project management techniques. cops it training workshops agenda definition/importance of project...

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROJECT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUESTECHNIQUES

COPS IT Training Workshops

Agenda

• Definition/Importance of Project Management

• Staffing the Project

• Organizational Ownership

• Creating a Practical Budget

• Communications

• Risk Management

• Project Management Tools

• Managing Multi-Agency Projects

• Warning Signs/Symptoms of Failure


Project - Definition

• Sequence of tasks with a beginning and an end that are bounded by time, resources, and desired results

• Specific desired outcome

• Deadline or target date for completion

• Budget that limits project resources (people, supplies, money)


Why is Project Management Important?

30% of all projects are canceled before completion

30% experience schedule delays

50% exceed original cost estimates

12% completed on time and on budget

1995 - $81 billion spent on canceled technology projects

The Standish Group, 1995Cats-Baril & Thompson, 1995


A large western state invested $260 million in a system to track “dead-beat” parents... As a result of ongoing setbacks, the legislature scrapped the project and started over.

In 1994, a southern state hired a well known firm to develop a child-support tracking system. After four years and spending more than $20 million, the system was unfinished and the contractor had stopped working.

Kavanaugh, 1997

Examples

Rock Hill Herald, 1997


Staffing:

Finding the RightPeople


Project Manager

• Critical for success

• Must coordinate and facilitate all aspects of the project

• Takes full responsibility and accountability

• Manages project tasks, schedule, people, and budget


Traits of a Good Project Manager

Enthusiasm for the Project

Ability to Manage Change Effectively

Tolerant Attitude Toward Ambiguity

Team Building and Negotiating Skills

Customer First Orientation

Adherence to Priorities of the BusinessBaker, 1998


Motivating Team Members

Demonstrate Leadership

Exhibit a Positive Attitude

Provide Challenging Opportunities

Define Performance Expectations

Praise Team Efforts


• Team members are critical to success of project

• Identify skill sets required for the project

• Evaluate in-house resources, availability

• Contract required skill sets

• Utilize surgical suite concept

Staffing the Project Team


• Seek members with high-level skills; strong people will overcome difficulties throughout the project; the weak will not, without assistance

•Create small team - drastically reduces communication overhead and conflicts

• Avoid relying exclusively on a single team member (cross-train)

•Consider member personalities as well as skills; will the team work well together, what are the potential points of friction

High Performing Team


•Create incentives - technically challenge each person on the project

•Select members interested in the project

•Provide training to increase skills, confidence and performance

•Assign areas of responsibility, rather than tasks

•Expect and anticipate turnover (be prepared)

•Insist on participative team approach

High Performing Team


Outsourcing / Contracting

• Contract for required or specialized skills not otherwise available

• Include opportunity for knowledge transfer

• Develop internal capacities

• Beware of excessive outsourcing; loses its effectiveness beyond 30%


Do not believe in miracles.

Rely on them.

COMPUTER THEOREM

COMPUTER THEOREM


Organizational Ownership



• The reason for any IT project is to add value to the organization

• Organizational value comes from supporting the most critical business goals and helping the organization deliver on its business strategies

• Select projects to achieve the greatest net benefits for the organization

• Justify the project in light of the organizational goals


· Strategic planning, IT planning, and selection of projects are closely linked

· Insist on an executive sponsor (chief); up to 83% don’t, contributes to failure

· Identify and involve all stakeholders

· Involve steering members in key decisions and problem solving activities

· Demonstrate a favorable cost/benefit analysis


If you build it ... they will come!


Creating a Practical Budget


Break down each activity into individual tasks

Cost out each task as accurately as possible

Include project management costs (consultants, software, documentation)

Consult the individuals who actually perform the tasks; experts can provide more accurate estimates of actual costs

Consider other factors that might impact budget (contractors, scope changes)

Creating a Budget


Add 10-15% contingency for unanticipated expenses

Estimate 4-6 hours per day work time (factor in “down” time, e.g. administrative work, sick time, vacation, meetings)

Consider work space expenses, computers, additional phone lines, LAN connections, printing, travel

Use a budget worksheet

Creating a Budget


Project Manager

as a Communicator


Communication• Common ground of understanding

• Process by which information is exchanged between individuals through symbols, signs, or behavior

• Means of transferring information, emotions, or thoughts

• Includes verbal, written, and nonverbal means between two or more people

• Communication is only successful when message is correctly understood by intended message receiver


Communication Methods:

Meetings

Reports/Memos

Presentations

Visits/Walk-Throughs

Phone, Email, Fax, Vmail, Web


Risk Management


Risk Management

• All team members should be responsible for identifying potential risks

• Most problems can be anticipated and avoided

• Solutions can be prepared in advance

• A problem resolved in advance is far simpler to resolve than one that occurs unexpectedly

• Reduces stress to team members

The formal process by which risk factors are systematically and continuously identified, assessed, managed, and

mitigated


Risk Magnitude

Risk Magnitude =

(Severity of Impact) X (Probability of Occurrence)

1 5 10 1 5 10 minimal catastrophic not highly

likely probable

Example: Late delivery of server

Severity = 9 (high)

Probability = 8 (high) Risk Magnitude = 9 x 8 = 72


• Maintain a running list of problems in a contingency table

• Sort by risk magnitude with most severe on top

• Focus on those with highest risk magnitude

• Review and update the list frequently (continuously)

Risk - Contingency Table


• Using the worksheet in your notebook, develop a contingency table for a project you are currently involved with or are familiar with

• Identify five risks to the project description of the risk who is responsible for resolving potential severity of impact probability of occurrence calculate risk magnitude contingency plan date contingency must be in place

Risk Management - Activity


Project disasters can be avoided by an explicit early

concern with identifying and resolving high-risk

elements. . .if you are not managing risk,

you are managing the

wrong thing !!!

Avoid Disasters


Project Management

Tools


Purpose of Project Management Tools

Maintain project control

Allow for quick overview of the project

View project details in different perspectives

Present relationships and order of project tasks

Display and communicate schedule in various ways

Identify and manage the sequential flow of critical activities in a project

Helpful for identifying and managing risks


Project Management Tools

• Quality Assurance

• Documentation

• Schedule

• Gantt Charts

• PERT Charts


Quality Assurance•Publicly declare a departmental

commitment to quality

• Implement training

•Set-up a measurement program

• Identify problem areas, look for solutions that will prevent recurrence

•Build quality into each interim deliverable

•The earlier project defects are identified, the less they cost to fix.


Documentation• Specifications and Requirements - essential if

the project is to meet the organization’s goals

• Organizational Structure - project team

• Roles and Responsibilities - minimize misunderstandings and conflict

• Contingency Table (updated weekly) & Risk Forms

• Change Requests

• Regular Project Updates (weekly)


• Essential for keeping the project on track

• Microsoft Project 98 - automated tool

• Schedule activities, milestones, critical path, resources, tasks

• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

• Break each phase into individual tasks, with assigned responsibility and time

• Assists in identifying potential problems early

Project Schedule


MS Project 98 - ScheduleID Task Name Duration

1 PHASE 1 - Define Phase 63 days

2 Develop Project Plan 28 days

3 Define & Train Project Team 5 days

4 Review Statement of Work 5 days

5 Define hardware, software, services & supplies 3 days

6 Develop needs analysis plan 5 days

7 Prepare training plan 5 days

8 Prepare acceptance plan 5 days

9 Identify and Justify software devleopment approach 3 days

10 Prepare configuration management plan 7 days

11 Prepare quality assurance plan 3 days

12 Develop risk management plan 4 days

13 Refine cost estimate 3 days

14 Review Plan and Sign off by customer 3 days

15

16 Conduct needs analysis 35 days

17 Prepare user questionnaire 2 days

18 Meet with users to define requirements 10 days

5/30 6/6 6/13 6/20 6/27 7/4 7/11June July


Planned schedule

Actual schedule

Gantt Chart

1

2

3

4

5

Time

Tasks


PERT/CPM Chart

PERT - Program and Evaluation Review Technique

CPM - Critical Path Method

• Useful for large projects

• Identifies minimum project time based on dependent consecutive tasks

• Identifies concurrent tasks

• If a task on the critical path takes longer than expected, the entire project is delayed

1

3

25

47

6

98


• A clearly identifiable point in a project

• Summarizes the completion of an important set of tasks

• Commonly used to summarize the important events in a project

• Stakeholders don’t want or need the details in a project plan

Milestone - Definition


Project Management Activities

Monitor the status of the project

Adjust budget, schedule, work plan

Coordinate all project-related activities

Document project status, project plan revisions


ManagingMulti-AgencyProjects


Multi-Agency Projects

• Support of CEO from all agencies

• Project goals are understood and shared

• Importance of mutual cooperation for project to be successful

• When conflicts threaten to impact the project, meet with the parties to find reasonable solution

• Make sure all agencies expect to benefit


Warning Signs


Symptoms of a Failing Project

Time, money, and resources have not been allocated to researching the problem; the problem remains poorly defined

Objectives of the implementation project are vague and ambiguous; benefits are difficult to measure

Little or no time is spent in preliminary planning


Symptoms of a Failing Project

No standards to use in estimating preliminary costs or the duration of the project

Project team is not properly staffed --personnel are assigned on an as available basis and cannot dedicate themselves to the project.

User groups to be served are not represented on the project team


Personnel Shortfalls

Unrealistic Schedules and Budget

Developing the Wrong Functions and Properties

Developing the Wrong User Interface

Gold Plating

Continuing Stream of Requirements Changes

Shortfalls in Externally Furnished Products

Shortfalls in Externally Performed Tasks

Real-time Performance Shortfalls

Straining Computer-science Capabilities

Ten Reasons for Failed Projects


In summary, I fully realize that I have not

succeeded in answering all of your questions. . .

Indeed, I feel I have not answered any of them

completely. The answers, I have found, only serve

to raise a whole new set of questions, which only

lead to more problems, some of which we weren’t

even aware were problems. To sum it all up. . . in

some ways I feel we are as confused as ever, but I

believe we are confused on a higher level and about

more important things.

Summary


PROJECT PROJECT MANAGEMENT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUESTECHNIQUES

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