Presentation_ID © 2012 Optimal Consulting LLC All rights reserved.
Project Management Essentials for Engineers and Architects
By
Carla Fair-Wright, PMP, ASQ CSQE, MCTS
Adolf Wolfi- “General View of the Island of Neveranger
Presentation_ID © 2012 Optimal Consulting LLC All rights reserved.
Introduction
Carla Fair-Wright, PMP, CSQE, MCP
Founder of Project Managers of Houston, a Texas non-profit organization.
Owner of Optimal Consulting, a small project management firm based in Houston.
Award-winning writer, chapter author of two books and a former featured writer for Microsoft endorsed CODE Magazine.
2009-2010 President of Society of Women Engineers (Houston)
City Commissioner - 2010 Houston Building and Standards Commission Panel.
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Michael Aucoin, author of From Engineer to Manager: Mastering the Transition, found that most engineers are unhappy with the "promotion" to manager, saying,
"Much of this frustration is the result of lack of preparation and training."
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Three major issues make engineering management a difficult profession:
Engineering managers need soft skills to be effective.
Expectations of an engineering manager are unrealistic.
The engineering manager role lacks profit/loss responsibility.
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Why Should I Care?
Why it matters for
you personally?
your family?
your career?
ROADMAP
What is a Project?
What is Project Management?
Role of a Project Manager
Unique Skills are Needed
Project Management Institute
What is a Project?
Project - a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a
unique product or service, and has the characteristic of
progressive elaboration.
The 3 basic levers on a project
• Time• Cost• Quality
Scope / Specification
Cost Time
PeopleCan only control at most 2at any one time…..
They are all linked…via peopleTRADE-OFFS
ROADMAP
What is a Project?
What is Project
Management?
Role of a Project Manager
Unique Skills are Needed
Project Management Institute
Founders of Modern Project Management
Frederick Winslow Taylor
"If you read Frederick Winslow Taylor from the beginning of the century, there are three fundamental things he taught:
1. Find the best practice wherever it exists. Today we call it benchmarking.
2. Decompose the task into its constituent elements. We call it business process re-design.
3. Get rid of things that don't add value. Work out, we call it now.
Henry Gantt
Henri Fayol
What is Project ManagementProject Management is a discipline
“The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements”– PMI.
Project Management is a discipline – a field of work requiring specific knowledge and that has a set of rules governing work conduct.
Some Benefits of Project Management
• Quantify value commensurate with cost
• Optimize the use of organizational resources
• Reduced Schedules
• Put strategic plans into practice
• Reduced Risk
• Consistent Tracking and Reporting
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Processes performed to define a new project or phase
Execute work defined in the WBS
5 PM Process Groups
CloseCloseExecution Execution Planning Planning InitiatingInitiating
Processes performed to establish the total scope of the effort, define objectives.
Process to finalize all activities
Process to complete the work defined in the project-management plan
Identify the Project Manager
Monitoring and Controlling
Define the Project
How is success defined?
Make sure that the stake holders have a common definition of success!
• Stakeholder management
• Not all stakeholders are equal
• Focus on the most powerful
• Try to see project from stakeholder’s viewpoint
• Communicate with stake holders early and often
Step 1: Have Clear Goals
• Problem Definition
• Describe problem / opportunity
• Goal Definition
• Describe project Goal
• Objective definition
• Quantify the benefits from the project
• Outline the costs
• Outline the duration
Step 2: Break down the project
Break the project down
Break into tasks
Break tasks into sub-tasks
Define deliverables for the sub task
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Work Packages, Tasks, Sub-tasks,…
Levels depends on scale of project
Step: 3 Understand Dependencies
Estimate
The actions required to deliver goal
The time and resources for each sub-task
Estimation Exercise
Take a blank sheet of paperDivide it into five columns as follows:
There should be ten rows to write on.
For each item, write (a) best guess and (b)upper and lower estimates that you are 90% confident of.
1. Distance in miles from Moscow to Santiago (in Chile)2. Gold medals won by Finland in summer Olympics 1896-19923. Area of Greenland in square miles4. Year the ballpoint pen was invented5. Year the HJ Heinz company was founded6. Population of Belize in 19907. Denmark’s GNP in $US in 19898. Year that Louis Braille was born9. Average depth of Pacific ocean to nearest 1,000 feet10.Length in miles of the river Danube
Answers
Distance from Moscow to Santiago is 10,118 miles Finland won 97 gold medals in summer Olympics 1896-1992 The area of Greenland is 839,781 square miles The ballpoint pen was invented in 1938 The HJ Heinz company was founded in 1876 The population of Belize in 1990 was 187,000 Denmark’s GNP in $US in 1989 was $105,238 million Louis Braille was born in 1809 The Pacific ocean is 14,000 feet deep on average The river Danube is 1,770 miles long
Why are Estimates So Often Wrong?
Internal causesPsychology: over-confidence, optimism, egoMisjudgement: inexperience, uniqueness of projectFailure to learn from previous projects
External pressuresManagement pressure, sales imperative
Other causesPolitical games, inadequate specifications, unclear objectives Rarely, bad luck
Step: 3 Understand Dependencies
Work out the dependencies between tasks
Resource Dependency
Sequence or Time Dependency
Personnel Dependency
Look for opportunities to optimize:
Independent tasks that can run in parallel
Share resources between tasks
ROADMAP
What is a Project?
What is Project Management?
Role of a Project Manager
Unique Skills are Needed
Project Management Institute
Project Manager’s Role
Project Manager’s Role
• Understands the processes
• Needs input from the experts
• Project Managers are not management
The Tools of Project Management
Lay the ground workList the success criteria, all drivers, constraints and freedomsDon’t commit to things you can’t deliverPlanningWrite it down! & use best practiceEstimate the projectBe realistic then plan for contingenciesTrack your progressBe open and honest - don’t shoot messengers!
Basic Tools
People!Teamwork, communication skills, motivation, conflict resolution skills
• Will consume most of your time as a PM• Critical for your career development
ResourcesMoney, equipment, etcTimeDeadlines, milestones, etcProject ScopeGoals and standards
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WORK TASKS WINDOWWhere do you spend your time?
IMPORTANTN
OT
UR
GE
NT
UR
GE
NT
NOT IMPORTANT
ROADMAP
What is a Project?
What is Project Management?
Role of a Project Manager
Unique Skills are Needed
Project Management Institute
Presentation_ID © 2012 Optimal Consulting LLC All rights reserved.
Deal with relationships
Clarify your goals and priorities
Identify relevant currencies, yours
and theirs
Diagnose the world of the other person
Assume all are potential
allies
Source: Influence without Authority, Allan R. Cohen and David L. Bradford, 2005
COHEN-BRADFORD MODEL
Influence through give and
take
The road to Success19th century map
Right System
True Knowledge
Right Business Practices
ROADMAP
What is a Project?
What is Project Management?
Role of a Project Manager
Unique Skills are Needed
Project Management Institute
Project Management Institute
Project Management Institute (PMI) was formed in the USA in 1963
PMI publishes A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), which describes project management practices that are common to "most projects, most of the time."
PMI also offers multiple certifications.
Project Management Institute
Project Management Body of Knowledge
PMBOK - Project Management Body of Knowledge
• Generally accepted knowledge and practices for project management
• Should not be applied uniformly on all projects!
• A guide, not a recipe book
• Provides uniform terminology and definitions
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Carla Fair-Wright
Contact: (800) 723-6120
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/carlafair
FaceBook: facebook.com/carla.fairwright
Presentation_ID © 2012 Optimal Consulting LLC All rights reserved.
Questions & Answers
© 2012 Optimal Consulting LLC All rights reserved.Presentation_ID 3636
http://www.opc-houston.com
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