project management attila mate kovacs

Project Management

October 2009

Attila Mate Kovacs

Agenda

A. Introduction & Action plan 3

B. Projects & status 5

C. Organization 11

D. Project management & development 14

E. Change management & knowledge sharing 19

1

5

2

3

4

Projects, statuses

Organization

Project management & development

Change management & knowledge

sharing

Strategic BPR

Diagnosis

Action

Strategic BPR and management is only feasible after critical

issues are treated - This leads to a 4-step methodology

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there”…Confucius

Project management & projects are deeply multi-dimensional…

How projects are managed and how they really work?

Agenda



C. Organization 11



The transparence of projects & business critical processes is

enabled by adequate planning & reporting

Managing & planning in project cycles: Lifecycle & Planning

Project lifecycle Project planning cycle

Project Plan

This is the most important document that a project manager should create and maintain through the life of the project. It contains the

dates of all appointments, consultancy sessions, development work, etc. It should be used to allow the project manager to

understand when the project is on track and when there have been slippages. It should also plan for the delivery of products

necessary to the project.

Goal Log

A goal is not “Develop the new sales order processing system”. This may well be the deliverable of the project but it conveys no

information to the development team. A goal such as “Allow the automated processing of web orders” or better still “Allow the

automated processing of 20,000 orders per day” relays a message to the team. Visibility of these goals helps in design and

development decision making.

Risk Log

It is important that everyone is aware of the risks inherent in a project. These may be as simple as “The customer may not have

appropriate hardware” to “The project may slip and miss the deadline”. The risk log should be created as a single document with the

risk, the agreed actions and the impact if the problem occurs. Everyone should be aware of this document and it should be

maintained constantly. One line per risk should be suitable; a new document per risk is generally overkill.

Issue Log

Much like the risk log, an issue log should be maintained by the project manager. This is again a simple list of issues raised during

the project with their intended resolution. These issues should be visible to all and everyone should be given the opportunity to add

new items.

Action Log / Agreement Log

By creating a log of actions and agreements rather than separate sets of minutes, the project manager can have a single reference

point for these items. During project meetings, these can be reviewed and contradictions highlighted. An action log is also a great

place to identify who has completed their actions, what remains outstanding and how this creates risks to the project.

Keys to success: minimising project documentation

S - Specific, Significant

Each goal should be as specific as possible and should be clearly understood by anyone with a working knowledge of the project.

Rather than saying “Improve the sales process”, how about “Automate sales processing from order taken to manufacture of the

custom product”. A goal should also be significant. It is much better to have four or five large goals than hundreds of the irrelevant

ones, “Copy each order from the web site to the SOP system in less than three seconds”.

M - Measurable

If you define a goal but it is not possible to determine when the goal has been achieved, the goal is meaningless and should be re-

worded or dropped completely. Ideally, a goal is measurable to the extent that the progress towards the goal can be expressed at

any point in the project. “Make it easy to see the sales orders” is not measurable. “Present the sales orders in the dashboard

application” is better.

A - Agreed, Achievable

It is critical that everybody from the customer team and the development team agrees all of the goals. If the customer is in

disagreement, achieving a goal will not be relevant. Goals must be achievable for the reverse reason. Agreeing upon a goal that

cannot be achieved is simply inviting project failure.

R - Realistic

Every goal must be realistic. If the goal is not technically feasible or is not within the bounds of the project’s budget or deadlines, do

not agree it. Once the goal is on paper, the expectation is that it will be delivered. Unrealistic goals will not be delivered and will lead

to the project being deemed to be unsuccessful.

T - Time-Based

Tying the goals to a timescale sets a marker for the project team and the customer. A goal with a reasonable budget of time and a

sensible deadline allows the customer to track the progress of the project and understand where a goal generates a large cost. The

larger budgets may then be slimmed with a little pragmatism allowing redistribution of budget to other tasks. “Allow automation of the

production line using 25 days of budget and completing before December” beats “Allow automation of the production line” every time.

Keys to success: SMART goals

Agenda



C. Organization 11



Organizations have specific issues & challenges, some of them

rooted in culture or structure…

Managing projects & change require detailed analysis &

understanding of the organization

Strategy

� What is our strategy?

� How do we intend to achieve our objectives?

� How do we deal with competitive pressure?

� How are changes in customer demands dealt with?

� How is strategy adjusted for environmental issues?

Structure

� How is the company divided? What is the hierarchy?

� How do the various departments coordinate activities?

� How do the employees organize and align themselves?

� Is decision making and controlling centralized or decentralized?

Is this as it should be, given what we're doing?

� Where are the lines of communication? Explicit and implicit?

Systems

� What are the main systems that run the organization?

(considering financial and HR systems as well as

communications and document storage)

� Where are the controls and how are they monitored

and evaluated?

� What internal rules and processes does the

organization use to keep on track?

Style

� How participative is the management/leadership

style?

� How effective is that leadership?

� Do employees tend to be competitive or cooperative?

� Are there real teams functioning within the

organization or are they just nominal groups?

Staff

� What positions or specializations are

represented within the organization?

� What positions need to be filled?

� Are there gaps in required competencies?

Skills

� What are the strongest skills represented within

the company?

� Are there any skills gaps?

� What is the company known for doing well?

� Do the current employees have the ability to do

the job?

� How are skills monitored and assessed?

Shared Values

� What are the core values?

� What is the corporate culture?

� How strong are the values?

� What are the fundamental values that the

company was built on?

Agenda



C. Organization 11



Project management example:

Saudi Airlines ERP and MRO Implementation Project

Project management example: American Airlines BPR

‘The fundamental rethinking of business operations, focusing on key processes that create & deliver

value to the customer, resulting in dramatic & sustainable improvements in business performance.’ *

Process

Awareness

Process

Alignment

Process awareness- Work as a process

- Language of

management

- In-process measures

-Vertical process

management

-Finding some quick

hits

Process alignment- Align processes to

corporate objecives

-Distinguish core from

support

- End-custorner focus

-Whole-process /

outcome measures

- Focus on value-added

activity

- Horizontal focus but

vertical process

management

- Recognize radical

improvement

opportunities

Process

Ownership

Process alignment- Clear process owners

- Horizontal process

management

-Process strategies

-Process flexibility

-Significant process &

business improvement

High-level timeplan Whole-process vision & phasing of AA BPR project

*SABRE Decision Technologies, "Business Process Design Introductory Workshop", American Airlines, USA, 1994

Project management & projects are deeply multi-dimensional…

How projects are managed and how they really work?

Success also requires balancing Cost, Time & Scope

• Causes of Project Trade-offs

– Shifts in the relative importance of criteria related to

cost, time, and performance parameters

• Budget–Cost

• Schedule–Time

• Performance–Scope

• Managing the Priorities of Project Trade-offs

– Constrain: a parameter is a fixed requirement.

– Enhance: optimizing a parameter over others.

– Accept: reducing (or not meeting) a parameter

requirement.

Agenda



C. Organization 11



Further reading, sources & contact�� Managing Change (Attila Mate Kovacs)

�� Managing Projects (Attila Mate Kovacs)

Accenture www.accenture.com

Association for Project Management www.apm.org.uk

Budapest Corvinus University www.uni-corvinus.hu

McKinsey & Co. www.mckinsey.com

Project Management Institute www.pmi.org

Roland Berger Strategy Consulting www.rolandberger.com

XSN Management www.xsn-management.hu

Dobák Miklós: Szervezeti formák & vezetés Akadémiai Kiadó, 2008

Kotter, John P.: A Sense of Urgency Harvard Business School Publishing, US; 2008

www.hbsp.harvard.edu

Mantel, Samuel: Project Management in Practice

John Wiley & Sons, US; 2007

Mintzberg, Henry: Managing BerrettKoehlerPublishers, US; 2009

www.bkconnection.com

Wind, Jerry Yoram - Main Jeremy: Driving Change Simon & Schuster, US; 1998

Contact:

Attila Máté Kovács [email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Change management & knowledge sharing

project management attila mate kovacs

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