Effective Project Management

Barbara Stone & Jodie MathiesAugust 30, 2007

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Agenda

• Intro to class• Intro to Project Management

• Projects vs. Operations• Success vs. Failure

• Building a Team

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a little about us…..

Barbara Stone

Jodie Mathies

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a little about you…

• Name

• Program and year

• Any Project or Project Management background?

• Hopes for this class?

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Course objectivesSuccessful project management through team building,

scope containment, careful planning & controlling

When managing projects, you will be able to:• Build a team that has the right skill & personality combination to

be successful and use communication & vision to stay cohesive• Create charters that comprehensively represent requirements

and deliver ROI• Customize lifecycle to efficiently deliver product/service• Estimate duration and cost of project activities• Control project through critical path• Create practical success metrics• Report and present to sponsors and customers• Know when you’re in trouble & what to do about it• Use of Retrospectives for quality planning

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Methodology

• Review our projects and yours in class

• Case study

• Practical application leads to mastery

• Tool review throughout course

• Develop portfolio of examples & templates

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Required reading - books

Effective Project Management: Traditional, Adaptive, Extreme – this is a basic overview of methodology

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – every project represents a new project team

Supplemental reading will be provided

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Other resources

• Microsoft• Templates• Discussions

• Gantt Head• Templates• Discussions

Jodie and Barbara will maintain a reference site for additional reading and discussion

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How will the class be graded?50% Assignments – professionalism part of grade30% Class attendance and participation and

quizzes, (including oral presentations)20% Presentations

Assignments are Project documents – not the deliverables of the project

No final or mid-term exam, but the last written assignment is significant: a comprehensive review of project

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Participation

• No laptops except as needed to complete in class exercises

• Listen to your ‘colleagues’ as well as the lecturers

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You will need a project

Characteristics of a project:•Limited time frame (has an END), measurable

goals, etc

What qualifies for a Class project?•Effort for another class: research, SW

application•Effort for a job, volunteer position or home •You are the Project Manager; you do not have

to build the product

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How will you create the project documents?

Two kinds of document Tools:

• Word Processing: Charter, Requirements, Communication plan, etc

• Task organization and schedule: WBS, critical path, Gantt

We do not believe any specific tool is appropriate for all projects, but think a grounding in MS Project will probably be useful to you in the future

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Document templates

We will be showing multiple examples of each document we assign or talk about

Some companies require rigid adherence to lifecycle and templates, others allow more flexibility.

In grading your assignments for this class we will be looking for:

• a version of the assigned document that works for your project

• an explanation of your thought process

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Professionalism

• Writing• 1st page executive summary• 2 copies• ?????

• Presenting• Represent entire team & project – not

about you• ?????

Intro to projects

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It’s all either ‘Projects’ or ‘Operations’

Projects

• Temporary: Has a definite beginning and end

• Produces a unique output or deliverable

• Has no predefined work assignments

Operations

• Ongoing: Same process is repeated over & over

• Produces the same output each time

• Has predefined work assignments

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Why project management?

• You will be working in the context of projects

• Even if you are not in the Project Manager role, your knowledge of project management will help

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What makes a successful project?

• On time?

• On budget?

• Met requirements?

• Supports greater organizational goals?

• Harmonious team?

• Food?

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And yet…

26% of IT projects deliver on time, on budget with the original feature set

A couple of examples of failure:

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‘Wrong Elephant’…

Lack of shared vision between the sponsors / stakeholders and rest of project team

SOLUTION• Charter, scope statement, analysis

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Why projects fail

• Lack of Sponsorship• Communication Plan

• ‘Pet’ Project• Careful scope definition & lifecycle

modification

• Operational Failure• Training & Documentation

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Personal failure

• Failed leadership• Pyrrhic victories• Wrong project or wrong time

• Solution• Communication plan• Team building

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#1 Solution - Question everything

• “We are all ignorant but about different things” – Will Rogers

• “Explain it to me as if I were a 3-year old” – Denzel Washington in Philadelphia

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Break-out exercise

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Building a Project Team

Project Manager(s) • Single• Program Manager, with subprojects which have

their own Project Manager(s)

Core Team• Team that builds the ‘product’ of the project• ‘Business’ representatives

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‘Team’ Operations

What are the activities in which the team interacts that need ‘operating rules’?

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‘Team’ Operations

What are the activities in which the team interacts that need ‘operating rules’?

• Problem solving• Decision making• Conflict resolution• Consensus building• Brainstorming• Team meetings

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Project Management is Leadership

What are you leading? Your team.

Your top goal is achievement of project objectives……

but what good is that if no one wants to work with you (or each other) ever again?

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Leadership and emotions

‘You are our boss here and a damn good one. We are all falling over each other to do the things you want us to do. Do you think that is because you have authority over us?’

‘Isn’t it?’‘No. Wake up, dummy. Your power comes from

something else entirely.’‘You’re saying, people do what I want because

they like me?’It’s not because they like you. It’s because you like

them.’ From The Deadline, by Tom DeMarco

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Leadership and emotions

• You like and respect people who work for you

• You care about them• Their problems are your problems; their

concerns are yours• You give trust before a person has really

demonstrated trustworthiness

From The Deadline, by Tom DeMarco