Project Management

Three rules to Project Management

  1. If it is not in writing, it doesn’t exist
  2. Begin with the end in mind
  3. Simplify and focus

We tend to over-complicate things.

Two things that create stress

•Lack of control
•Lack of closure

6 ways IT projects are Different

  1. Responsibility without authority
  2. Distributed sources of power
  3. Temporary nature of projects
  4. Skilled positions required
  5. The need for specialized tools and techniques
  6. New vocabulary and/or standards

Temporary Nature of Projects

•Most IT projects are temporary •Teams assigned to the projects usually separate at the end of the project •Outside technical sources may be contracted only for the duration of the project •Obtaining an adequate level of commitment may be difficult

IT Projects Use a Different Language & Standards

Measure of a Successful Project:

  1. Did you achieve all of your goals?
  2. Was the project completed in time?
  3. Did you stay within budget?

Defining the Project

•A project’s initiator is almost always unclear about important technical aspects of the project. •You determine the scope/content of the Project •Involve Key stakeholders upfront –Sponsor –Customers/(Management and End-users) –Team

•Functionality –Outlines your goals, objectives an parameters •Formality –Defines the deliverables that will be produced –Lists the milestones that must be met

Getting S.M.A.R.T. with your Goals

S(pecific)–Objectives should be stated in terms that include some quantitative target for the end product. M(easurable)–There should be some way of actually testing whether that stated target has been met. A(greed upon)–The objective must be clearly understood and accepted by both the parties. If it is not clearly expressed and accepted this may cause the the task to fail. R9ealistic)–If the objective cannot be met - it will fail. T(ime-frames)–The boundaries for completion date of the desired objective should be either a specific date or time or an “offset” from the beginning of the projects. (For example, must be completed within five months of project launch.) R(eward)/Reprimand–What do you get or not get out of it depending on conclusion. Anything that recognizes success will promote success.

IT Specific Hurdles That Block Success

•Scope Changes –Handling Scope Creep •Know it when you see it •Who causes it? •Consider it an opportunity to: –Improve the project –Show your skills •Sub-Project Failure or “Event Failure” •Technology – •Communications Better communicators www.toastmasters.org •Expectations –You have to control the expectations. The stakeholders and clients will be unrealistic. –Consistency is control.

Unique Barriers Involved in Bringing IT Projects to Completion: •Unreasonable expectations of what the technology can achieve. •Technology changes so fast, it seems like you are either “outdated” or “on the bleeding edge.” •Working with “highly technical” people sometimes can be challenging.

How to determine Feasibility

•Technical •Can’t be determined until the impact to existing IT systems is quantified •A technical expert should be brought in up front to assist in the quantification of the systems impact. –Has the proposed project been attempted before? –Will the proposed project interact with any key business process or mission-critical systems. –What if the projected team for the proposed project does not contain personnel certified as experts. •Cultural •Some call this “change” management •Often called “cultural achievability” •Things that may prevent the acceptance and implementation of the proposed change –Examine the relationship between the people, processes, and platforms involved in the implementation of the solution. •Regulatory •Financial

Six ways to move from Concept to the active planning stage

  1. Brainstorm and analyze Mindmapper/Inspiration
  2. Write a project scope Scope Management Creating the scope Protecting the scope Ensuring that the scope is fulfilled according to plan The scope is ONLY the required work The scope is based on … What influences the scope Early on we are seeking opinion and advice from stakeholders as to what should be in scope Stakeholders help create the scope and then the project team protects the scope from change The product scope tells us what work needs to be done in order to build the product Avoid scope creep Have a scope control mechanism Scope Verification Once we complete the project, project manager and project team work with the customer to ensure that the scope is complete Ultimately we are after customer acceptance
  3. Determine the final objective
  4. List deliverables
  5. Determine and evaluate strategies/alternatives for completion
  6. Implement an action plan

Triple Constraints

Time
Resources
Performance

Prioritize Constraints 1,2,3
    1. Least Flexible/Most important
    2. Middle flexibility/Middle importance
    3. Most flexible/Least important

They are called:
    1. Driver Constraint
    2. Middle Constraint
    3. Weak Constraint

Triple constraint trade-offs
    Shorter time - Higher Cost -Reduced Quality or Narrowed Scope

Elements of a cost-accounting system

•Labor
•Overhead burden
•Materials
•Supplies
•Equipment rental
•General and administrative burden
•Profit

Additional contingencies to consider

•Changes in scope
•New requirement of the project (non-scope changing)

Five factors that can derail your project budget

1. Inflation in a long term project
2. Inaccurate estimates of pay rates' hidden resource costs
3. Price change from suppliers
4. Misunderstanding of the task required to complete the project
5. Poor risk managment

IT appropriate project management software

Any tool to simplify reporting

Why projects fail

1. Project goal not clearly defined
2. project manager not given authority to succeed
3. Project not well planned
4. Project not well executed
5. Project team lacked direction and motivation
6. Project documentation and reporting not kept accurately

MIssed Deadlines - Why?

–Poor communication
    Baby Boomers vs. Gen Xer's, vs. Millenials  Find out how they work! If you can't communicate with them, how can you lead them?
–Assumptions
–Scope or specification changes

Afternoon

Risks - Positive and negative

Ensure the level of risk is less than the "return" for any endeavor.
Types of risk:
*During planning & development, act like y'all don't have a clue what you're doing. Ask, "What is the silliest thing someone could do here?" 
*Tech won't work as well as promised. 
*Components don't work together
*Failure
Personnel
*Talent isn't available, people leave.
#Cross-train to mitigate
Implementation
*Hardware incapable of working correctly
*Management fails to adequately support project
Misc.
*The usual: fire, flood, viruses, etc.

Categorizing risks pg 27 chart.

*Mitigate (plan to solve), transfer (insurance), accept (deal with it)
*Always focus on risks, and don't worry about over-planning. 
*Think about upper management and their support for your project. 
    *How can you open their ears to receive? Man goes to sensitive training by command of boss, and upon return says, "In order to be sensitive, I would like to…"
    *The project manager who is able to be a bridge from the technical world to the business world is almost irreplaceable."
Direct and Indirect Costs
*D: Salaries, supplies, software, equipment, subcontracts
*I: employee benefits, rent, admin salaries, equipment used but not directly related to completed project

7 project potholes

1. Answering to too many sponsors
2. What day to we start? 
3. Let's try this one again
4. Another team member leaves the game
5. Why don't we talk anymore? 
6. Now I can't get them to shut up and go back to work?     
7. Now what did you want done here?

Management vs. Leadership

M: structured and focuses on tasks, tools and techniques, authority to motivate
L: Skillset to inspire action; inspires, motivates, energizes, 
Work will expand to fill available time. 
Project managers have to be people oriented

Leadership Styles - Pg. 32

Autocratic
    Little input on decision-making 
Analytic
    Consults group, but makes decisions on his own
Laissez-Faire
    Power to the people
Democratic  
    Brings team into decision-making process. Communication is two-way.

How to build the right team for a project?

I think a personality test for our teams would be a good way to "see" what they are really like. 
How can you lead someone if you don't know their personality style.

Commitment

Ask questions; find out why you are not getting the buy-in you seek. 
Keep an eye out for discontent
Commitment vs. contribution Egg McMuffin, Chicken was a contributor, the pig was committed. 
Create an environment of commitment, positive thinking, teamwork.
If a project is transferred to a new project manager, the project needs to be started from scratch.

Create Performance Standards and Consequences for Failure

Use HR reprimand policies
Hold timely task reviews
Communicate clearly the task that needs to be completed
If policies aren't in writing, they are not enforceable. 
Task analysis form tells what needs to be done by whom when.

Conflict Resolutions

e+r=o (effect + response = outcome) Where does it come from? 
Priorities, Goals, Values, Information (or lack thereof), What motivates them? 
Script conversations with (Life Scripts book  http://www.amazon.com/Lifescripts-What-Lifes-Toughest-Situations/dp/0471643769 )
Create common ground, enlarge areas of agreement, gather agreement, focus on issues, not personalities

Sources of conflict

1. Human Resources
2. Equipment and facilities
3. Capital Expenditures
4. Costs
5. Technical opinions and trade-offs
6. Policies
7. Administrative procedures

12 Ways to Communicate Like a Leader

1. Make eye contact
2. Pay attention when being spoken to
3. Concentrate on the other's conversation
4. Summarize what you heard.
5. Avoid slang, jargon, acronyms
6. Check the facts. 
7. Look for ways to improve when something goes wrong. 
8. Use the person's name
9. Stay on topic
10. Use I statements, not you.
11. Ask broad questions to open discussion. 
12. Don't be judgmental

Becoming a better Leader in 8 steps

1. Be a person who loves detail (but not overly
2. Manage and Lead
3. Never assume
4. Be the get-er-done person.
5. Always try to understand why. 
6. Respect your team. 
    Meetings should be no longer than 50 minutes
7. Say it and mean it. 
8. Reward performance.

Ensuring a project’s success

Scope, resources, budget, schedule, risks
Monitor everything
Milestones where two or more tasks come together
    Never have a project that has only a beginning and an end. 
Don't get caught up in the schedule and forget about the budget.

Most useful monitoring tools

Weekly progress reports
Milestones
Action items that come up in project meetings
*Assumptions
*Doubts
*Tasks
*Questions
*Requests
*Shoulds

Critical Path

Every project has a path of critically important activities leading to a successful project ***PERT/CPM Diagrams***
Needs assessment

Five elements to consider in your tracking data

1. Beginning and ending of each task
2. Resource assigned to the task
3. Expenses for each task. 
4. Number of hours/days to complete the task.
5. Was the task completed as expected?

DTM Needs analysis - select titles to enter - adapt system

**Steps to make a successful project**

1. Project Initiation Request
2. Needs assessment - Evaluate current system - what do we have now?
    Business requirements
    What do you need? 
    What don't you need? 
    What do you have? 
    What do you have that you do(n't) need?
    Resources: people, resources, maintenance?
    Ask every question you possibly can? 
    Upgrades/patches? 
3. Charter - contract that clearly lays out your scope
    Project name
    Project Description
        Summary - Quantify the project; appeal to the stakeholder's self-interests (money, students, teachers, etc)
        What, Why, How
        Goal
        Benefits
        dependencies
    Project Scope definition
        In Scope
        Out of Scope
4. Critical Path (will be part of Charter, but is a big process separated from it). 
    What needs to happen for the project to be a success
    List all the steps
    Dependencies projects
    Milestones - Identify risks
        Where two or more things come together and identify risks (positive and negative - positive is really just a 
5. Task Analysis forms

Project Methodology Steps 1. Project Unit Request 2. Needs Analysis (Bus. Req.) 3. Develop CPM 4. Time/Budget (task form) 5. Charter 6. Project Kickoff/Project Plan Distribution 7. Execute Phase/Monitor 8. Complete 9. Evaluate 10. Celebrate

Delegate project manager position to one of our team members

Reports

Who should get reports?
Be aware of jargon, what is important to each stakeholder
Two methods
    Escalation - assigne responsibility for an issue. 
    Notification - 
Business requirements
    Saves time, increases productivity
    concise description of tasks that need to be completed, what it will look like, how it will function or perform
    Defines assumptions, dependencies and constraints
    Define included and excluded functional and performance requirements
    Obtain funding, staff projections, etc.

Meetings

Meeting controls - Norms
Requirements: Agenda, minutes, timed session.

Seven common triggers for backup plan activation

*Do we have penalties in place?*
Failure of a key program
Manpower shortage
Change of management in the middle of a project
Late material delivery
Falling behind schedule
Quality of deliverables not up to standard
Communications problem

Key to technology is testing. The only one responsible for failure is the leader.

How are processes different from maintenance?

Maintenance is keeping it up and running it would include many processes.  IE: Skyward.  we have year end roll over process, Start of school process, report card process all of which are part of the maintenance of the Skyward system.
OK. Bigger question that you don't have to answer right now: If we do our projects correctly in the first couple years, won't most of our time be spent on maintaining current systems?
...And occasionally adding new projects?
Some,  We will close down old technologies maintain current technologies and implement new innovations.   Closing down an old technology could easily be a project or may be part of a new innovation project.  Innovation will be a new project.   the     maintaining is not.

How to measure your project’s outcome

Is the customer satisfied?
Were the expectations of the customer and the stakeholder's met, on time and on budget?
Sponsor/stakeholder satisfaction survey

Get buy-in by showing how it will help them

What is a project?

Scheduled activities
Other people are involved
PM is not a decision maker

        /-> Team -> Tasks Sponsor -> PM  -> Team -> Tasks
        \->(researches needs (talks to users) and relays back to Sponsor)

What projects am I in charge of? NEW NOTE

1. Destiny Textbook
2. Library Curriculum
3. Podcasting
4. Assistant's manual
5. Expanding Distance Learning
6. 21st Century Learning Class this summer.
7. iWork Class
8. Computers and monitors to ELMCs

Gaining Buy-in

1. Standard Forms and Structures
    http://cvr-it.com/

15 to-dos to make sure your project is fully completed. PG-58

Interesting suggestions:
Time Management: http://www.ourbookstore.com/Products.html?prodid=11-4401&cid=0&CFID=31223070&CFTOKEN=18444449&ctry=US http://projectmanagement.com http://pmforum.org
http://pmi.org Script conversations with Life Scripts book http://www.amazon.com/Lifescripts-What-Lifes-Toughest-Situations/dp/0471643769 Monday Morning Leadership http://www.amazon.com/Monday-Morning-Leadership-Mentoring-Sessions/dp/0971942439 Reading People http://www.amazon.com/Reading-People-Understand-Behavior-ebook/dp/B001EL6R3I/ref=kinw_dp_ke?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1269632006&sr=8-1Standard Forms and Structures http://cvr-it.com/

Notes mentioning this note

Trauma
Project Management
Three rules to Project Management If it is not in writing, it doesn’t exist Begin with the end in mind...
You Should be Able to Take Your Data With You
As you may be following, I’ve lost a lot of weight in the last year. See more about my journey...

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