Project Management for the resource-challenged. Ari Davidow Workshop for Museum Computer Network Conference 2010

Transcription

1 Project Management for the resource-challenged Ari Davidow Workshop for Museum Computer Network Conference 2010

2 Agenda What is Project Management? The PMI project management lifecycle Components of a project Understanding the bones of your project Work Breakdown Structure Critical Path Gantt Charts Risk Management Agile Development and Project Management Tools for Managing Projects Where to go to learn more

3 If we don t manage projects How do we know when they are done? How do we know if we succeeded? How will we do better next time? And in the middle, how will we know where we are and what it means?

4 Project Plans that aren t

5 Project Plans that aren t - 2

6 Group discussion 1 Why do projects fail?

7 Common reasons projects fail Too many projects competing for the same resources Insufficient or inadequate resources Insufficient or inadequate business involvement Project team isolated from the business Team roles & responsibilities are unclear Poor communications Roadblocks are not resolved in a timely manner Scope changes are not managed properly [slide adapted from Lydia Milne, Foundations of Project Management, from Brandeis University Graduate Professional Studies.]

8 Project Management is PMBOK: A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result. Temporary -- not on-going Does not imply short in duration Does not apply to the product or service Has a beginning and an end Unique product or service -- not a commodity or ongoing operation Can be a subset of a larger program or a stand-alone effort Requires coordination of tasks and resources Wysocki, Beck, & Crane: A project is a sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities having one goal or purpose and that must be completed by a specific time, within budget, and according to specifications. [slide adapted from Lydia Milne, Foundations of Project Management, from Brandeis University Graduate Professional Studies.]

9 The Triple Constraints Scope Quality Cost Time

10 Copyright 2008, Project Management Institute. From A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)--Fourth Edition

11 Copyright 2008, Project Management Institute. From A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)--Fourth Edition

12 Project Management Knowledge Areas Risk Management Probability, impacts, actions Quality Management Planning, assurance control Procurement Management Solicitation, sub-contractors Cost Management Budget, control Integration Management Communications Management Information System Time Management Schedules, activities, control Scope Management Objectives, needs, specifications Human Resource Management Productivity and efficiency [from Lydia Milne, Foundations of Project Management, from Brandeis University Graduate Professional Studies.]

13 Copyright 2008, Project Management Institute. From A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)--Fourth Edition

14 Copyright 2008, Project Management Institute. From A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)--Fourth Edition

15 Copyright 2008, Project Management Institute. From A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)--Fourth Edition

16 Copyright 2008, Project Management Institute. From A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)--Fourth Edition

17 Copyright 2008, Project Management Institute. From A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)--Fourth Edition

18 Copyright 2008, Project Management Institute. From A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)--Fourth Edition

19 Copyright 2008, Project Management Institute. From A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)--Fourth Edition

20 Copyright 2008, Project Management Institute. From A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)--Fourth Edition

21 Copyright 2008, Project Management Institute. From A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)--Fourth Edition

22 Initiation (in 5 bullet points) This is where you take the idea Flesh it out Create a Project Charter (larger projects) Create RFP (in some cases) Identify and Engage Stateholders

23 Copyright 2008, Project Management Institute. From A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)--Fourth Edition

24 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) In Agile development, we would talk about a Feature Breakdown Structure (FBS), rather than a WBS

25 Gantt Charts Used to Model dependencies, milestones Helps visualize critical path Overall activity snapshot of project

26 Project Status It s 90% done

27 Project Summary Dashboard 'Example Program' Multi-Project Summary Dashboard Division: ACME Software Works Revision 1.9 Manager: Peter White Project Name Manager Customer Week Schedule Incidents Requirements Staffing 1) Eager Beaver Byron Murray FPQR 1-Mar-98 (1 of 20) 100.0% G 100.0% G 100.0% G 100.0% G 2) The Big Dig Ron Holliday FMNO 15-Mar-98 (15 of 30) 81.0% Y ò 97.6% G ñ 99.0% G ñ 101.4% G ò 3) We Need Programmers Jim Hassey FJKL 15-Mar-98 (5 of 20) 77.3% Y ñ 100.0% G 98.0% G 50.0% R ñ 4) Too Good to be True Joel Lehrer FGHI 15-Mar-98 (9 of 12) 100.0% G 100.0% G 100.0% G 97.6% G ñ 5) Churn and Burn Tom Carter FDEF 15-Mar-98 (6 of 20) 83.3% Y ò 93.3% G ò 89.0% R ò 96.1% G ñ 6) Too Many Bugs Bob Albanese FABC 15-Mar-98 (15 of 20) 92.3% G ò 82.9% Y ò 99.0% G 101.4% G ò Notes: - Percentages represent indices for 'Schedule Performance', 'Incident Closure', 'Requirements Stability', and 'Staffing' - Color-coded status is determined by ranges that are defined for each project. - Arrows indicate whether the status is improving (up) or worsening (down). - For more information about any of these statistics or status codes, see the relevant project dashboard workbook. [from Lydia Milne, Foundations of Project Management, from Brandeis University Graduate Professional Studies.]

28 Individual Project Dashboard Main Menu 'The Big Dig' Project #: Project Dashboard Manager: Ron Holliday Division: ACME Software Revision 1.8 Customer: Pay More Inc Update All Charts Update Chart Schedule Update Chart Incidents Remaining Activities /7/ /21/1997 1/4/1998 1/18/1998 2/1/1998 2/15/1998 3/1/1998 3/15/1998 3/29/1998 4/12/1998 4/26/1998 5/10/1998 5/24/1998 6/7/1998 6/21/1998 Number of Incidents /7/ /21/1997 1/4/1998 1/18/1998 2/1/1998 2/15/1998 3/1/1998 3/15/1998 3/29/1998 4/12/1998 4/26/1998 5/10/1998 5/24/1998 6/7/1998 6/21/ Planned Actual Projected Opened Closed Cum Opened Cum Closed Update Chart Requirements Update Chart Staffing Changes to Requirements /7/ /21/1997 1/4/1998 1/18/1998 2/1/1998 2/15/1998 3/1/1998 3/15/1998 3/29/1998 4/12/1998 4/26/1998 5/10/1998 5/24/1998 6/7/1998 6/21/ Staff Weeks /7/ /21/1997 1/4/1998 1/18/1998 2/1/1998 2/15/1998 3/1/1998 3/15/1998 3/29/1998 4/12/1998 4/26/1998 5/10/1998 5/24/1998 6/7/1998 6/21/ Added Modified Deleted Cum Changes Planned Actual Cum Planned Cum Actual [from Lydia Milne, Foundations of Project Management, from Brandeis University Graduate Professional Studies.]

29 Risk Management

30 Risks? So many things can go wrong What are the risks you worry about on your projects? Schedule? Wrong requirements? Stakeholder problems? Budget overruns?.

31 Levels of Risk Management Crisis management Fire fighting; address risks only after they become problems Fix on failure (important to fix but not crisis) Detect and react to risks quickly, but only after they have occurred Risk mitigation Plan ahead of time to provide resources to cover risks if they occur, but do nothing to eliminate them in the first place Prevention Implement and execute a plan as part of the project to identify risks and prevent them from becoming problems Elimination of root causes Identify and eliminate factors that make it possible for risks to exist at all. from Rapid Development by Steve McConnell, Microsoft Press c. 1996, pg. 84

32 Why we accurate requirements matter Cost of Correcting a Technical Problem $ $ $ $1 --- Normalized Projected Lifecycle [from Lydia Milne, Foundations of Project Management, from Brandeis University Graduate Professional Studies.]

33 K-J Technique 1. Question: What are the next priorities for the MCN website? 2. Divide into two groups 5 each 3. Now everyone write sticky notes: One note per priority 4. Stick notes to the wall so that you can see each other s priority notes 5. Group similar items. Help each other. Talk about what belongs where. Don t discuss the priorities, themselves, just how to group them. 6. Name the groups using the other sticky notes (2 nd color). Each group, even with one item, should have a label. If you don t like a label, change it, add your own, rearrange. Try, then discuss, until everyone is happy. 7. Now we re going to figure out priorities: 1. Write down individually the three most important items. 2. When you have your list, and only when you have your list, rank them. 3. Note your rankings on the group labels on the wall: Your top ranking gets three XXXs; 2 nd gets two XXs; last gets one X. 8. Count the votes. If you realize that two groups are the same, combine them now, and add their votes together. 9. When you have consensus on what you have voted, you are done. Source:

34 Agile Development A range of development methodologies based on the idea that projects are divided into short sequences sprints Commonly, index cards or similar medium used to note feature requests, requirements Next sprint is derived from which features matter most, that can be delivered in the sprint (usually defined as 1-3 months) Goal is to put working tools into people s hands quickly for feedback and learning, rather than get to the end of a two year project and discover that it no longer makes sense

35 Agile Core Values Delivering value over meeting constraints Leading Team over Managing Constraints Adapting to Change over Conforming to Plans

36 Closing Processes At JWA, for web development projects, we require the following deliverables before we will accept a project as done : Code must be checked into a source control repository (CVS, Subversion, etc.) and/or be available as an AWS AMI Documentation must be available, usually via wiki We are able to successfully check out the code, and by following the documentation, install it on our site.

37 Final tests run Contracts closed Project completed Then Lessons Learned And everything archived Lessons Learned

38 Some good tools The traditional project management information system: MS Word MS Excel MS Outlook MS Project note that MS Project, in and of itself, is not a PMIS MS Visio An online hosted service with similar capabilities: Zoho:

39

40 Basecamp - basecamphq.com

41 Redmine -

42 Redmine another project

43 Additional Resources Project Management Institute (PMI) Look for local chapters! Brandeis University Graduate Professional Studies (includes distance learning using Moodle) One good example of a Project Management Cert/Master program* *Disclaimer: I have a degree from the program. I currently co-teach an online course in Content Management and am developing a new one in Cloud Computing

44 Books Wysocki, Robert K. Effective Project Management. Wiley, 5e, Highsmith, Jim. Agile Project Management. Addison-Wesley, 2e, Don t read the PMBOK unless you need it to get certified.

45 Feedback On any convenient piece of paper, please write the name of this workshop and answer the following: 1.Why did you take today's workshop? 2.Were your expectations met? 3.If not, why not? 4.Would you recommend this workshop to a colleague? Thank you, all! Survey adapted from Avinash Kaushick s