where the rubber meets the road - pmi chicagoland · • does every task have an owner? • does...
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WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD
Nicholas Errico, PMP, PgMP
http://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholaserrico/
THEORY AND TOOLS FOR SCHEDULE MANAGEMENT
IN A
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES ORGANIZATION
Version 2.1
WHO AM I?
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• In the Professional Services Industry for 20 years
• Services Delivery: Project Manager, Program Manager, Delivery Manager
• Services Roles: Sales, Business Development, Product Management
• PMP, PgMP Credentialed
• Former ASQ BlackBelt
• PfMP Candidate
DISCUSSION POINTS
• Disclaimers
• What is success?
• Are you a psychic?
• “Black Box” Project Management
• The Project Schedule Model
• Typical Business and Model Questions
• The Mechanics
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DISCLAIMERS
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• There is always more than one way to solve any problem
• This material is not applicable to ALL situations
• Keep this in mind, and grab bits and pieces for everyday use
• The Project Schedule is ONE of MANY tools needed
• We are all learning, including myself
• Please ask questions as they arise, questions keep the presentation lively!
WHAT IS SUCCESS?
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• Customer received what they expected, when they expected
• Customer received the quality level expected, both in final product and services
• Customer paid what they expected
• Delivery organization made the profits expected
• Project delivery organization was easy to work with
• Project delivery helps future services deals, not hurt it
• Both service provider and customer want to do business again
Success is NOT by accident
ARE YOU A PSYCHIC?
What happened yesterday?
Can you foresee the future?
Graceful management
Success is NOT by accident
“BLACK BOX” PROJECT MANAGEMENT
• 80% of managing a project is technology “agnostic”
• Create a Lead Architect role if one does not exist to handle the 20%
• Managing organized change – process is key
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“BLACK BOX” PROJECT MANAGEMENT
• Why do we need this task?
• What is needed to start?
• What needs this to begin?
• How will this be delivered?
• Who will be responsible?
• When will we need the output?
• Where will we need the output?
• What is the expected task duration?
Initial Questions
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“BLACK BOX” PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Proactive Questions
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• Is this on the critical path?
• What could go wrong?
• Is there a resource risk?
• Have we done this before?
• What can we do to lower the risk?
• Is there value in speeding this up?
THE PROJECT SCHEDULE MODEL
• It doesn’t have to be in Microsoft Project…
• It can’t be in Excel, Word, or PowerPoint…
• Relationships are key to schedule models
• A schedule is NOT simply a list of tasks
• What QUESTIONS should your model answer?
• What MECHANICS are needed to support the model?
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TYPICAL BUSINESS QUESTIONS
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• Do the right work
• How does this project fit within the customer strategy?
• What does the future state look like for the customer?
• Will this project deliver the expected results?
• Why should we perform this work?
• What will happen if we don’t perform this project?
• What does success look like to the company and the customer?
TYPICAL MODEL QUESTIONS
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• Do the work right
• What key dates does the customer desire & why?
• When am I forecasting to deliver?
• Am I likely to finish on time, on budget?
• What if I am late with a task?
• What should the team be focused on?
• What has been completed?
• When do I bill the customer?
• Is my schedule accurate?
TYPICAL MODEL QUESTIONS
From “Just Make it Happen” … to …
Without a MAP you will never get from Point A to Point B
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WHAT DOES THE PROJECT LOOK LIKE?
• End to End
• Big Picture
• Every contractual deliverable should be
contained with plan
• Project Flow
• Did we capture everything?
• Do the dates look accurate?
• Is this doable?
• Plan the work, work the plan!
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• Top line – Design or One Time Events
• Below line – “Site Specific” Events
WHAT DOES THE PROJECT LOOK LIKE?
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• What tasks make up each grouping?
WHAT DOES THE PROJECT LOOK LIKE?
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HOW IS EACH LOCATION PROGRESSING?
• Match Work Grouping to Management
Control Areas
• Standard Milestones per Site
• Standardization allows for later Program
Rollup
• Enable Exception Management
• % Complete rollup – use 0%, 50%, 100%
• S/F Status – Is my Schedule being managed?
• Baseline Status – Am I hitting dates the
customer asked for?
• Slack – may need to use deadlines to force
multiple site critical paths
• One Owner and One Resource
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AM I LIKELY TO FINISH ON TIME?
• Understand the Critical Path
• Understand what tasks have a direct
impact on the end date
• Not all tasks are created equal
• Can also perform Monte Carlo Analysis
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WHAT SHOULD THE TEAM BE FOCUSED ON?
• 14 / 30 Day Outlook by
• Resource, Site, State, Company
• By Resource drives ONE team
• By Company can help support the “we
depend upon the customer’s activities”
• Groupings can be a “To-Do” list for sub-
organizations
• One resource per task, no more than a
week work effort
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WHEN DO I BILL THE CUSTOMER?
• When do I get paid?
• Align project billing events with
milestone completion criteria
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WHAT HAS BEEN COMPLETED?
• Sometimes the good needs to be
emphasized
• What have you done for me lately?
• Create the “good” deed bank
• Shows actual versus baseline dates
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DATA INPUT AND WHAT IF ANALYSIS?
• Data Input with all task attributes
• Used for joint project modeling and
what if discussions
• Moves the conversation from “do this
sooner” to “what do we as a team need
to do to pull in date x”
• Used for Baseline data input, to lay the
idea that what you want, and where the
project are headed are two different
ideals
• Realignment of desired and projected
dates
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WAS MY SCHEDULE CREATED PROPERLY
• Quality Assurance on Project Schedule
• Does every task have an Owner?
• Does every task have a Site assigned?
• Does every task have a Resource?
• Does every task have a State assigned?
• Does every task have a Predecessor or
Successor?
• Does NOT ensure a perfect project
schedule
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IS MY SCHEDULE BEING MAINTAINED?
• Are all tasks being updated?
• Issue: Have you started work or not?
• Start date has passed and 0% Progress
made
• Issue: Have you finished work or not?
• Finish date has passed and task is not
100% complete
• Possible Solutions
• Start date needs to be pushed out
• Increase duration to move end date out
Or
• Update the percentage complete
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THE MECHANICS
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Reports
View 1
Table 1 Table 2 Table 3
Filter 1 Filter 2
Business
Question 1
Field 1
Field 2
Business
Question 2
View 2
View 3
Business
Question 3 Field 3 Group1 Group 2
• R/Y/G - Status (Start/Finish)– to determine if Project Schedule is up to date
• R/Y/G – Status (Base/Current) – Compares baseline finish and expected finish
• Site – Can be any task grouping
• State – Can be any task grouping
• Stage, Survey, Install, Decom – for specific site milestone tracking
• Owner – to assign tasks to GDT/Cisco/Customer
TYPICAL CUSTOM FIELDS
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• A Quality process trumps “We’ve done this before”
• Project delivery helps future services deals, not hurt it
• Solve problems BEFORE they occur
• Predict the future, and change paths if needed
• Project Management is NOT about being a great firefighter
• Task relationships are key
• It’s time to move the profession!
FINAL THOUGHTS?
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D e s i g n I T . B u i l d I T . D e l i v e r I T .
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Success is NOT by accident
Nicholas Errico, PMP, PgMP
http://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholaserrico/
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