gist 8110: gis management issues€¦ · 1 april 2014 ©robert hewlett slide 4 sin 2 •not...

1 April 2014 Slide 1©Robert Hewlett

GIST 8110: GIS Management Issues

Lecture 8: Project Planning Mistakes & the PMLC

Instructor: Robert Hewlett


Objectives

• Discuss the nine deadly sins of project management

• Discuss countermeasures for common project management failures

• Discuss the PMLC

• Describe the blending of PMLC and SDLC


Sin 1

• Not planning at all

• RU serious?

• Yes

• Caveat: Inexperienced but details orientated people who know the business beat a “seasoned” professional planner … every time

• Who was that in the FBI case study?


Sin 2

• Not planning enough

• Several things fall into this category

– Missing tasks

– Missing people: sick, vacation, better job

– Missing windows

• I cannot stress enough– there are windows that you must hit

– windows do not always reopen


Sin 3

• Not planning for risk

• Everything you do has risk

• Have the honest talk

• Know them, manage them

• Remember:

– “If you do not actively attack the risks on your project, they will actively attack you.”3


Sin 4

• Blindly using the same plan for every project

• Why does this happen … laziness

• Although a project might look similar, just like people, they are unique

– Slightly different problems

– Slightly different risks


Sin 5

• Using someone else's plan indiscriminately

• Very related to 4 … 4 by proxy

• The lack of thought should be obvious

• There is no substitute for:

– Detailed orientated people who know the business

• Remember the managers retreat story ***


Sin 6

• Allowing the plan and reality to diverge

– You cannot change reality

– Reality is reality … that is the whole idea

– You can change the plan

– Believe what your eyes are telling you

– Adjust the plan


Sin 7

• Too much detail too early

• Busting out the details when things are extremely fuzzy is precarious

• Completing the WBS before a charter has been written and approved– This should be a classic mistake

• Leads to six

• Do not confuse with high level estimates– AKA fuzzy estimates


Sin 8

• Planning to catch up later

• Thinking the team will magically catch up once they get a feel for the project

• You have to reassess the schedule

• Remember:

– There is no time machine, there is no time stretcher, there is no time tree


Sin 9

• Not learning from you mistakes

– Do not repeat 1-8 over and over again

• Rookies making mistakes is predictable

– expected

• You want to be better

• How to avoid:

– Take the time to have a post mortem

– Put a formal review process in place


Reason projects fail

• Poor problem identification

• Poor problem definition

• Poor communication

• "Too much cake to eat"™

• No support of M and no involvement of EU

• Bad or partial/incomplete design

• No standards


Factor 1

• Poor problem identification

– Solving the wrong problem

• Oh yeah … all the time

– This should be a classic

• A blunder you should be fired

• Sometimes the core is too tough or not glamorous enough (insidious reasons)

– Scanning paper documents/maps


Factor 2

• Poor problem definition and analysis

• You are just bad … find another career

• Sometimes things a fuzzy:

– Prototype for clarity:

• Make a sample map

• Make a sample model

• Make a sample schema, load and test

• Get around the cycle more than once


Factor 3

• Poor communication

• Have a plan

– Regular meetings and reviews

– When does one CC and when does one not CC

– When does one decide independently and when does one need to ask the boss

– Who is allowed direct contact

– Do not go dark


Factor 4

• Project is too ambitious

• This could be in any of the speed dimensions

– People, Product, Technology, Process

• There are more dimensions

– Time, Organizational Culture, Data, Infrastructure


Factor 5

• Lack of top management support

• RU serious?

• RU working for free?

• They control the money

• You need money … end of story


Factor 6

• Lack of management and user involvement

• RU kidding me!

– How do know what to make?

– Try JAD

– It is not enough to know who the champion is and who the end-user are

– You have to communicate with them, follow up, manage expectations


Factor 7

• Inadequate or improper system design

– Adopt CASE tools

• MySQL Work Bench, PG Designer, Oracle Designer

– Be open to different approaches

– Have Plan A, B, C

– Learn UML

• Eclipse had a UML plugin: Use Case, Sequence, Activity, Class, etc


Factor 8

• Lack of standards

• Get some … there are a lot out there

• No excuse on the spatial side

• Other types of standards

– ISO 9001

– Project management standards

– SDLC, CMMI


PMLC

Initiation

Planning

Monitor

Execution

Close Out

Charter

Modified from Yeung and Hall 2007


Project Charter

• The “Before we start anything document”

– What is your idea? Scope? “box it!”

– Identifies: Sponsor , Champion, Stakeholders

– Lists: reasons, objectives, directions of the possible solution (high level)

– GIS external data, data capture, just analysis of existing DW data

– Several standards and agencies require a PRJ-C


Project initiation

• Refine the problem / opportunity

• Refine the established project goal

• Refine the project objectives

• Perform cost/benefit analysis

• Determine success criteria

• List assumptions, risks and obstacles


Project Planning

• Identify project activities (WBS)

• Estimate resource requirements

• Construct workflow

• Prepare project proposal


Project Execution

• Recruit / organize project team

• Establish team operating rules

• Assemble project resources

• Schedule / execute work plan

• Document work progress


Monitor and Control

• Monitor project progress against plan

• Establish reporting protocol / procedures

• Install change management procedures

• Establish problem resolution mechanism

• Revise project plan if necessary


Close-out and Evaluation

• Conduct acceptance testing

• Establish roll out plan / schedule

• Complete project documentation

• Conduct post-implementation audit

• Complete final project report


WAR

Planning

Execution

Charter

Initiation

Monitoring

Evaluation close-out


PMLC & SDLC Merge

• The 2 processes are not mutually exclusive

• They feed each other

– PMLC handles a lot of the distribute elements

– SDLC generates many of the work elements

• During the project execution phase the SDLC dominates the “boots-on-the -ground” activities


The End

gist 8110: gis management issues€¦ · 1 april 2014 ©robert hewlett slide 4 sin 2 •not...

Documents