Project Management
Is it Common Sense?
John Scott Parsons, PMP
3/23/2013 John Scott Parsons, PMP 2
Agenda
Types of Projects Definitions
Common Needs
Basics of Project Management per PMI Process Groups
Knowledge Areas (objectives & realities)
Summary… Points of reflection and question
Discussion
Definitions
Project: A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product,
service, or result
Program: A group of projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain
benefits and control not available from managing them
individually.
Portfolio: A collection of projects or programs and other work grouped
together to facilitate effective management of that work to meet
strategic business objectives
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Types of Projects
Consider…
A project creates a unique product, service, or result
New Product
Information Technology
Application development and installation
Implementation of hardware
Application conversion
New building construction
Training program
Process improvement definition / roll out
Organization change / transformation
Each Project has a Start and End
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Types of Projects
Also consider…
Deliverables outside of the normal work context
Event planning
Examples: party, wedding, seminars, sporting events, etc.
Trips / Vacation
School project, report, etc.
Landscaping or other home projects
Hobbies
Meals
More!
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Common Needs
Scope
Cost / Budget
Timeline / Schedule
Resources (people, materials, etc.)
Risks / Issues
Communication
Quality expectations
Procurement (purchasing, contracts, agreements)
Integration and fulfillment of competing objectives
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Basics of Project Management
PMI Process Groups
Initiating
Processes
Closing Processes
Planning
Processes
Executing Processes
Monitoring
&
Controlling
Processes
Project or
Project Phase
Start
End
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Basics of Project Management
Procurement
Management
Risk
Management
Communication
Management Human
Resource
Management
Quality
Management
Cost
Management
Time
Management
Scope
Management
Integration
Management
PMI Knowledge Areas
Project Management Project Schedule
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Scope Management
Objective: Ensure the project includes all the work required, and only the work
required, to complete the project successfully Define project requirements
Define scope: detailed description of project and product (end result)
Define WBS
Reality: Requirements definition in various forms
Assumed to also define or include the project scope
Requirements change; does the scope change with it?
Rarely see a WBS
How do we define and manage scope?
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Time Management
Objective: Manage timely completion of the project
Define activities
Sequence activities
Estimate activities (durations)
Estimate resources
Develop schedule
Control schedule
Reality: Develop schedule
Add tasks
Estimate durations for tasks
Track and Revise schedule
How do we define and manage a timeline?
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Cost Management
Objective: Estimate, budget, and control costs so that the project can be completed
within the approved budget Estimate costs
Determine budget
Control Costs
Reality: Estimate costs
Given a budget
Track and control costs
How do we define and measure costs?
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Quality Management
Objective: Determine quality policies, objectives, and responsibilities so that the
project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken
Implement quality management system through policy and procedures with continuous improvement activities conducted as appropriate Plan Quality
Perform Quality Assurance
Perform Quality Control
Reality: Quality expectations may be set at an organizational level
Continuous improvement often an afterthought or part of lessons learned
How do we define and assess quality?
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Human Resource Management
Objective: Organize, manage, and lead the project team
The project team is comprised of the people with assigned roles and responsibilities for completing the project Develop Human Resource Plan
Acquire project team
Develop project team
Manage project team
Reality: Identify resource needs and assign them to tasks
May hire or acquire team members from other sources
How do we define, acquire, assess staff needs?
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Communication Management
Objective: Ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, distribution,
storage, retrieval, and ultimate disposition of project information Identify stakeholders
Plan communications
Distribute information
Manage stakeholder expectations
Report performance
Reality: Communication is often a problem area
Information is not complete, accurate, consistent, or easily accessed
How do we communicate project information?
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Risk Management
Objective: Increase the probability and impact positive events and decrease the
probability and impact of negative events in the project Plan risk management
Identify risks
Perform qualitative risk analysis
Perform quantitative risk analysis
Plan risk responses
Monitor and control risks
Reality: Identify risks
Review risk status for phase or milestone review meeting
How do we identify and address risks?
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Procurement Management
Objective: Define and use process necessary to purchase or acquire products,
services, or results needed from outside the project team
Includes contract management and change control processes required to develop and administer contracts or purchase orders issued by authorized project team members Plan procurements
Conduct procurements
Administer procurements
Close procurements
Reality: Purchasing of material needs is generally straightforward
Procurement contracts rarely aligned to needs of the specific project General contract for services written to apply to multiple projects or purposes
Purchasing and procurement activities do not include project managers in negotiations for terms and conditions, risks, etc.
How do we acquire and manage resources outside the team?
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Integration Management
Objective: Making choices about resource allocation, making trade-offs among
competing objectives and alternatives, and managing the interdependencies among the project management knowledge areas
Reality: Impact analysis rarely performed for changes
Impact to schedule, cost, quality, scope, staff, risks, communication, procurement, customer satisfaction, etc. needed for full impact
Decision making not based on impact analysis
Plan revisions not always made… keep same plan in some cases
How do we address competing objectives?
Project Management
Ensures systematic approach to completing project objectives
Creates common focus on all project deliverables
Defines relationship between product & project scope
Ensures coordinated project plan execution
Aligns resources with project priorities
Connects project work with ongoing operations and the strategic
direction of the organization
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Project Management Fit
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Informal
Formal
Needs
Complexity Cost
Duration
Scope Risk
Resources
Interactions
Other Considerations
More
Less
Comfort Level
Regulations
Project Management Benefits
Better Efficiency in delivering services…
Potential for reduced costs
Improved Customer Satisfaction… generate customer loyalty
Enhanced effectiveness – repeatability in execution
Improved team growth… continuous improvement
Greater competitive edge – superior performance
Some companies promote their use of PM as a competitive advantage
Opportunities to expand services
Flexibility
Increased risk assessment
Increased quality
Increased quantity… more accomplished
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Partial list of benefits included here…
Responsibility
Project Managers deliver entire package…
On time
Within budget
According to scope
With high quality
Meeting expectations
With desired deliverables
Managing change
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Summary
Project Management practices apply to almost
everything we do…
However, we may not use many PM practices
What are the expectations for project management
PMI, other frameworks, company/organization, self
Project Management practices must be tailored or fit
to the desired project need or risk some negative
impact to results or objectives
What process or framework is used?
How is it tailored or customized?
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Points of Reflection or Question
Is Project Management Common Sense?
OR
Is Project Management Overhead?
What are the expectations?
Project Management Project Schedule
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Discussion…
…or debate
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More Information…
John Scott Parsons, PMP
See LinkedIn profile:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jsparsons
Contact: [email protected] or johnscott.parsons@gmail
585-787-0215 (home) or 585-507-8196 (mobile)