Project Management

Planning stage

The level of effort increases, and plans are developed to determine what the project will entail, when it will be scheduled, whom it will benefit, what quality level should be maintained, and what the budget will be.

The successful implementation of projects requires both technical and social skills. Project managers need to be able to shape expectations of customers, sustain political support of top management, negotiate with functional counterparts, monitor subcontractors and so on. The technical side of project management includes the logical part of the process including planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. You need both dimensions in order to follow through with the project successfully.

The technical and sociocultural dimensions of project management are two sides to the same coin. Explain.

Executing stage

A major portion of the project work takes place—both physical and mental. The physical product is produced (a bridge, a report, a software pro- gram). Time, cost, and specification measures are used for control. Is the project on schedule, on budget, and meeting specifications? What are the forecasts of each of these measures? What revisions/changes are necessary? (high effort)

Advantages of using functional organization to administer and complete projects:

No change Flexibility In depth expertise Easy point project transition

Defining stage

Specifications of the project are defined; project objectives are established; teams are formed; major responsibilities are assigned.

Disadvantages of matrix management

Dysfunctional conflict Infighting Stressful Slow

Advantages of matrix management

Efficient Strong project focus Easier post project transition Flexible

Weaknesses of the Dedicated Project Team Approach

Expensive Internal strife Limited technological expertise Difficult post project transition

Disadvantages of using functional organization to administer and complete projects:

Lack of focus Poor integration Slow Lack of ownership

Project risks cannot be eliminated. It is impossible to be aware of all things that might happen when a project is being implemented. Undesirable events identified before the project begins can be transferred, retained/reduced, or shared. Contingency plans with trigger points and responsibility should be established before the project begins.

Project risks can/cannot be eliminated if the project is carefully planned. Explain.

-compression of the product life cycle -knowledge explosion -triple bottom line (planet, people, profit) -increased consumer focus -small projects represent big problems

What are some of the key environmental forces that have changed the way projects are managed?

Avoiding a risk is changing the project plan in advance so as to eliminate specific risks from occurring while accepting a risk means no preventive action is taken; contingency plans may be used if the risk materializes.

What is the difference between avoiding a risk and accepting a risk?

- it defines what work, how long, cost, how many resources needed, who is responsible, and how well it is doing based on performance

What kinds of information are included in a work package?

First, the time horizon of 2-5 years to complete large, complex projects makes it difficult to accurately forecast costs and user needs. Second, the sheer complexity of these kinds of projects make it difficult to accurately estimate all of the costs. Third, the severity of the risks involved are significant. When things go wrong, they go wrong is a big way. While such conditions would suggest a very conservative estimate, the opposite occurs. Either blind enthusiasm or calculated deception is used to promote an exaggerated case for the project.

Why is it difficult to estimate mega project (i.e., costs and benefits (i.e. airports, stadiums, etc.) costs and benefits?

Slack is important to the project manager because it represents the degree of flexibility the project manager will have in rearranging work and resources. A project network with several near critical paths and hence, little slack, gives the project manager little flexibility in changing resources or rearranging work.

Why is slack important to the project manager?

Even though financials help evaluate a projects return, pure financial models fail to include projects where financial return is impossible to measure companies need to be disciplined in saying no to potentially profitable projects outside of the realm of their core mission maintaining core competencies need to be considered it is best to use a multiple screening criteria to evaluate projects

Why should a project not rely on ROI to select projects?

Eight elements of a typical scope statement

1. project objective 2. product scope description 3. justification 4. deliverables 5. milestones 6. technical requirements 7. limits and exclusions 8. acceptance criteria

Project

A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. Major is to satisfy a customers needs.

1. A white elephant is a burdensome possession that the owner cannot easily dispose of and whose cost (particularly upkeep) is out of proportion with its usefulness. 2. Examples include dormant Olympic and World Cup stadiums, the Concorde, or little used vacation homes.

Define what a "white elephant" is in project management? Provide a real life example.

Checklist: - have flexibility - can be used across different divisions and locations - doesn't answer relative importance or value of a project - doesnt let you compare with other projects Weighted - allows comparison and ranking of potential projects - open system -allows self evaluation - power and politics are exposed

Discuss the pros and cons of the checklist versus the weighted factor method of selecting projects?

Budget reserves are established to cover identified risks that occur while implementing a project work package or activity. If the risk does not materialize, the funds are removed from the budget reserve. The management reserve covers unforeseen risks and applies to the total project. The reserves are usually controlled by top management, the owner, and/or the project manager. Budget and management reserves are independent of each other.

Explain the difference between budget reserves and management reserves.

Projects need to be linked with the firm's overall strategy and provides theme and focus for the firm's future direction

Explain the role projects play in the strategic management process?

The network uses the time estimates found in the work packages of the WBS to develop the network. Remember, the time estimates, budgets, and resources required for a work package in the WBS are set in time frames, but without dates. The dates are computed after the network is develped An activity that spans over a segment of a project. Duration of hammock activities is determined after the network plan is drawn. Hammock activities are used to aggregate sections of the project to facilitate getting the right amount of detail for specific sections of a project.

How are W B S and project networks linked?

The most important criteria for selecting a project is that the project will fit with the organization strategy. Organization s need to maximize the use of their resources by allocating resources to projects that will contribute to the strategic plan.

How are projects linked to the strategic plan?

The WBS and change control are directly linked. Any change from the baseline developed from the WBS needs to be recorded. The link allows management to trace changes and problems directly to deliverables and the organization unit responsible.

How are the work breakdown structure and change control connected?

communication plans help control the flow of information; keeps stakeholders informed of information reduces confusion, interruptions, and can provide project managers greater autonomy. - by reporting on a regular basis, allows senior management feel more comfortable with the team completing the project

How does a communication plan benefit management of projects?

The WBS provides a framework for tracking costs to deliverables and organization units responsible.

How does the W B S differ from the project network?

Organization culture can influence project estimates depending on the importance the organization places on estimating. Use of top-down versus bottom-up estimating can influence estimates. How padding is handled strongly influences estimates. How organization politics is tolerated can severely influence estimates

How does the culture of an organization influence the quality of estimates?

Closing stage

Includes three activities, delivering project product to customer, redeploying project resources, and post-project review.

Strengths of the Dedicated Project Team Approach

Simple Fast Cohesive Cross functional integration

The chances of risk events and estimated costs changing over the project life cycle are high. These events will impact project change control mechanisms. Moreover, such changes could be significant enough to require changes in scope. The project manager must ensure that these changes are recorded and kept updated. Otherwise, the integrity of the project control system will quickly deteriorate and become useless as a management tool.

The chances of risk events occurring and their respective costs increasing change over the project life cycle. What is the significance of this phenomenon to a project manager?

-has an established objective -has a defined life span with a beginning and an end -involves several departments and professionals -involves doing something never been done before -has specific time, cost and performance requirements

What are the 5 characteristics of a project?

op-down estimates are typically used in the project conceptual phase, and depend on surrogate measures such as weight, square feet, ratios. Top-down methods do not consider individual activity issues and problems. Top-down estimates are good for rough estimates and can help select and prioritize projects. Bottom-up time and cost estimates are usually tied directly to the W B S and a work package. These estimates are made by people familiar with the task, which helps to gain buy-in on the validity of the estimate. Use of several people should improve the accuracy of the estimate. Bottom-up estimates should be preferred if time to estimate is available, estimating cost is reasonable, and accuracy is important.

What are the differences between bottom-up and top-down estimating approaches? Under what conditions would you prefer one over the other?

If a change control process is not used, budgets and plans will self-destruct quickly. Tracking changes facilitates control and accountability of budgets and time. In addition, change control allows for coordination of changes further on in the project.

What are the likely outcomes if a change control process is not used? Why?

-review and define the organizational mission -analyze and formulate strategies -set objectives to achieve strategies -Implement strategies through projects

What are the major components of the strategic management process?

Essentially the same process that is used to manage negative risks is applied to positive risks. The major difference occur in the responses. Instead of avoiding negative risks, project managers often try to exploit positive risks by taking action to ensure that the opportunity occurs. Instead of transferring risks to another party, project managers often share positive risks to increase the likelihood the opportunity can be exploited. Instead of mitigating negative risks, project managers will take action to enhance the likelihood the opportunity will occur and/or increase the positive impact of the opportunity. Finally, project managers will often choose to accept both negative and positive risks, but be prepared to respond if either occurs.

What are the major differences between managing negative risks versus positive risks (opportunities)?

Direct, direct overhead, and general and administrative costs. Direct costs are controllable by the project manager. Direct overhead and general and administrative costs are only controllable in the sense that if the resource or project is finished early or late the costs will continue for the duration of the project.

What are the major types of costs? Which costs are controllable by the project manager?

Time-Constrain: means that the project must be finished at the specified date; Scope-Accept: reduce scope&performance of the project can be tolerated Cost-Enhance: costs should be optimized, and opportunities should reduce costs

What does it mean if the priorities of a project include: Time-constrain, Scope-accept, and Cost-enhance?

A hammock activity is a special purpose activity that exists over a segment of the life of the project. A hammock activity typically uses resources and is handled as an overhead cost—e.g., inspection. Hammock activities are used to identify overhead resources or costs tied directly to the project. The hammock duration is determined by the beginning of the first of a string of activities and the ending of the last activity in the string. Hammock activities are also used to aggregate sections of projects to avoid project detail—e.g., covering a whole subnetwork within a project. This approach gives top management an overview of the project by avoiding detail.

What is a hammock activity, and when is it used?

Free slack usually occurs at the end of an activity chain—before a merge activity. It is the amount of time the activity can be delayed without affecting the early start of the activity immediately following it. Since free slack can be delayed without delaying following activities, it gives some resource flexibility to the project manager. Total slack is the amount of time an activity can be delayed before it becomes critical. Use of total slack prevents its use on a following activity.

What is the difference between free slack and total slack?

Mitigating a risk refers to taking action to either reduce the likelihood that a risk will happen and/or reduce the impact the risk has on the project. Contingency planning is developing a response if the risk occurs. Mitigating is preventive while contingency is reactive.

What is the difference between mitigating a risk and contingency planning?

a. Agile PM is best suited for projects with high levels of uncertainty. A good example of this would be software projects because software projects are notorious for having unstable scopes in which end user requirements are discovered not defined up front.

What kinds of projects is Agile PM best suited for and why?

What the project is, when the project should be finished, and how much it will cost

What questions does a project objective answer? What would be an example of a good project objective?

- Responsibility matrixes are used in small projects, useful for organizing and assigning responsibilities for small, but also sub projects that could be large

When would it be appropriate to create a responsibility matrix rather than a full-blown WBS?

Without accurate time and cost estimates project control is ineffective. Inaccurate estimates can make the difference between profit or loss.

Why are accurate estimates critical to effective project management?

Two major reasons: a. To closer represent real situations found in projects b. To allow work to be accomplished in parallel when the finish-to-start relationship is too restrictive.

Why are lags used in developing project networks?

The WBS is designed to provide different information for decision making. For example, this database provides information for the following types of decisions: a. Link deliverables, organization units, and customer b. Provide for control c. Isolate problems to source d. Track schedule and cost variance. Network doesn't. e. Assign responsibility and budgets f. Focus attention on deliverables g. Provide information for different levels in the organization.

Why bother creating a WBS? Why not go straight to a project network and forget the WBS?

Without a strong priority system it can lead to problems within the organization. Having an open priority system ensures that projects are selected based on their contribution to the organization. If it isn't open it can create 3 specific issues: 1) Implementation Gap 2) Organization Politics 3) Resource conflicts and multitasking It does encourage bottom up; it allows organization members to evaluate projects in a fair manner

Why does the priority system described in this chapter require that it be open and published? Does the process encourage bottom-up initiation of projects? Does it discourage some projects? Why?