangement
the planning, co-ordination, scheduling and controlling of activities to meet project objectivites, comprising of three main goals: 1. Scope (deliverable, product/service, quality, customer satisfaction, performance) 2. Time (Deadline) 3. Cost (budget, resources)
Project Mangement Statistics
the values of economic activity that is annually at risk from a shortage of skilled project mangers will reach $4,500,000,000,000
Performance costs/bonuses
these vary directly with project duration, or sometimes with performance relative to milestones, depending on the project contract
What are the reasons for boondoggles?
• "failure is impossible": widespread persistent belief among management in the inevitability of the project's success • reputations invested in the started projects • abandoning recommendations seen as disloyal, and ignored • charismatic and persuasive "project champions" • reduced performance benchmarks • fear of the organizational consequences of admitting failure • symbolic value of the project, e.g. Concorde
What are the disadvantages of the PMO?
• Additional bureaucracy • In the short run, does not reduce costs
Multi-criteria project selection
• Combining different factors in evaluating a project • Can incorporate quantitative and qualitative aspects • Where is it worthwhile, advanced multifactor analysis techniques such as Analytic * Hierarchy Process can be applied to rank proposals
What does a formal audit report contain and what is it's structure?
• Contains actual versus predicted results • Highlights and explains significant deviations • Provides plan for resolving negative deviations • Thorough examination of project management • All facets of project are studied • Strengths and weaknesses identified and recommendations prepared Typical structure: • Current status of project • Expected status of project / plan • Status of critical tasks • Risk assessment • Lessons learned to other projects / recommendations • Limitations of the audit
What are the advantages of the PMO?
• Ensure system wide compatibility (especially valuable in IT applications) • Consideration of portfolio issues: - Diversification of risk - More efficient resource allocations - More consistent project standards and performance • In the long run, typically reduces costs and promotes operational excellence • In large organizations, PMO can take a strategic focus in project selection
Agile principles
• Focus on customer value—Employ business-driven prioritizations of require- ments and features. • Iterative and incremental delivery—Create a flow of value to customers by "chunking" project delivery into small, functioning increments. • Experimentation and adaptation—Test assumptions early and build working prototypes to solicit customer feedback and refine product requirements. • Self-organization—Team members decide amongst themselves who and what should be done. • Continuous improvement—Teams reflect, learn, and adapt to change; work informs the plan.
What are the benefits of a project audit?
• Identify problems earlier (compare against risk registry) and improve risk identification • Clarify performance, Improve performance • Locate technological advances • Evaluate quality, reduce costs • Many more related to management and all tracked ancillary goals
What is a problem from Accuracy of assessed likelihoods (probabilities) and impacts
Overconfidence among Experts
Definition has 5 components
1. Goal 2. Organization 3. Scope 4. Time 5. Budget
What is fast-tracking?
Overlapping activities by changing dependencies Problem - can create resource conflicts
Planned Value (PV)
budgeted cost of work scheduled
What are the benefits of agile?
• more responsive to scope changes and to "unknown unknowns" • can deliver products and services to the market or to the user faster • emphasis on open face-to-face communication leads to synergistic ideas • less bureaucratic, more motivational and more enjoyable for the project team
What are the criticisms of NPV/IRR Analysis?
* Assumes that cash flow forecasts are accurate; ignores the "human bias" effect • Ignores, in its plain form, project portfolio issues • IRR - if future cash flows can consist a mixture of positive and negative cash flows multiple IRRs can exist • Does not take into account the possibility that decisions (and therefore cash flows) may adapt to changing circumstances over time (probabilistic outcomes)
What are the pitfalls of cost monitoring?
- Collecting actual expenditures (not accounting expenses) • focus on activity groups (work packages) - Costs also affected by progress • estimate cost-to-complete task
What is the cost monitoring process?
- Develop budget - Update actual task cost - Analyse variances from budget
What is the process for time monitoring?
-Develop baseline schedule - Update task progress - Analyze variances from baseline
Risk Management Framework - Plan Steps
1. Assign responsibility - so risks don't fall through the cracks 2. Determine Mitigation approach - accept, watch, or mitigate Top "N" risks. Also watch non-Top "N" risks 3. Determine Mitigation Plan - actions required to resolve. Documents decisions
Pressures on Project Team
1. Changes in project resources 2. Changes in project goals 3. Communication breakdown 4. Inadequate planning 5. unclear goals 6. inadequate resources 7.unrealistic deadline
Risk Management Framework - Analyze Steps
1. Classify Risks - organize risks into common classes 2. Evaluate Risks - evaluate attributes (impact and probability). 3. Prioritize Risks - determine important risks to the project
Critical Success Factors in Projects
1. Clearly defined goals 2. Competent project manager 3. Competent project team members 4. Top Management support 5. sufficient resource allocation 6. adequare communication channels 7. effective control mechanisms 8. Use of feedback for improvement 9. Responsiveness to clients
Measure can be
1. Compared to inital specifications 2. Compared to other projects in the organization 3. accounting for problems that arose in the project
Top-Down Approach vs. Bottom-up approach
1. Competitive treat, market opportunity, senior leadership goals/objectivies, changing market environment vs. 2. Risk, technial feability, resources constraints/requirements, time requirements for completion, available personnel
Project LifeCycle (PMBOK 5th Edition)
1. Conception & Initation 2. Definition & Planning 3. Launch or Execution 4. Performance & Control 5. Project Close
What is the termination process for projects that are not finished?
1. Decision process • Compare success either against company wide standard success factors vs. against the project's specific goals • Ignore sunk costs in termination decision making • Is cost to finish project more/less than value of completed project, how does this compare to other opportunities • Will resources be available to complete project • Portfolio level analysis (still good project but need for resources to even better projects)
What are the compents of Project Planning
1. Definition 2. Planning 3. Execution
Planning has 6 Components
1. Detailed Scope 2. Dependencies 3. Schedule 4. Resources 5. Trade-offs 6. risk analysis
Characteristics needed as a project manager
1. During planning: detail oriented, organized, logical thinker, can deal with uncertainty, creative. 2. During Execution: effective communicator, problem solver, quick thinker, good memory. 3. During Assessment: analytic, sensitive, continuous improver. 4. During Collaboration: effective communicator, facilitator, motivator, team builder
How can you reduce resource loading?
Outsourcing Problem - may result in quality problems Scope reduction Problem- scope may not be met
What is the Project Portfolio Evaluation Steps?
1. Establish a project council - PMO and senior management 2. Identify project categories and criteria - Derivates, platform, breakthrough, and R&D projects 3. Collect project data - Screen out weaker projects 4. Assess resource availability - Timing also important 5. Reduce the project and criteria set - Relate to organization's goals and assess riskiness 6. Prioritize the projects within categories 7. Select projects to be funded and held in reserve - mix across categories 8. Implement the process - Communicate and proceed 9. Periodical re-assessment - Abandon projects that seem to be doomed, select new ones
How to avoid boondoggles
1. Establish benchmarks for success and failure and stick with them 2. Be open to different views 3. Rotate management in and out of the project 4. Limit the consequences of admitting failure 5. Ensure that project progress evaluation is unbiased 6. Recognize that no single project is as important as the success of the overall organization 7. Appoint an "exit champion" to play the role of Devil's Advocate against the project
7 Sins in industrial megaprojects!
1. I want to keep it all 2. I want it yesterday 3. We'll work out the details of the deal later. 4. Why do you want to spend so much up-front 5. Let's cut that cost estimate down 6. lets contractors carry the risk; they're doing the project 7. if the project manager overruns, fire the bum
Risk Management Framework Steps
1. Identify 2. Analyze 3. Plan 4. Control
What are the steps in the critical chain?
1. Identify critical path 2. Add project buffer 3. Add resource buffers 4. Add feeding buffers
What are the two different approaches to project selection?
1. Individual evaluation and selection (go/no go decision) 2. Portfolio level evalution and selection (decisions for all projects simultaneously)
Project Lifecycle has 4 stages
1. Initiation 2. Planning 3. Execution 4. Closure
Concerns/problems with risk matrix
1. Measuring / classifying impacts 2. Accuracy of assessed likelihoods (probabilities) and impacts 3. Assessment of risks' severity using the (standard) color coding 4. Using risk scores in selecting risk mitigation actions 5. Subjective interpretation of risk levels
Measures of Project Success
1. Overall perception 2. Cost 3. Time 4. Scope
What are the complaints of CCPM?
1. Parkinson's law 2. Shortened deadlines can reduce task managers' motivation 3. Buffers 4. How to handle a situation where the critical chain changes
What are the criticisms of E(NPV) based analysis?
1. Probabilities may be hard to estimate (over confidence, subjectivity) 2. Using expectation does not take into account risks (downside) 3. The possibility of changing project decisions changes risks 4. Does not account for multi-criteria project selection
What are the common issues delaying project when managed using critical path approach?
1. Student's syndrome 2. Delays caused by multitasking 3. Ignoring delays due to network complexity 4. Parkinson's law (early finishes not cancelling late finishes) 5. Game playing
Risk Management Framework - Control Steps
1. Track Risks - on-going monitoring and mitigation plans. Communicate status to team 2. Control Risks - ensure follow-through of mitigation plan and reduction of the risk
What is a project team?
1. a group of people committed to achieveing a common set of goals for which they hold themeslves mutually accountable
project manager responsibilities
1. to the organization and top management (meet budget resurce constraints, coordinate with functional managers) 2. to the client (communicate in a timely and accurate manner, provide control over scope changes, maintain quality standards) 3. to the project team ( provide timely and accurate feedback, keep focus on project goals, and management personnel changes) 4. to the subcontractors (provide information on overal project status)
Characteristics of A project
1. unique process/product/serice: not routine operations 2. specific stare and finish, temporary endeavor: temporary organisation 3. co-ordinated activities:complex, large, multi-disciplinary 4. specific goal:product, service, event 5. constraints: time, cost, resource
Project Mangement Statistics
1/5 of world's economic activity is organized as a project, with an annual value of US $12,000,000,000,000
What is the termination process for projects that are not finished?
2. Implementation process • Termination can be orderly or a "hatchet job" - Planning for an implementing an orderly shut down yields better results • A special termination manager may be used for large and/or complex projects • PM needs to assist in the placement of project personnel in their next job
Project Mangement Statistics
97% of skills needed for successful business careers fall within the scope of project management.
What is Project Buffer ?
A project buffer is inserted at the end of the project network between the last task and the completion date. Any delays on the longest chain of dependant tasks will consume some of the buffer but will leave the completion date unchanged and so protect the project. The project buffer is typically recommended to be half the size of the safety time taken out, resulting in a project that is planned to be 75% of a "traditional" project network.
Risk Matrix
A table that has several categories of probability, likelihood or frequency on its rows(or columns) and several categories of severity, or consequence on its columns (or rows).
What actions are taken when you exploit constraint?
Aggressive task durations, roadrunner mentality, no mulititasking
What is a problem from measuring/classifying impacts? How can it be resolved?
All impacts are not measured in same units (e.g. $, reduced performance, environmental damage) Solution: If possible converts all units to the same. Employ pair-wise comparison of each alternative (analytical hierarchy process, covered thoroughly during Executive Decision-Making course)
Resource Buffer (RB)
Allows earlier start of critical chain activities
What is the problem with ignoring delays due to network complexity? What is the solution?
Assuming network complexity makes no difference. Solution: Add feeding buffers to all activities except one
Cost Performance Index (CPI)
CPI = EV/AC
Cost variance formula (CV)
CV = EV - AC
Why is the portfolio level evaluation a better option?
Considered much better since it accounts for: • Diversification (reduces market and other risks by maintaining a mix of projects) • Cash flow constraints (balances available cash over time and across projects) • Resource constraints (plan the use of resources e.g., facility, personnel, efficiently over time) • Dependencies across projects (synergies e.g., IT platforms; cannibalization e.g., same market) • Overall performance (optimal selection of most profitable projects)
Agile Characterists
Continuous design Flexible scope Features/requirements Freeze design as late as possible High uncertainty Embrace change High customer interaction Self-organized project teams
What actions are taken when you elevate constraints?
Crashing/fast tracking critical chain.
What is the reasonable color coding in risk matrices?
Creating a 3X3 construction or a 4x4 construction (can depict high and very high risk)
What is Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) ?
Critical chain project management (CCPM) is a method of planning and managing projects that emphasizes the resources (people, equipment, physical space) required to execute project tasks.
What is Parkinson's Law and why is this an issue? What is the solution?
Definition: Work will expand to fill the time available for its completion. The problem with this is that a task even if completed early will not be delivered until due date due to lack of urgency, normal tendency toward procrastination, unnecessary obsession with small quality details, anxiety about being allowed less time for the same task in future projects. Solution: Roadrunner mentality (start next activity once previous finishes) Add resource buffers for critical chain activities - not a buffer but early warning (i.e. 1 week, 3 days, 1 day notices).
Parkinson's Law
Delaying (or pacing) completion of the task
Traditional Project Management
Design up front Fixed scope Deliverables Freeze design as early as possible Low uncertainty Avoid change Low customer interaction Conventional project teams
What would you use SV or SPI?
For schedule variance you need to know the exact amounts for it to have meaning. For SPI you can relate it to your plan to see how far off you are.
What is game playing? What is the solution?
Game playing is including buffers in each activities? Solution: Include project buffer instead of activity buffers and use 50th estimates for task durations.
Why is Project selection important?
Good project selection makes the job of running projects much easier.
What is the generic practical approach?
Has a two step "filtering approach" Step 1: Elimination of projects that fail any of several tests Step 2: Selection based on consideration of both quantitative and qualitative factors
Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS)
Hierarchical division of the organization structure that defines who performs work
Risk Management Framework - Identify (Steps)
Identify Baseline or New Risks - issues and concerns
Why is post-mortem important but undervalued?
Important: 1. Ends expenditures and confirms formal client acceptance 2. Avoids confusion about the state of the project 3. Builds project archive (valuable for future planning of similar projects); "Commodity"-type projects, which are often similar to others, are perfect candidates; an example is annual software updates Undervalued: 1. Often viewed as wasted effort, as it "produces nothing" 2. Unless the project manager can demonstrate empirically how "lessons learned" on a past project have materialized into gains on a current project
What principles does the manifesto have?
Individual and interactions working software Customer collaboration Responding to change
What is the Internal Rate of Return (IRR)?
Is a metric used in capital budgeting measuring the profitability of potential investments. Internal rate of return is a discount rate that makes the net present value (NPV) of all cash flows from a particular project equal to zero.
Why is CCPM different?
It differs from more traditional methods that derive from critical path and PERT algorithms, which emphasize task order and rigid scheduling. A critical chain project network strives to keep resources levelled, and requires that they be flexible in start times.
What is project termination?
It is the end of the project. Can by defined by? 1. extinction 2. addition 3. integration 4. starvation
What actions are taken when you identify constraint?
Level resources, identify critical chain
What is the critical path
Longest path with shortest amount of float. the sequence of stages determining the minimum time needed for an operation, especially when analyzed on a computer for a large organization
Student Syndrome
Not starting the task until the last moment
The Project Management Office - PMO
Organizations that run many projects typically have a PMO
What is the Project Management Office (PMO) and what are their functions?
Organizations what run many projects typically have a PMO Functions of PMO: 1. Select a portfolio of projects from those available 2. Assign project managers to projects 3. Allocate project teams and resources to projects (after discussing with the PM) 4. Ensure consistent application of best project management practices, such as PMBOK, to the organization's projects 5. Monitor performance using benchmarks and earned value management 6. Repository for current project information and for lessons learned from previous projects (useful for similar future projects)
What is the PERT method?
PERT stands for Program Evaluation Review Technique, a methodology developed by the U.S. Navy in the 1950s for the polaris program
What is a common problem in WBS design?
PMs lay out too many tasks; subdividing the major achievements into smaller and smaller subtasks until the WBS is a "to-do" list of chores
What is the present value of a perpetuity?
Perpetuity is money that is received forever. It is determined by dividing periodic payment continuing for infinity by discount rate (See week 11 slide 7) PV=A/r
What is Risk?
Possibility of a loss, threat of loss, not merely volatility in outcome • Examples: financial losses, environmental pollution, weakening of health, detoriation in project's performance • Loss relative to a reference point (often expected outcome)
What is PRM
Program Mangement
What are the pitfalls of time monitoring?
Progress can not be measured by work already done - always look forward to work that needs to be done - examine the remaining critical path Collecting progress information - ask for how many days still reamining to complete the task - Do not hide problems until the deadline Schedule "nervousness" • focus on critical activities (critical path can change) • control on milestone-level (only re-schedule when milestones are not met)
What is PPM
Project Portfolio Mangement
What is PM
Project management
Why has there been a growth in PMO?
Projects in general are more popular. PMO has more experienced in them in the way projects are managed.
What is termination by starvation?
Reducing project budget Often done incrementally because project has lost its meaning Used when it is politically dangerous to cancel a project
What are Resource Buffers?
Resource buffers can be set alongside of the Critical Chain to ensure that the appropriate people and skills are available to work on the Critical Chain tasks as soon as needed.
What is crashing?
Resources are added to the project for the least possible cost. Problem - adding manpower to a late project can make it later
What is a problem from use of Standard Color Coding in Risk Matrix?
Risk matrix colors may not match what the actual risk is. This is due to assessment of low, medium, and high. Matrix colors should reflect risk contours
Schedule Performance Index
SPI = EV/PV
Schedule Variance formula
SV = EV - PV
What are the criticisms of EVA?
Shortcomings of EVA: - does not distinguish critical activities - fails to consider how the performance of one task may affect another - may incentivize negative behavior, e.g. shifting costs around, or compromising quality - can add substantially to information requirements
Characteristics of project auditors
Team with experience and expertise Responsibilities: Be honest and ethical be independent tell whole truth seek help for technical issues.
Where would you use agile?
Unpredictable environments or unknown scope/technologies
What is termination by addition?
Usually applies to an in-house project. A project stops but its work and often its people are transformed into a new part of the organization, creates a new division.
Overhead costs
administrative costs allocated to support the project, and usually not attributable to any specific task. These vary directly with project duration
Project Mangement Statistics
between 2016 and 2020, there will be 15,700,000 new job openings per year in project management worldwide.
What is a Feeding Buffers?
delays on paths of tasks feeding into the longest chain can impact the project by delaying a subsequent task on the Critical Chain. To protect against this, feeding buffers are inserted between the last task on a feeding path and the Critical Chain. The feeding buffer is typically recommended to be half the size of the safety time taken out of the feeding path.
PM Risk
delays, cost overruns, lower quality
Risk analysis is a process...
describes possible losses or adverse consequences used in risk informed decision making - provides information about the existence of losses, quality, quantity, likelihood, reasons, and uncertainties
Reasonfor Project Failures ?
failure to train project managers is one of the principle cause of business failures
What are the concerns of agile?
for deterministic or large projects, there is little evidence of it providing benefits • lack of formal controls on time and cost can be problematic • requires a higher level of project management competence among project team members, since the management functions are shared • without project team colocation, even with videoconferencing, it can be difficult to manage • lack of documentation inhibits the potential for learning from success or failure
Project Mangement Statistics
in 2003, there was one degree project in projcect management in china; in 2009, there were 103.
What is a boondoggle
originated from a 1935 New York Times article criticizing New Deal government expenditure on training the unemployed to "make boon doggles" • Recently, "boondoogle" has been used more broadly, for example to describe a business trip to a resort destination during which little work gets done
Program Mangement
set of interrelated project 1. Sequence of projects (new product and derivatives) 2. Resources shared across projects 3. Common Technology 4. Common Client
What is project murder?
sudden termination without warning, usually for cause not related to project's purpose
why should you use post-mortem analysis?
• People do not automatically learn from their mistakes • Knowledge what happened and why is usually dispersed among several people • One person's learning needs to be disseminated across organization
What is the project audit life cycle?
• Project Audit Initiation - during which the audit methodology is established. • Project Baseline Definition - when the elements to be analyzed and the standards of comparison are established. • Establishing an Audit Database - when the data from the project is collected. • Preliminary Analysis of the Project - involves the auditor making preliminary conclusions about the results. • Audit Report Preparation - when the audit report is written. • Project Audit Termination - when the audit itself is reviewed for potential improvements.
Why should you not use post-mortem analysis?
• Takes time • Goes over events that participants are embarrassed or cynical • If not properly conducted can cause blame and criticism (worsen social relationships) • Many people tend to think that experience is necessary and sufficient teacher
What are the characteristics of the project portfolio selection?
• The model works most easily in "static environments, i.e. when choosing between a known set of projects • In "dynamic" environments with newly arriving projects, it can be used within a rolling horizon • In that usage, some budget is typically held in reserve for potentially arriving projects
