4E1 Management for Engineers

4E1 Project Management 2010-11

School of Computer Science & StatisticsTrinity College DublinDublin 2Irelandwww.scss.tcd.ie

Project Management

Dr Gerard Lacey [email protected]

4E1 Management for Engineers

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1Monday 27 September 2010

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

4E1 Project Management Lecture 1

Introductions

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BA BAI in Electronics and Computing (’91) TCD Research Assistant, Lecturer PhD in Computer Science (’99) (Robotics) Haptica Ltd

Founder 2000, CEO (‘00-’03), CTO (‘03-’05), TCD Lecturer (’05 - to date) MBA Smurfit Business School (2009) SureWash Ltd.

Founder 2009, CEO (‘09-to date)



Lecture Objective Outline the structure of the course

Outline role of a Project Manager

Explain why Project Management is an

essential skill for engineers

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Course Objectives 6 week intro to Project Management Experience working as PM on a simulation Understand PM within different organisations Introduce the analytical tools of PM Understand why “soft skills” are so important Recognise the different types of project and

different PM methods Provide links for future learning

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Teaching Methods Lectures

Learning by doing SimProject www.fissure.com

Personal Reflective Diary (20%)

Group Project Report (20%)

Case Study Assignment Address a real world situation (60%)

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Assessment No Exam - 100% coursework!

All assignments submitted electronically via

turnitin.com

Plagiarism will be taken very seriously

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Course Outline W1: Intro Project definition and organisation W2: Project Planning, Critical Path analysis W3: Risk Management, Scheduling W4: Leadership and teams W5: Monitoring Progress and Auditing W6: Innovation and Course Review Assignments

Group Report from Simulation Due Fri 5th Nov 23:59 Individual Reflective Diary Due Fri 5th Nov 23:59 Case Study Report Due Sun 14th Nov 23:59

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Project Management Simulation SimProject - The Alliance Prototype

www.fissure.com Individual copy for you to learn

Download SimProject from www.fissure.com (win32) Install “Peedy” (if not installed already) 120 day Licence Codes on class list sheet Do the visual tour to learn how to use SimProject

11 phases - PM decision points Staff hiring, work allocation Meetings, team events, punishment and reward Project performance tracked at each phase

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http://www.fissure.com





PM Individual Reflective Diary (20%)1. Entry for each phase

Justify your decisions for this phase Guideline 200-300 words

What did you learn from the results of this phase Guideline 200-300 words

2. Final reflection on simulation Show the report graphs from SimProject Summarise your key learnings from simulation

and course Guideline 300-500 words

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Group PM Exercise (20%) Team dynamics are a major factor in PM Team of 5 (randomly assigned via email) Manage the project as a team The Final Report

Show SimProject Report Graphs Analysis of team decisions and outcomes

Guideline 1000 words Analysis of team roles and decision process

Guideline 1000 words

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PM case study (60%) A real world problem presented as a “story”

Identify the problem Analyse different possible courses of action using

PM tools Propose and justify a course of action Describe how the proposed solution would be

implemented. Guideline: 2000-3000 words with graphs and

charts

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Text Books & other info Main Text Book

Project Management: The managerial process - Gray & Larson; 5th Ed

Supplementary Texts Software Project Survival Guide- Steve McConnell

Microsoft Press (1997) The Innovators Dilemma – Clayton M Christensen;

Collins Business Essentials 2003 Winning at New Products: Accelerating the Process

from Idea to Launch, by Robert G. Cooper Website

www.cs.tcd.ie/Gerard.Lacey/Teaching12


http://www.mhhe.com/graylarson4e

http://www.mhhe.com/graylarson4e

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1572316217/ref=pd_luc_mri?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1572316217/ref=pd_luc_mri?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

http://www.cs.tcd.ie/Gerard.Lacey/4E1/4E1.html

http://www.cs.tcd.ie/Gerard.Lacey/4E1/4E1.html


Lecture Objective✓ Outline the structure of the course

Outline role of a Project Manager (PM)

Explain why this is important for engineers?

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What are Projects? At the heart of engineering

Projects turn ideas into new endeavours... “A Project is a specific undertaking with

defined goals that have time, cost and quality constraints”.

Projects have a lifecycle Start and end point Phases of development e.g.

Plan, Organise teams, Execute (possibly in stages) & Close the Project

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A Project

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The Life of a Project Manager?

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Objectives of Project Management Bring in a project

On time On budget On quality & keep the stake holders happy

So what’s the big deal….. And why is this important for Engineers?

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4E1 Project Management Lecture 1 18



Real work examples

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In Ireland we are famous…...

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Budget went from €9M to €195M



Dublin Port Tunnel Early 1990s First proposed

Mar 1996 £130M (€165M) cost proposed to DCC

Dec 1999 £204M (€260M) Government agrees

Dec 2000 £353M (€448M) design contract

Jun 2001 Work starts

Jan 2003 Cost now €625M

Apr 2004 Cost ‘could rise’ to €780M

Nov 2006 Estimated completion €752M

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Airbus A380

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_overrun





Why does this happen? Unforeseen technical problems

The Kildare snail, Metal fatigue Over-optimistic forecasts

LUAS Labour problems

Disputes, Illness Planning objections

The M50 Changes of requirements

Moving goalposts, New requirements - feature creep Changes in cost base 23



Why does it happen? (cont.) Political interference

Political ego trips, eco warriors, … Regulatory problems

EPA/EU/conservation, etc. Inadequate contracts

The N11 Changes of personnel

Loss of key staff, learning curves Aggressive underbidding (“winner’s curse”) Professional incompetence …and so on and on 24



Size does matter!

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Tiny 1 15% 83% 2% 0%

Small 10 11% 81% 6% 2%

Modest 102 6% 75% 12% 7%

Medium 103 1% 61% 18% 2%

Major 104 0% 28% 24% 48%

Large 105 0% 14% 21% 65%

Average 6% 57% 14% 24%

% of IT projects which are:

Source: Capers Jones

Size (Function Points) Early On-Time Delayed Cancelled



Immutable laws of project management

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LAW 1: No major project is ever completed on time, within budget, with the same staff that started it, nor does the project do what it is supposed to do. It is highly unlikely that yours will be the first.LAW 2: One advantage of fuzzy project objectives is that they let you avoid embarrassment in estimating the corresponding costs.LAW 3: The effort required to correct a project that is off course increases geometrically with time.LAW 4: The project purpose statement you wrote and understand will be seen differently by everyone else.LAW 5: Measurable benefits are real. Intangible benefits are not measurable, thus intangible benefits are not real.LAW 6: Anyone who can work effectively on a project part-time certainly does not have enough to do now.LAW 7: The greater the project's technical complexity, the less you need a technician to manage it.



Immutable laws of project management - ifaq.wap.org

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LAW 8: A carelessly planned project will take three times longer to complete than expected. A carefully planned project will only take twice as long.LAW 9: When the project is going well, something will go wrong.LAW 10: Project teams detest weekly progress reporting because it so vividly manifests their lack of progress.LAW 11: Projects progress rapidly until they are 90 percent complete. Then they remain 90 percent complete forever.LAW 12: If project content is allowed to change freely, the rate of change will exceed the rate of progress.LAW 13: If the user does not believe in the system, a parallel system will be developed. Neither system will work very well.LAW 14: Benefits achieved are a function of the thoroughness of the post-audit check.LAW 15: No law is immutable.



Was Murphy a project manager? Murphy’s law

What can go wrong will go wrong O’Tooles commentary on Murphy’s law

Murphy was an Optimist. After all, things tend to go from bad to worse

Fetridges Law Things that are not supposed to happen, do

happen, especially when your customer (or boss)is looking

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Career Development Most Engineers become (project) Managers! Companies increasing use projects - KPMG report

There was an 81% increase in the number of projects globally There was an 88% increase in project complexity globally There was an 79% increase in project budgets globally

Problems with projects - Ernst& Young report

People-related issues which on average represent 80% Process-related issues which on average represent 10% Technology-related issues which on average represent 10%

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Lecture Objective✓ Outline the structure of the course

✓ Outline role of a Project Manager (PM)

✓ Why Project Management is important for

engineers

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Next Lecture For next lecture

Download & try to set up SimProject

Some tools of a competent Project Manager

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Documents

4E1 Management for Engineers