Project Management for...

Conference 2015: “Business Agility – The Power of Collaboration and eConnectivity”

Project Management for eConnectivity

Marilyn Hunter - PMP

November 10, 2015


Purpose of this session

Provide information and understanding of how to lead connectivity projects within AgGateway or within your own company.

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Session Goals

• Define the roles & responsibilities of Project Managers

• Identify the key components of leading implementation projects

• Provide best practices of key components

• Discuss difference between AgGateway project vs. internal connectivity projects

• Opportunity for Q&A

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Introductions

•Name

•Company

•Why you’re in this session today

•What you hope to get out of it

•Projects you’ve participated in (AgGateway or your company)

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Topics Covered

• What is a Project Manager & Project Management?

• Why Projects Fail & Succeed?

• Project Manager Responsibilities

• Key components & best practices

• Similarities & differences between AgGateway projects and internal connectivity projects

• Q&A

• Wrap up

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What is a Project Manager?

Person who has the overall responsibly for completing a project

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Project Management

Project Management Institute (PMI):

Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.”

Project Managers – Initiate, Plan, Execute, Monitor, Control and Close projects

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What is a Project?

PMI:• Temporary, unique, progressive elaboration

AgGateway:

• “A Council initiated project is a temporary organizational entity for a group of member companies that choose to collaborate to tactically address common interests or challenges such as: automation of business processes, meeting regulatory requirements, logistical requirements, and the like.

• The proposal to create a new project requires initiation from within a Council, or Councils, and a formal charter containing scope, schedule and budget.

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Project Management Life Cycle

• Initiating

•Planning

•Executing

•Controlling/Monitoring

•Closing

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Project Managers Skills

• Organized and detail orientated• Know how to lead a group & develop a team• Ask seeking questions• Detect unstated assumptions• Resolve conflicts• Listens and seeks feedback for quality and process• Manages risk to minimize impact• Communicates well• Uses tools – software• Others?

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Roles & Responsibilities - General

• Defines project scope – or validates it

• Identifies the constraints and risks and a plan to mitigate

• Creates the activity and sequencing of the plan (critical path)

• Determines Resourcing

• Validates the schedule (critical path)

• Estimates timing

• Estimates costs

• Develops and manages the budget

• Documents process, issues, results, plan and changes

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Roles & Responsibilities - General• Creates tools – dashboard (tracking), risk analysis,

monitoring reports

• Leads the project team

• Motivates the team

• Work with vendors or others involved

• Provides scalability, interoperability and portability for connectivity projects

• Controls quality standards

• Tracks benefit realization

• Maintains the documentation on the project

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What Makes a Project a Success?

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Reasons Projects Succeed• Executive support and organizational commitment• Clear project definition, business objective, requirements and

success criteria• Effective team chemistry and support structure to suit the project• Executing the plan as expected• Manage expectations• Clear roles and responsibilities• Involvement of skilled resources, including experienced project

managers, business users or analysts and technical developers• Adequate risk management• Change control process including scope, schedule and budget• Effective communication• Standard, consistent and practical project methodology• Other?

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Why Do Projects Fail?

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Reasons Project Fail

• Inadequate planning

• Lack of control

• Nonexistent or lack of upper management support

• Poor risk planning

• Lack of end user support

• Poor communication

• Missed deadlines

• Unrealistic expectations

• Others?

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Triple Constraint in All Projects

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Quality

Scope


Questions on General Project Management?

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AgGateway Project Process & Key Components

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AgGateway Project Process

• Project Initiation Process

• Project Plan Created & Validates Against Charter

• Execute the Plan• Project Kick-off Meeting

• Project Design Phase

• Project Implementation Phase

• Monitoring and Communication

• Closure, Documentation, Publication & Communication to Membership

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Initiation Process – Key Components - Done prior to PM• Member(s) have an idea or issue• Gain support of others • Determine if there is enough interest• Create a task force

• Develop a charter & cost benefits (business case) • Template that includes: Scope, Timeline, Budget & Funding

• Create a communication plan• Template• Determine targeted companies & who will contact them• Press release for initiation of project

• Get charter approved• Create and send out commitment letter to potentially interested parties• Recruit companies to participate• Council to request the services for a project manager• Key documents for this phase: Project Charter, Communication Plan

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Project Plan Created & Charter Validated – Key Components• Review the Project Charter

• Review project objectives to determine tool(s) to track

• Review and determine reporting for the deliverables of the project

• Review triple constraint for reality check and address with Council

• Review budget and address any concerns with management/project steering committee

• Draft high level project plan based on charter scope, timeline and budget to validate project charter – address any issues with sponsor (in AgGateway Council)

• Work with Council to schedule project kick-off meeting date(s)

• Submit project methodology and initial high level project plan to management for review and guidance prior to kick-off meeting

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Kick-Off Meeting – Key Components

• Members understand the project & what is expected (foundation)

• Members understand what is a collaborative team & how the team will operate

• Team members meet “in person” to get to know team members better

• Team building – “gel” the team

• Start the process for the Design Phase*

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Design Phase – Key Components• Business Process Flow - BPMN is suggested

• Business Use Cases – Template available

• Pain Points

• Requirement Gathering

• Requirements gathering template

• Requirements Review Checklist

• Message schemas

• AgGateway Open Standards – CLICK

• Develop new messages if needed or determine which schemas are used

• Mapping tool (provides the guidelines to implement) - CLICK – to generate initial map

• Instance Documents – examples of what the XML message might look like with test data

• Data Synchronization with AGIIS and trading partners - Template available

• Determine if AGIIS may need any enhancements - Do the unique identifiers meet the needs of the project?

• Business issues/Business rules – Template available

• Review what other projects have used

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Implementation Phase – Key Components• Discuss implementation schedules – balancing act

• What top 3 trading partners do participants want to connect with first• What order sequence (if more than one message set) for connection

• Identify company constraints• Any scheduled down-time (due to business lock-down or vacation)• System upgrades or installations• Scheduling

• Implementation dashboard• Template

• Business issues & rules for implementation• IT development and life-cycle

• Schedule the IT development utilizing both industry and internal business rules• How many projects are in-line ahead of this project

• Trading Partner Kick-off meeting checklist• Each set of partner may chose a virtual or face-to-face meeting

• Testing with partners• Go to production• Update reports and/or calls

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Closure – Key Components

• Closure & communication plan as part of the overall project budget management

• Project completion criteria and deliverables are completed – PM notifies Steering Committee for resolution

• Documentation – done throughout the project• Needs to be organized and in format for publication• Review of documentation by Council prior to publication• Documentation Published• Documentation is available on-line

• Council by resolution – establish the closure date• Clearly state the date upon which AgGateway sponsored project activities will cease

and notify the AgGateway Board, and Management Team

• Project Manager will reconcile budget vs. actual to determine any residual funds for disbursement or retained or billing for expenses• Establish the amount, per project participant of the distribution of any excess project

funds or the billing instructions for any excess project expenses• User acceptance document with sponsor sign-off

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Similarities & Differences between AgGateway Projects and Internal

Connectivity Projects

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Similarities and Differences Between AgGateway vs. Internal ProjectsAgGateway Projects:• Leading an industry project with multiple companies• Member companies’ resources are not within the controlled of

AgGateway• Competing priorities• System constraints

• Concerns of anti-trust must be adhered to those guidelines• Neutral sounding board as the PM• Adhering or creating industry standards and unique identifiers• Everyone has a voice in the guidelines and business rules• Communication to team and industry• Develop a collaborative team

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Similarities and Differences Between AgGateway vs. Internal ProjectsInternal Projects:• Control over project costs• Possible conflict with resource priorities• IT development is controlled• Internal business rules are determined by the business users

• Dealing with trading partner differences or interpretations• Trading partner availability and resources not within your

control• Resources, technical capabilities, internal business rules, etc.

• Internal communication to organization• Develop a cohesive team among the

departments/functions

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Similarities and Differences Between AgGateway vs. Internal ProjectsWhat Else?

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Questions?

• Any questions on the key components and the best practices that we’ve covered?

• Any suggestions on things you would have liked to have covered in this session?

• Any suggestions or comments on how any of the projects you’ve been involved with that we could do differently?

• What else would you like to know about the projects?

• Would you be interested in a session on how to use the project tools/templates?

• Was this session helpful for you for industry or internal projects?

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Session Goals

• Define the roles & responsibilities of Project Managers

• Identify the key components of leading implementation projects

• Provide best practices of key components

• Discuss difference between AgGateway project vs. internal connectivity projects

• Opportunity for Q&A

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Thank You!

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Project Management for...

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