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Project ManagementAn Introduction to

Terry Winnington

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Lecture Aims

• What are Projects and how do you manage them

• To Give an Insight into “Good Practice”

• Introduce some Project Management tools

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A Working Definition of A PROJECT

•Specific objectives to be completed within a certain specification•Defined start & end dates•Funding limits and consumes resources

A temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or service that has:

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MAKING A PROJECT BOXwhich the project needs to fit within

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YOUR TIME

MODULE DEADLINE

ASSIGNMENT BRIEF

FOR A STUDENT PROJECT

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Typical Project Life Cyclee.g. A Good Student Project

0

100

Time

Per

cen

t C

om

ple

tio

n

Starts Slow

Gets Very Busy

Needs Tidying UpAt The End

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The “Slow” Bit At The Start CanBe Very Valuable To You

0 20 40 60 80 100

% Project Duration

Potential toAdd Value

IncreasedChange Cost

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SOME GUIDLINES

1. Start Promptly – NOW!!

2. Your Project Definition Should Be Well Founded And Agreed

3. Any Changes To The Project Definition And Your Objectives Need To Be Made In the Early Stages Of The Project

4. Identify Individual Tasks

5. Established The Sequence Of They Need to be Undertaken

6. Determine The Risks And Accommodate Them In Your Plan

7. Recognise That Changes In Any One Element Will Affect Some Or All The Other Activities - Don’t Underestimate The Trivial

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Typical Causes of StudentProject Failure

• STARTING - Failure To Put A Draft Plan Together In Time To Review It Fully With Peers And Academics

• PLANNING - Poor Planning Of The Tasks• DOING - Failure To Get On With The Tasks• CONSIDERING - Incomplete And/Or

Misunderstood Specifications or Proposals• THINKING IT THROUGH - Underestimating

The Difficulty Or Risks In Completing The Tasks

• TIME ALLOCATION – Competing Time Pressures

• LISTENING - Over-ambitious Targets – Listen to Advice

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Some Project Planning Tools

•Work Breakdown Schedule

•Task Relationships•Gantt Charts•Critical Path Analysis•Tracking

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Breaking Tasks Into Bite Sized ChunksWork Breakdown Structure

• Humans Find It Difficult To Analyse, Plan And Execute Large, Complex Tasks– Complex Tasks Take A Long Time To Complete– Deadlines That Are A Long Way Away Tend

Not To Trigger Immediate Action– It’s Difficult To Know Where To Start– It’s Difficult To Know How Much More You

Have Got To Do

• Answer >> Break It Down To “Bite Size” Chunks You Can Deal With

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Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)– The “Bite Sized” Activities

A Hierarchy like this is often a useful way to breakdown a complex project

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Task Sizing

• Work out how long you think each task will take• If you are unsure think about the shortest time

they are likely to take and then the longest (optimistic and pessimistic estimates)

• Having done that re-estimate the most likely length of time

• If it is absolutely critical – perhaps use the pessimistic time

• What about iterations? – two or more development stages

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Task Dependencies

• Now you have identified and sized the tasks work out how they relate to each other– UNCONSTRAINED - can the task start at any

time? – let’s have another sweet

– FINISH-START - depend on others being completed – you can’t eat your cake until you’ve made it

– START-START - have to start at the same time – Three vegetables in a steamer

– FINISH-FINISH – have to end at the same time – hot food being served

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Task Planning

• The dependencies will force some tasks into sequences

• If you make a network of the tasks you will start to see how long the project will take

• But don’t forget that you only have a limited resource available

• This limits the number of tasks you can do at the same time

• You also need to think how many hours you are prepared to work a week!!

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Constraints

• Where you need a laboratory it must be open• Where you need a specific software you must

have access to it• Reading books, writing and thinking you can do

at any time• So if you have the stamina you can plan for 6

hours laboratory work and still undertake another 6 hours on another task in the same day

• You probably won’t maintain that level for long!!• Working intensively to shorten timescales is

called “CRASHING” – more later

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Graphical RepresentationsNETWORK CHARTS

• Task 1 – 20hrs• Task 2 – 10hrs - FS 1• Task 3 – 15hrs – FS 1• Task 4 – 25hrs – FS 2

• Task 5 – 12hrs – FS 1,2• Task 6 – 20 hrs – FS 4,2• Task 7 – 10 hrs – FS 3,5,6

The Red Tasks Are On The CRITICAL PATHA Delay In These Delays Completion

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Graphical RepresentationGANTT CHARTS

Note – Parallel Tasks – May Be Difficult to Achieve!

However If You Can Only Work on One Task at a Time!

MICROSOFT PROJECT IN ROOMS 4E16, 3E39 AND 3Q69

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Graphical RepresentationGANTT CHARTS

Some Tasks You Can Do In Parallel - In The Evening!

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Graphical RepresentationGANTT CHARTS

Perhaps If You Really Get Stuck You Will Crash The Last TaskSWith 10hr Workings Days!!

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THINGS TO THINK ABOUT WHEN MAKING YOUR PLAN

• No Project Ever Runs To Plan• Leave Slack (Spare Time) In Your Plan

– Don’t Plan To Work 20 Hour Days – You Won’t– Plan For Suppliers To Let You Down– Plan For Things To Go Wrong – Additional Laboratory

Time– Plan To Finish Early

• Track Your Progress Against Your Plan• If You Are Going Off Track Apply Remedies

– Increase Work Rate!!– Chase Delays– Modify Your Plans To Accommodate The Difficulty

NOTE – IGNORING A PROBLEM WON’T MAKE IT GO AWAY

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The Main Reason For Failure

You Didn’t Start Soon Enough

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Readings

Meredith JR, Mantel SJ, Shafer SM & Sutton MM, (2001), Project Management in Practice

Kerzner H, (2003), Project Management – A systems approach…, Wiley – (AVAILABLE ELECTRONICALLY)

Meredith JR & Mantel SJ, (2000), Project Management – A managerial approach…

Angus RB, et al, (2000), Planning, Performing & Controlling Projects

PMI Guide to the Body of Knowledge available in Standard IEEE 1490-2003 via IEEEXplore using Athens

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Tutorials

• Your Next Tutorial Will Be In 4E19

(This means TODAY for Helena’s group!!)

(except for Ramin’s and Sally’s Groups who will be in 4E16)